Niranjan Shah and Saurashtra cricket: inseparable? © ESPNcricinfo Ltd
The New Year at the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) Stadium in Khandheri, on the outskirts of Rajkot, has begun on a sleepy note. There is a Ranji Trophy semi-final in progress between two heavyweight sides – Mumbai and Tamil Nadu – but not many people have gone through the trouble of commuting nearly 15 kilometres from the city to watch the game. One of the early birds at the stadium this nippy morning is Niranjan Shah, nominally the secretary of the SCA but its de facto head – as he has been for over four decades. He is wearing a white woollen sweater and pacing about the lobby one level above the teams’ dressing rooms, one moment regaling journalists with a bunch of tales, old and new, the next chatting with Sarandeep Singh, the national selector.
Shah is not around the next day, Monday (he is back on Tuesday evening, though, and seen walking around the outfield). A writ issued more than a thousand miles away has ended his term, and probably also ended his career as an administrator. He is believed to have flown to Mumbai, for reasons unknown. Shah isn’t here – and yet he is everywhere.
The SCA Stadium complex has several spaces dedicated to Saurashtra’s stalwarts – from Ranjitsinhji to Vinoo Mankad to Ravindra Jadeja, they are all celebrated in sketches and wall art. There is Shah’s name, too, in bold white letters; he has turned out in 12 first-class matches. In one corner of the wall, there is a framed photograph of him posing with Tendulkar. The stadium itself is Shah’s most visible triumph; with its Lord’s-inspired media capsule and its canopies evoking Adelaide, it is among the best of India’s new arenas.
Shah is everywhere. And his omnipresence symbolises exactly what the Supreme Court has sought to eradicate: an individual or clique entrenched for years, often decades, in the seat of power at the state associations. If Shah ruled Rajkot and Saurashtra for years, he had counterparts across the country: the Rungtas in Rajasthan, IS Bindra and MP Pandove in Punjab, Jagmohan Dalmiya in Bengal, N Srinivasan in Tamil Nadu and Shashank Manohar in Vidarbha. They all enjoyed long reigns, ruling with an iron fist and dispensing patronage in exchange for loyalty.
SCA media manager Himanshu Shah, who is also a member of the governing body, is upset by the turn of events against his beloved motabhai (elder brother). “It’s because of Niranjan Shah that Saurashtra cricket has reached the level it has,” he says. “He is very simple, very effective and very focused and a team player. Whatever he does, he does it in a dedicated manner.”
Niranjan Shah’s detractors allege nepotism within the SCA. Himanshu, too, is Niranjan’s second cousin, but he laughs off such accusations. “Bolne waale kuch bhi bolte rahenge (some people will always make such statements), but he has proved what he has done for cricket. That speaks [for him], doesn’t it?”
It’s a complicated relationship, though, with shades of grey. Some of India’s best cricket grounds – Jamtha, Mohali, Dharamsala – have been built by their state associations. The BCCI’s current plan to expand international cricket – especially Tests – to new venues is a result of this infrastructure upgrade. Rajkot recently hosted its first-ever Test match and Dharamsala will follow suit in February. Even his detractors would acknowledge Srinivasan’s role in nurturing a robust local league that has served as an excellent feeder for the Tamil Nadu Ranji side.
And yet the flip side is equally apparent: the more entrenched the officials get, the greater the temptation, and the opportunities, to bend and shape rules to one’s convenience. In Shah’s case, the whispers hit close to home when his son, Jaydev, a batsman of modest talent, was first appointed Saurashtra’s Ranji captain and then, in last year’s IPL auction, picked up by the new local franchise Gujarat Lions for Rs 20 lakh ($29,000 approx). Just for context, the franchise passed up the option to sign Cheteshwar Pujara. Jaydev is also, for good measure, a member of the SCA’s governing body.
And it’s fitting to point out that the two events that most clearly precipitated Monday’s historic court order sprang from this same nexus: first, the BCCI’s decision to change its constitution to allow Srinivasan to, in effect, own an IPL franchise while he was a board official, and then the arrest of his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan on illegal betting charges in 2013.
Could the BCCI have acted against its local chieftains? Apart from the fact that the BCCI obviously derives its strength from the member associations, its constitution doesn’t allow it to impinge on the autonomy of state bodies. So the board adopted a detached approach when the Lodha Committee’s report pointed to financial discrepancies in associations like the DDCA. The Goa Cricket Association, for instance, has been embroiled in issues pertaining to financial impropriety for more than a decade, but apart from docking grants, there is hardly any punitive action against it.
Despite the damning nature of the Supreme Court’s verdict that has rendered untenable the continuance of several administrators across the country, state bodies are still looking for workarounds. An official of a southern state association said the body would seek to find a way to involve the incumbent president, at least in an advisory role, even if he were to be disqualified.
Himanshu Shah also can’t foresee Niranjan Shah not being present at the SCA. “I don’t think that he won’t be seen in the stadium or in the association because, somehow or the other, the association should use the advantage of his expertise and experience,” he says. “He is someone who has been non-controversial and effective when it comes to administration, so the benefits of that should reach the cricketing fraternity.”
Arun Venugopal is a correspondent at ESPNcricinfo. @scarletrun
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo