Is the BCCI setting a bad precedent by shortening the South Africa tour?

Haroon Lorgat – At loggerheads with BCCI

It seems Sachin Tendulkar, who is one of those rare Indian cricketers who do not readily court controversy and stay away from the media’s glaring eye, is destined to face, in the twilight of his illustrious career, at least one controversy every year. And this time, he seems to have inadvertently become tangled with the BCCI’s high-handedness.

It is an open secret in the world of international cricket that the BCCI, Indian cricket’s governing body, holds all the power, and therefore, gets to make decisions on its own whims and fancy. And the controversy surrounding the South Africa and West Indies series is testament to that.

It all started, according to certain reports, when Cricket South Africa appointed Haroon Lorgat as its CEO. The BCCI has had previous run-ins with Lorgat when he was the ICC President, and so put all the pressure it could on South Africa to not appoint him. But with Cricket South Africa defying BCCI’s wish, the backlash seems to be India’s tour to South Africa being shortened.

But why does BCCI hate Lorgat so much, to the extent of trying to stop his appointment? Perhaps, the reason can be traced back to the Woolf Report, which was the initiative of Mr. Lorgat while he was the head of ICC. In the report, suggestions were made that there have to be sweeping changes in the way the ICC is run so that the big nations do not have a hold on it. And in cricket, “big nations” refers to only one board, and that’s the BCCI.

As expected, BCCI did not take kindly to the Woolf Report, and has harboured a grudge against Mr. Lorgat. Even before this happened, Lorgat and the BCCI were at loggerheads with each other as he pushed the use of DRS in spite of opposition from the board.

Now that Mr. Lorgat has become the CEO of Cricket South Africa, it seems the BCCI has taken its war on to them. When South Africa announced the itinerary of India’s tour, which was unilaterally announced rather than simultaneously, as is the case, the first reaction of BCCI was to pronounce that they were not consulted in the making of the itinerary.