This is the ugliest spat in Indian cricket in years. While some may enjoy seeing the sparks flying around, the point is we have two strong personalities in the fray in what is a more open era in cricket admin now that the fascist tendencies have been put down. With both men capable of calling a spade a spade, the exchanges were always likely to be harsh. It is the public nature of the debate that makes this particular ego clash between two from the top drawer of player-administrator-coach somewhat distressing.
There is much to be said on both sides. Ravi Shastri has worked his butt off for 18 months to establish some sort of authority over a team that has suddenly got very young. Ganguly has the right to say that the legends on the selection committee to pick the coach have the power to choose who it wants.
Judging by the record of the last couple of years would make it even more complicated. In terms of rankings, it wasn’t bad for Team India, who touched the top in Tests and T20 and lay about second in ODIs. But in terms of performances in the two big showcase events, it was quite disappointing.
What the committee may have wished to do is to start with a clean slate rather than just go on the same beaten path.
Now, the committee only picks the coach and not the captain or captains. It is understandable then that in a scene in which there has been no great progress, it was better to look at building the team than simply sustaining the status quo. So out went Shastri and in comes Anil Kumble. It is a choice the panel was authorised to make and a disappointed Shastri could do nothing but take it out in a bit of a rant.
When it comes to scrapping in public on cricket matters, Ganguly is not known to mince words. There was a time when a similar spat between him and Ian Chappell seemed to be the beginning of a cricket world war. Of course, Ian being Ian, he went up to Sourav to sort it out, man to man as it were. It is doubtful if two feuding Indian cricket personalities would settle it that way, which means this bit of ill will may linger for a while.
Kumble is right in not getting into arguments over who got the job, which was considered such a valuable position that as many as 57 cricketers applied for it. Finally it boiled down to a contest between two Indians, thereby increasing the heat, with both applicants having minus and plus points.
While Shastri’s association with one section of the BCCI may have led to his getting all the plum assignments thus leading to a bit of disdain in others, Kumble’s record as administrator is patchy as he gave up the chairmanship of the National Cricket Academy because he was not able to get along then with the powers that be.
There are some who believe that a ‘coach’ is something you get to the cricket ground in — Ian Chappell and Shane Warne are in this category — reflecting a kind of contempt for a hyped position.
A cricket coach is not quite what the soccer manager is deciding on the team composition and the tactics and overall strategy. And yet we know for a fact that many have helped Team India particularly by bringing in fresh thinking and a new approach to events on and off the ground. Bob Simpson, John Wright and Gary Kirsten played very positive roles in changing the perspective of a coach’s role in Team India.
The debate over whether the role should be given only to foreigners raged for long although dependence on foreigners continued until the demerits of Greg Chappell’s role surfaced, despite which the trend continued until Duncan Fletcher proved he had nothing to contribute once the team hit the lows.
Fletcher’s seeming lack of concern for the drop was held against him, which is when the swing back to an Indian donning the managerial hat became the norm.
That leads us to Kumble, highly regarded as a motivator who brings to the table a fierce work ethic and an unmatched integrity with regard to any links with the dark goings on in Indian cricket as influenced by the betting market.
