JOHANNESBURG - We’re still no closer to knowing when the Indian cricket team will tour this country. It’s supposed to be next season, but nothing was confirmed as of Wednesday.
By way of comparison - Australia will also be touring South Africa next summer, and we already know the dates and venues for those four-Test matches.
So, what’s the deal with India? The BCCI, the mother body of Indian cricket, is essentially dysfunctional - to such an extent, it’s taken India’s Supreme Court to intervene in its affairs - more than once.
The latest intervention came at the start of the year when the court ordered the removal of BCCI president Anurag Thakur and the organisation’s secretary Ajay Shirke. The pair had to be removed because the court was unhappy that they had failed to implement the recommendations of a committee headed up by a former judge, Rajendra Lodha, in 2015.
Earlier this week espncricinfo.com reported: “The criteria, as laid out in the Lodha Committee recommendations, stipulated that an office bearer should be a citizen of India, should not be 70 years or older, should not be a government servant or minister, should not hold office in another sports organisation, should not have held office with the BCCI or state association for more than nine years, should not be insolvent or of unsound mind, and should not have a criminal record.”
The Supreme Court took it upon itself to appoint a four-person panel to oversee the administrative running of the BCCI, until the organisation can have fresh elections for office bearers as per the recommendations of the Lodha Committee.
Which makes things very confusing for everyone else, particularly with regards preparing and booking for tours. The BCCI - at least with its previous administrative heads - had agreed to tour SA but the exact time of that tour is a mystery.
The BCCI - at least with its previous administrative heads - also wanted to host a series against Pakistan in December when they would be expected to tour SA. So, Cricket South Africa (CSA) must wait. So must the South African public, both have been burned by Indian cricket authorities before when they held a shortened tour here in 2013.
Naturally, CSA would like to avoid that, but again it’s out of their hands. Quite how much power this four-person panel has, especially in determining schedules for the Indian team, is not known. But it’s essential not just for Indian cricket, but the rest of the cricket world that the wealthiest of the sport’s boards, gets its house in order.