BCCI wants to end the superstar culture that is prevalent in Indian cricket. It is a welcome move. Superstar culture is not only destroying the Indian cricket team but also the society in general. Individuals are given way to much of respect in the Indian cricket team that a lot of times, it becomes a detriment to the team itself. Supporters are happy with a Kohli hundred or a Rohit Sharma masterpiece or a Bumrah spell even if the team suffers a humiliating defeat. Individuals are worried about their milestone rather than that of the team. It is time that this culture is disbanded immediately. Ofcourse, no one knows how can this be done away with? Gavaskar and the BCCI.
BCCI for their part is planning to send some of the Indian regulars alongwith the India A squad to England to play in a couple of 4-day games. This is a novel idea. It makes perfect sense. One of the reason for India’s shoddy performance in Australia was the fact that absolutely no practice game was scheduled before the series. Not that India were expected to win the series after the humiliation at home by New Zealand but in hindsight, with some support for Bumrah, India could have won the series itself with the same batsmen. England in that sense is a lot different. As and when the clouds appear, the ball will become mischievous. It will swing a lot more than usual. One will need some practice to understand batting under such conditions.
Early travel for some batsmen
Towards that end, I welcome BCCI’s move to send some senior batsmen to travel with the India A squad. However, given the less turarnound time between the end of the IPL circus and the start of the England tour, there is just a 3-week gap. I can understand if players wanted to take a break after the IPL because they will all be tired after a gruelling 3 months of cricket. If a couple of games is squeezed in the short break, it puts even more stress on the body. The batsmen, assuming that it will only be the batsmen who will travel, will be completely cooked by the time the toss is spun on the first day.
The BCCI is again to be blamed for shoddy planning. Come June, the Indian team will be ripe for the taking. The BCCI knew well in advance that the IPL will be completed only on the last week of March. Shouldn’t they have planned for the start of the England series in the middle of July? This would have given the players adequate time to rest and recuperate for about a month and could have easily had three games before the first Test. The BCCI needs to get their heads checked. No one in the board has any idea how to run the national team. If the performance goes down, so will the money.
Gavaskar’s needless comment
Gavaskar is quite famous for a lot of bold comments. The most recent being the “stupid, stupid, stupid” and rightly so after Rishabh Pant got out in a bizarre fashion in Australia just when a partnership was growing. However, some of his comments are unpopular and are also downright stupid. One such is the recent one where he questions Gautham Gambhir and the Champions Trophy price money.
Gavaskar in his column for Sportstar wrote: “After the ICC T20 World Cup win and the Board announcement of prize money, the then-coach Rahul Dravid, ever the team man, refused to accept more than his fellow members of the coaching staff and, in fact, shared it equally with his colleagues.”
“It’s been a fortnight since the BCCI announced the Champions Trophy rewards, but we haven’t heard anything from the current coach on whether he will also do a Dravid. Or is it that Dravid, in this instance, is not a good role model?” he added.
You are wrong Mr. Gavaskar
This was completely uncalled for comment. If Dravid split the prize money equally among all the staff, that was his prerogative. There is no rule in the BCCI that states that the additional prize money must be equally distributed. It was pure and simple Rahul Dravid decision. We all respect him for that. Afterall, there is contribution from everybody when a team does well.
Having said that, Gambhir is not duty bound to distribute the additional prize money, if he has been given any, to distribute among the support staff. Just because Rahul Dravid had sent a precedent, it does not mean every coach who succeeds him will have to follow the same path. Going by the same logic, should every coach and the support staff be penalised whenever the team performs poorly? What Gavaskar has written does not make any sense.
One more thing. Does Gavaskar know that Gambhir didn’t distribute the additional prize money, again, he has indeed received, equally? For all one could hear, Gambhir could have distributed it and may not have announced it. It could also be understood equally that he may have chosen not to do so.
Wrapping up Gavaskar and the BCCI
Comments like these makes Gavaskar a sore loser. One could sense that he somewhat feels jealous of the earnings of the cricketers of this generation. Back in the day, when the Indian team won the 1983 World Cup, a stupendous achievement against all odds, each and every player were paid 1 Lakh. I don’t think neither the BCCI nor the government could have afforded anything more. Things have changed. Times have changed.
Champions Trophy blogs
https://icricketcritique.com/indian-champions-trophy-squad/
https://icricketcritique.com/a-fabulous-win/
https://icricketcritique.com/news-from-the-champions-trophy/
https://icricketcritique.com/more-from-champions-trophy/
https://icricketcritique.com/news-from-champions-trophy-2/
https://icricketcritique.com/rahuls-defence-and-ashwins-support/
https://icricketcritique.com/a-brilliant-victory/
https://icricketcritique.com/champions-trophy-from-india-perspective/
https://icricketcritique.com/champions-trophy-batsmen-and-bowlers/
