Not Out! The Incredible Story Of The Indian Premier League: Book explores intricacies of business of IPL

The politician-cricket official dual role has hit the reputation of the game and the IPL and has also been the cause of many of the conflict of interest controversies thereby adversely impacting politicians as well as cricket’s overall health, says Delhi-based sports attorney Desh Gaurav Sekhri in his new book.

“Conflict of interest has become the single most relevant term that is synonymous with Indian cricket in 2016. The conflict of interest phenomenon has shaped how ethics in cricket are to be determined,” he writes in “Not Out! The Incredible Story Of The Indian Premier League”, published by Penguin Books.

The book explores the intricacies of the business of the IPL, pinpointing what it got right and where it went wrong. It also looks closely at the spot-fixing scandal, the conflict of interest controversy, the issues that led to suspension of two champion teams and the complicated interplay between the BCCI and the IPL.

According to the author, nothing has caused more grief to the BCCI-IPL than the conflict of interest controversy. He says the most likely to be damaging to the reputation of the BCCI-IPL in the future is the duality of roles performed by public officials who hold positions in the BCCI.

“The Justice (R M) Lodha Committee’s recommendation was to exclude ministers and government officials from the board’s administration. The current IPL chairman, Rajeev Shukla, is a politician. The secretary of the BCCI, Anurag Thakur, is a politician. A member of the present IPL governing council, Jyotiraditya Scindia, is a politician.

“Former BCCI president and the current nominee for the ICC, if (Shashank) Manohar is unavailable, Sharad Pawar, is a politician. Many of the state associations’ presidents or board members are politicians,” Sekhri writes.