Whispers in the wind
Hemant Kenkre
It all started with a cover story put out by the Week.
The news magazine
in its story carried a quote by an anonymous selector to the effect that "Sachin is losing
his skill as a batsman and at the Board level, we have decided
to divest him of captaincy."
Small statement, but with a
huge impact. The obvious message that one gets -- or that the magazine wants you to get -- is that the selectors
and influential people at the 'Board level' are unhappy with the
present Indian captain -- Sachin Tendulkar.
Let's cut to the chase, here. First, has the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) given the
selectors permission to speak to the media? If not, how come
a selector, under the convenient guise of anonymity, gives his
views to the press on a sensitive issue like captaincy?
In my opinion, the anonymous selector in question has flouted
all norms and ethics by airing his views and, what is more, speaking for people at
the 'board level', to a journalist. First up, who authorised him to speak for the Board, in full or on part?
Discussions that take place
during selection committee meetings are meant to be confidential,
and no one except the secretary of the BCCI and the chairman of
the selection committee is supposed to speak to the media about what transpired.
More often than not, however, some selectors, both at the state and the
national levels, try to gain brownie points by leaking out word that
they were not directly involved with the dropping of a certain
cricketer, or putting it about that it was one of their colleagues who had a vested
interest in the picking of another player.
Everybody in the cricket
fraternity is aware of this malaise, where more than one selector
has tried his best to project to the media and, through them, to the players,
that he is the good guy and that if it were not for his unrelenting
colleagues, Indian cricket would be in a better position.
True, Sachin Tendulkar is not in the kind of form that we are
used to seeing him in. And If a selector does feel that Sachin's
game is affected because of the pressures of captaincy, he has
every right to that opinion. And the right, further, to voice it during the next meeting of the committee he is part of.
I do not want to get into
the usual arguments that every cricketer has a good season and
a bad season, I presume that this anonymous selector has taken
that factor into consideratiion. The fact that he has been appointed
a selector presupposes that he understands the game better that 950
million Indians.
Selectors must realise that there is a lot of responsibility that
goes with the appointment. It is up to them to pick the best available
talent in the country, and millions of cricket fans expect them
to do this job in a conscientious manner. By
making irresponsible statements to the media, they are not doing
their cause any good.
Look at it from another angle. Thanks to the indiscretion of these "anonymous" types, the media
is having a field day. First it was the issue of match-fixing,
where a disgruntled cricketer accused a member of the team of offering
him a bribe to tank a game.
Prabhakar has not, till date,
been forthcoming with the name -- thus putting every single player under suspicion, instead of just one.
Interestingly, when Shane Warne, the Australian
leg-spinner, hurled accusations of a similar nature involving Pakistani
cricketers, he had no hesitation in naming them.
The Prabhakar incident created a furore,
with the BCCI appointing a one-man inquiry commission to pacify
Janata Janardhan. The commission has, last week, reached an inconclusive
end. And for all practical purposes the 'findings', if any, will never
be made public.
And now this anonymous selector, who by speaking under that guise, has not only
betrayed the confidence of his colleagues and those at the 'Board
level', but has also given the Indian skipper some more food
for thought. The next time the selectors invite Tendulkar to attend
a meeting, he will not be sure who is with
him and who, among the gathering, will stab him in the back.
And more
than the selector's views, it is the 'Board level' aspect which
will trouble the skipper who has just led a young and inexperienced
team to five wins out of eight against Pakistan. Tendulkar, like
everyone else, knows that selectors come and go but these 'Board level'
types remain in the saddle forever.
Meanwhile, what has been the net result of yet another speculative story sourcing an anonymous person? Confusion. Suspicion. Distrust.
And all for nothing. Because even assuming Mr Anonymous is right, and this selection committee would like to get rid of Tendulkar, it is powerless to do so. Simply because the next selection of the Indian team will be by a new bunch of selectors, who will be appointed after the BCCI general body meeting in Madras on November 6.
And what is the odds that come the next selection committee meeting,
Sachin Tendulkar will be retained as captain of the Indian
cricket team?
Hemant Kenkre
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