The game must win – always
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The very mention of the word summer can conjure up beautiful sporting images. If you are English, even more so – from the meticulously prepared tennis courts of Wimbledon to Lord’s lush green cricketing grounds, both signifying the epitome of their respective sports.
New Zealand have already given the English summer a delightful start with their aggressive brand of cricket, which is fast making McCullum and his men among the most exciting teams in world cricket today. No such fears for the travelling Australians, playing against the West Indies, as they finished with a dominant result in a keenly contested two-match Test series. Closer to home, the action has heated up for the sub-continental teams, with Bangladesh having the Indians in their backyard and the Sri Lankans playing host to Pakistan. India’s one-off test match was an interesting tussle between the rain gods and India, final result Rain-1, India-0. The one-dayers are a different story though, given Bangladesh’s increasing skills in that format.
Ravi Shastri, who had been picked up as Team Director for Indian the midst of a disastrous English tour, was retained for the Bangladesh series with three Indian support coaches – one each for batting, bowling and fielding with Duncan Fletcher’s assignment as India Head Coach having finished with the World Cup.
While there is no official confirmation yet, it is believed that Shastri’s extension for another two years has already been finalized with the Board. Whether this position will be as a Team Director or Head Coach is uncertain. There was some speculation for a while that Saurav Ganguly may fill that position. With Ganguly occupying the position of Joint Secretary at the Cricket Association of Bengal, run by the BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya, it was always going to be difficult to relieve himself from that role, given the effective support he offers the Bengal cricket administration. Also, the IPL has thrown up a battery of international options for coaching, be it Daniel Vettori, who coaches the Bangalore IPL team or Tom Moody from the Hyderabad franchise, or the great Ricky Ponting from Mumbai, as also Stephen Fleming from the Chennai Superkings. If Shastri is indeed the man, his good rapport with the current captain, Virat Kohli and the rest of the team, and their combined aggression should bode well for India’s immediate future, and take the team to a very interesting phase of competitive and result-oriented cricket.
The final decisions of course rest in the offices of the president of the BCCI, along with its dynamic secretary, Anurag Thakur. With this new BCCI management team, now into their fourth month, there seems to be a distinct effort to leave behind some of the seemingly high-handed behaviour of the previous management that had ruffled a few feathers. Not to forget, they have also taken over after BCCI operations had come under the direct scrutiny of the Supreme Court. Nonetheless, IPL 2015 progressed without controversies. Some clear decisions have also been taken regarding the recently retired cricketers and their best and immediate use for the game. The Cricket Advisory Committee, or the CAC, is a newly constituted body, comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Ganguly. The CAC will play an advisory role to the President and the Secretary of the Board on several matters, ranging from tracking young cricketers’ careers to managing the load of fast bowlers and senior cricketers and the skills of spinners. Rahul Dravid is said to have declined an invitation to be part of it, and has been appointed instead as coach of India ‘A’ and India-under 19. After his work with Rajasthan Royals as mentor in the IPL, this is an appropriate role for an earnest, dedicated and hard-working cricketer, who should be able to bring his high standards to bear on the future of Indian cricket. This will not only require the grooming of the younger lot for the under-19’s, but also keeping the Indian team back-up players motivated and focused through his efforts with the India ‘A’ team.
For those who remember Lalit Modi, and his late night tweet, which forced a Congress minister to resign many years ago, he is back in the news again. This time, for having been assisted in his travel papers in England, where he lives since 2010, at the intervention of India’s External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj. His passport had been revoked by the Indian government following disciplinary action by the BCCI, and had left him confined to the UK. While the passport has since been re-instated by virtue of him having won the case in court, the opposition parties are up in arms questioning the propriety of the minister’s actions and her reasons to intervene. Seems the mixture of cricket and politics is unfortunate, unavoidable and sometimes even a lethal one, and it would be an extreme shame if another minister was to suffer a similar consequence as the then Congress minister, Shashi Tharoor.
In world cricket today, India brings with it the much needed money to grow and develop the game. The debate has to be whether India can use this increasing strength responsibly or not. An equitable, moderate, positive and forward Indian administration can put a lot of questions to rest, and the cricketing world, particularly the smaller nations, at ease. Recent news from the Caribbean Cricket League, CCL, is also an encouraging sign of what could be. An Indian corporate, Hero Motocorp Ltd, will be the title sponsors of the league. Additionally, Shahrukh Khan’s company which owns Kolkatta Knight Riders has bought into the Trinidad & Tobago franchise –clearly, a good sign that Indian businesses are beginning to view investments in cricket properties outside of their country as potentially viable. This could be the beginning of a trend, particularly with the T20 league formats and its international pool of players. If the Indian Board begins to see the other leagues more favourably, this could indeed open up some very interesting opportunities for the other cricket playing nations. There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the end winner through all this can and should always be only one – the game of cricket.