Pran Kurup

BCCI Badly Needs A Professional CEO

The BCCI’s recent snafu with regard to the choice of the coach of the Indian cricket team is a perfect example of very poor management. Would a public announcement about an executive hire ever be made by a company before the individual has accepted the offer? Wouldn’t plan B have been discussed in the event of the lead candidate not accepting the job?

The net result of this sloppiness on the part of the BCCI, is that the team is presently without an official coach. The schedule ahead for the team is hectic and there seems to be no sign of a new coach either. However, more than a new coach, it appears as though the BCCI is badly in need of some professional management, starting with a capable CEO.

It’s a Business, Stupid!

Cricket in India is big, big business. And this is a understatement. It is no surprise that a seasoned businessman like Subhash Chandra is aspiring to try and grab a piece of the action by launching the Indian Cricket League (ICL). He deserves all the credit for attempting to accomplish (with a strong commercial bent, of course) what the BCCI has been unable to achieve. He has already roped in Kapil Dev, Kiran More and supposedly some international players. With his experience and hold over the media he is more than likely to give the BCCI a literal run for its money. As for the BCCI, there seems to be no clear plan or communication to the public at large about its stand vis-a-vis the ICL, barring some odd non-committal statements. The legendary Kapil Dev has already shown the BCCI the proverbial finger so to speak.

Culture of Personal Fiefdom

BCCI has historically been the personal fiefdom of some individual or the other. First, Jagmohan Dalmiya and now Sharad Pawar. Just take the current scenario. Sachin Tendulkar has been named vice-captain, Dilip Vengsarkar is selection chief, Sunil Gavaskar is everywhere, Chandu Borde is Manager, Balwinder Sandhu heads up the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and Pawar is Board Chief. Is this the Indian Board? It sounds more like the Maharashtra Board! Everyone related to the prior regime of Dalmiya such as Brijesh Patel, S. K. Nair, Kapil Dev and the like are all of out of favor. Past players who belong to different factions have started to openly bicker bringing back to life their past differences — Bedi vs. Gavaskar, Ashok Malhotra vs. Gavaskar to name a couple.

The biggest downside of this fiefdom culture is that almost all the positions in the board are held by former players and/or “yes men”, none of whom have any administrative experience whatsoever. With all due respect to these yesteryear stalwarts, their value is on the field and not really off the field. So expecting them to turn Administrative wizards overnight is completely unfair and unrealistic. Every organization within the BCCI, like for instance the National Cricket Academy, would be served best by a former cricketer as the outside face backed by strong seasoned operational management in order to set and achieve pre-defined goals and objectives. Without seasoned management at the helm of affairs, these organizations can never deliver quality results. The private sector has stepped up in the past to participate in cricketing activities, as in the case of the MRF Pace Foundation. However, after more than a decade of its existence, India is yet to produce even a single fast bowler who is guaranteed of a berth in the Indian playing eleven over an extended period of time! This is clearly a failure of the BCCI to leverage outside help and funding.

Mr. Dalmiya certainly deserves credit for putting cricket on the big stage: big money, big sponsors, television rights, the works (his success caught the attention of the WSJ which once published a story on this). His successor appears to have set his eyes on the big prize — the job of ICC Chief. Meanwhile, it is rumored that Lalu Yadav now wants to be BCCI chief. Given that both Mr. Pawar and Mr. Yadav are part of the same ruling coalition at the center, anything is possible in the constant give and take between political factions in power.

Formal Communication Channels

In this day and age where media in India is completely berserk, the BCCI, unfortunately, seems to have no formal “corporate communications or media relations” structure. This often leads to constant leaks (remember Chappell’s email that was leaked to the media?), contradicting statements by all and sundry and overall poor communication ranging from the officials to the present Indian team. A communications team and formal procedures for what is communicated to the media, how and by whom is a part and parcel of any professionally run organization. This is evidently non-existent in the BCCI.

Contracts

The BCCI contracts with the players is a permanent source of contention. It is almost always pushed to the 11th hour and finally settled as a compromise. These contracts are only a stop-gag arrangement until the next scandal breaks out.

The advertising contracts are another sore point for the players. The recent pronouncements by the board about restricting the number of contracts, number of players per endorsement etc. make no sense whatsoever. Cricket is a commercial sport and it is natural that the players strive to make every buck they can while they are riding high. Television rights are another perennial “tamasha”. (remember Doordarhan’s telecast with a 7-minute delay!)

Again, negotiating contracts and arriving at mutually agreeable terms is a common corporate function. Given the BCCI’s complete lack of professionalism, it is not surprising that the BCCI and the players are in a permanent state of negotiation.

Performance Metrics

BCCI is the by far the richest board in the World, and there are more cricket players in India at the first class level than any country in the world. In other words, the BCCI is an organization that has the talent pool and the money, but lacks the commensurate results for it! New Zealand selects its national team from a pool of 150 players. That is the size of the entire pool they have to chose from! Yet they consistently make it to the World Cup semi-finals. India on the other hand, Oh well…

Team India’s performance is far from consistent. Precise planning and execution is required to ensure that the game is nurtured at the grassroots level. The quality of pitches in India need to be drastically improved. Ranji cricket for instance is played on dead wickets, leaving little scope for good bowling talent to develop. Most importantly, proper systems must be in place so new talent can bubble to the top without needless zonal pressures and politicking. Currently, there is no clear vision as to where Indian cricket is headed. Having crashed out of the World Cup, there is no better time than now to look ahead, set goals and make plans. Seasoned professional help can certainly make this a reality.

Accountability

Last but not the least, there is no accountability whatsoever at any level in the BCCI. When was the last time someone resigned a post willingly taking responsibility for some failure? Unfortunately, this is not part of the BCCI culture. Accountability is an automatic by product of a corporate setting. If you fail to deliver, you take responsibility and quit or be prepared to face potentially dire consequences.

There have been allegations of financial wrong-doing by Dalmiya and his associates (which Mr. Dalmiya claims is a witch-hunt). While these charges have yet to be proven, there is no doubt that a professionally run setup can go a long way to minimize such issues.

All in all, there is a dire need for professionalism starting with the highest level of the BCCI. It has big bucks to chase, big egos to appease, and an obsessive, fanatic following to cater to. Unless a drastic change is made soon, the mess will only worsen and team India will continue to wallow in mediocrity.

Cedar’s: Great Lebanese Restaurant in Chennai

If you are interested in non-desi food in Chennai, check out Cedar’s in Kotturpuram (I don’t know the exact location, if I am not mistaken its not far from Gandhi Mandapam) which serves Lebanese food.

The food is excellent. The restaurant feels more like a house with an upstairs, terrace etc., so you don’t feel like you are eating at a restaurant, which is nice. There was nice middle eastern music playing all along.

To add to this, when asked, the cook and the waiters (all Indians trained under a Lebanese cook who worked here for 2+ years) are capable of "radiating lots of fundas" about the food and the cooking, like you normally observe in western countries. The costs average about Rs. 300+ per dish. Sheesha (hookah) is also available at the restaurant.

The picture shows the cook (Sundar) and the waiter (Milton), both were very impressive with their knowledge of Lebanese food.

Movie Review: Sivaji – The Boss

Title: Sivaji -The Boss
Starring: Rajnikanth, Shreya, Suman, Vivek
Language: Tamil (there is a Telugu version of the film too)
Music: AR Rahman
Director: K. Shankar

If you are a nerd who writes software (like many desis) this film gives you some reasons to feel “cool”. In this film, Sivaji (played by Rajnikanth, of course) is a US-returned, (hold your breath!) computer system software architect!! He returns to India to use his wealth to build free educational institutions and hospitals. He is concerned about the fact that “Rich get richer and poor get poorer”. The local goon (played by yester-year hero Suman) who is very corrupt runs hospitals and schools and uses his political clout and “goonda-giri” to stop Sivaji. The film is about how Sivaji goes about achieving his goals despite seemingly insurmountable odds. The film highlights corruption that occurs at various levels of government.

Hats off to Shankar and team for a hot, contemporary theme. The rest is “masala” all the way, enjoyable nevertheless. Shankar who is also known for lavish sets and technical finesse continues to experiment in Sivaji. The stunt sequences are a combination of fights scenes straight out of Jackie Chan and Matrix-like films. Rajnikanth sports so many different hair-dos throughout the film until he finally settles for a bald look! At 57, the man still remains slim and trim and with makeup he is still able to pull it off.

The songs are picturized in lavish (often garish) sets. There is one song (in hip-hop style!) picturized in front of the beautiful Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain which features Rajnikanth in a blond wig, an African wig, among others! This song apparently involved some “skin grafting” computer graphics special effects which make Rajnikanth appear white!

The customary intro’ song that is a characteristic of all Rajnikanth films is a complete disaster in this film. “Balleilakka” as the song goes is cacophony to say the least. The hordes of extras in the sequence further accentuates cacophony, a “whipped up to shape” Nayantara not withstanding. The film crew completely went over-board with this song. Of all the songs in the film, the duet “Sahana” (despite Udit Narayan) is easily the best. Rahman seems to be at his best composing such duets. The other song that is catchy is “Vaaji Vaaji”, a nice blend of standard dance music and a Khawali-type beat. Hariharan whose style of singing is more suited to melody, does a great job of this song.

The first half of the film is focused entirely on comedy. Vivek is brilliant as the hero’s side-kick (uncle actually!). Punch lines that are a characteristic of all Rajnikanth films is this time given a nice twist — Vivek delivers a few instead of the hero. The second half is action packed and the climax is a little too long.

Rajnikanth is in his elements when he appears with the bald look. The script gives plenty of opportunity for his trademark histrionics. Cigarettes are out, bubble gum is in. After some gimmicks with a one-rupee coin, it lands in his shirt pocket! It is hard to explain to someone who hasn’t grown up on his films why these gimmicks work so well with the audience.

Indian “masala” cinema is all about make-believe. Rajnikanth takes make-believe to an altogether different plane. In many ways his films are like a desi incarnation of James Bond. A hero whose looks common man can identify with, one who constantly epitomizes the victory of good over evil, thrown in with unique mannerisms and distinctive style, and a flair for comedy, together has earned Rajnikanth a larger than life screen persona — a powerful combination that the box office can’t seem to get enough off. Sivaji is one more example of this.

Cricket: Twenty20 Opens Doors for Young Talent

It was such a relief to read that Dravid, Sachin, Ganguly, VVS and Kumble are not in the Twenty20 list of probables. Hats off to Dravid, Sachin and Ganguly for opting out. This is one of those rare moments in Indian cricket. It will be interesting to see where this leaves the parallel cricket (Subash Chandra’s India Cricket League) series. Are these senior folks going to be left out of those games as well? Hopefully, yes.

Twenty20 is clearly a young man’s game. India is still very new to the format unlike many other cricket playing nations. However, the lack of “legacy players” is bound to open doors for many who can eventually graduate to the the ODI team.

Sivaji: Marketing At Its Best

The release of the Tamil Superstar Rajnikanth’s recent flick, Sivaji – The Boss is a perfect lesson in marketing. Its unclear if the entire marketing campaign was a planned effort or it just came to be. In any case, it was the most brilliant marketing effort in desi tinsel town in a long long time. It all started with the original announcement of the film over 18 months back. The coming together of leading lights of Kollywood — AVM Productions, Director K. Shankar, AR Rahman and Rajnikanth for India’ most expensive film ever (supposedly over 75 crores) . From then on, there were incessant leak of stills, youtube videos, the speculation over choice of leading lady (Ash to Rani, to finally the relatively less known Shreya), the storyline, reports of how the superstar had accepted only Rs. 1001 as advance for the film etc. etc.

More recently leading portals like Rediff dedicated a separate tab from their home page to track progress of the film. With portal players in the game, this meant that almost everyday some news or the other related to the film had to be posted including interviews with all and sundry even remotely related to the film. Prior to this, the songs of the film (tuned by AR Rahman) were released and there was plenty of press resulting from this as usual.

Then, the release date of the film was moved out time and again until 15, June was settled on as the big day. This had already driven the expectations (not to mention patience) to a frenzy among the scores of die-hard fans. All along there was frequent news about the sale of overseas rights, Telugu rights, Kerala rights and what not.

The otherwise reclusive star himself appeared before the English media in a rare 2-minute interview on the eve of the release of the film. The simplicity of the man and his humility won him more well-wishers (like he needed more!). In a further attempt to win broad support for the film, the superstar arranged for separate private screenings for politicians Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha and Chandrababu Naidu. The Channel rights of the film were sold to Karunanidhi’s Kalaignar TV channel for a record sum (Sun TV losing out on what would usually have been their deal, given Maran’s recent fall-out with Karunanidhi)

For the first time, several corporates joined in the drama by signing up for shows of the film in droves for their employees en masse. As for the print media every single magazine and newspaper imaginable had a report about the movie and the frenzy surrounding it.

The producers and distributors of the film decided to cash in on the mania by releasing the film in an unprecedented 850 screens across 25 countries! (a clear record for an Indian film). Tamil Nadu accounted for 350 of those screens showing clearly that the star has a huge following well beyond the state. This widespread release ensured that even if the film was a flop the sheer initial momentum will ensure at a minimum a recovery of the investment. In any case, the film has been running to packed houses. Rajnikanth is easily the Boss of the box office by a long long way.

Overall a brilliant marketing effort, planned or otherwise.

Hamas vs Fatah

As Fatah and Hamas openly clash, the media is awash with pro-Fatah reports. All you hear in the media (especially the Western media) is about how extreme Hamas is, the fact that they won’t recognize Israel, etc. While its hard to understand the true picture on the ground, it is good to read views from both sides for a change. Check out this piece in the NY Times. This is a rare (nevertheless self-serving) piece which gives the Hamas side of the story.

Democratic Presidential Candidates: Debate 2

Last night’s debate confirms that the front-runners are still very much Hillary, Obama and Edwards. As for the rest, while they clearly make the debate more lively, its only a matter of time before they exit the race and hope for a VP spot on the ticket, unless one of the front runners slip up significantly. Among the front runners, Hillary literally took center stage this time. She was so much more at ease than ever before and seemed very much in control. She might have “goofed” when she said that “America is safer today but not safe enough”.

Obama on the other hand seems to be gaining with experience. He does sometimes get caught up in legislative detail and struggles when he has to give a concise answer. On the other hand, he was very quick to seize the opportunity and sound leader-like when he attacked the question about the National language issue by saying, “This is the kind of question that is meant to divide…”. On a side note, Obama was the only one who could pronounce “Pakistan” correctly (perhaps showing his attention to detail!).

The top punch lines of the debate where easily, Hillary Clinton’s reference to “This administration sometimes send Cheney on diplomatic missions…” and Obama’s “You were late by four and half years on leadership on this issue” response to Edwards’ complaint of the lack of leadership among Senators in bringing the war to end. The quality of the questions from the audience was a little disappointing.

Joe Biden seemed so angry for most of the debate! I guess he figured fireworks might get him some attention. Bill Richardson might have a good resume, but he was far from convincing for what was essentially a TV contest. Dennis Kucinich is perhaps the only one who is significantly different from the rest, but the man is completely unelectable in today’s big money world of American politics.

Indian Team Coach: Desi ya Videsi?

Its time for the BCCI to pick the next Coach of the Indian Cricket Team. Greg Chappell had a disastrous stint while his predecessor John Wright had a far better record as Indian coach. According to media reports the search has been narrowed down to a race between Arjuna Ranatunga and Graham Ford (Graham who?). While the former is a well-known, and respected figure in cricketing circles, the latter is a relative unknown. However what makes this appointment interesting is the preference of the senior players in the team for a foreign coach. The former cricketers (Madan Lal, Wadekar, Kapil and others), on the other hand, are very critical about the choice of foreign coach. In a recent statement Kapil Dev while criticizing the present senior players for their preference went as far as reminding them that some of them might be aspirants for the job in the not too distant future! Some go as far as referring to it as “colonial hangover”.

The reality is that cricket is increasingly becoming a very commercial sport and the stakes are getting higher by the day. This is driving the need for a far more sophisticated approach to the game in general. Unfortunately for India’s former players, none of them really have been exposed to a rigorous, methodical approach to the game, as seems to be needed these days. The odds of someone more knowledgeable in modern techniques coming from Australia is far higher than say India. Mohinder Amarnath, the desi contender for the Coach last time, took 45 minutes to fire up his laptop/presentation despite help from a computer expert. Besides, you only have to listen to the commentary of some of India’s former greats, to understand their abilities (or lack off it!) when it comes to analyzing the game. By and large the videsis do a better job at least on this front. The next generation of Indian retired Test and ODI players might actually be better equipped to serve as coaches having been exposed these modern techniques themselves.

It is true that cultural issues are bound to crop up when a foreign coach is in-charge. But that is an area both the players and the coaches need to adjust. The downsides of having a desi coach far outweigh the positives. The biggest downside of a desi coach is that they might have an axe to grind of their own, not to mention that they can often come under pressure from their respective zones. Most of them have their favorites in local cricket, not to mention their sons playing at the domestic level in many cases. Having a zone-based representation in the selection committee is sufficiently complicated. There is little reason to extend this complication by having an Indian coach. The intent of picking an Australian the last time, was a perfectly legitimate one. However, India picked the wrong candidate when it came to a Moody vs Chappell choice.

Its time to learn from the Chappell experience. High profile, super talented players seldom make good coaches. To make matters worse if they tend to be dominant personalities, (as many star players tend to be) it can be a complete mess as in the case of Greg Chappell.

The biggest value a coach can provide Team India is in strategy. Having a bowling coach, a batting coach and fielding coach and a head coach is a complete overkill. When it comes to strategy, there is bound to be a needless clash of ideas. Its best if the number of individuals involved in team strategy is restricted to the captain, his trusted senior players and one coach. Anything beyond strategy such as fitness routines, physiotherapy etc. should be handled by support staff and not specialized coaches.

Ranatunga, a shrewd captain in his days, certainly scores very high on the strategy scale. Ford is a relative unknown but the fact that he is low profile is a good start. At least it removes potential ego-clashes from the list of issues to fear. Nazir Hussain is another name that comes to mind but is seldom mentioned. He might be the best desi-videsi compromise India can find! 🙂

Movie Review: The Queen

Title: The Queen
Language: English
Starring: Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen

The movie is based on how the British royal family deals with the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death. The key characters involved in the script are the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Tony Blair. As the title goes the movie is focused almost entirely on the Queen and her challenges in balancing the groundswell of goodwill for Diana among the public, her dislike for the Princess, the Royal norms and traditions and the personal tragedy for the grand kids. Despite focusing primarily on deep human emotions and conflicts, the movie is sufficiently fast-paced. Helen Mirren’s performance as the Queen earned her the Oscar. I haven’t seen the other movies that were nominated. Her performance in this film was certainly very impressive. Michael Sheen as Tony Blair was excellent. The role gave him plenty of scope for portraying a range of emotions and he has made full use of this opportunity. Prince Charles is portrayed as pragmatic and tactful while Cherie Blair is shown as having little respect for the monarchy in general.

The movie is extremely well-made. A tight script ensures that the focus on the main theme of the film is never lost. At the same time all the characters are explored in depth and fits very well with the overall film. Overall, a good film, worth watching.

Cricket: Insights into Fitness Problems

The amount of international cricket played each year has dramatically increased over the years. Very frequently we hear about fitness problems, particularly in the Indian camp. Just the last series against Bangladesh witnessed injuries to Manoj Tewari, Sreesanth, Munaf and possibly others. Several questions have been raised about the lack of fitness but no solutions have been found for what appears to have become a serious, recurring issue.

Here is an insightful and very interesting article on the issue, where the author refers to Cricket as a game for the unfit!