The Greg Chappell saga seems to be over. Expressions like `sources close to Chappell' will hopefully stop and no longer shall we get to read leaked e-mails and mobile text messages because the new cricket manager Ravi Shastri has the backing to act as uncompromisingly tough as he speaks. And perhaps a more important factor is that having been in the media ever since he retired from first class cricket, he should know how to handle pushy elements.

To Shastri, all that matters are results. As a Mumbai captain, he had told the players that he was not interested in individual brilliance if that was not going to help the team. When he was 20, Sunil Gavaskar had described him as "a 30-year-old head on the shoulders of a 20-year-old", so shrewd was Shastri as a cricketer. The main difference between Chappell and Shastri will be their media-relations, an aspect that is crucial especially in these days of quotes and stories with description of technique taking the backseat.

Drastic changes

Things have changed drastically with the advent of Twenty20. No longer can a player cover his deficiencies on the field. Shastri has been witnessing things as a commentator and now that his reputation is at stake, he can — without mincing words — do what Chappell was not allowed to do.

Indian cricket has always relied on individual brilliance. It will be a test of Shastri's man-management skills to get this group full of individual brilliance to go in one direction to make a lethal combination. He also knows that he can't afford to carry unfit players in the team, irrespective of their status in the game. But whether he can get the backing of his one-time colleague Dilip Vengsarkar to do this remains to be seen.

Will the selectors select a young team for Bangladesh?

Selectors will have to show the same courage that former Chairman of the selection committee, the late Vijay Merchant, had showed while replacing Chandu Borde and Rusi Surti with Gundappa Vishwanath and Eknath Solkar in the Kanpur Test against the Australians in 1969. Later, Pataudi too was replaced by Wadekar as captain.

Modern trend

Selections by media is the modern trend and this will not let selectors gather courage to drop seniors. A letter to Tendulkar asking him to explain why he spoke to media made the members of the managing committee of the Mumbai Cricket Association raise an objection.

But credit must be given to I. S. Bindra, President of the Punjab Cricket Association, for urging the Working Committee to send a show cause notice to Punjab player Yuvraj Singh. Shastri and Dravid — both committed, educated and intelligent — will have to present good cricketing logic for dropping seniors and picking juniors. If they don't succumb to media pressure and work their way through the BCCI Working Committee's selection directive, we will get to see a rejuvenated Indian team.

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