THE DAY BCCI decided to sack Robin Singh and Venkatesh Prasad, a friend of mine, who is the sports editor of a Mumbai daily, called up Gary Kirsten for his reaction. Kirsten, who was in Cape Town at that time, not only feigned ignorance but also registered surprise at the sacking..
When I told the same friend that it was actually Kirsten’s unfavourable report that did the two in, he snapped back saying, “I have spoken to Gary. He knows nothing about it.”
I wanted to tell this friend of mine that Kirsten will not have the good sense to reveal all to him and it was only natural that he was pretending to be surprised. But, I refrained from mentioning it.
After the deal had been done (both had been sacked, that is), the real drama started. The market became abuzz with names of replacements, which ranged from the likely to the most far-fetched. A very senior journalist said it will be Andy Roberts. But BCCI sources say they haven’t spoke to Roberts at all.
Me and another friend decided to start another rumour – that Paras Mhambrey and Sameer Dighe were being approached for bowling and fielding coach respectively. Soon enough every cricket reporter in Delhi started talking about Mhambrey and Dighe as the possible replacements. (It is completely untrue of course).
The point is that in the absence of any transparency from the BCCI, the rumour mills function ceaselessly and the bazaar of exclusive stories goes up. Two or three people can get together and start a rumour, that rumour gains currency and becomes news. If the BCCI were open about what they are doing, it would put an end to this speculation. But this lack of transparency actually suits reporters, because if everything is transparent from the Board’s side, then there would be no exclusive reports.
Yes, the Board was wrong in sacking the two coaches in the manner it was done. But their sacking was just as sudden as their induction. Robin Singh was about to join a rebel league (which subsequently flopped miserably) and had a highly lucrative offer from them. At that time, Singh was Srinivasan’s sidekick and the Board secretary wanted to give him a good offer to stop him from joining that rebel league.
So he was inducted as the fielding coach (not because he was the best bet). And the then captain Rahul Dravid pushed for statemate Venky’s inclusion as the bowling coach (Venky had just returned from England after completing a coaching course and was in constant touch with Dravid to rope him in). Both were not the best coaches to induct in the first place and slowly, with changing loyalties, their positions became untenable.
Now for the one-day series against Australia, the team will be without a fielding and bowling coach. Which brings us to the question, were both these full-time coaches actually required in the first place? Consultants like Wasim Akram and Allan Donald (even Manoj Prabhakar) can be called in for short camps – from time to time – to finetune the bowling skills, while Kirsten can be the full-time in charge of coaching. Similarly, Jonty Rhodes can be consultant fielding coach.
But we are talking about a scenario where pure cricketing reasons are taken into account. With the BCCI, we have to understand, that the Board also has to think about pleasing, adjusting and accommodating various factions. And pure cricketing reasons are not always the overriding consideration. There are wheels within wheels.
Away from this Indian Board drama, a new league is also unfolding and is nearing its climax. This T20 league has thrown up quite a few new things but the best thing to me has been the pure joy of watching the Trinidad and Tobago team. I have always been a huge fan of Calypso cricket and T&T have come and shown that Caribbean cricket is very much alive in its erstwhile and pristine form.
Had it not been for CLT20, we would have continued to believe that Caribbean cricket is dying and is on the decline. We would not have seen the likes Adrian Barath, Kieron Pollard, Navin Stewart and William Perkins in full flow. I really don’t know who selects the West Indian team because even when the First XI players were in dispute with their Board, their selectors picked some mediocre club cricketers and sent them for the Champions Trophy in South Africa. Clearly, there must be a lot of island politics there and the best guys are not getting their chance at all. Otherwise, there seems to be a wealth of natural cricketing talent in those islands as has been demonstrated by the players of T&T.
Purely for the sake of revival of West Indian cricket, I hope that T&T wins the inaugural CLT20. It is quite appropriate that T&T are not playing their semi-final at the Kotla (rotten pitch there) and we can once again watch Pollard’s powerful hitting in Hydrabad. West Indian cricket is certainly not dead.
