MUMBAI, November 5: The larger issue may be whether and to what extent the Board for Control of Cricket (BCCI) in India has lived up to its name. The question that is being raised now and raging furiously among aficionados of the game, however, is not really how the board has controlled Indian cricket. It is: Who will control the board? And no wonder, too, with the BCCI elections in Chennai on Thursday beginning to look very much like a power contest of a more familiar kind. What is about to be witnessed, by all accounts, is voting of an unsporting variety, along lines with little relation or relevance to cricket promotion. This is not, of course, the first time that factionalism of unseemly ferocity marks the battle for the august body. In any case, these posts have become so politicised that, often, even those who have no cricketing links get to preside over the day-to-day fortunes of this organisation. What has come to pass in the present instance is party politics of a scale and sordidness which can only be described with notable gentleness as just not cricket. It is, in fact, nothing short of foul play.

The mud-slinging match of the past few months between factions of BCCI officials is now being followed by a final of what must appear to common cricket-watchers as a very different ball game. It has been an open secret all along that the opposing candidates for BCCI presidentship, Raj Singh Dungarpur and D.C. Agashe, are actually proxies of International Cricket Council president Jagmohan Dalmiya and Punjab Cricket Association chief Inderjit Singh Bindra. Both the ex-officials of the board have also identified themselves with the rest of the rival panels. What stands revealed on the eve of the Chennai event is the row of politicians behind the contenders, and not in the remote background either. Leaders of both the largest political camps are in the fray as campaigners in constituencies that few would have once associated with them. For the Congress and the BJP, with a section in the former flaunting Chandraswami's unflattering blessings, this would seem to be a continuation of a political war by other means. And they could not be less concerned about the main casualty -- the cause of Indian cricket. With the BCCI elections acquiring this character, the crying issues of the game slowly emerging out of a grave crisis can only be shifted to the back-burner.

It is only with the Sahara Cup tournament that Indian Cricket has begun, if tentatively, to recover from near-collapse and settle down on what had become a sticky wicket. It is going to take a long and patient innings before the promising gains are consolidated and the game can be confidently taken as not lost. There are a whole series of problems to be tackled, ranging from selection to psychological counselling of players and from preparation of better pitches to probing of betting and bribery charges. It is only when these issues are addressed that this country's cricket-loving millions will get the team that they deserve and its cricketers display the standards that they are capable of. The question that will remain after the election is: who will control the controllers of our cricket?