5 November, 2000

Greetings, all, on Saturday....

I've just spent a couple of hours in the email box (talking of which, I think the best thing about being a journalist on the net is the volume, and quality, of feedback you get for everything you write -- a lot of it thought-provoking).

And a whole heap of those letters have pointed to one identical passage, from an interview my colleague, Onkar Singh, had done with Board President Dr A C Muthiah in the aftermath of th release of the CBI report.

Onkar asks: What do you think of the CBI report in light of the fact that Jaywant Lele has said there is no match-fixing?

Muthiah responds: This is a very serious issue. Let us not drag Lele into it.

On the face of it, the passage is incredibly funny. Here is the boss of the BCCI, off-handedly dismissing the next seniormost official as one whose pronouncements are not even worth taking seriously.

That squares with our image of Lele, as a joker who was insinuated into the board for our express amusement. If a Lele did not exist, we fans -- so used to the depressing tales that characterise cricket, both on the field and off it, would have had to invent him, wouldn't we, to give us this day, lord, our daily laughs?

Maybe the BCCI recognises this need, for a leavening of humour. Maybe that is why Lele, who was supposed to demit office on the expiry of his third year as board secretary, has been "unanimously" re-elected to entertain us for another year.

To me, though, Lele is the most dangerous man in Indian cricket. Because he distracts us from the real joker in the pack, serves as a stalking horse for the real Machiavelli.

Lele, to put it bluntly, does not have a thought in his head save lording it over everyone else, and living the high life, all at the expense of Indian cricket. Left to himself, he couldn't care less who makes it to the Indian side and who does not. All he asks is to be left alone, to strut the cricketing stage, order selectors and coaches and players around, sound off to the media at the drop of a cue, and generally be Mr Big.

Yet, it is Lele who is behind every single one of the ruinous decisions that have proliferated in the last three and a half years. It is Lele who, time and again, has arm-twisted, threatened, cajoled and coaxed the selectors into bringing back the Azhars, Jadejas and Mongias. It is Lele who has time and again made the tenure of the Indian captains miserable, using muscle to make the Tendulkars of the world kowtow to his diktat.

And why does he do it? Because his continued existence in the upper echelons of Indian cricket administration depend on his doing as he is told, by the man who pulls his strings.

Wouldn't you love to be that man?

He is, officially, unconnected with the administration. Thus, officially, he can neither be questioned, nor held responsible for, the blunders, the criminality. Officially, he does not exist, this mysterious man.

And yet. When a Mongia has to be foisted on a reluctant team management... when said management has to be denied the off spinner it requests for the Sharjah tour... when a Tendulkar has to be sacked and an Azharuddin has to be reinstated... it is this man who makes a phone call to Baroda. Lele listens to his master's voice, and promptly does the needful.

Then he sits back, and lets the storm of words -- angry, bitter, sarcastic words -- of the media and the public wash over him. While the real instigator of these and dozens of similar decisions lurks in the background, unnoticed.

He doesn't mind. Because neither the public's outrage, nor the media's scathing denunciations, can hurt him. Not as long as he enjoys the backing of the man who, while holding no real position in the BCCI's administration, de facto controls the game.

Within cricket circles, they call it the 033 Syndrome -- 033, for the uninitiated, being the STD code for Calcutta.

That is why I, unlike most of those who mailed me their reactions to Muthiah's dismissive remarks, don't feel inclined to laugh, to share in that amusement.

That is why I believe that Lele is the single most dangerous entity that threatens the wellbeing of the game in this country.

That is why I believe that Lele needs to go. Now. Before it is too late, before a team newly cleansed finds the cancer of corruption creeping back into its ranks.

And to do that, there is only one option -- shift the focus from Lele, to the man who pulls his strings.

In this bleak scenario, there is only one ray of light. On or around November 30, the Income Tax department is due to release its report on the findings during the nationwide raids that were codenamed (by some guy with a wicked sense of humour) 'Operation Gentleman'. And within a fortnight or so thereafter, the CBI is slated to release its second report -- this one, publicising the findings of its enquiries into various television rights deals.

Hopefully, those two reports will put the spotlight where it belongs. If they don't, fasten your seat belts, folks -- Indian cricket is due for one hell of a rocky ride.

Cheers, and here's to a nice weekend.

Prem

Mail Cricket Editor