The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Will radical changes come about?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 03, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Will radical changes come about?

Emotions and sentiments don't necessarily put one on the path to success, writes Makarand Waingankar

By the end of this week, two envelopes will decide the fate of Indian cricket as the reports of coach Greg Chappell and manager Sanjay Jagdale will be first discussed in the meeting of half a dozen former Indian Test captains and later in the Working Committee the following day.

Going by the history of reports submitted by coaches and managers, nothing special is likely to emerge. But if the tone of Chappell's report is similar to that of his leaked e-mail, then whether he is sacked or not, Indian cricket will be shaken.

Sanjay Jagdale, amiable but knowledgeable, was part of the selection committee that picked the team and saw the team not performing from close quarters. Objective assessment is what he is known for. As a conscientious cricket lover, Jagdale should put the entire performance in the right perspective.

No matter what precautions are taken, past manipulations are a strong indicator that the reports will be smartly leaked, possibly before the Working Committee, thereby drawing the entire cricket crazy nation into an aimless, illogical and emotional debate.

The move to invite former Test captains of India may have defused the situation to some extent, but one is not too sure whether the views expressed by them will be implemented.

Improvement panel

In the Seventies, a Cricket Improvement Committee was formed with several former Test captains. When none of their recommendations were implemented by the Working Committee, the Chairman of the Cricket Improvement Committee, the late Fathesinhrao Gaekwad, enquired about the status of the report. One Working Committee member instead promptly proposed the committee itself be dissolved and the motion was seconded by another member. It took not even a minute to negate the work of nearly a month.

Hopefully the members of the committee now appointed by the BCCI will get their heads together and recommend a process which should be implemented by the BCCI. But do we really believe that cricket's politics will permit any such process to be implemented?

In corporates, issues are discussed and a process is formulated. Once that is done, the entire management backs that process. That is the professional way, in which formulation of a process has worth only in its successful implementation.

Major drawback

Unfortunately, the BCCI being a body of elected members has had the major drawback of frequently formulating processes without being genuinely interested in the successful implementation of those processes.

When Greg Chappell made a presentation to the BCCI on the process he had formulated to take Indian cricket to the next level, the decision makers of the BCCI approved. Three former India captains were part of the committee that recommended his name after that presentation. That presentation was also unanimously approved by the Working Committee.

However, the media and the cricketing fraternity have both started shouting from the rooftops that Chappell's process failed despite unstinted backing. Fearing backlash against itself, the BCCI backed the process only in fits and starts.

For a process to succeed at the international level, it takes not less than four years as was proved by the South Africans when the unknown Graeme Smith was appointed captain at the age of 22.

But here in India, the entire nation was hysterically and obdurately keen to get non-performers and unfit players back in the team as it was felt only experience could win us the World Cup.

Where was the necessity to change the selection committee five months before the World Cup? Emotions and sentiments don't necessarily put you on the path to success.

By this week-end, we will know whether the committee of former captains and the Working Committee too have toed the line of the emotional nation or have suggested some radical changes. But if the changes too are not backed, Indian cricket will continue to suffer.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport