Mumbai: In cricket parlance one would call the recent reforms announced by Shashank Manohar the no nonsense president of the BCCI, a grind. There was nothing spectacular, nothing that the criket fan can shout out from the roof tops. One set of cricket czars simply seems to have been replaced by another. The conflict of interest has been defined and has helped board to get rid of some of its irritants, but in others it has stimulated an interest in conflict. This, just ahead of the Justice Lodha Committee report (due next month), which is expected to change the way the board is run.

Clearly Ganguly has replaced Ravi Shastri as the new favorite of the powers that be. Earlier under Srinivasan, Shastri was the go-to man for most things: IPL, television commentary, disciplinary committees; now Ganguly, the President of the Cricket Association of Bengal is in the IPL Governing Council, and is head of the technical committee and is a part of the Cricket Advisory Committee. Conflict of interest and the principle of one man one post seems to have been given the go by in his case. Conflict of interest is not always about money. A member of that committee, Sachin Tendulkar, might be in violation of the conflict of interest code as defined by the BCCI since he is a mentor of the Mumbai Indians IPL team, but no one is likely to point that out, given his status.Shashank Manohar clarified at the press conference that Sourav Ganguly wearing different hats did not constitute conflict of interest.

There were some good decisions though – it has appointed an ombudsman to adjudicate on ethical issues. He is a retired justice provider – Justice Shah, but it is unclear whether his decision will be binding or merely recommendatory. There is too the contracts system for women cricketers which was long overdue and thus doubly welcome.

But the heads of committees don’t inspire. The BCCI might have better men than Anil Kumble to head the Technical Committee, but it clearly has only one person with the talent to head the IPL. Rajeev Shukla, who presided over the worst days of the IPL is back as chairman of its governing council. C.K. Khanna as umpire’s committee chairman? Niranjan Shah as chairman of the National Cricket Academy? Where are the fresh, young faces?  

The decision to anoint six new venues as Test centres is welcome, but what was the motivation? Vote gathering or genuine need. It is unlikely the latter, as the country plays very few tests as compared to ODI’s and the BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur was part of the decision making apparatus that decided that Dharamsala would become a test centre. It’s in his backyard and the conflict of interest clause doesnt seem to have taken effect in this case.

The moment the BCCI declared that its code on conflict of interest had been adopted “unanimously”, conflict of interest did not disappear. Only soft targets were affected — Roger Binny, Anil Kumble, Ravi Shastr.

“I have the right to practise my profession as a lawyer,” Manohar pointed out when someone asked him about any personal conflict of interest. Former players have argued that that should be sauce for the gander too. Cricket, they say, is all they know and they shouldn’t have to choose between running an academy and running for an administrative post. Dilip Vengsarkar and Brijesh Patel have had academies for over a quarter century now; they are also office-bearers in their State associations. Patel is also with the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

We have now to await the orders of the ombudsman in these cases.