Board of control for Cricket?

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: I am generally on time with filing my column. This week is perhaps an exception as I am actually a day late. Despite my editors insisting that the column come in by the 26th, I waited for the morning of the 27th before handing it in. However, let me iterate-this delay was deliberate. I wanted to wait for the nth minute to check if the BCCI issues a formal statement condemning the Ahmedabad pitch or even a slight murmur was heard in the echelons of power governing Indian cricket. Unfortunately, not a thing. There has been no formal censure of the curator or the staging association for contributing to weakening the already fragile foundations of Test match cricket in India. Vote bank politics perhaps, fear of taking on a high profile political figure like Narendra Modi perhaps or more simply put—ignorance. Whatever it is, the silence over the Ahmedabad pitch fiasco has certainly cost the BCCI a few supporters, contributed to the growing murmur that it is only interested in the riches and the well being of the game continues to rank much lower in its list of priorities. More importantly, I waited for them to come out in support of India’s greatest weapon for many, Sachin Tendulkar.

The pitch issue and the account it has so far given over the Shiv Sena’s attack on Sachin rankles me. For millions of us what really matters is that we are Indians. This is something we have been taught in schools since childhood and have since taught our next generation. In fact, provincialism has always been perceived as one of the worst ills to have plagued Indian society and Indian cricket more specifically. To hail provincialism is unfortunate to say the least and the little the BCCI could have done is hailed Sachin’s contribution to ‘Indian’ cricket.