Kolkata: Committee of Administrators (CoA) chairman Vinod Rai on Saturday said that they have identified the problems in the BCCI and that it would take some time for the process of cleansing to be successful.
He also added that he wants the BCCI to become a role model for administration sometime in the future.
“You can’t expect a committee of one and half years to get to the 360 degrees of the entire problem. But I must say 99 per cent of the problems have been identified. We have tried to plug it also. They have done a fairly good job about the diagnosis of the problems that confront Indian cricket today,” said Rai, while speaking on a session on, ‘Reforming Indian Sport’ organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce on Saturday.
“As an avid sports lover, I would very much like to see BCCI become the role model in large number of ways for administration to be built upon in a large number of way in the days to come,” he further added.
Originally a four-member body, the CoA has now been reduced to just two with the resignations of historian Ramachandra Guha and Vikram Limaye.
Rai further elaborated on the process of cleansing, saying that one has to have perseverance to be able to do it.
“When you’re out there trying to fix things, you have to be thick-skinned. You’re addressing issues about policy reforms and how can you you allow personalities to derail. You have to continue to focus on whatever happening.
“30 years cleansing you can’t do overnight. The buzzword for us is perseverance. Only thing I can say is I’m a retired unemployed, totally benign private citizen. I’ve tons of time and I’ve perseverance,” said Rai.
When it comes to achieving success in sports, Rai felt that Indians were satisfied with mediocre performances and drew an example of China, who have taken great strides after the state has taken control.
“Look at China in Olympics 30 years back. Where were they? Look at now. The state has taken over. It’s the pursuit of excellence and with professionalism that has delivered.
“Somewhere I think, as far as India are concerned, we have just become satisfied with mediocre performances. We have become to worship mediocrity, someway it has got into our souls. The moment we try to pursue excellence — only the gold medals and not the silver and bronze — I think we have done it,” the 69-year-old opined.
He also added that the BCCI is considering the idea of conducting the women’s IPL and that they would provide them with financial support.
“They (BCCI) are going to make an announcement about a certain amount which has been set aside, within a week’s time. For the encouragement of this team. And two, to develop blind cricket. It’s being done,” Rai said, not making any official announcement as such on this issue.
He also had words of praise for the work done by former BCCI officials.
“People behind the BCCI have done a huge amount of good. They built up the game of cricket in big time, there’s no denying. All that we need to do just put a model in place to make it sustainable for a long period,” added Rai.