Indian blues
Men, Matters & Memories

By M L Kotru

A nation of billion plus, I am told, went into mourning the day the Proteans recently hammered its blue-eyed boys, the Indian Blues, in the last of the one-day cricket series. I am told at least one of the billion angry Indians smashed his TV set. ‘‘I just can't take it any more; recall this lousy team,’’ he reportedly screamed, as his wife and two kids consoled and scolded him.Consoled, because the man could have done worse; he could well have taken the kitchen knife stabbed himself to death. The scolding was unavoidable because the outraged Indian had destroyed his bank-financed TV set much to his own and his family's disgust.

His heroes meanwhile had collected a cool 25 lakh rupees in match fees and were laughing their way to the bank. Barring four, the others hung around in South Africa for the next fifteen days before the Test series commenced. And I forgot to mention the extras which men like Virender ‘‘Mayur’’ Sehwag or Irfan Pathan and even the captain with the broken finger made selling cokes, soaps and suitings or telling us how to look after your future by going for a particular insurance scheme.

I have no doubt that the ‘‘boys’’, who refused to learn from successive failures, were quite relaxed after the one-day series washout. The investment consultants of the boys, you can be sure, were simultaneously drawing up plans for the huge packets the brats would have made by the time the South African safari gives over after the Test series.

The Cricket Board may have no reason to rejoice over the miserable performance of its ‘‘Team India’’ except that it has added a million or more dollars to its burgeoning coffers. Given the gullibility of the billion mourners at home, the Board has every reason to see the one day series washout as an aberration. If you have any doubt about that ask our cricket administrators headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, aided and abetted by the clever, clever men like Lalit Modi (cricket is a cash-cow to him which yields more, the more you milk it), and his co-financial whiz kid I.S. Bindra, once of the IAS and Rajiv Shukla, a smart journalist who wormed his way into the Rajya Sabha, owns a TV production house and is now the spokesman and Vice-President of the BCCI. I don't mean to offend Mr Shukla but have a feeling that he knows as little about the game as say his Chief, Sharad Pawar. Nor do I blame him for his ill-advised observations on the honky dory working of the Board.

But never lose heart, dear billion brethren. Take my word for it: the Indians will surely bounce back some day somewhere but certainly not in the World Cup which is just months away. As someone who covered cricket between 1951 and 54, before moving to other journalistic pastures, I have seen Indian teams bouncing back. So much so that the joke then was why don't the Indians play their second innings first. Because everytime they were drubbed in the first innings they would bounce back in the second, often times losing and many times playing out a draw. The winning habit, except for short periods, here and there, is not part of our cricketers’ mental make-up. I pity the players of the 40s, 50s and 60s who always played for a pittance with many buying their own cricketing gear First class travel was a rarity. Shared accommodation the norm, unlike our today's heroes who must take their wives along and in some cases their parents as well.

Cheer up, even if the odds are loaded against you. Shake off the fear of doom and gloom Dada is back in the team as is VVS Laxman who incidentally was rushed in to join the one-day squad for the last match of the series and scored, as the old Maharaja Kumar Vizianagram, a former BCCI President and cricket commentator, would say ‘‘a blob’’. This is not questioning Laxman’s cricketing credentials. But why was he dropped in the first place, if he was so good? Ask no questions for you shall get no answers.

Remember Dada (whose Dada is he anyway) is back. Saurav Ganguly sounded smugly confident the other day on the idiot box suggesting (‘‘let's not go into the past’’, he kept repeating in his one-hour interview with one of the channels) that he felt vindicated. If he flopped during his short stay with one of the English counties during the interregnum the fault was not his. It was just that his stay was very brief. If he failed with the bat on at least three occasions as the Bengal skipper in the ongoing Ranji Trophy competition, have a heart and remember that he was very much into the wickets. He took as many as four in one match.

During that boringly long interview Ganguly did not rule himself out of the World Cup either. Mind you, the Prince of Kolkata doesn't forget to mention at the drop of his hat his past performances in one-day and Test formats. Understandably he does not want to mention the politicization of his non-inclusion in the team by Marxist MPs from West Bengal including of course, the very voluble Speaker of the Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee. The Prince did not either care to speak of his endorsement of the Kolkata Police Commissioner as a candidate for the Presidentship of the West Bengal Cricket Association against Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya who ultimately won.

The interviewer looked very satisfied with the job he had done; he chose not to question Ganguly about the e-mail controversy with coach Greg Chappel or the e-mailed endorsement by him of the Police Commissioner. For someone who obviously has no intention to retire from the game how far is a cricketer right in siding with one or the other feuding group in a cricket association. Personally I am all for good, responsible cricketers taking over the reins of the Board of Control for Cricket but the incumbents, whether it is a Dalmiya or Sharad Pawar, will not let that happen. Even in the running of State associations it is the politicians who must take charge at the helm. It is a shame that some of the top cricketers of the country are not even allowed a foot-hold in the State Associations, let alone the BCCI. The politicians and their cronies from the business world won't let go of the great Indian cash cow.

Finally how come that with its vast resources the BCCI has not been able to prepare a pool of cricketers like they, for instance, have in Australia. At the drop of a coin Australia has the capacity to produce a Stuart Clarke who upstages even maestros like McGrath ? Australia can do away, whenever necessary, with champion bowlers like a Gillespe or the bowler MacGil or even some of the younger cricketers who have already made their mark internationally.

We are told of a number of cricket academies have come up in recent years including the BCCI's in Bangalore. How many young, aspiring cricketers do in fact get to these institutions ? Not many. Why doesn't the BCCI spend its enormous resources on spreading its net far and wide to spot talent. Why can't a cricket crazy country like ours provide the kind of infrastructure that will allow school children to hone their skills ? Why don't we pay attention to the kind of pitches we have in the country ? Must we keep on playing on substandard pitches which in the end show up our great masters as no more than paper tigers when it comes to playing on true pitches like the ones they have in Australia, Britain, South Africa et al ? Why isn't more attention paid to our domestic cricket ? Why should our ‘‘international’’ cricketers consider it infra dig to play in all domestic circuit ? The Board must insist on all of them to participate in all domestic tournaments whenever they are no international commitments.The cricketers cannot complain; they are very well paid for that. Every cricket playing nation ensures that its top players participate in domestic cricket as well.

The problem with our cricketing stars is that they would rather spend the international off season running from one ad agency to the other, go for shoots which earn extra fortunes. Some have set up businesses and curiously at least four or five of the best paid cricketers, men like Tendulkar, Ganguly, Sehwag and even Zaheer Khan have taken to catering business, setting up restaurants. Given their multi-crore earnings I am sure they could spare come for would be cricketers from poor background.