By the time the selectors had closed their over-hyped meeting on November 9, 2007 evening, my worst fear had already come true. The most dreaded news was out and it was being flashed in all the news channels. Anil Kumble, the senior most test player of the country had been entrusted with the top job.
Only a couple of days back, Kumble was heard confessing to a news channel that he had always nourished this secret desire to lead India. And that he was ready for the job, if asked to do it. What did this statement mean? Was it not clear that the man had played his last trump card to somehow lay his hands on captaincy? He knew very well that he was running out of time. It had to be now or never as Mahendra Dhoni was closing in with all his appreciable performances leading the team in the shorter and the shortest version of the game. He had produced really good results in both the versions. And to Kumble's relief, Sachin Tendulkar had already declined it. Had the selectors applied a little commonsense, they would have given the test captaincy to the Jharkhand lad, who by now had captured the imagination of the entire nation.
We badly needed Dhoni’s aggression in test cricket. That would have brought in a much needed freshness to the approach of Indian campaign in tests. We have already had enough of defensive mindset which had seen India not enforcing follow on, not declaring at the right time giving an even chance of winning a test to both the sides (and thus creating more wining opportunities) on numerous occasions over the past decade. As a result we have played out as many tame draws in places where we could have certainly won. We have always played as safe as possible. There is no point in cribbing about the fading interest in the traditional format of the game unless we are prepared to take sensible decisions to make positive results happen. Dhoni would definitely have tried it differently given the kind of fearless leader he has been. And to say the least, it would have been a long term investment.
But to the aid of Kumble, in came the statements from Sanjay Manjrekar, Ravi Shastri and a few other so called wise men of the game. While Sanjay said that Kumble had to be rewarded for his long service to Indian cricket, Shastri’s comments were that Dhoni is not ready for the job yet and we should not over-burden him. Even Greg Chappell was of the same opinion.
Now who are all these wise men to decide if Dhoni is not ready for the job? Only Dhoni can decide that. And he had already played enough tests to have a feel of the format. He had already shown that he is a fast learner. If his on and off field behavior during his captainship tenure for the shorter version of the game is anything to go by, he was all but perfectly ready to take up the next challenge. Also, for the comfort of those big guys who advocated against it, there had been people (take Graem Smith as one example) who had led their countries at younger age with success.
But as it turned out to be, the selectors gave in to the argument and finally it was Kumble who was given the green signal. What they caused by doing this is an irrepairable damage to the game of cricket. To be a leader you have to command some respect amongst your team-mates. Kumble may have been a decent bowler in suitable home conditions, but we all know about his on field personality. Whenever India has been under attack he has been the first man to drop his shoulders and portray a poor body language. And talking about his fielding skills, he is never in a position to command any respect even from his own team mates, leave alone the opposition. No wonder, on of the basic plans of all the opposition teams has been “To push the ball to Kumble and run a couple”. And whenever we travel abroad, if anybody decides not to give a wicket to Kumble, he goes wicket less almost always.
And why are we even talking about his cricketing skills? We all have seen the results of the recently concluded India – Pakistan test series. In the second and third test, despite of scoring over 600 runs in the first innings, India was not able to enforce victory. Alongside various other reasons, Kumble’s decision making skills or the lack of it was there for everybody to see, which was the decisive factor in the final result. In the third test of the series, Kumble delayed the declaration inexplicably for at least a couple of hours to allow Pakistan to get away with a draw. Also the batting approach of India in the second innings was pathetic. Any layman could have told that they were playing for a draw to make sure that we win the series 1-0. This had to happen. This was the mindset of our leader and the result followed. There was no point is hanging around on the ground when bad light had been offered to the batsmen. The damage had already been done in the morning by wasting precious time. Kumble shamelessly issued a statement in the closing press conference that bad light saved Pakistan. But hello, in reality, it was not bad light; it was Kumble’s desire of personal captainship record and his approach to the game that made India settle for yet another draw.
Mr. Manjrekar, Captainship is no long service award or retirement benefit. It has to be given to somebody who will be able to lead a team effectively rather than to somebody just because he had served long. If we need to reward Kumble we could well have awarded him with some life time achievement awards or whatever from BCCI. Why play politics in cricket? If it is not politics, it is foolishness.
At this point of time, the Indian team has already left for Australia and the statements of our warriors including Kumble have started doing rounds. Says Kumble, “We would win because Australia is without Glen McGrath and Shane Warne. We would win because all our batsmen are in terrific form. We would win because Aussies are traditionally weak players of spin bowling. We would win because for most of our senior players, this, in all probability is the last tour of Down-under and we would like to make it memorable." The claims just go on and on.
Sorry to remind you Mr. Skipper, on your last tour too McGrath and Warne were unavailable. Your batsmen were fresh from big scores on flat tracks and more importantly they were at their prime. You did try to bowl spin too. It was another matter that it never turned as usual. A few months back all your senior players went all out to make their last world cup trip memorable. Memorable indeed it turned out to be, having made their exit in the first round.
So do yourself a favor, stop talking and start preparing for your (hopefully) last tour as Captain. We have absolutely no doubt about your leadership skills, we have seen enough. Just go ahead and finish your tenure.
Spare us, spare Indian cricket.
Only a couple of days back, Kumble was heard confessing to a news channel that he had always nourished this secret desire to lead India. And that he was ready for the job, if asked to do it. What did this statement mean? Was it not clear that the man had played his last trump card to somehow lay his hands on captaincy? He knew very well that he was running out of time. It had to be now or never as Mahendra Dhoni was closing in with all his appreciable performances leading the team in the shorter and the shortest version of the game. He had produced really good results in both the versions. And to Kumble's relief, Sachin Tendulkar had already declined it. Had the selectors applied a little commonsense, they would have given the test captaincy to the Jharkhand lad, who by now had captured the imagination of the entire nation.
We badly needed Dhoni’s aggression in test cricket. That would have brought in a much needed freshness to the approach of Indian campaign in tests. We have already had enough of defensive mindset which had seen India not enforcing follow on, not declaring at the right time giving an even chance of winning a test to both the sides (and thus creating more wining opportunities) on numerous occasions over the past decade. As a result we have played out as many tame draws in places where we could have certainly won. We have always played as safe as possible. There is no point in cribbing about the fading interest in the traditional format of the game unless we are prepared to take sensible decisions to make positive results happen. Dhoni would definitely have tried it differently given the kind of fearless leader he has been. And to say the least, it would have been a long term investment.
But to the aid of Kumble, in came the statements from Sanjay Manjrekar, Ravi Shastri and a few other so called wise men of the game. While Sanjay said that Kumble had to be rewarded for his long service to Indian cricket, Shastri’s comments were that Dhoni is not ready for the job yet and we should not over-burden him. Even Greg Chappell was of the same opinion.
Now who are all these wise men to decide if Dhoni is not ready for the job? Only Dhoni can decide that. And he had already played enough tests to have a feel of the format. He had already shown that he is a fast learner. If his on and off field behavior during his captainship tenure for the shorter version of the game is anything to go by, he was all but perfectly ready to take up the next challenge. Also, for the comfort of those big guys who advocated against it, there had been people (take Graem Smith as one example) who had led their countries at younger age with success.
But as it turned out to be, the selectors gave in to the argument and finally it was Kumble who was given the green signal. What they caused by doing this is an irrepairable damage to the game of cricket. To be a leader you have to command some respect amongst your team-mates. Kumble may have been a decent bowler in suitable home conditions, but we all know about his on field personality. Whenever India has been under attack he has been the first man to drop his shoulders and portray a poor body language. And talking about his fielding skills, he is never in a position to command any respect even from his own team mates, leave alone the opposition. No wonder, on of the basic plans of all the opposition teams has been “To push the ball to Kumble and run a couple”. And whenever we travel abroad, if anybody decides not to give a wicket to Kumble, he goes wicket less almost always.
And why are we even talking about his cricketing skills? We all have seen the results of the recently concluded India – Pakistan test series. In the second and third test, despite of scoring over 600 runs in the first innings, India was not able to enforce victory. Alongside various other reasons, Kumble’s decision making skills or the lack of it was there for everybody to see, which was the decisive factor in the final result. In the third test of the series, Kumble delayed the declaration inexplicably for at least a couple of hours to allow Pakistan to get away with a draw. Also the batting approach of India in the second innings was pathetic. Any layman could have told that they were playing for a draw to make sure that we win the series 1-0. This had to happen. This was the mindset of our leader and the result followed. There was no point is hanging around on the ground when bad light had been offered to the batsmen. The damage had already been done in the morning by wasting precious time. Kumble shamelessly issued a statement in the closing press conference that bad light saved Pakistan. But hello, in reality, it was not bad light; it was Kumble’s desire of personal captainship record and his approach to the game that made India settle for yet another draw.
Mr. Manjrekar, Captainship is no long service award or retirement benefit. It has to be given to somebody who will be able to lead a team effectively rather than to somebody just because he had served long. If we need to reward Kumble we could well have awarded him with some life time achievement awards or whatever from BCCI. Why play politics in cricket? If it is not politics, it is foolishness.
At this point of time, the Indian team has already left for Australia and the statements of our warriors including Kumble have started doing rounds. Says Kumble, “We would win because Australia is without Glen McGrath and Shane Warne. We would win because all our batsmen are in terrific form. We would win because Aussies are traditionally weak players of spin bowling. We would win because for most of our senior players, this, in all probability is the last tour of Down-under and we would like to make it memorable." The claims just go on and on.
Sorry to remind you Mr. Skipper, on your last tour too McGrath and Warne were unavailable. Your batsmen were fresh from big scores on flat tracks and more importantly they were at their prime. You did try to bowl spin too. It was another matter that it never turned as usual. A few months back all your senior players went all out to make their last world cup trip memorable. Memorable indeed it turned out to be, having made their exit in the first round.
So do yourself a favor, stop talking and start preparing for your (hopefully) last tour as Captain. We have absolutely no doubt about your leadership skills, we have seen enough. Just go ahead and finish your tenure.
Spare us, spare Indian cricket.
