NEW DELHI: India’s Sports Minister Ajay Maken feels banning the Indian Premier League (IPL) is not the solution and has made three suggestions to clear the chaos faced by Indian cricket.

“Banning [the IPL] is not the solution. I think we should rectify the anomalies. I’ve three suggestions: first there should be no politician managing the affairs of cricket; secondly the BCCI and IPL should come under the RTI, it should be managed by the cricketers, there should be at least 25 per cent of former players in the management of BCCI. “Thirdly, the BCCI and the IPL should distance from each other,” Maken stated.

Maken refused to pick names of his fellow politicians who are playing an active role in administering Indian cricket affairs, and said they should leave the job of running the sport to cricketers.

“I would not go into the names but the names cut across party lines. The politicians managing cricket at different levels belong to different political parties. Please leave the game of cricket to the people who have specialised knowledge of the game.

Politicians should do their own job in parliament,” he said.

Maken reckoned politicians have no knowledge of cricket and managing the sport should better be left to those who have played it.

“Including my own party. I am saying everyone. All politicians who have no knowledge of cricket, who have never held a bat in their hand, why should they run the affairs of cricket?” Maken asked.

“Let cricket be run by the experts who know about cricket, who know about the management of sports, let them run the sport and let the BCCI and the IPL be away from each other. Unless you do these things, you will be having these controversies coming up and credibility crisis in days to come,” he said.

Asked about the arrest of Royal Challengers’ Australian cricketer Luke Pomersbach, on charges of molesting an American woman, Maken said: “I don’t know. As far as Vijay Mallya is concerned, he should also answer to the fact. Did he first inquire into what kind of player this Australian player is? He has also past history of such incident in Australia in Queensland. He had such kind of fight in Australia as well.

“So, before selecting him to bring to India in our country, has he found out his history? He has history of alcoholic abuse, he has history of such brawls in his own country. So, all such things they should have done,” Maken emphasised.

On bringing accountability to the IPL, Maken said: “I would like to reiterate they should come under the RTI. They should make everything transparent.

“The BCCI should distance itself from the IPL, then only it would be a good just honest watchdog and politicians from whichever party they are should keep themselves away from the running of the affairs of the IPL,” the sports minister stated.—Agencies