Action speaks louder than words

There was a most unusual gathering at the Cricket Club of India a couple of weeks ago. The former president of the BCCI (former a-lot-of-things really!) and now the man in charge of development of cricket in India, Mr. Raj Singh Dungarpur invited a lot of us to tea and snacks at the most hospitable cricket venue in the country.

At most times, Raj Singh is a very interesting person to listen to, his anecdotes invariably have a coat of happiness on them, but that evening, it was an overwhelming feeling of dismay that accompanied most of what he said.

"Gentlemen, we have failed," he began. And amidst the usual forays in mid-sentence and mid-thought, he told us why. India, he said, had not been able to develop the undoubted talent it possessed, that the selectors were being less than fair to certain individuals and that Indian coaches did not possess the know-how to coach the national team in these changing times.

Hence, the dismay. The admission was honest and timely, and such admissions are rare in our cricket. But each of these points was known, debated in the media and ignored by the BCCI three years ago! Now, even though the National Cricket Academy has been set up and John Wright has been appointed as coach, the BCCI continues to ignore several key issues.

The media has been very negative, Raj Singh said, and asked for all us to be more positive. To some extent he is right but much as you want to, you cannot pronounce a drought a flood. Our media is a wonderful reflection of our national psyche. It oscillates between the delirious and the completely downcast, but to be fair, it has rarely shied away from giving credit. If the BCCI hasn't got its share, it is because there is so little to cheer about.

One of the major reasons we have not been able to develop our talent is that we play Mickey Mouse cricket in India. And yet, we choose to do absolutely nothing about it. The National Cricket Academy can spot talent but it cannot harden it unless young players play tough cricket. We can talk about it till our beards are in our boots but if we do nothing about it, three years from now we will be saying the same things at informal press gatherings. To prevent that, not only does our cricket need to become tough, our administration needs to become tough with itself.

Raj Singh also admitted that he was very impressed by the conversation he had with Geoff Marsh but we were all a little amused when he recounted how Marsh saw a youngster and said "with talent like this I am amazed that India is not the number one cricket country in the world!".

It is a fair comment, Raj bhai, but it is something we have been talking about for so many years. In fact, this column alone must have debated this issue more than a dozen times. What Marsh doesn't know, and will know very soon, is that the talent gets fattened on mediocre cricket. You can appoint all the consultants in the world but if you are going to ignore what they say, it is of little use.

Raj bhai, I sometimes wonder if India's cricket administration takes a step forward when they have no other option in sight. It was so with the academy and it was so with the appointment of a trainer and of a coach. We react only when we are at the brink and that is why I am secretly hoping someone plays an innings of 600 in the Ranji Trophy and finishes the season with 2500 runs. We need something as silly as that to push us towards reforms without which our talent is doomed. Maybe we will listen when Marsh tells us the same thing but I have no problem with that. If there is a voice, any voice, that can be heard, more power to it. Meanwhile Sourav Ganguly can look forward to playing against Jharkhand.

There was one other point that Raj Singh made. Cricket is a young man's game, he said and asked for the most spirited cricketer in recent times, Robin Singh, to be dropped from the one-day games against Zimbabwe. Now Robin Singh is a quiet and dignified man and he represented his country with pride. If he turned around and asked which of those three qualities ninety per cent of our administrators have, would we have an answer for him?

Robin Singh apparently has to go, when he hasn't failed hugely, because we need freshness to our cricket. What applies to one has to apply to another but our administrators get away with appalling decision-making, they get one extension after another without a single achievement on their bio-data. I don’t think that can sound right to anybody but it continues. And Geoff Marsh will not be telling us what is wrong with our administration!

The pity is that we are starting to see some talent coming through. In Murali Kartik and Sharandeep Singh, there is a lot of spin bowling ability (what a pity they can spend only five days with Prasanna!), in Zaheer Khan there is a good fast bowling prospect and Shiv Sunder Das has just scored a Test century. Now these cricketers need to go through the grind so that they can emerge as better cricketers. Will they?

In the answer to that question will also lie the answer to whether there will be another admission of failure three years from now. So you see, Raj bhai, the media isn't negative. Like you, we really want our team to do well. But desire is one thing, action is another and all we are looking for is action. If, for example, you had to assign marks to the BCCI on desire and action, what do you see yourself giving?

But do speak out. Dissent is the voice of freedom and progress. It is also the voice of those that care. So welcome to our club !

Harsha Bhogle

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