Newsmaker: Anurag Thakur

New skipper at BCCI crease

At a time when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is facing a credibility crisis, it seems appropriate that it should have its youngest - and, arguably, most good-looking - president ever. After N Srinivasan, Sharad Pawar, Shashank Manohar and Jagmohan Dalmiya, Anurag Thakur is like a breath of fresh visual. Thakur is taciturn but witty, with a sense of humour that is deadpan. Soon after he was unanimously elected president, he was inexplicably pleased that stand-up comedian Kapil Sharma sought him out to get a selfie clicked with the new BCCI head. There is no accounting for taste. Thakur was the most disappointed man in India when, because of political differences with Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh from the Congress, Dharamsala lost the chance to host the Pakistan team. The BCCI presidentship is, many consider, a consolation prize.

"I inherited only seven chairs, one iron cupboard and a typewriter," he said of the early days in cricket administration, when he took up development of cricket in Himachal. "But, within five years, we built an international stadium in Dharamsala -not only a cricket stadium but one of the most beautiful in the world, and also built five-six other stadiums in the state." It helped that his father has been CM of the state and he himself is an MP from Himachal.

Now, however, it is not Himachal's cricket interests but also India's that Thakur will have to promote. He enjoys the counsel of experienced administrators like Arun Jaitley and Rajeev Shukla. However, the game itself is beset with controversies, polemic and attack. Twelve IPL matches have been moved out of drought-hit Maharashtra on a high court directive, after a suit claiming a substantial quantity of water was being used in maintaining the various cricket stadiums in the state. And, if the Lodha committee recommendations on curtailment of advertisement are implemented, it will have a sharp negative impact on BCCI's revenue structure. Cricket cannot be played without money.

The other challenge is who should play cricket and where. International Cricket Council president Zaheer Abbas has said that he would ask the BCCI brass to again consider having Pakistani players in the IPL. Abbas told the media in Lahore last week that if Pakistani players were included, "it would raise the importance and status of the league". The Shiv Sena has said it will not allow Pak players to play cricket in India. The party is an ally of the ruling National Democratic Alliance. Thakur is resolute and has never hidden his contempt of the Sena's attitude. Will he prevail?

This much is certain. Despite being so young, Anurag Thakur shows a new spark, new thinking on cricket. His political future is also likely to be driven by cricket.

He has the advantage of setting up a cricket infrastructure where none had existed. So, he is familiar with start-ups. And, he is a model for What the Well Dressed Man is Wearing. He's bound to go places, and not in the globe-trotting sense either.