Despite all the effigy burning and slogan shouting in Kolkatta, Saurav Ganguly must be well aware of the fact that his cricketing career is practically finished. With the latest twist in the protracted Ganguly saga, Indian Cricket is continuing its rich tradition of making news more for the off-field activities rather than on it. With opinions pouring in from all quarters, the one thing that seems to have been unanimously agreed upon is the political turn that Indian Cricket has firmly taken.
The power shift in the BCCI has been described by many as a jump ’From the pan into the fire’. Although it remains to be seen whether Mr.Pawar is as unabashed in his power-wielding moves as Mr.Dalmiya was, the move of replacing Saurav Ganguly with Mumbai’s Wasim Jaffer is too obvious to be a coincidence. However, Mr.Pawar yesterday seemed almost apologetic at the dropping of Saurav, and even claimed to be ignorant of the decision till it was announced. Unfortunately for him, not many bought the story. Especially the ones from the Eastern heartland of Kolkatta.
Amidst all this chaos, the root issue has almost been brushed under the carpet. The question on everyone’s mind today is ’Why was Saurav dropped?” However, the real question should have always been ’Why was Saurav picked?” Despite being the most successful captain et all, the fact remains that Saurav has not performed to his billing for the past 3 years on international stage. His domestic form had also been abysmal. Scoring a pair of ducks in the Duleep Trophy match against West Zone was proof of his well-documented frailty against pace bowling. Despite such woeful returns, and despite the previous Kolkatta-centric board persisting with him for 3 long years with no success, he was picked for the test squad against Sri Lanka. Again, the Sharma-bandhus from the Dalmiya faction who have seemingly sworn undying loyalty to Saurav were the decisive votes to deny Zaheer Khan and bring back Saurav. And in a ridiculous role of a batting all-rounder. Questions were, therefore, inevitable regarding the motive behind such a controversial selection. However, the BCCI was then ruled by Mr.Dalmiya and therefore, questions regarding Saurav’s worth to the team were firmly dismissed. More importantly, in the politics of BCCI, this was Dalmiya’s way showing Pawar who is the boss.
However the power shift in the BCCI meant that Pawar now had the enviable task of returning the favor to Dalmiya. And the witch-hunt started with the sacking of all the Dalmiya backers, including the Sharma-bandhus from the selection committee. The next step, predictably, was to form a selection committee that would be unanimous in sacking Saurav. And once all the groundwork was complete, it was only academic that Saurav would be unceremoniously thrown out of the team. Agreed that Saurav’s form in recent times makes him a liability rather than an asset to the team. Yet if the selection was to be based on his latest performance, one can sympathize with Saurav for getting a raw deal.
In the interest of the future of Indian Cricket(strictly on the ground only), this move might not seem like such a big catastrophe though. In fact, it could just be a blessing in shrouded disguise. Yuvraj and Kaif have been waiting in the wings for too long, and have been denied by non-performers like Saurav for too many years. Also, with the emphasis on fielding being as high as it is these days in international cricket, Saurav’s fielding alone could have him sacked from the team. If he has survived this long in international cricket despite consistent non-performance, it is only because of our obsession with heroes, and their past glories.
Speaking of heroes reveling in past glory, Sachin Tendulkar has not been doing too well himself. The diva of Indian cricket has been grossly under-performing, especially in the shorter version of the game. Statistics from their last 25 ODIs indicate that Sachin is even worse than Saurav in terms of aggregate runs scored. But pointing an accusing finger at the God of Indian cricket is considered blasphemous in this part of the world. The selectors, who were so wise while dropping Saurav, would not have dared suggest a similar possibility for Sachin for the same reason.
With political parties pitching their voices in support of players from their state/region, Indian Cricket Team selection is no longer a merit-based selection. And the hero-worshipping crowds would also not tolerate their favorite player being dropped from the team. ’He is the world record holder for number of centuries in both Test and ODIs” they argue. But is that reason enough to select a player into the team? Memories of past performances are great to relive over a drink with friends. But they serve little use when it comes to actually performing on the field. If this trend does not subside soon enough, then we will have players refusing to retire even in their 40’s simply on merit of their performances 15 years back. Undeniably, Sachin and Saurav will go down as two of the greatest players in Indian cricket. But if selection is a performance based process, then both these greats would be found desperately wanting.
Alas, in a country woefully short of heroes(other than the Bollywood variety), people just want to hold on to the few heroes that they have. Forever.