I happened to see the missive officially directed to Sehwag by the BCCI and was appalled at the double standards of the board.The Decesion to reprimand sehwag,as he spoke his mind out was ok ,as long as Sehwag was breaching the code of conduct.But when there is hardly any written code of Conduct, I strongly feels,the Board's decesion (Read Niranjan Shah) of reprimanding sehwag bluntly does not convince me at all.
The Board has no media policy at all and never chooses to learn from its past mistakes.There have been so many instances where the board has acted a tad too late, over comments by players,and after allowing the house to burn they come and issue a policy that no one should play in the house , when the damn house itself is burnt.(supposed to be an analogy- i seem to revel in some geeky analogies these days... so dont mind). I remember Jimmy Amarnath(Mohinder) calling the selectors a pack of fools and the BCCI acted on it only after the issue had sperad like wildfire. Similarly when the Ganguly Chappel spat broke out in Harare and the Chappell e-mail leaked out, the Board was mulling over whether to get into the fray or simply keep giving press resports like this.
Reporter : Whats with the email, that people are talking about ?
BCCI "which email are u talking about,I havent receieved any email from chappell,that talks about 101 ways why Ganguly will not fit into the Indian Team"
Reporter: Oh , We only knew that some mail, was sent ! thanks for the info on the content
BCCI" What content: The BCCI president's house does not have email facility, and even though Chappel sent me the email 3 days back to my Inbox,I havent checked my mail in the last 1 week.
Now thats's professionalism for BCCI. On one hand Sehwag is Bluntly told, to shut his mouth and sit like a dodo and just play cricket if he wants to and one the other hand, Prannoy Roy , the Indian News Behemoth NDTV's head honcho, gleams with Joy after Signing Dhoni for a year for "important match views and exclsuive specials/opinions of Dhoni" .Isnt the board treading a dangerous line by allowing a player like Dhoni to have untramelled acces to the media,where he becomes all the more prone to give statements that may prove controversial and I wont buy the Logic that NDTV wont question him on Controversial Topics.....after having paid the moon to have Dhoni exclusively for them.
Moreover coming back to the Sehwag issue, I see no wrong in what he said, all he did was to bring up the issue of player burnout ,as the Indian team has ben playing high quality cricket a little too long now...and just fears to think of the day, when India may start the world cup without a star studded team,with half of them nursing injuries. If the same had happened in Australia, I bet the players would have been the first to shield the victim, by their Players assosiation. Infact the aussies now break for a 4 month long break to help the lpayers rejuvenate for the ashes and the worrld Cup following that.
The Indian,board if it had got a break of 4 months would have definetely tried fixing up 2 inconsequential tri series involving USA,India and Zimababwe and TV channels in their quest for TRP(Television Rating Points) would have given the series a Hype that transcends the Ashes.
My Views are simple,the board is functioning like an autocratic ruler,and all is not well with the selection comitee headed by Kiran More,whose stupid acts have been masked by India's victories offlate.More went on to speak to the media that Ganguly would never be selected...and isnt' this a serious offense coming from the mouth of the Chief selector,which the BCCI chose to duck away from ?
The Board needs to have former players with a shrewd cricketing sense like Shastri,Gavaskar,Srikkanth,Manjrekar etc and not asses like Kiran More,whose whims and personal rivalries have marred many a players career. A revamp needs to happen,wheer a Board is constituted that listens to its players and functions as a healthy family and not give autocratic instructions and behave like despotic Indian Rulers.
Your views and comments on my observation are welcome.
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