There’s a true story about a Delhi cricket administrator’s single-minded obsession with holding on to power. It is hard to believe for those who haven’t spent enough time in Feroz Shah Kotla’s dark and dingy corridors of intrigue. It so happened that on the eve of a crucial local election, the wife of the incumbent eyeing to retain his influential position at the DDCA complained of stomach ache and had to be admitted to a hospital. Citing an emergency, the doctors planned a minor surgery for the next morning. Mr administrator was in a fix.

Those present at the hospital that night recall a sickening conversation between the restless cricket administrator keen to be at Kotla on voting day and the outraged doctor. “He was informed that the operation would need general anaesthesia and his wife would regain consciousness after two hours,” recalls an old Delhi cricket veteran. “His reply blew us away. Without batting an eyelid, he asked the doctor, ‘Any chance you can administer anaesthesia for four hours as that would allow me that much more time at the Kotla as our panel needs to be re-elected?’”

By late evening, he was part of the victory celebration at Kotla. Around him were men with garlands around their necks, a bunch drunk on power. Visceral battle cries would hit the Kotla air. While an outsider is sure to get outraged by the mixed-up priorities of the DDCA administrator, in the brotherhood of Indian cricket administrators, an example had been set. At Kotla, they still speak about the supreme sacrifice of one who chose cricket over family.

To understand this absurd pull that........

© Indian Express