How N Srinivasan plays the game

Srinivasan is simply the biggest contractor in the sports business, with limitless powers of purchase

In a famously flip line George Bernard Shaw once dismissed cricket as a game played by 22 flannelled fools and followed by 22,000 fools. To which C L R James sharply retorted that it was fine of him to sneer at the game when he couldn't keep away from it.

Nor can millions of Indians, but they're hooked on to the game-behind-the-game. Nearly every scam and scandal associated with political figures and public institutions is part of a daily thriller called "Cricketology" - an addictive drama with a stellar cast that includes top sportsmen on the take, political parties jockeying for patronage, megalomaniac tycoons, corrupt sons-in-law, bit-part Bollywood players and mafia connections. IPL's takings from advertising sponsors alone this year was '1,300 crore; Business Standard reported last weekend that the BCCI's profits from the tournament in 2011-12 are '382 crore, returns higher than "well-known companies like Britannia, Voltas and East India Hotels."

Buried under this haul of riches is the bitterly contentious issue of "conflict of interest", best exemplified by N Srinivasan, the BCCI's former boss who's only temporarily out of a job. "Srini" (or "Cheeni" as it is endearingly pronounced in Chennai, given spoken Tamil's trouble with clustered consonants) is no flannelled fool. He's simply the biggest contractor in the sports business, with limitless powers of purchase that surpass the money-making acumen of Lalit Modi or Jagmohan Dalmiya. When his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan went to jail for consorting with match-fixers he said it had nothing to do with him, despite his daughter being a full-time director of his company, India Cements. "Of course, my husband has always been a strong pillar of support in enabling me to pursue my dreams," Mr Srinivasan's daughter said in an interview not long ago.

M S Dhoni, Indian cricket's golden boy, who captains the India Cements-owned Chennai Super Kings, was appointed vice-president of the company in February. He has rapidly learnt the game from his mentor and boss, sub-contracting the career management of subsidiary players to cronies. The conflicts of interest here are so intricate, the surprise is not that everyone's "on the game" but that a thorough clean-up is unlikely. Which Hercules can clean the BCCI's Augean stables when everyone's steeped in dirt and betting on the horses?

The first, elementary conflict of interest is whether a BCCI official can also be an IPL team owner. When the issue went up to the Supreme Court, the unflappable Mr Sriniasan said all franchise decisions were taken by consensus. He was right of course; what he meant was that all consensus is within his power. If consensus were fair or clear the BCCI would not have prevaricated or split down the middle. He would have been made to quit, not step aside.

The first principle of judicial or administrative impartiality holds that it is more important that justice should appear to be done than it should be done. "No man a judge in his own cause," is the rudimentary tenet of investigating wrongdoing. Mr Srinivasan has successfully manoeuvred to observe, monitor and possibly influence the investigation. Three months will give him space to try and marshal resources and rally supporters anew.

One of his attributes as empire-builder and the country's ace cricket administrator - the two being synonymous in his case - is his talent for playing political lobbies. Politicians hunger to head regional cricket bodies or be part of the BCCI for the power, patronage and possible pecuniary gain. As the BCCI's pot of gold overflows, the stakes have soared; some now pour as much energy and effort to jockey for positions as they do in fighting elections. The BCCI is a political battleground: the Congress represented by the recently-departed Rajeev Shukla and Jyotiraditya Scindia, BJP by Arun Jaitley and Anurag Thakur, the NCP by Sharad Pawar, and so on. Mr Srinivasan's political enmities are well-known: Tamil Nadu's Jayalalithaa, for example, or his bête noir Sharad Pawar whose candidate Shashank Manohar he managed to keep out as the BCCI's interim chief. Round one to N Srinivasan, master of balancing conflicting interests.