Two fine administrators stand arrayed against each other and in doing so they weaken an event whose success they have contributed much to. The IPL is one of India’s best brands, even for one so young, and you can see its importance by the fact that it is blamed for many ills elsewhere! But for all its success, the IPL is still on a learning curve, it still needs many strong hands on its shoulders and it can ill afford a tug-of-war. Both Lalit Modi and N Srinivasan have much to benefit, as indeed does the BCCI, in a strong IPL.

But if Modi and Srinivasan are on a collision course, it shows up a familiar weakness in the Indian business and administrative environment. As a nation, we run on personalities not systems, on charisma not content, and that is why we build such few strong institutions. A fine municipal commissioner or, a rarer commodity, a good member of parliament, can make a huge difference but as soon as they are gone, either due to bureaucratic or electoral fickleness, their effectiveness tends to go with them; normal service is resumed, chaos reigns. That is largely because we are a nation of individuals who believe systems are for everybody else. But if the IPL wants to be equally successful, be just as strong a property, twenty years from now, it will have to learn to live without Lalit Modi at some time as indeed will India Cements have to learn to live without Srinivasan.

... contd.