My Mom used to tell me as a kid growing up in scarcity, "Money can't make you happy. In fact, rich people can't even use their money to get the things that they want." "Really Mom?" I would ask. "How sad one can be when he can buy all the chocolates and ice creams in the world?" "That's the sad part son, coz once they get rich, they get all the bad habits and then diseases. All rich people are fat and diabetic and can never eat chocolates." As usual I didn't give much importance to her words then. I don't know about others, but an interesting part of growing up process for me is the realization that the stuff your Mom said years ago often starts making sense to you years later. Indian cricket had started getting richer in the late 90s. But ever since IPL came along, it really started booming. The riches were unlimited, the sources were numerous, comparisons were with the richest sports bodies and the richest sportsmen in the world. With all of these , came along the bad habits which are now probably taking the shape of a disease. Our batsmen and bowlers are losing their techniques. The stars of tomorrow don't even want to learn any real technique.
However, players with bad technique can't be the real problem for us. With such a huge pool of players, it can't be too difficult to find and groom players for different formats. Especially, when you have the richest board which can hire the best scouts and coach. The real problem is when the bad habits and the diseases enter into the head which controls everything. With more money and more avenues, BCCI is no longer a body with cricket at it's heart. Cricket administration was never India’s forte, but the current situation has to be the worst ever. Now we just see politicians and businessmen running amok everywhere. When a stalwart like Dileep Vengsarkar loses Mumbai Cricket Association election to a former chief minister who may not even have a watched a full cricket match in 10 years, just because he didn't have the proper political and corporate back up, you know how bad things are. We always had zonal quota in selection which always led to lobbying. It has been like a chronic disease for Indian cricket. But now there are new diseases. People talk in hushed voices about player agents pushing the board to select certain players especially for important tournaments. New players find hard to make it into the team since watching all new faces on the TV can affect TV revenue. Cricketers are happy to ensure that they play an injury free IPL even if it means missing national duties. I can't say all of this happens all the times. But there are enough evidences to show that some of it definitely happens some of the times.
So where do we go from here? Really bad diseases like this might lead to eventual downfall of the BCCI empire some day. Without international success people’s interest in cricket is bound to reduce. One big reason for so much cricket love in this country is some success at the international level. Cricket is the only sport that makes Indians, proud to be Indians. Supporting a club can't give you such levels of pride. Already many youngsters are just happy to choose to support a Manchester United or Barcelona over one of their cricket teams. This can be a sign of times to come. This disease can be nipped in the bud or can be cured, but the patient needs to realize that he has an ailment and is willing to do the hard yards to fight it off. Probably, getting your pride dented can be the biggest motivation to fight. There is nothing we are more proud of than our home record. As Gambhir and some other players proudly proclaimed even after England and Australian whitewash, "It's all good, we can still beat them at home, and be demigods again." Losing to England at home must have hurt the players and even the BCCI. As a fan, it hurt me seeing England spinners take 19 wickets on a Mumbai pitch. So what if it was turning square, we used to tame spin kings like Murali and Warne regularly at home. Last time India found them on such a low was the 1999-2000 season. Getting white washed in Australia was bad but more or less expected. Coming back home and getting white washed by South Africa hurt everyone real bad. The match fixing scandal and Hansie Cronje testimony happened soon after taking Indian cricket into its biggest slump ever. As diseases go, this was a situation where a doctor in a Bollywood movie would say, "Inhein dawa ki nahi, dua ki zaroorat hai.(He doesn't need medicine, he needs prayers)". But, from there Indian cricket started to fight back, surely there was no shortage of prayers from the fans at any time. And just like Bollywood movies, the biggest hero had to play some part. Sachin Tendulkar knew it was the right time to step down and hand over the captaincy to Ganguly. (Few years later, it was again him who recommended Dhoni as the captain). Ganguly started with winning two easy series against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. And then the miracle happened. Steve Waugh's Invincibles were beaten in Kolkata and later at Chennai. Many Indian cricketers have said that this was the start of their climb to Test Number 1 ranking and World Cup. It brought about an attitude change, a belief, an amazing ‘bouncebackability’.
Eternel skeptic in me thinks that a fight back will be tougher this time. The disease has affected the DNA of Indian cricket this time and a fight back seems unlikely. Perhaps this isn't the rock bottom yet from where we fight back. But the wheels will turn, surely and inevitably. As Shahrukh Khan said in a Bollywood movie, "There is always a happy ending, else Mere Dost, Picture abhi baaki hai (The film isn't over yet, my friend)".
- rajesh@cricketbakchod.com
