When ex-BCCI president Anurag Thakur promoted self

Following his sacking as BCCI president, Anurag Thakur last year had hired services of a PR firm and turned an event meant to raise awareness about Tuberculosis, through a celebrity cricket match in Dharamshala, into an image building exercise.

Thakur was removed as BCCI president by Supreme Court for defying Lodha committee recommendations. He was also subsequently barred from Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA).

The three day TB-Free India Summit held from April 7-9, 2017 attracted hordes of locals to see “India vs TB Cricket Match”, played between Parliamentarians and Bollywood celebrities. It was a desperate attempt by Thakur, who was also captaining the MPs team, to get back to limelight. 

And using this public relation tactics by hiring a private firm at huge expense of nearly Rs 3 crore, to host 150 members from the government and international agencies like the World Health Organisation (WHO) etc, was one such mean to achieve his goal. 

Thakur ‘silenced’ his critics by scoring half-century against some novice cricketers and famous film stars. Doordarshan broadcast the match live across the country. 

Thakur ensured that the entire premises was replete with large hoardings, bearing his pictures. A three-day affair where money was blown up — on return air-fare for 150 delegates, lodging and boarding in hotels ranging from three-star to seven-star facilities including HPCA’s Hotel Pavilion and exclusive TV rights — in the name of ‘TB Awareness’ failed to create any impact. 

When asked with technical questions on elimination of TB, Thakur chose to look away and preferred not to answer. Rather than the event about being TB, it was about heroically escalating Thakur, a classic exercise in image-building.