Vinod Rai in book: Getting Rahul Dravid to head NCA was among BCCI’s "greatest 'acquisitions"'

Vinod Rai's new book captures a piece of recent cricketing history, including reasons why Anil Kumble was appointed coach of the men's team for just one year.

The Supreme Court of India appointed former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai to a four-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) in 2017. The CoA's mission: to establish a transparent model of governance and establish more robust practices within the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Rai spent 33 months on the job. He writes about his experiences and work during this time in a new book, Not Just a Nightwatchman - My Innings in the BCCI.

Excerpted below is a section from the book on the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, and why - despite plans to turn it into a centre of excellence - it "continues to be housed in the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium as a very poor cousin of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA)".

A PRIZED ‘CATCH’

A challenge that remained was to get an outstanding former cricketer to head the training activities at the NCA to make it a world-class training establishment.

One of CoA’s greatest ‘acquisitions’, if I can call it that, was persuading Rahul Dravid to join the NCA as the head of cricketing activities. Rahul was busy grooming the Under-19 (U-19) team and had produced some remarkable players. He had also made known to us the fact that he was too committed to the U-19 team and hence was not willing to take on the role of head coach of the Indian senior team. Since he was based in Bengaluru, which is where the NCA was located, we persuaded him to join the process that was being initiated to recruit a cricketing head for the NCA, and he agreed. We held interviews and he was no doubt the automatic selection.

One of the hurdles that confronted us was that he was on the payroll of India Cements Ltd. Hence, as a full-time employee of the BCCI, he could not concurrently be in someone else’s employment. It would have been a conflict-of-interest situation. He offered to forego that employment for the period that he would be with the BCCI and produce a letter to that effect. This was accepted by our legal cell, and he joined. No sooner had he joined that a complaint was filed with the ombudsman-cum-ethics officer pointing to a potential conflict-of-interest situation. The complaint was heard and obviously dismissed. Rahul continued to perform a stellar role at the NCA till October last year (even Shah, in his interview to The Indian Express, lauded Rahul Dravid’s presence at the NCA).

Meanwhile, the CoA was pleasantly surprised to see that the NCA was a subject of discussion in the SGM of the BCCI on 22 June 2018. How animated the discussion was, I am not aware, but the resolutions pertaining to it were very legally worded resolutions. I give the readers a flavour of the resolutions that were passed*:

To consider and to take decisions on all matters pertaining to the National Cricket Academy, its programs, and all matters pertaining to the proposed new National Cricket Academy Head Quarters.

RESOLVED THAT all decisions required to be taken by the National Cricket Academy Board in accordance with the extant Rules and Regulations of the BCCI as detailed hereinabove shall be taken only by the National Cricket Academy Board subject to any order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.

FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the National Cricket Academy Board is directed to examine and review the decisions taken in relation to the sphere of jurisdiction of the National Cricket Academy Board including but not limited to the processes and decisions of all appointments and conduct of programs, etc. which have not been done following the correct procedure and due process and to present the same to the General Body with their comments.

FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the National Cricket Academy Board shall consult various stakeholders and devise programs making allowances for scientific progress in the field of sports sciences, future developments and growth and make recommendations for the requisite infrastructure for the new NCA facility to make it a state of the art facility.

FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the National Cricket Academy Board be and is hereby authorized to take all steps to develop and finalise plans for the new NCA facility at Bangalore and present the same to the General Body expeditiously to begin the work on the project in a time bound manner.

Somebody had surely taken a lot of trouble in drafting the resolutions. But to what effect? Unfortunately, there was no follow-up on it. I sincerely wish they had reached out and offered to assist in the planning for the development of the academy, under the guidance of the CoA, as had been mandated by the Court. The CoA received no further road map from any of the office-bearers.

On their part, both the professionals recruited by the CoA, went about their respective roles in right earnest. Tufan prepared a detailed concept paper and placed it before the CoA for a decision. It required floating an expression of interest (EOI) and releasing an RFP. Both activities would require substantial expenditure and commitments which would contractually bind the BCCI. By then, since the new constitution had been registered, the CoA had begun to prepare for the elections. It was felt that in the long-term interest of the BCCI, incurring expenditure on floating the EOI and RFP is best left to an elected body. The paper was thus prepared and kept ready for the elected Apex Council. That was the position when the CoA demitted office.

However, exactly a week after the CoA had demitted office, The Indian Express reported that the BCCI president, Sourav Ganguly, planned to make the NCA ‘a centre of excellence’: ‘During Ganguly’s felicitation at Eden Gardens last week, [V.V.S.] Laxman had urged that the NCA be transformed into a Centre of Excellence. If I have to make one wish to Sourav, it’s just about how he can support, how he can revive the NCA. The greatness of the Indian team is its bench strength.’**

This was an absolutely wonderful request. I was aware that former greats like Laxman were very keen to see the NCA develop and become a world-class facility. He had been a very accessible and cooperative member of the CAC, and other great cricketers like him had voiced that thought too. It has now been more than two years since this request was made and also more than two years since the CoA demitted office. I hope the NCA is taking shape and will soon be a world-class facility for our cricketers.

*Resolutions adopted by the governing board of the BCCI in the SGM at the Taj Mahal Hotel, 1 Mansingh Road, New Delhi, at 10.00 a.m., on 22 June 2018.

**Charabarty, Shamik. ‘Sourav Ganguly’s Plan: NCA to be Centre of Excellence’, The Indian Express, 30 October 2019

Excerpted from 'Not Just a Nightwatchman — My Innings in the BCCI' by Vinod Rai, with permission from Rupa Publications.