Adding insult to injury?
Prem Panicker
It's a bland report, carried in all the mainline newspapers. And it says that India's cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin was operated on, in London, for a shoulder problem, that the operation was successful, that Azhar should be completely fit in three weeks, and that the BCCI has borne all expenses for the surgery.
No complaints there. If Azhar has an injury, it is only fair that he gets the best of treatment for it, and that the board pick up the tab. However, to my surprise, neither Dungarpur, nor the team management, appear inclined to talk of one aspect of the situation -- namely, just when did Azhar sustain that injury?
Was it on June 12, when India played New Zealand in the last of the Super Sixes? Or was it earlier in the tournament?
The board president's office, when contacted for the purpose of this column, returned a bland "Mr Dungarpur is not available just now." When would he be available? "We are not sure, give us a call next Monday" was the answer.
Team doctor Ravindra Chadda is similarly unavailable. As is team coach Anshuman Gaikwad. So much for trying to get the answer straight from the horse's mouth -- we can't even seem to track down the darn horse.
However, a senior official in the BCCI came up with a bit of a shocker, when he said that the injury was "not of recent standing". He wouldn't elaborate -- when pressed, all he would add was that the injury definitely pre-dated India's final World Cup fixture.
But then, we don't really need Dungarpur or the management to confirm the obvious, do we? Throw your mind back to the Sharjah triangular between India, Sri Lanka and England that preceeded the World Cup. On that occasion, Azhar was rested for a couple of games. Why?
Because, as per the team management, he had a shoulder injury.
And that tells you, doesn't it, just how old the injury was? It also tells you that India, in the World Cup, was led by someone less than fully fit.
This raises two questions. Who, in the team management, okayed Azhar's playing with a rotator cuff tear? There are two risks inherent here. One is that the injury could get dangerously aggravated; the other is that the side would be going in with one key player less than fully fit.
There is also a peripheral issue that needs addressing, here. Why does this team need a physiotherapist and a team doctor, anyway? Throw your mind back to the regime of Dr Ali Irani. Remember India's trip to Sri Lanka, when Venkatesh Prasad, despite injury, was allowed to play on and on, bowling his heart out on dead pitches? At the end of the tour, Prasad was completely hors de combat, and we lost his services for a few months thereafter.
Remember India's tour of South Africa under Sachin Tendulkar? When Javagal Srinath bowled throughout with a rotator cuff tear? He was, famously, then picked for the tour of the West Indies, despite still carrying that injury -- and broke down two days after landing in the Caribbean. On that occasion, dr Ali Irani, in one of those classic quotes, said: "I knew of the injury all along."
Dr Irani subsequently received the boot. And was replaced by Dr Ravindra Chaddha. Board hype indicated that he was the best person for the job, since he had the twin advantages of having been a first class cricketer himself, besides being armed with a medical degree. And mind you, he has also been a national selector.
And what do we get? A senior player, a key member of the side, being allowed to play on and on with a condition as serious as rotator cuff tear. If the doctor attached to the team cannot diagnose an injury of this nature -- or, having diagnosed it, cannot do the obvious, and make sure the player doesn't aggravate it by playing on regardless -- then in what way is he worth his wages?
Contrast this, meanwhile, with the huge fuss the selectors made over Ajit Agarkar's and Vinod Kambli's fitness. The two players gave fitness certificates. Wadekar and company said that wasn't enough. So all the selectors were flown down to Bombay. And before their eyes, Andrew Kokinos and Ravindra Chaddha put both players through their paces, making them run, jump, lift weights and generally jump through hoops to convince the authorities that they were fit.
Despite going through all that, and successfully at that, Kambli is dropped from the squad. Meanwhile, a player who sat out matches with injury, who is carrying something as serious as a rotator cuff tear, is 'unanimously selected' to lead the side, and plays every single game.
Is there something rotten in the state of Denmark, or is it just me?
Pakistan, in the aftermath of defeat in the World Cup final, is busy investigating the off field doings of its players who, according to reports, were whooping it up in night clubs and casinos on the eve of the big match. Here in India, meanwhile, we apparently don't feel the need to examine even serious on-field matters such as this one.
GIVEN the nature of Indian cricket administration, I would have been extremely surprised had there been a proper inquest into the team's performance in the World Cup. Like most fans, I too anticipated that what we would get, in the aftermath, was excuses.
It has been left to chairman of selectors Ajit Wadekar -- himself a former captain, then manager -- to outdo everyone else in finding excuses.
"The adulation, speeches and felicitations made the players feel invincible and next only to God," says Wadekar, at a function in Bombay to select the winners of yet another World Cup-based contest. In a stirring speech, Wadekar went on to say that the commercial hype and hysteria was the biggest cause of the downfall of the Indian team.
A most interesting statement. Now throw your mind back to that intense hype in the days immediately before the team took off for England. What was the high point? The hugely sponsored extravaganza that brought together the Indian World Cup teams of 1983 and 1999 in a 'Good Luck India' match, right? With opposing captains Kapil Dev and Mohammad Azharuddin being flown down in a helicopter for the toss, with industry bigwigs and celluloid stars queueing up to apply tilak on the foreheads of the Indian cricketers, with Shekhar Suman pitching his voice above the din of exploding firecrackers and yelling, "Yeh patake ki awaaz ek ailaan hai, ke hum World Cup jeetkar hi rahenge!"....
And guess who the chief guest for the occasion was? A certain Ajit Wadekar, no less. It, of course, did not occur to him at the time that this hype, in which he participated whole-heartedly, was likely to be the "single biggest cause of the downfall", did it?
He also made another interesting statement -- that the team's biggest problem was the failure of the lower order to contribute runs. "The top half of our batting was very good, but the bottom half was virtually non-existent," he said. "If each of the lower order batsmen had contributed 10 or 20 runs, it would have made all the difference in the final analysis."
How very, very perceptive. And how very, very late!
As early as April 20, while examining India's preparations for the World Cup, we had in an article titled With a view to a Cup, made two points. One was about the frightening amounts of hype. One was about the urgent need to take reserve bowlers to England for the preparatory phase, so that the tailenders could get some practise and be in a position to contribute with the bat.
Wadekar -- who in his time has been player, captain, manager, selector, now chairman of the selection committee -- realises it a full 10 days after the Cup has been won and lost?
This is not, believe me, an exercise in 'I told you so'. Merely an attempt to point out, to underscore, the basic problem of Indian cricket administration -- before an event, it is hype and hysteria, after an event, it is cover-up and excuses. And that is why our results are always several notches below our potential -- and will remain thus, until those involved in the administration of the game put their minds to doing what needs to be done, before the event, rather than dreaming up pretty post-mortem explanations.
AND to wind up, one last thought. Board secretary J Y Lele has been waxing eloquent about the profits expected from this World Cup, and how it will further enrich the coffers of an Indian board that already has enough money to wipe off the national deficit.
Nice. Very nice. Now, would it be too much to expect Lele and company to put that money to some good use? By good use, I don't mean paying for their junkets, five-star all the way, to England for the Cup, and other places for other reasons.
I was thinking more of finally getting a move on with that cricket academy they've been talking about for two years now. Of putting a foundation stone where their mouth is. Of funding promising young players to stints at the Australian cricket academy. Of subsidising promising quick bowlers so they can take advantage of the facilities at the MRF Pace Academy?
In other words, of using the money to actually achieve something, to do something concrete towards the improvement of the team. Or am I, as usual, dreaming of the impossible, the unattainable?
Prem Panicker
|
