It's important for players to be administrators: Kumble

KSCA president Anil Kumble tellsu00a0MiD DAYu00a0why it's important for players to be administrators and how Dilip Vengsarkar will be a success as MCA chief

The Mumbai Cricket Association's (MCA) July 15 polls is clearly a contest between cricketers and politicians. Former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar is pitted against seasoned politician Sharad Pawar for the post of president. Another political heavyweight Vilasrao Deshmukh is also likely to contest for the same post. Anil Kumble, who was recently elected as Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) president, talks about why cricketers should head state associations in an exclusive chat with MiD DAY.u00a0u00a0


Anil Kumble (left) with Dilip Vengsarkar

Excerpts:
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Usually, cricketers take a long time after retirement to jump into administration. What made you and your cricketing friends contest the KSCA elections?
Timing is very important and we felt that this was the right time to get into association. Cricket is growing fast and we felt we must contribute substantially to it. How do you contribute without getting into an association?

Do you think cricketers are good at running associations?
Many cricketers have proved they have passion and commitment to do good for the game.
I am not saying every cricketer is good at administration, but having played the game, they know what is required to run it successfully. Given a chance, we all learn.

You have played with Dilip Vengsarkar and known him as an administrator, who was chairman of the national selection committee...
I have known him well.u00a0 As a cricketer, his record speaks for itself. He was India captain and a fine leader. He was also the vice-president of Mumbai Cricket Association for eight years which means he is not new to administration.

Having been a successful cricketer and leader, he knows the art of man-management which you require to run an association. But what he needs is backing of the members. Cricket is a team game and here too, for the elections he and his team of cricketers and administrators will require support of people whose intention is to improve cricket. He will definitely do well as head of the association.

You played international cricket for nearly two decades and travelled the cricketing world. You must have come across many non-cricketer administrators and cricketer-administrators. Given a choice who would you prefer to head cricket administration and why?
I will prefer a cricketer. Most of the countries that I toured, a majority of cricketers handle administration but I would say that if cricketers are given the opportunity, they tend to do better because of their background. There is no hard and fast rule that a person who hasn't played the game at the highest level can't be a good administrator, but people must support cricketers. We were supported in Karnataka and are doing very well.
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In India, many associations are either run byu00a0 politicians or backed by a political group making it difficult for cricketers to enter administration. What is the solution to this?
What can we do? Unless cricketers fight together, unwanted elements will come in because most of the cricket associations have majority of non-cricketers as members and it will take time to change the system. Cricketers must learn to fight the system. For that to happen, they must come together.