Interview | Kumble wasn’t treated well and the entire saga could have been handled 100 times better: Ex-CoA chief Vinod Rai

On 30 January 2017, former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai was asked by the Supreme Court to take charge of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in the wake of the IPL corruption controversy. He thought it would be a short stay at the cricket board, calling himself a “nightwatchman”, but he remained at the helm for 33 months. And in the process he became an eyewitness to some of the most eventful episodes in the cricketing world, the most infamous being the Virat Kohli-Anil Kumble rift saga. Firstpost catches up with Rai for an exclusive interaction, as he comes up with a new book, Not Just a Nightwatchman: My Innings in the BCCI. Excerpts:

You mention in the book how you got to know about your appointment by the Supreme Court to run the BCCI on 30 January 2017. What were your initial reactions?

I was actually quite surprised as I was under the impression that someone else was being considered, as I was at that time engaged with the Medical Council of India and also doing the Banks Board Bureau work. But once I was appointed by the Supreme Court, which was a privilege and honour for me, there were no two ways about it. Of course, getting into cricket administration was something that I had never visualised. So I was very happy but also conscious of the responsibility being put on me.

Please tell me about your stint with the BCCI. You called it a sticky wicket and a cosy club of those who wanted to run it in a particular way. How difficult was it to clean things up in the BCCI?

We saw ourselves as ‘nightwatchmen’ and thought we would wind up by October or December. We thought that given the Supreme Court directive, all cricket associations would support our endeavour, but that was not the case. The state associations were neither willing to adopt the constitution approved by the Supreme Court, nor were they happy to have us in the BCCI. So, we had to continue because they delayed the adoption of the constitution. These state associations did everything to delay our work, from approaching courts every now and then, to filing review applications.

Under your watch the negotiation between BCCI and ICC was done on the division of financial shares and the Indian board managed to get $115 million more from ICC. How did it happen?

Handling ICC was probably the easiest of things. Vikram Limaye was barely four days old as an administrator, and he was travelling to Dubai for the ICC meet. By then our format of the revenue, the financing principle was ready: In 2016 itself the ICC had passed a resolution to adopt the financing model that had been drawn up by Shashank Manohar and company. So, we were totally helpless at that point. But we took a very cooperative, collaborative approach with the ICC. We did not want to take them on aggressively; there was no need, and there was no scope. See, in a 13-member body, if you were voted against 12-1, there was no question of adopting an aggressive stand. And the person heading that body was a former president of the BCCI. So, I think we did the best under the circumstances.

Image courtesy Amazon.in

One thing that constantly comes out through this book is your desire and endeavour to improve the say and salary of players. Did your intervention change things for players?

I’m convinced that I made a difference. I have always maintained that the BCCI is the richest board today because of its players. In March 2017, when we revised the compensation package of the players, Ravi Shastri said it was peanuts. If the revised package was peanuts, then you can understand the situation before that. So, I held discussions with Rohit (Sharma), Virat (Kohli) and others first, and then with MS Dhoni and Shastri in October of 2017. They gave their suggestions and based on their suggestions, we rolled out the compensation package. So I would like to believe that that compensation package was a huge jump on what they were getting earlier. I can say that under my term cricket turned player-centric.

You write in the book that there were attempts to derail IPL 2017. Why? How did you deal with it?

IPL is played on grounds which are made available by state associations. These associations were unhappy with the constitution which was being put in place and they found fault with us for trying to do so. No wonder, they refused to cooperate with us on providing venues for IPL matches. At that time, we decided that of the 8-10 venues that were normally used for IPL matches, we would keep a backup for each of them. And that is how we managed to successfully hold the IPL in 2017. Moreover, we knew it was an empty threat. For, nobody wanted to lose an IPL match. I have mentioned in the book how the Madhya Pradesh board denied us a stadium in Indore on the issue of complimentary passes, and we immediately shifted the venue to Vizag. That sent all state associations a strong message: That we meant business and we would implement the Supreme Court directive at any cost.

In your own words, one of CoA’s greatest ‘acquisitions’ was persuading Rahul Dravid to join the NCA as the head of cricketing activities. What made you say so?

Dravid is today the head coach of Team India, but we too had approached him for the same job during our times. We believed that Dravid would be very useful for the team. In any case, he was doing wonders with the Under-19 team. But when we approached him, he declined the offer saying he would like to devote some time to his family. We thought given his busy cricketing schedule till then, it wasn’t an unreasonable ground. But later when we approached him for a job which was Bangalore-centric, as the head of the National Cricket Academy, he accepted that and that’s why I said it was an important acquisition for us.

When you look back at the Anil Kumble saga, do you think the BCCI could have supported him more, that he didn’t get the kind of support he deserved or expected?

See, I have on record said that we couldn’t have got a better coach than Kumble and we could have treated a cricketing legend like him much better. I find it intriguing that he was given a one-year term in 2016, while his predecessor (Ravi Shastri) was given two years term. Kumble was not only given one-year tenure but also there was no extension clause in his contract. Had there been an extension clause, I would have readily extended it.

Anil Kumble. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons/Riana

It was on this issue that Ram Guha was upset. He wanted us to automatically extend his term. Now, just imagine if we had extended the term, and somebody only to embarrass the CoA had gone to court, he could have easily stalled our move. So, I decided to follow the process and let Kumble be an automatic inclusion in the process. But when Virat Kohli raised the issue of younger players being intimidated by Kumble’s disciplinarian approach, I took the lead in speaking to Sachin Tendulkar. I saw myself as a rank outsider. Why would players listen to me? But if someone like Sachin (Tendulkar), Sourav (Ganguly) or VVS (Laxman) speaks to the team management or the players, there is a greater chance of a breakthrough. Still, I believe the entire episode could have been handled 100 times better.

In the book, you mention how Virat told you that younger players were intimidated by Kumble’s presence. What was your reaction when you heard this?

I have huge respect for Kumble. So when Virat told me over the phone that younger players were intimidated by Kumble’s presence, I was surprised. But again, you have to understand that whether it was me or Vikram Limaye or Ram Guha, we were rank outsiders. We had no first-hand experience of how the team dynamic plays out in the dressing room. So I was surprised by Virat’s statement, but then we could not have done anything. You can’t have dissonance in the dressing room.

Do you think the women’s cricket team controversy could have been handled better?

I have said in the book and I very strongly feel that women’s cricket in India has not been given the due it deserves. I concede that initially I too didn’t give the women’s team the attention it deserved. It was only after Harmanpreet Kaur’s 151 runs against the English team that I woke up to it. Then I started making enquiries, and we learnt that even their boarding, lodging, uniforms, etc, were not properly looked after. That was the time we commissioned Saba Karim to look after the women’s team, and we started giving more attention to their needs. We revised their entire logistics; and, we gave them more qualified coaches, physios and support staff.

What about the Koffee with Karan controversy surrounding KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya? Do you think the two cricketers were insensitive and immature while airing their views, especially on women?

When I heard it, I thought it was absolutely reprehensible. Such statements are totally deplorable. There’s no way that such statements should have been made.

But then we have to also understand that these are young cricketers, who are not experienced enough to realise that there is a difference between talking on national television and indulging in what I would call “dressing room banter”. That is why I have called it “off the ground misdemeanour”. We pulled them out of the ongoing series and fined them heavily, but we couldn’t have ruined their careers for this one mistake.

The ‘nightwatchman’ has now retired. How do you see your journey in the BCCI? Anything you think you could have done differently?

Looking back, I see my stint as fulfilling. I’m at least in my mind convinced that what the Supreme Court wanted us to do, we did. Maybe if we had the full team of four persons, or even three, we could have done more towards building up cricket infrastructure.

And one thing out of many which you are very proud of…

I think the game of cricket became more player-centric after we took over the BCCI. I have said it before, and I am saying again: Any sporting institution that ignores its players will do so at its own peril.

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