It is common knowledge that the BCCI is the only cricketing board that resisted twenty-twenty cricket. But they seem to be great admirers of the format and follow it in their functioning to the “t”. A twenty-twenty game has at least twenty twists in it and provides completely unexpected turns and keeps the viewers on their seats and constantly entertains them. The BCCI has decided that since people like Veerendra Sehawag no longer entertain us, they must take it upon themselves to keep us spell bound. Let me explain and take you through the last few months of cricket in India and forgive me if I missed out on a few highlights. The worst performance we have had in recent times has been our ignonimous showing in the world cup which was followed by the Greg Chappel fiasco. Of course our colonel went hammer and tongs at the seniors and the poor performance of the team. All our BCCI officials talks are with the media and never with the individuals who need to be talked to. I wonder if anyone in Indian cricket ever talks to their family members before talking to the media. I am sure if Vengsarkar’s son does badly in his school or college exams his father would talk to the Times of India first about his disappointment with his poor performance. The BCCI of course would be watching silently while everyone talked nineteen to the dozen to the media. Then we had a wonderful tour of England winning a historic test series and again the BCCI was restrained in its praise, if at all, and our revered colonel went to town about why Rahul Dravid should bat at NO.3 and again to the media who had a field day. Rahul Dravid as any self respecting individual would do, resigned from the captaincy. In the meanwhile the young brigade had a historic world cup win at South Africa and the board went overboard in its celebrations and rewards forgive the pun! The IPL threatened to upset the apple cart and the BCCI realizing that its money was under threat threw the kitchen sink at it. IPL now seems to be going the ABCL [Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd] way. God help it. Someone from the BCCI said Dhoni was the obvious choice for captaining the test team and then someone from the BCCI said he is not ready. Poor Dhoni must have been wondering whether he was coming or going. So the BCCI ran to Sachin Tendulkar who is no longer the naïve, wide eyed wonderkid of Indian cricket. He thought about it and politely declined. Our wonderful board got it right finally and still managed to mess it up. They appointed Kumble, but only for the Pakistan series. Sadly even the PCB seems to think more long term as it has appointed Shoaib Malik till 2008. Hopefully Shoaib Mallik will be a decent captain one of these days. In the midst of all this they dropped Rahul Dravid who batted brilliantly in the one days in England, based on a few matches against the Australians. They said they had dropped Ganguly for a game while poor Dhoni said the former captain was being “rested”. After all he is sensitive and that is something that no one can ever accuse the BCCI of being. Then the Board suddenly realized that a lot of the problems came from the out of turn and off the cuff remarks made by the selectors [read Colonel] and gagged them. The colonel was chafing at the bit or so the media told us. Then the BCCI said there was no need to have a selection meeting and said they could select the team over the phone. At the time of writing the colonel is sulking and may leave or so the media tells us. We do hope that the media is right for once. But the piece de resistance has been the appointment of the coach. The BCCI has excelled itself in appointing of all people “Gary Kirsten”! I am sure the only person more surprised than me is the dour South African opener. Only the BCCI could have come up with this masterstroke and what makes things even better is the fact that the new coach will visit the Indian team fleetingly in its most important tour of recent times: the Australian tour. He will start from March 2008 after which the Indian team will probably play Zimbabwe! I am sure Kirsten’s karma is good. Imagine getting the most high paying job (officially) in Indian cricket without even applying for it. And if media is to be believed Sunil Gavaskar is responsible for this. The player who has been a thorn in all other teams competing with India continues to be a thorn in the flesh of Indian cricket! How fortunate we are to have both Vengsarkar and Gavaskar in our midst long after they have outlived their usefulness!
More on the coach
I am sure the coach saga is something that must have consumed more tons of newsprint and television time than the progress of the Indian economy. Even Ekta Kapoor could not have come up with something which had such long legs! So many characters, so many applicants, so many meetings and finally whom do we have? An important member of the South African team that kept choking against the Australians in key encounters and someone who has never coached in his life will now join the team after the Australian tour. Will the BCCI ever learn? Will they stop entertaining us? The rest of the cricketing world must be watching all this with barely concealed mirth and thanking their stars that the greatest enemy of Indian cricket actually lies within. Imagine what a force the Indian cricket team would have been without the BCCI fighting tooth and nail for its decline! But then imagine how boring our lives would have been!
More on the coach
I am sure the coach saga is something that must have consumed more tons of newsprint and television time than the progress of the Indian economy. Even Ekta Kapoor could not have come up with something which had such long legs! So many characters, so many applicants, so many meetings and finally whom do we have? An important member of the South African team that kept choking against the Australians in key encounters and someone who has never coached in his life will now join the team after the Australian tour. Will the BCCI ever learn? Will they stop entertaining us? The rest of the cricketing world must be watching all this with barely concealed mirth and thanking their stars that the greatest enemy of Indian cricket actually lies within. Imagine what a force the Indian cricket team would have been without the BCCI fighting tooth and nail for its decline! But then imagine how boring our lives would have been!
(Ramanujam Sridhar is the CEO of brand-comm and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds).
5 comments:
The BCCI is a monopolistic fiefdom, which is a law unto itslef and not accountable to any one. It is guilty of the worst restrictive trade practices in trying to kill the ICL at birth.
While I feel that Sidhu is shrill and overboard, there is some truth in his tirade against the BCCI. Gavaskar is calling the shots from behind while the so called Colonel (like Jayalalitha's Doctorate) wants to select players and criticize them in his columns. The whole thing stinks. The real suckers are the cricket crazy Indian Am Janta.
Sadly they seem to be getting away with all this and really treating the poor viewer and follower shabbily as you say.
Good one Sridhar.
This line says it all –
How fortunate we are to have both Vengsarkar and Gavaskar in our midst long after they have outlived their usefulness!
Plus they all talk out of turn !!
Yes they are going strong even as our team declines.
Hi, this is NDB.
Hope this doesn't ruffle too many feathers -- please understand that I speak as one who used to love the game. On Test cricket, I feel that if we block out the possibility of games ending in draws it may help bring back public interest. Let's say two innings played at 125 overs each --games will go for the same 5 days at the end of which one side HAS to win or both sides tie. No other result possible. One could add refinements as for example: a captain could "borrow" or "defer" up to 50 overs from one innings to another depending on his assessment of the situation. What will it bring back? Triple centuries, innings built intelligently, pace bowlers bowling to four slips and two gullies, spinners bowling to two short legs, a slip and a silly point, challenges to captaincy ... and at the end of all this, a result guaranteed!
I feel that cricket has outlived its time -- even the 20-20 format makes it one of the longest duration games. And 20-20 is a travesty of the game, shorn of most of its finer points.
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