While the GCA like its benefactor, the BCCI does not run with the tax payers money, it is responsible for the development of cricket infrastructure and more importantly cricket players. What it is doing is upgrading the creature comforts of those who run Goa Cricket at the cost of players who should be running for Goa’s cricket.
The junket virus, prevalent in our Tourism Minister and other assorted “professionals” like MLAs, rests very snugly in the eco system of Goa cricket. Fresh from a trip to New Zealand “to study grounds and infrastructure”, a five member committee (the same five who went to New Zealand) are now headed to England to do what, you guessed it — study grounds, infrastructure, domestic cricket, spectator management, ticket printing, kit handling…, well they are broad assumptions or excuses, but you get the drift. And like our football loving MLAs, our GCA committee members have chosen England when India is playing a series there. It is thus assumed that Dhoni’s boys would love some advice and pep talk from Messers Vilas Desai Treasurer, Sanjay Kanekar and Manohar Naik, Vice Presidents, and Dattaram Shetgaonkar and Suryakant Naik, committee members of the Goa Cricket Association. They leave on July 30 and the trip includes Switzerland, Italy and Germany, countries that, at the time of writing this report, don’t play cricket.
Much as the BCCI and its affiliates would like to be out of public scrutiny, with the same privileges that a private limited company has, it cannot function in splendid isolation when it is the custodian of India’s biggest passion. The Goa Cricket Association has not really covered itself with glory, when the previous President and former Minister Dayanand Narvekar, accused of corruption, nepotism and misuse of funds, was ousted through a surgical toppling operation performed by cancer specialist Dr Shekhar Salkar, with the divine blessings of his friend and political guru Manohar Parrikar. The new dispensation headed by Vinod Phadke, by all accounts seems to be carrying on the Narvekar legacy to the detriment of the sport. And while the GCA may be very wealthy private body, it is run by those directly or otherwise connected to Goa’s political system and enjoy the loaves and fishes of power. Which is why there is a cozy bonhomie between Narvekars former men and those who threw Narvekar out. Amrish Naik, Narvekar’s treasurer continues to be part of the Managing Committee as Joint Secretary, Vilas Desai, another Narvekar pawn, is now treasurer under Vinod Phadke’s Presidentship. The all knowing and the powerful Chetan Desai, the go to guy for the BCCI, is the man who handles operations as Secretary. And keeping a silent watch over all that is wrong in Goa cricket is Vice President Dr Shekhar Salkar, the man who had done the earlier clean up act.
But the standards of transparency and probity for some of the anti-Narvekar men seem to have changed when they are in power. When cars were bought from the GCA account during the earlier regime, Desai had created an uproar. This regime too seems to be taking Goa cricket for a ride with 7 new high-end cars bought including a Toyota Corolla Altis for its president and Innovas and Honda Citys for others.
Now where is this money coming from? The GCA gets about Rs 25 crores from the IPL kitty which goes to the state associations and the same amount from the BCCI, making it the richest sporting body in the country with an annual cash injection of roughly Rs 50 crores for doing nothing. Compare this to the amount that the Goa government has earmarked in its 2014-15 budget, for staging the National games, which is Rs150 crores. So the GCA gets 33% of the amount Goa gets for staging the national games. And the cricket body gets this amount each year with a raise every year.
If the ostensible purpose of this money that the GCA swims in was to develop infrastructure and encourage sportsmen, it has been clouded by foreign trips, flashy cars and the roughly Rs 40,000 per month petrol allowance that many of the members avail of. On the other hand a promise made by Chief Minister Parrikar six months ago, at a public function that a bonus of Rs 50,000 each would be given to senior Goa players and support staff has not been paid citing paucity of funds. But, according to three whistleblowers within the committee who this writer interacted with, Rs 1.26 crores have been spent on the swank new score board, Rs 4 crores for floodlights and Rs 1.26 crores for a particular brand of cricket clothing. None of these spends followed the conventional tendering, short-listing, trials and final selection route.
The biggest casualty of all this is cricket and the non-promotion of its cricketers and other professionals. Shagun Kamat who was the country’s top scorer in the plate division of the Ranji Trophy couldn’t get a game as a member of the South Zone squad. Shikha Pandey, a India player from Goa, was the leading wicket taker in the selection trials for the national women’s team tour of England. Yet she was dropped from the team that was selected for England. Tracy Fernandes from Goa was the head physio in the same selection trials for the English tour and yet another physio was picked to travel to England with the girls.
The GCA has become the private domain of its ruling class. Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte’s simple request of allowing local children to play and train at the GCA’s cricket stadium in Porvorim for a limited time everyday, was turned down.
While this rich private body is accountable to no one, it should be accountable to the purpose why they have taken up these positions and that purpose isn’t private. The purpose, to develop cricket in Goa, one of the very few states in India where neither the IPL or international cricket is played nor has just one player in the IPL, is a public purpose. That purpose is hardly expected to be advanced when its members cavort in Switzerland and Italy next week.
