For the longest of times, there was a serious shortage of books on cricket in a country obsessed with the sport. Baby steps have been taken of late to address that lacuna; A Cop in Cricket, celebrated police officer Neeraj Kumar’s latest effort, adds to the growing volume of cricketing literature.
Kumar has previously authored Dial D for Don: Inside Stories of CBI Case Missions (2015) and Khaki Files: Inside Stories of Police Missions (2019).
Kumar, who retired from active service as Commissioner of Police, Delhi, in 2013 after more than three and a half decades of distinguished service in the Indian Police Service (IPS), had a ringside view of the goings-on in India cricket as the head of the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s Anti Corruption Unit for three years between 2015 and 2018. During that tenure, he ensured the ACU went beyond just seeking to arrest corruption but also embraced security issues. That led to the BCCI’s ACU becoming the ACSU (Anti Corruption and Security Unit), influencing the International Cricket Council to go down the same route.
A Cop in Cricket shows the administrators of Indian cricket during Kumar’s three-year tenure in pretty poor light. Kumar references numerous instances where the ACSU was considered superfluous, treated in stepmotherly fashion by those administering cricket at the time. From his pleas for additional resources falling on deaf ears to him being shunted out of his office without so much as a word from the officials, numerous examples abound of him and his team being left to fend for themselves, making his task both challenging and, when taken to its natural end, satisfying.
If Kumar had expected that his long and storied career in the police force would attract respect and adulation from those at the BCCI who sought out his services, he was in for a rude shock. More than once, he says, he contemplated quitting because he felt he didn’t deserve what he was getting. But his empathy for and concern towards younger players not yet in the mainstream system convinced him that he and the sport were both better off if he stayed on the inside and fought the good battle.
Specifically tackling the issue of corruption and betrayal at the grassroots level, Kumar writes of "unsavoury things", including exchange of large sums of money and allegations of sexual favours being sought from young cricketers. “We were frequently approached by players and their guardians complaining that they were cheated of lakhs of rupees by coaches or officials who promised them a place in an IPL or Ranji team and then disappeared,” he writes.
That these happened beyond the ambit of the organised structure is neither here nor there; Kumar urges state associations to be more proactive while insisting that the BCCI must hold its member units accountable when it comes to how they utilise the crores of rupees they get each year from the parent body. Kumar’s contention is that the top officials in the BCCI are happy not to ask questions of state associations or insist on transparency and fair play for fear of offending their "vote banks", one of the many open secrets in Indian cricket now lent greater credibility by an "insider" of sorts.
“… huge corpus meant for the promotion of cricket at the grassroots level is diverted and misappropriated by state association officials, who adopt every conceivable modus operandi of malfeasance to do so,” Kumar notes in the book. “In the three years that I spent at the BCCI, I realised that fixing was the proverbial tip of the huge iceberg of corruption in cricket. Fixing is, in fact, a minuscule percentage of the large-scale chicanery that cricket administrators indulge in. The handsome revenues earned by cricket in India are parcelled off to state cricket associations, where the money is mostly misappropriated. The 2015 Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case against the top bosses of the Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) for embezzlement of crores of rupees given to them by the BCCI is a case in point.”
Unsparing in his censure and criticism of the board officials, Kumar lauds the much-maligned police forces of the country for their cooperation in cracking numerous cases of betting and malpractice. He takes particular pride in the fact that because of his reputation and his pedigree, he could get top cops in different states of the country to walk the extra mile to oblige his requests for tactical and strategic support.
Some of Kumar’s most scathing observations have been reserved for Vinod Rai, who headed the court-appointed Committee of Administrators, and Rahul Johri, who was the BCCI’s CEO during Rai’s tenure. Among other things, Johri faced serious allegations of sexual misconduct but was cleared of wrongdoing by a split verdict of the three-member enquiry committee, though he was advised to undergo ‘gender sensitivity counselling’. Kumar is particularly critical of Rai, the former CAG. From his narration of the Johri case and other issues where he has written about Rai’s alleged two-faced nature, it is clear that whatever respect Kumar had for Rai disappeared during his time with the ACSU.
Glowing in his testimonials to India’s top cricketers including Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Kumar reveals a certain fan-boyishness that borders on the cloying. He is studiedly silent on the faceoff between then skipper Kohli and Anil Kumble which came to a head at the ICC Champions Trophy (which he erroneously refers to as the Championship Trophy) in England in 2017 and culminated in the leg-spinning legend stepping down as the head coach. Surely, considering how inclusive he says the team had been towards him, Kumar must have been privy to several of the goings-on?
Kumar’s book is definitely worth a read once you choose to overlook repetitiveness of sentiment, if not fact. It’s different, offers an insider-view and reflects on much that isn’t right with the BCCI. But cricket thriving in the country despite the cricket administrators? Hmmm…
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
