Cricket in India is more than just a game: Critics allege that ruling party politicians and a mega-rich board with close ties to the sport are exploiting its huge popularity for electoral gains.
India begins voting in a six-week general election on Friday in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is widely expected to win a third term.
Modi’s BJP has intricate ties with the powerful Cricket Control Board, which commentators say has tried to co-opt the sport as a tool for the ruling party to bowl over political opponents.
Veteran cricket journalist Sharda Ugra said the sport was “used as a vehicle for muscular nationalism”.
“Control is exercised through the presence of senior officials connected to the ruling party, but also by using Indian cricket to further their political message,” he told AFP.
Modi’s government is far from the first to use cricket for political gain in India, but his populist BJP has made those links even tighter than before, Ugra said.
BCCI chief Jai Shah is the son of Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah, Modi’s right-hand man and himself a former president of the Gujarat State Cricket Board.
Arun Dhumal, chairman of the money-grubbing Indian Premier League, is the brother of former BCCI chief Sports Minister Anurag Thakur.
“Currently the BCCI is the first Indian cricket administration under the control of a single political party, and not the common grip of politicians,” Ugra said.
Gideon Haig, cricket writer for The Australian newspaper, called the BJP “shameless in its self-interest” to co-opt the sport.
“Cricket is one of the many institutions that have been captured, yet it means the most to most people,” High told AFP.
The BJP won state elections in Rajasthan in December and the minister’s son took charge of the cricket board last month.
In New Delhi, the capital’s stadium was renamed in 2019 after the BJP’s late, late finance minister Arun Jaitley, whose son Rohan Jaitley heads the state cricket board.
For the previous 137 years, it was known as Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium after the 14th century Muslim Sultan.
When India hosted the ODI World Cup last year, Modi attended the final at the world’s largest cricket stadium named after him in Ahmedabad.
A home win would undoubtedly boost national pride ahead of the elections, but India lost in the decider.
Modi went to the dressing room with a camera crew to embrace the Indian team. “It will happen,” he told them. “Keep smiling, the country is waiting for you.”
India’s delay or visa denial for the tournament has raised some concerns for players and fans of arch-rival Pakistan.
Other players of Pakistani heritage, including Australia’s Usman Khawaja and England’s Shoaib Bashir, have faced visa challenges during their tour of India.
BCCI did not respond to a series of queries submitted by AFP.
Cricket is a lucrative business in the world’s most populous nation, home to 1.4 billion people.
According to some counts, Indian cricket earns more than Bollywood on average.
The IPL is the world’s richest cricket league and has added to BCCI’s fortunes with the board selling the broadcast and digital rights of the 2023-27 T20 tournament for $6.2 billion.
Commentators say the BCCI’s wealth and reach allow it to pull the strings at the International Cricket Council, cricket’s world governing body.
According to a 2018 ICC study, more than 90 percent of the sport’s billion-plus worldwide fans are in the Indian subcontinent.
In other countries, the ICC has been quick to suspend boards over political interference, including Zimbabwe in 2019 and Sri Lanka last year.
ICC rules state that cricket boards must conduct their affairs “autonomously” and “ensure that there is no government interference in its administration”.
The ICC declined to comment on India’s role.
Modi inaugurated his eponymous 132,000-seater ground in Ahmedabad in 2020 at a mega-rally for then US President Donald Trump.
Haig covered the 2023 India-Australia series and recalled how Modi toured the venue in a golf cart with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese when the fourth Test was hosted.
BJP members, government officials and school children attended the event, cheering Modi as he arrived at the venue.
After the captains exited the stadium quickly emptied, the game started.
“The ICC, which was meant to condemn political interference in cricket, looked the other way, telling you all you need to know about the BCCI seizing it,” Haig said.
bur/pjm/slb/ssy/pst
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modification to the text.