Sachin Tendulkar would probably hate me for saying this but there is something which is true about Indian Cricket and is always kept behind a veil. This topic has been doing some rounds in the media recently and I think that there are some clarifications which are sought for. So, do Indian cricketers really play for India or some club? I am not talking about the situation when supposedly some players choose to play IPL and skip International tours. What I am talking about is that when you actually see them playing international matches on TV, are they playing for India or no?. Well, the answer is that in spirit, may be yes. But technically, no they are not playing for India.
Let me explain. Technically, Indian players play under a "legal contract" for a registered society called The Board of Control for Cricket in India. The BCCI, as you know it, is not a governmental or a quasi-governmental body. It is a private society registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act. And because it is an entirely private entity, it doesn't even have to show it's balance sheet to the country, it is not answerable for any of it's decisions to the people of India and hence, it also curbs the "right to free speech" of all it's contractual players.
So technically, if any other society gains enough support in the country and gets membership to the ICC, then India can have two team. A possible reason why the ICL (owned by zee telefilms) was cornered using different tactics by the BCCI was that it was cutting in on the BCCI's revenues. And the BCCI spoiled careers of many promising Indian cricketers because they played for the ICL and no one could do anything.
That pretty much explains it I guess. Hence, people like Sunny Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and others might in spirit have represented India but technically they were representing a club called BCCI. It's more of our attached emotions that lead us to say that Team India defeated Pakistan. Technically, that's not entirely true. So if this is the scenario, it's BCCI which pretty much governs on when and how to use it's contractual players to raise revenue, whether in IPL or international matches. So let's not blame Gambhir or anyone else for their injury or not playing in the West Indies. The poor chap, bound in legal contract, has to mostly follow the orders of the CEO and what is worse is that his contract even stops him from defending himself in public. And trust me, his shoulder injury, that hurts. So let's not forget that he won us the world cup final not too long ago and stop questioning his Indian-ness. What is required is to make the BCCI accountable to the people of India and make it more Indian than anyone else.
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