Chronicle of an alluring endgame

As skeletons tumble out of the Indian cricket team’s dressing room over a tug of war between an irate captain and a no-nonsense coach, cricket lovers feel the game that commands the largest mass following in the country is gradually losing its alluring magic.

The dressing room tantrums which Ganguly unleashed on a prying media is symptomatic of the deep malaise within the contours of Indian cricket, the swollen coffers which make it a most sought after destination for administrators of the game with little knowledge of its nuances and the marauding bunch of dream sellers otherwise known as brand managers, who have robbed the players from the game.

Many feel it is ironic that Ganguly himself unleashed a phantom which could swallow him from the top echelons of the squad or even extern him from it. It isn’t. On the contrary, Ganguly’s cunning outburst smacks of rank opportunism which is only expected from vulnerable player battling a poor run of form.

No one except Ganguly and his predatory breed of supporters right from the top brass of the richest sports body in India would boast about the 100-odd runs he struggled to make against a squad who derived Test status by default – by the politics of quota and the you-scratch-my–back and-I-scratch-yours attitude which runs deep in the administrative reigns of cricket’s supreme governing body.

The Ganguly-Chappel showdown was bound to happen anytime, given the sorry state of affairs in Indian cricket. Cricketers in India are just used to get away with any humbug, their supposed celebrity status providing them the comfort zones akin to diplomatic immunity from accountability.

A double-edged game of facts and figures are twisted and turned to suit the convenience or discomfiture of celebrity cricketers and a trial by media, fans all and sundry are unleashed when ever the core philosophy or lack of it comes blatantly to the fore to haunt what is now known as Team India. Notice the striking emphasis on the Team which is put before the Nation, rather than the other way around. Therein lies the root of the problem.

Team comes before nation, whims and fancies are slotted before discipline and fitness and captain sets himself an exalted position, dictating terms to coach and skipping team meetings and rigorous camps by faking injuries. And the selection panel just vouches this nonsense with an alarming display of sycophantic tendencies that has pervaded right through the bone marrow of Indian cricket.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India definitely has the business to run cricket as a business but has no business to influence the selection procedure. The selection committee should be delinked from the BCCI and made an autonomous body and the coach should have a bigger say in team selection than the captain. This should be the first prescription to weed out unwarranted elements eating out from the payrolls of Indian cricket. Delink the panel and start the cleansing process now. And put an end to the age-old nonsense called zonal quota system -- we progress as a nation and not as zones. Otherwise, cricket as a game will suffer, its mass base will erode and todays heroes are bound to languish in the backyards of history.

Pic courtesy: The Indian Express