31 October,2017 12:25 PM IST | | G Rajaraman
Ex-BCCI GM MV Sridhar, whose demise yesterday shocked the Indian cricket fraternity, was a crisis man, but he carried his sense of urgency a bit too far
MV Sridhar was no stranger to stress, but he used his pleasant demeanour to deal with it. From a batsman in the Ranji Trophy to being an office-bearer of the problem-riddled Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), from being the media manager on India's tour of Australia in 2007-08 to being Satyam Computer Services' Head of Sports Marketing and then as BCCI's General Manager (Operations), stress was his constant shadow. Sridhar, 51, passed away yesterday, after suffering a heart attack at his home in Hyderabad. He was declared dead upon arrival at the hospital. He is survived by his wife, a daughter and a son.
Ex-BCCI GM (Operations) Dr MV Sridhar during the 2015 IPL Governing Council meeting at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Pic/Atul Kamble
Diligent worker
Sridhar went about his work with diligence and enthusiasm, rarely slowing down to smell the coffee and even rarely letting anyone know of what he thought of the pressures that came along with each of his roles over the past three decades and more. Doc, as the doctor of medicine came to be nicknamed, was a genial person even in the worst of times. He was a prolific scorer in the Ranji Trophy, playing his strokes without inhibition. He was a hard-nosed competitor at the crease, aware of his growing importance to the team even in his first season when he returned to competitive cricket after completing his studies in medicine.
There is no doubt that Sridhar's best moments off the cricket field came in Australia in January 2008 when he enabled manager Chetan Chauhan and skipper Anil Kumble to keep the media informed about every development in the wake of the controversial Sydney Test, including allegations of racism against feisty off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.
Helped football too
His career took wing when he helped Satyam forge a relationship with the International Football Federation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. There was a threat of the relationship coming unhinged when its chairman Ramalinga Raju confessed to perpetrating a massive financial fraud. But Sridhar played no mean role in ensuring that the World Cup project was delivered. The last time I met him was in the departure lounge of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (New Delhi). The BCCI had been embroiled in a crisis. He had just returned after failing to diffuse the Kumble-Kohli crisis, unable to bring Indian cricket team's two key personnel on the same page. He maintained a pleasant countenance. He soon found himself on a roller-coaster with complaints surfacing about him not declaring a possible conflict of interest [he owned six clubs in Hyderabad]. It went downhill after that and he had to put in his papers a month ago. We would be second guessing that his sudden demise was caused by stress of having to quit, but it is possible that Doc ignored his own health.
It is tough to believe that Sridhar, the man who seemed to be made to deal with crisis, is no more. At the batting crease, he used to be a free-scoring player. His rise in cricket administration was as quick, making him an object of envy. It seems he carried the sense of urgency just a bit too far.
