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`Cricketers are now spoon-fed'
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Veteran cricketers Syed Kirmani and Chetan Chauhan rewind to a time when cricket was a gentleman's game
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PHOTO: SHAJU JOHN
PACE OF THE GAME Chetan Chauhan and Syed Kirmani discuss the evolution of the subcontinent's favourite game
Syed Mujtaba Hussein Kirmani and Chetandra Pratap Singh Chauhan may be excused for dwelling too much on the past when they paired up for a Take Two, because it took place on the sidelines of the eighth National Veterans' Cricket Championship, organised by the Board of Veterans' Cricket in India (BVCI). Despite stomachs rumbling with hunger as it was past 10 p.m. , the veterans chatted on and
PRINCE FREDERICK recorded the conversation.
Kirmani: (Referring to the limited-overs India-Pakistan veterans cricket series conducted by the BVCI, from December 26, 2005 to January 1, 2006) where can I get a copy of the video of the Kanpur match?
Chauhan: I'll talk to the production team at Doordarshan and let you know.
Kirmani: In that match, I took some good catches on either side of the wicket. I plan to include some photographs from this match in my autobiography, which I am working on.
Chauhan: In your book, will you mention how you were dropped from the team in the 1979 tour of England?
Kirmani: Nothing will be left out of the book. (They go on to discuss the speculation that followed Kirmani's non-inclusion. According to them, wicket-keeper batsman Surinder Khanna, who was selected for the tour, was unfairly blamed for Kirmani's ouster; but in truth, Kirmani lost the gloves to Bharat Reddy and Khanna deserved to be in the team) You were a prey to the street-smartness happening at that time. Your career was cut short abruptly.
Chauhan: During our time, players were rarely given a second chance. If someone was dropped, he was invariably gone for good. Now, a player gets dropped and then picked, dropped again and then picked. It's like a cyclical process. So many other things have changed as well. Look at the cricketers' paraphernalia, if I may say so. They have a coach, a trainer, a manager, a psychologist, a bio-mechanic, a media manager and so on. Today, a cricket team looks like a baarat. Half the team comprises officials.
Kirmani: In my opinion, cricketers are now spoon-fed.
Chauhan: We did not need anyone to tell us what was required of us; we kept ourselves fit and adequately motivated without all these props. Players such as Mohinder Amarnath and Kapil Dev were fit solely by their own effort. Like them, I was a fitness fanatic and did not miss a match on account of injury.
Kirmani: Players today are not encouraged to think or act for themselves. For even the simplest problem, they run to the coach or the captain.
Chauhan: Or the physio. I was manager for two series, and I noticed a funny thing: the physio seemed to take the mother's place with the cricketers pouring out their hearts to him. He would be treating an injury, and at the same time advising the player about something.
Kirmani: Cricketers need so much attention today, because they wear out faster. There is just too much cricket.
Chauhan: Because of this, winning and losing have lost their meaning. During our times, at least three months would separate two series and people had time to celebrate victories. A series win would be fresh in the mind for months, even years. Today, matches are played round the year, a team that wins today loses tomorrow. Fans are not sure if they should celebrate or mourn their team's performance.
Kirmani: This is one aspect of the complete change the game has undergone. It can all be traced to commercialisation. Even parents see cricket as a way to glamour and wealth and push their children into it, not realising that not everyone can become a Test player. During our times, the country's honour mattered a lot. Whatever came by on a commercial basis was welcome, but it was not on our mind.
Chauhan: Resentment was not carried beyond the field. In 1979 at Lord's, I was given out, caught bat-pad when I had not played the ball. Derek Randall took that catch at forward short leg and after stumps down he apologised to me, "Mate, I am extremely sorry about it."
Kirmani: What do fines do in a game that is supposedly played by gentlemen? A batsman hits you for a four and instead of appreciating the stroke, you glare at him, and worse, aim at his head. It beats me how that can be called gentlemanly?
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