OF GCA and its Humpty Dumpties...

At the Indian Premier League's opening ceremony in Chennai recently, senior vice-president of Gujarat Cricket Association and BJP's controversial former MoS, Home, Amit Shah was given the royal treatment. The one-time strongman of Gujarat has been out of sight here after being 'exiled' from the state, but clearly not out of mind. In addition to his stellar gimmicks as the archetypal politician in the Modi regime in the last decade, Shah greatly influences the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA). He brought to Modi one more laurel in 2009 when he ousted the 14-year-old hegemony of Congress leader Narhari Amin from the cricket body.

This story is not about the finer aspects of the gentleman's game but about the politics of cricket as it is played out in Gujarat over the last decade. It is about how Shah, now an accused in two alleged fake encounter cases, wrested control of GCA from the Congress. And like every political story in Gujarat, this also concerns chief minister Narendra Modi, who clearly doesn't mind tossing into his kitty as many thrones possible on his way to becoming prime minister. Last but not the least, this story is about the impact that these politicians' politicking and ambitions has had on the cricketing body. For the record, Shah continues to be senior vice-president of GCA.

Genesis of the coup
Let's begin with 1992 when Narhari Amin, minister in the then Congress government in the state, became president of the GCA. Amin ended the decade-long rule of Mrugesh Jaykrishna and Surendra Sharma at the helm of the cricket body.

He soon began sidelining the people who had been powerful in the association under the old dispensation and among those to be cast out was DR Shah. Sources say DR Shah is not one to forget a humiliation and he waited for an opportunity to get back at Amin. He had to wait for 14 years before he got that chance.

In 2006, for the first time in 14 years, the Amin administration of GCA began to look fragile and that is when DR Shah decided to strike. BJP was enjoying one of the best phases of its rule, having captured a few co-operatives and sports associations. Amit Shah's loyalists were actively involved in displacing Congress from co-operative banks and sports associations. Sources say DR Shah approached Amit Shah who had become the minister of state for home earlier that year. Amit Shah never wanted to enter cricket administration. Already burdened with home affairs, Shah wanted to keep a safe distance. Four years of deliberation and a few compulsions saw Shah throwing his hat in the ring and eventually become Shah of Motera.

...as the Congress strongman had earlier foiled attempts by revenue minister Anandi Patel and the late Ashok Bhatt to oust him from the GCA throne. Sources say that despite the virtually unfettered rule of the Saffron Party, Amit Shah, the hatchet man of chief minister Narendra Modi, was unwilling to join hands with DR Shah against Amin. DR Shah tried to persuade the minister twice but was unsuccessful. Apparently, Amit Shah was not yet ready for the role of cricket administrator.

In the meantime, Rajesh Patel, son of former India spinner Jasu Patel, also fell out with Amin over the GCA president's 'excesses'. Till 2005, Rajesh was part of Amin's cabinet at the cricket association as joint secretary. However, Amin removed him and replaced him with another Patel, Hitesh. Rajesh turned to DR Shah for solace and joined his behind-the-scene campaign against Amin.

The GCA president was showering favours on GCA secretary Vikram Patel and joint secretary Hitesh Patel, much to the chagrin of other members of the cricket body. Bharat Dudhia, Ashok Saheba and Dhiraj Jogani were all staunch Amin allies but they turned against him and began hobnobbing with Rajesh Patel and DR Shah. However, Amin refused to remove Vikram or Hitesh.
He went to Gandhinagar again and once more tried to convince Amit Shah. The minister was still cautious but this time he agreed to lend them 'outside support'. Sources say Amit Shah not only brought unity in the anti-Amin group, he also helped them prepare a blueprint for action.

“People nursing grievances against Amin joined forces with DR Shah and united under Amit Shah's leadership. All those who had grudges against Amin finally came under one umbrella set up by Saheb (Amit Shah)," said a GCA insider. Meanwhile, the board room politics was gradually coming out in the open and affecting cricket. Gujarat Ranji team's support staff and coaches felt the burns and joined the opposition chorus. The clout was growing against Amin, but Saheb was still reluctant to take up the baton.

One thing was sure: the rebels needed Saheb, as there was no one but him who could take on Amin. At the same time Saheb, being a seasoned politician, took things one day at a time. At the other end, Amin, who sensed opposition from his support staff, took very little time to re-structure it. In a surprise move, two Saurastrians, Bimal Jadeja and Ashok Patel, were roped in to coach the teams.

One of the main sources of Amin's power during his days as GCA president were the 50 donor members of the Central Board of Cricket Ahmedabad (CBCA). The idea of having donor members with voting rights in the elections of the CBCA was the brainchild of Amin. CBCA is the most powerful organ of the GCA as it has 11 out of the 25 votes in GCA elections.

In 1998, when the GCA desperately needed money, Amin used his contacts to get some people to contribute funds to the association and, in return, obliged them with voting rights in the CBCA polls. The arrival of donor members added to Amin's power but his dependence on these members for his own survival ultimately proved to be his undoing. All that, however, lay in the future. For the record, GCA had a debt burden of Rs4 crore when Narhari Amin took over as its president. In his 16 years at the helm at the association, Amin not only paid off the debt but also made the cricket body very rich.  The assembly elections of 2007 held up the anti-Amin campaign for a while. Congress workers participating in the dharna shouted slogans terming the minister a coward for not taking action against the rioters of 2002. "They broke bangles outside his house to ridicule the minister," said a GCA insider. Sources said that it was after this incident that Amit Shah resolved to somehow oust Amin from the GCA.

After BJP's landslide victory in 2007, Amit Shah was again made minister of state for home. Amin was soon making every effort to arrive at a truce. At cricketer Parthiv Patel's wedding reception in March 2008, he tried to persuade the then assembly speaker Ashok Bhatt to ask Shah not to support the rebels. "But Bhatt did not take his request seriously," a source said.

There were unconfirmed reports that Amin had complained even to Modi at Parthiv's reception but the chief minister too had ignored his appeal. Having failed with the two BJP leaders, the GCA president turned to Union ministers Dinsha Patel and Shankersinh Vaghela for support. Meanwhile, the rebels were planning to bring a no confidence motion in the CBCA but before they could do that, they had to get rid of the 50 donor members who were all Amin supporters. In April 2008, the anti-Amin faction filed a petition in the Gujarat high court against donor members being given voting rights in CBCA elections. The court ruled in favour of the rebels and scrapped the voting rights of the donor members. Now Amit Shah could afford to come out in the open.
Amin suffered biggest the blow of the battle when his Man Friday and lawyer Sudhir Nanavati, who had been with the Congress heavyweight through thick and thin, decided to quit in June 2009.

"It was bound to happen. Amin was losing ground and clinging on wasn't possible, as Nanavati is smart," a GCA source had remarked. Nanavati, who handled the Harbhajan-Sreesanth slapgate scandal, couldn't take it any more.    
    (to be concluded tomorrow)