In fairness, you have to state that almost all cricketing boards would insist on clearing the list of commentators on their sports channels. But I do not believe any carries its own hired, contract-bound voices to cover its own activities. To an old-fashioned media-person and a public commentator like this columnist, this is shocking, institutionalised censorship. You want to know how this censorship works?

Find out why nobody ever saw any footage of Bhajji slapping Sreesanth in the last edition of the IPL. Because the BCCI had control over the Sony cameras and it seems the footage was destroyed. Would Sharad Pawar have managed to do it if an MP slapped another in Parliament? Cricket, even more than politics, is a game played in public, for the public; it’s not a private party, and nobody should have the power to censor it.

A little self-correction, therefore, will be useful for the BCCI itself. Or there will be no questions raised as aberrations are smuggled in, shorter boundaries to make for more sixes (or “maximums”), strategy breaks after 10 overs when even dowdy Test cricket has them after 15 overs or an hour — all to bring in some more money. Both bring down the quality and intensity of the game, the very factors that made ODIs better crowd-pullers than Tests, and T20 more than ODIs.

Or the really ridiculous sight of team owners hanging around the team dugouts, something you would never see in serious football leagues. Sharad Pawar has to figure out at some point soon that his BCCI is the guardian of Indian cricket, and not just the proud parent of its favourite and richest offspring, the IPL. Because he could get away with it while Indians are winning.

... contd.