This was published 11 months ago
‘Pathetic’: Top cop’s warning for cricket chiefs over Indian board’s millions
As Australia and India prepare to fight for the World Test Championship at the Oval, the powerful Indian cricket board’s former top cop Neeraj Kumar has warned cricket’s leaders against handing over any more money to an organisation he claims is wasting millions in unaccountable handouts.
Kumar, the former Delhi commissioner of police, has been a central crusading figure in major fixing scandals, including Hansie Cronje and the infamous illegal bookie MK Gupta in 2000, and the IPL fixing scandal in 2013.
He has spoken out at a time when the vast majority of nations are struggling to fund their programs and pay their players competitively against the backdrop of rampant franchise Twenty20 clubs – largely owned by Indian private capital.
Indian cricket fans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The International Cricket Council’s member nations are currently debating a new revenue distribution model that would see some 38 per cent of the multibillion dollar windfall from World Cup broadcast rights flow to the BCCI, almost double their allotment under the previous deal.
The proposal was drafted out of the ICC’s finance committee, chaired by the BCCI secretary alongside representatives from Zimbabwe and Ireland. Neither Cricket Australia nor the England Cricket Board were involved after years of domestic unrest in both countries.
Kumar has estimated that of any 50 corruption investigations being conducted by the ICC’s anti-corruption unit at any one time, no fewer than 47 would be connected to India.
But once appointed as the BCCI’s anti-corruption chief from 2015 to 2018, he discovered that the threat of spot-fixing, while constant, was minor next to a complete lack of accountability for the many millions of dollars flowing into the coffers of Indian cricket’s national and state governors.
Kumar told this masthead that countries like Australia and England needed to be careful what they signed up for, given how few of India’s cricket billions ever go to players, development or infrastructure.
The BCCI, categorised as a public trust under Indian law, has not published an annual report on its website since 2017. International Cricket Council Membership criteria demand that a full member board must provide “fully audited accounts for the previous four (4) years”.
“If people expect a bigger share of the pie for India on the grounds that we are a big country and we want to develop cricket, they should first be asked, what have you done to develop cricket until today? Show me,” Kumar said.
“It’s a matter of great pity that we are so rich and so much money is distributed to our states and never accounted for.”
While the bright lights and packed stadia of the IPL are associated with the rapid growth of cricket’s value in India, Kumar said that much of this was simply because of the size of the country, and that grassroots funding and development was still primarily the preserve of private backers, as opposed to cricket’s Indian governors.
India’s team to face Australia will be star-studded with the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja. In Kumar’s view, their success has come in spite of the BCCI, rather than because of any great leaps forward off the field.
Steve Smith with Virat Kohli during Australia’s tour of India this year.Credit: Getty Images
“At the lower levels, the situation continues to be pathetic,” he said. “If anyone was to ask the BCCI, what are the various programs you’re running to develop cricket at the grassroots level, they would have very little to show for it.
“Would you believe in such a huge country we have one national cricket academy and that’s it. There is the pace academy run by MRF in Chennai, but you show me which great academies the BCCI has setup or is funding? There are none.”
After nearly 40 years of service in the Delhi police, Neeraj said his appointment by the BCCI in 2015 was essentially about keeping up appearances. He has chronicled his experiences in a book, A Cop In Cricket, published earlier this year.
“It was like ticking a box,” he said. “Unless you experience the BCCI it is very difficult to put in words what sort of organisation it is. It’s not a well-structured body, there’s no work ethos, it’s all a hodgepodge.”
By way of remedies, Kumar argued that cricket’s decision-makers needed to be made much more aware of corruption and integrity issues.
“In three years I was at the BCCI there was no such dialogue, ever. That is the problem. Not only in India,” he said. “That lack of awareness about issues regarding corruption and integrity, is lacking in every board.
“The top level does not know the various issues involved. Because there is a lack of awareness, things will continue to be the same, until another scandal breaks out. Again, some heads will roll, some new people will come in, and again the same pattern will start. It’s a pity.”
The BCCI was contacted for comment.
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