Its just 'cricket' - What can I say?

I tried very hard to ignore the issue (one of the billion others) currently plaguing Indian cricket. In fact, I would not have been writing this piece had it not been for my elder brother. He sent me his views on the entire issue and that’s when my self-imposed boycott of the subject was called off.

Before I begin, please let me make it very clear that assuming cricket to be a religion (I’m an Indian…aren’t I?), Sourav Ganguly is my patron saint. He actions on and off the field always appeared to be rebellious. He never took the dominance of the white man lightly and never hesitated calling a spade by whatever name he felt like. He induced aggression, the likes of which were never seen before in Indian cricket. He also had an uncanny knack of getting out of sticky situations (Yes, Mr. Dalmiya?). If you noticed, I used the past tense…methinks that the might of the maharaja might have finally run into its match.

Gregory Stephen Chappell would, at this moment, contest every single point I mentioned above. Cricketing history would give him the right to do so. He was one of the finest cricketers that Australia had produced (and she’s had quite a performance at that !). He was an adamant leader and a leader who wanted to win at any cost…any cost! He has a brilliant track record of having played 87 tests and 74 ODIs at averages of 53.86 and 40.18 respectively. What really speaks for him is his success rate as a captain in test cricket– 51%.

The coach alleges that the captain is a systematic saboteur, and I quote famously,

I can assure you sir that all my actions in this matter, and all others since my appointment, have been with the aim of improving the team performance toward developing a team that will represent India with distinctions in Test match and one-day cricket.

As I said to you during our meeting in Colombo, I have serious reservations about the attitude of some players and about Sourav and his ability to take this team to a new high, and none of the things he has done since his reappointment has caused me to change my view. In fact, it has only served to confirm that it is time for him to move on and let someone else build their team toward the 2007 World Cup.

This team has been made to be fearful and distrusting by the rumour mongering and deceit that is Sourav's modus operandi of divide and rule. Certain players have been treated with favour, all of them bowlers, while others have been shunted up and down the order or left out of the team to suit Sourav's whims. John Wright obviously allowed this to go on to the detriment of the team. I am not prepared to sit back and allow this to continue or we will get the same results we have been seeing for some time now. It is time that all players were treated with fairness and equity and that good behaviours and attitudes are rewarded at the selection table rather than punished.

I can assure you of my very best intentions.

In a single stroke the coach has augured that Sourav, John Wright and the bowlers had a nexus. Sourav was the ringmaster, John Wright was the clown, Pathan, Zaheer, Bhajji et al were acrobats and the chaps in the middle order were extras waiting for a casualty to happen.
Reprimanding a player for consistent non-performance is one thing but questioning the integrity of the Indian captain is very certainly another. The earlier pages of his ‘report’ paint a picture of a paranoid Ganguly causing schism in a 'unified team' and Mr. Chappell had better furnish proofs for those charges.

That being said, there is no excuse for Sourav’s inconsistent performance. He has no right to be eating into 9% of a full strength team ONLY because he was the prime architect of an almost successful ‘Team India’. In all probability he is beyond his prime. If that is true, he needs to exit gracefully without causing himself and the rest of the team any discomfort. A player of his legendary status should not be asked to ‘jump the wall’.

About the ‘review committee’, the lesser said the better. The committee, in its existence itself, is a farce. Come to think of it, the former captains sitting on the committee now look like idiots (no disrespect to their playing days). This is a committee that cannot implement anything. They can only ‘suggest’ remedies. Somebody please tell me, are we talking about a tummy ache here? There is no doubt left in my mind that all this deliberation would only lead to 'compromise'. There are further queries:

How can an ad hoc committee do anything of consequence in a situation like this?
Aren’t the selectors supposed to have their say in this?
Who the hell is Mr. Dalmiya to be on the board?

Whatever the outcome of this feud be, Indian cricket stands to lose. The captain’s integrity along with his physical and mental state has been questioned. The coach, in turn, has also been branded a liar by some of the bigwigs of Indian cricket. The board has, for the past year, looked absolutely despondent. With board, coach and captain losing credibility, whom do we believe?