The lathi-charge on cricket fans in Bangalore who had come to buy tickets for the India-England match says a lot about the state of sports management in our country. The Chinnaswamy stadium can host 40,000 people. How many tickets were on sale? Just 4,000. The rest, 90 percent of the total, were all reserved for the VIPs. Cricket in India is regarded as religion and players like Sachin Tendulkar are considered gods. But what do you get in return when you seek to pay homage to your god? Lathi-charge!

The tickets were reserved for the International Cricket Council (ICC), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA). But how come these bodies cornered 90 percent of the total tickets? Have we forgotten that cricket like other sports, revolves around spectators, and it is the fans who have made cricket all the rage? Imagine Wimbledon reserving 90 percent of the tickets for the British royalty and the politicians!

Despite being the richest board in the world, why can’t the BCCI fix its ticketing policy? Surely, it can afford to hire the best talent required for the job. After all, even Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have fared much better than India on this count.

“I can’t handle people’s expectations,” was all that Javagal Srinath, secretary of the KSCA, had to say by way of explanation at the press conference. Anil Kumble, president of the association, proved worse as he chose to stay silent.

Bangalore is not an exception. Media reports says that more than 80 percent tickets for the semi-final at Mohali and the final in Mumbai have also been similarly reserved for the cricketing VIPs and politicians?  

Amid all this, the ICC president Sharad Pawar is characteristically doing precious little to address the issue.

While a lot more needs to be done to improve cricket management, let’s begin by pledging: no more freebies for VIPs!