A tussle between two cricket overlords results in epistolary fireworks

A Fight Of Egos

» Modi has become the face of Indian cricket. It has displeased BCCI bosses. Srinivasan and Manohar didn’t like him in any case.
» So, Srinivasan terminates the contract with IMG, which conceptualised and organised the IPL, because the BCCI working committee refused to ratify its fees, and IMG did not renegotiate the fees
» IMG says there are no grounds to terminate the contract
» Stung, Modi gets support from seven IPL franchises, turning it into a Modi+corporate world vs BCCI fight
» Modi also gets support from Sharad Pawar, the Mumbai Cricket Association chief and Manohar’s mentor. Pawar wants to have Mukesh Ambani on his side before the Maharashtra assembly election
» BCCI asks Manohar to look into the IMG issue and report to the BCCI’s AGM later this month

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Pistols or swords? None, actually. The great duel of egos, for the control of the Indian Premier League (IPL), was fought with letters. N. Srinivasan, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, initiated his latest move to clip the wings of Lalit Modi with a wry missive that bore ill-news for the recipient. But, by the time the dust settled five days later, after frantic spree of letter-writing—10 of them at least, by the latest count—it was Modi who emerged as Read more…

Administrator Indian Cricket BCCI, IMG, IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders, Lalit Modi, Manohar, MCA, Mukesh Ambani, Mumbai Cricket Association, Rajasthan Royals, Shahrukh Khan, Sharad Pawar, Srinivasan

Two fine administrators stand arrayed against each other and in doing so they weaken an event whose success they have contributed much to. The IPL is one of India’s best brands, even for one so young, and you can see its importance by the fact that it is blamed for many ills elsewhere! But for all its success, the IPL is still on a learning curve, it still needs many strong hands on its shoulders and it can ill afford a tug-of-war. Both Lalit Modi and N Srinivasan have much to benefit, as indeed does the BCCI, in a strong IPL.

But if Modi and Srinivasan are on a collision course, it shows up a familiar weakness in the Indian business and administrative environment. As a nation, we run on personalities not systems, on charisma not content, and that is why we build such few strong institutions. A fine municipal commissioner or, a rarer commodity, a good member of parliament, can make a huge difference but as soon as they are gone, either due to bureaucratic or electoral fickleness, their effectiveness tends to go with them; normal service is resumed, chaos reigns. That is largely because we are a nation of individuals who believe systems are for everybody else. But if the IPL wants to be equally successful, be just as strong a property, twenty years from now, it will have to learn to live without Lalit Modi at some time as indeed will India Cements have to learn to live without Srinivasan.

I suspect you will find that most great institutions are established by visionaries, it is their passion that takes them through the early years of acceptance and frustration. But thereafter institutions run themselves, built as they are on solid foundations. You can see that at IIM-Ahmedabad where the great Vikram Sarabhai was the visionary. It is as powerful forty five years later. Infosys is headed that way with Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani slowly stepping aside. The IPL has a visionary in Lalit Modi but if it wants to compete with Wimbledon or the English FA or the Augusta Masters it must create strong systems and ease away from personality cults. Modi and Read more…

Administrator Indian Cricket BCCI, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, IPL, Lalit Modi, Mukesh Ambani, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers, Salman Khan, Srinivasan, Vijay Mallya