What Should India’s Role Be in the World? An Essay on Cricket’s Spiritual Battle with Itself

The GMR group, co-owner of the Delhi Capitals, have almost finalized a £ 120 million deal to acquire the Hampshire County Cricket club. County teams are already struggling financially and certain teams like Yorkshire are in great debt.

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All IPL owners are expected to bid in sale of The Hundred teams for a minority stake and change the name of franchises. This would add to the list of growing influence of IPL teams in world franchise cricket—CPL, SA20, MLC, ILT20.

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Viacom18 wins broadcast rights for Indian broadcasting between 2023-28 for a whopping $720 million. The TV and digital rights for IPL (2023-2027) is valued at $5.1 billion, or about $8.5 million per match. In ICC’s proposed revenue model (2024-27), the BCCI is expected to receive 38.5% or $231 million.

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Jay Shah becomes the youngest chair of the ICC, unanimously elected. Three of the last 4 ICC chairs have been Indian. In the last 15 years, Sharad Pawar (as president), N Srinivasan, Shashank Manohar, and Jay Shah have served at the highest ranked ICC position.

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What Should India’s Role Be in the World?

India has clearly solidified its status as both a soft and hard power in world cricket now. One can even say that the BCCI has become a quasi-monopoly.

Now that it has established its dominance, what’s next? One question that currently keeps me up at night is,

“What should India’s role be in the cricketing world?”

Should the BCCI be doing more for the cricket world or should they act solely for Indian cricket’s self-interest?

With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility

As Uncle Ben’s warns Peter in the iconic line from the original Spider-Man, “Remember, with great power, comes great responsibility.”

Based on the current trajectory, there are three distinct possibilities how India’s reign will turn out:

(1) Absolute power corrupts the BCCI absolutely and results in the complete downfall of the ICC and international cricket as a whole.

(2) The BCCI focuses on enriching Indian cricket only, and the IPL becomes an all year round phenomenon.

(3) Indian cricket administration takes a vocal role in expansion of cricket in the world, leads the revival of cricket in smaller nations, and takes them along as the BCCI grows financially.

Since the first point is an extreme case, we will rule this out for the rest of our discussion and direct our focus on the final two points.

We will explore what can happen if the BCCI only focuses on its self-interest by utilizing Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand,’ dig deeper into the possibility of India helping other nations by employing Smith’s ‘impartial spectator’ & Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ‘mirror,’ and keep up the hope of India becoming world cricket’s ‘Brother’s Keeper’ by studying this Bible verse as well as a Sanskrit shlok.

The Invisible Hand

Imagine you are having a lavish dinner at a restaurant. The chefs, waiters, and all the other staff are at your service with a smile. The food is delicious.

All in all, a great time.

But let’s hold back a moment and reflect—Did you come to the restaurant to help the chefs and waiters?

No.

You went there only to enjoy a nice meal and have a good evening. Did the chef and waiters do their best only to please you?

Probably not. They were doing their duty, and you happened to be a beneficiary.

And that folks is what Adam Smith calls the ‘invisible hand.’ Smith states that it is “not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest” (Theory of Moral Sentiments). Basically the implicit idea behind free market capitalism.

We can apply this same idea to how Indian cricket can proceed in the future. Contrary to the popular belief, the BCCI can choose to only focus on the betterment of Indian cricket, and it might actually not turn out to be a bad thing for the rest of the nations.

If Indian cricket and the brand value of the IPL grows, the pay checks will get bigger, the standard of facilities will rise, and more people in the world (even non-cricketers) will gain employment. Overseas cricketers and coaches will become better, young kids from around the world will pick up cricket as a sport organically, and the sport will grow competitive with abundant prospering talent.

Choice 1: Follow your own interests, and the rest will grow as a by product.

I Am My Brother’s Keeper

While self-preservation can be a driver for progress, on the opposite end of the spectrum is using power as a tool to help others.

A passage from Ezekiel 25:17 in The Bible embodies this idea perfectly,

“Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and goodwill, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper, and the finder for lost children.”

Much of cricket’s problems stem from the imbalance between the different nations. Poorer financial health, unstable governments, lack of domestic awareness.

Bangladesh promises yet never delivers, West Indies excites with an underlying sense of nostalgic disappointment, Pakistan is well…Pakistan, Kenya disappeared, and Zimbabwe is as close to the rope of disappearing as Suryakumar’s catch was on the 29th of June.

Maybe a better redistribution of wealth, an odd tri-series with India as a participant, more TV rights, etc. can help tip the scales back in balance.

A prominent Sanskrit Shlok captures this sentiment:

“Sarve Bhavantu Sukinha” May all be happy

“Sarve Santu Nirayamaya” May all be free from illness

“Sarve Badryani Pashyantu” May all see what is auspicious

“Maa Kaschid-Dukha-Bhaag-Bhavet” May no one suffer

“Ohm Shanti Shanti Shanti” Om Peace, Peace, Peace

The world is a better place when everybody prospers and nobody suffers.

If we focus on doing good for the larger masses of people, then the society will benefit and in turn, the individual will be prosper as well. In our scenario, if the BCCI makes their aim to help cricket grow as a sport worldwide and use their monetary power to support other struggling nations, then it will help them in the longterm as well.

Choice 2: The ones in power have a moral obligation to help others for the sake of doing the right thing.

Individuality Versus The Collective Good

Let’s not be naive.

There is no way that the BCCI takes ownership of becoming the cricket world’s caretaker. Or is there?

Human beings are complicated.

We are not merely satisfied by our own successes. What do we sometimes value more?

External validation.

Rousseau describes this aptly—“Social man lives always outside himself, he knows how to live only in the opinion of others…from their judgment alone that he derives the sense of his own existence” (Discourse on Inequality). We do not judge ourselves honestly. Rather, we take society as a mirror and judge ourselves as a reflection to others.

This is where things get interesting. By all objective measures, India is doing well. They are winning World Cups, have the approval of billions of fans, and have the power.

But you can sense that the BCCI wants something more. They are trying everything to be a little bit bigger, better, grander (see: Building a 100,000 spectator stadium to host the World Cup final….).

So with self-interest and external validation as the chief motivators, is India heading in the wrong direction?

Not quite.

And this is where Adam Smith comes back to the picture.

Impartial Spectator

Smith partially agrees with Rousseau that individuals do not necessarily uplift others for the sake of uplifting others.

He asserts that it is “not the soft power of humanity” or the “feeble spark of benevolence which Nature has lightened up in the human heart.”

Rather, it is a “stronger power, a more forcible motive. It is reason, principle, conscience, the inhabitant of the beast, the man within, the great judge and arbiter of our conduct.”

He calls this strong internal force—The impartial spectator from which “we learn the real littleness of ourselves…and the natural misrepresentations of self-love.”

Smith argues that this impartial spectator, that we each have within us, is what “prompts [us] to sacrifice [our] own interests to the greater interests of others.” The impartial spectator is a realization that we are flawed beings, and that is okay. We can have selfish desires, and it is natural that we judge ourselves based on what others will think. We don’t have to try to be perfect and do the right thing all the time.

But deep down, an impartial spectator will guide us to go to greater heights and inspire us to becoming altruistic beings.

The BCCI will make mistakes. They will try to promote Indian cricket interests like never before. It may seem that they are only helping other cricket boards or donating to charities for a photo-op (or tax breaks), but every now and then, they will end up doing the right thing and sacrifice for the greater good due to the impartial spectator (the inner checks & balances in this case).

Choice 3: Even if it feels that going all in and fighting for individual gain is the right way to go, sometimes an inner voice will force us to do the right thing for everybody.

Nash from CricBlog podcast had an interesting perspective. Although the BCCI is set to receive an absurd 38% from ICC’s pie in the next cycle, that is still a sacrifice given the BCCI provides about 90% of revenue in the first place.