If I were in his place, I would not only resign as the chief of BCCI but I would also commit a suicide out of shame for what my son-in-law has done by taking advantage of my power and position. But Srinivassan the chief of BCCI like a shameless pimp still refusing to resign forthright by keeping all doors open for him to come back at an appropriate time, at a later date even though 2-3 colleagues of his out of shame have already resigned from BCCI.
Sticking up to their posts when they should resign owning moral responsibility is the forte of Indians. In the history of independent India owning moral responsibility for the Railway accident in early sixties as Railway minister Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned even though Nehru as premier pleaded with him not to. But Shastri was a man of calibre and of highest character. Srinivassan by owning the responsibility of the disaster of betting scandal created by his own son-in-law should have resigned gracefully.
Because of the ill doings of their immediate family members many of the leaders have suffered. Because of her younger son Sanjay Gandhi’s mischief Indira Gandhi suffered during emergency era. Because of the arrogance and cruelties of their sons, Saddam Hussein, Mohammed Ghadaffi and Husni Mubarak suffered. Similarly Srinivassan also became the victim of the ill doings of his son-in-law. But as a gentleman either he should have disowned his son-in-law the way Mahatma Ghandi disowned his son Hiralal or submitted his resignation on moral ground immediately following the arrest of his son-in-law. If he had to do this he would have been hailed in India and in the cricketing world as the most upright man and a saviour of gentlemen’s game Cricket.
The tactics and the mode followed by Srinivassan in the aftermath of his son-in-law’s betting scandal is not correct. He is following the path some corrupt Indian politicians are following to save their political chairs. By following this negative path Srinivassan shows that BCCI is his father’s property. This one man is taking Indian Cricket hostage for his own personal benefit.
When this destruction of Cricket goes on in India the important personalities and cricketing legends are watching as silent spectators. Where are the current and former great cricketers gone now? Why they cannot raise their voices in unison against Srinivassan who is inflicting heavy damage on Indian Cricket? Where are all the Gavaskars, Wadekars, Kapils, Tendulkars, Shastris and others gone now? Did their mouths lock by Srinivassan? When they speak, their voices carry weight.
When Boxer Mohammed Ali spoke against the arrogance of USA in fighting war in Vietnam, the impact of it was so great that finally forced USA to put an end to this ugly war. Similarly if all the Cricketing legends in India speaks against Srinivassan I am sure some concrete result will be produced.
Unfortunately, in today’s meeting held at Madras, in a dramatic fashion BCCI followed the wishes of Srinivassan and kept him aside for the time being instead of removing from his post. Earlier scandalous person Dalmiya was instead brought in to fill the gap created by Srinivassan. One crook is replaced by another crook.
From here one can make out how crazy Indians are for the power and position. It is a pity that such lust for power is penetrating in sports arena also, earlier it was confined to political arena only. We saw earlier how Indian sports has been destroyed by Suresh Kalmadi and his craze for power to his big chair. In this way, these crazy for power and position Indians will totally destroy sports in India.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.