Ratnakar Shetty’s ‘On Board’: Insider’s job, no revelations

Advertisement

Rohit Mahajan

Ratnakar Shetty — chemistry professor in the morning, a Mumbai and/or BCCI official after college hours — has been an insider for well over 30 years. He represents the transition of cricket administration from the days of honorary toilers to the present era of hired professionals.

Shetty is the typical honorary administrator of that era, who came in for the love of the game — certainly not for money, for there was very little of it going around — and made a deep dive into BCCI’s power politics.

This book, though not bursting with mind-boggling disclosures, should be essential reading for those interested in the workings of the BCCI, for two reasons: one, it documents a very significant era, when infusion of big money transformed cricket; two, it provides a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes operations of the BCCI — the lengths officials go to cling to power; friends becoming foes and foes becoming friends to win elections; the harmony among political foes in the BCCI, despite coming from parties with most divergent ideologies; the congregation of the upper crust comprising politicians, bureaucrats, judges, businessmen in stadiums…

Politicians are in cricket administration because they seem to be indispensible — who else can get the clearances for various constructions, modifications, electricity supply, water supply, loudspeaker ban relaxation, et al?

A story from this book is instructive: As MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh took India close to victory in the 2011 World Cup final in Mumbai, the ‘police commissioner reminded us of the court ruling, as per which loudspeakers were to be switched off at 10 pm’. But silence would have been ‘anti-climatic’ that thrilling night.

Sharad Pawar, the ICC boss and Union minister, spoke to Prithviraj Chauhan, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, who happened to be seated in the President’s Box. Chauhan sent for the police commissioner and ‘persuaded’ him to make an exception for the final, and ‘also suggested we speak to the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, who was also present in the President’s Box’. This is a vignette of the Indian upper class — the fraternity of the elite, patronage and compliance among them, and linking up and back-scratching.

Shetty had a ringside view of the fixing scandal of 2000 or the spot-fixing scandal of 2013, but the reader must not expect any significant revelation in this book. There is slightly lesser reticence elsewhere: Lata Mangeshkar answering the phone when he called Raj Singh Dungarpur in London; or Azharuddin calling Shetty to find out what happened at a meeting among Tendulkar and officials to discuss suspicions of match-fixing — and this meeting was supposed to be a secret!

Shetty worked closely with several BCCI presidents, who often fought on the opposing sides: This is a testimony to his utility and efficiency — and also his discretion. He brings this discretion to his memoir, and casts only a brief glance at the seamier side of cricket administration. We don’t get any insider story regarding reasons for switching of loyalties, means used to achieve this, or use of money or favours to ‘persuade’ officials to cooperate or submit, or wrangling for tours or jobs to sycophants. The grapevine buzzes with such stories, but true to form, Shetty is discreet.