DON’T be fooled by the results in England’s ongoing series against India.
Indian cricket is at the cusp of a major crisis and the BCCI chooses to look the other way as usual.
We may all gloat at the results in India and say England is also in the same boat.
But BCCI prefers to tell us that all is well.
We all forget that we gloat over One-Day results when our Test form was appalling in UK.
India’s biggest crisis is what happens in six months or even earlier when the legends of batting in Test cricket retire at one go.
The likes of Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli are an advertiser’s delight, mingle with the Bollywood gang and have the who’s who of Mumbai on speed dial. But when it comes to Test cricket, they have been an abject failure.
They cannot stand up to the challenge of Test matches and have been found out time and again.
The same could be in store in Australia when India tours there later this year.
India, or rather the BCCI, needs to seriously come out and state that we have identified a pool of 40 players and segregated them into different formats.
Look at Australia. They flew in 12 players to South Africa just for two twenty20 Internationals. BCCI on the other hand is looking to cut corners.
It is not a secret that not all players can play all three formats. Only some can and that is a given fact.
Players like Suresh Raina are bullies in Twenty20s and ODIs, Virat Kohli can play a holding role in ODIs but will not match the pace of a Twenty20.
But these two can certainly not play Test matches. They will be hounded by short balls. Test cricket is a nasty school, they don’t rag you here, they bring you down like a pack of cards here.
All those going gaga over Raina and Kohli, remember what happened when they were hounded by short balls in the West Indies and England.
Test cricket, despite not being an Indian advertiser’s delight, is the ultimate format of the sport.
The BCCI may organise a million Twenty20 events, but it realises the value of Test matches. Do you need proof? See the Tier A in the player contracts for 2010-11. It has gone to the players who are Test regulars.
It is a sad state of affairs in India where a VVS Laxman struggles for recognition, even as Raina and Kohli swing aside and heave over the in-field for some oohs and aahs from glitterati in India.
The fact is Raina and Kohli can never be a patch on Laxman’s Test prowess. But in India that does not matter.
If India loses a One-Day series, it is a catastrophe, but in England it hardly matters. One-day cricket is meant for public entertainment, they believe that the ultimate test is in Test cricket.
India’s real test will come from 26 December at Melbourne when it plays Australia in four Test matches.
If BCCI does not take corrective steps now, we will be staring at yet another whitewash. Then we will come home and enjoy the IPL and we will be told that there are lots of talented players in India.
The BCCI mandarins keep forgetting that you cannot pick a Test team on the basis of performances in the Twenty20 format. But who will break this news to them?
England are clearly the leaders in the sport today. Don’t go by the results in the series in India. They have never been a great one-day side. It is in the Test matches that they perform and that is what matters.
It required a whitewash in Australia for England to get their house in order, but a similar result did not make even a leaf move in Indian cricket.
Instead we were treated to fireworks during Champions League and all was forgotten. This is Indian cricket.
We look for solutions for the problems in the wrong places.
The best example of complete apathy is the lack of promotion around the Challenger Trophy. India’s cream minus the national regulars were playing, but did we hear any noise about it from BCCI? None whatsoever.
This just explains the lack of apathy from the Board. While they spend lots to promote Ruhuna Bears from Sri Lanka, why not something for the forgotten child, Indian domestic cricket?
A generation of golden players are going, we will now enter a phase of being tigers at home and lambs abroad.
All the hard work of Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar is set to be undone by this generation of flat track bullies.
LAST WORD: BCCI controls so many things, why can it not contain the ever increasing number of dignitaries at post match ceremonies. Why do you need seven people to present two awards after a one-day international? In every other corner of the world, there is just one or at times two. Sometimes in Australia the presenter gives away the award. Why does everything have to be an event in India? The best is when Dhoni speaks a million faces pop up behind him waving hands or talking to families on the phone to confirm their presence in the frame.
