All-rounders or bits & items gamers?

The authorized luminaries, like most blind followers, appeared to have made the widespread mistake of blending the 2 contrasting worlds that the sporting icons seamlessly preserve switching between. (Illustration by C R Sasikumar)

Sanjay Manjrekar, a pedigreed Check cricketer and excessive priest of Mumbai’s proud batting faculty, has written a painfully lengthy apology cum job software to the Indian board. Final 12 months whereas commentating, he had combined up the classification of an India star, an error that obtained him the pink slip.

In an e-mail with a tone suited to somebody on his knees begging atonement, Manjrekar offers a torturously childish rationalization for what at greatest was a semantic slip-up. He referred to as an all-rounder a “bits and items” cricketer. Able to toe the road now, he desires a second probability and a mic in hand.

Gamers of late aren’t having fun with the perfect of occasions. Just a few days again, the chief of the gamers’ physique blamed the BCCI for dragging its toes on the welfare demand for his or her retired cricketers. Earlier than that, a bunch India’s brightest younger cricketers had shared with this newspaper their lockdown woes as they waited for the award cash promised to them months again. The cost paralysis hasn’t simply hit the Indian board’s junior wing. First-class cricketers too aren’t getting the cheques on time. Even the A listers — Kohli and his boys — haven’t been paid for the previous 10 months.

And picture, we have been advised this was to be Indian cricketers’ “apna time”.

The way it has all unravelled since final 12 months’s October revolution when Sourav Ganguly, Dada to a number of generations of gamers, reached the highest of Indian cricket’s officialdom. He wasn’t alone, the court-approved BCCI structure ensured that gamers are strategically positioned to be in any respect ranges of decision-making. Not too far again in time, this was unimaginable.

Traditionally, the recognition of gamers has been unmatched. Even throughout Indian cricket’s intervals of unquestionable one-man rein, when Jagmohan Dalmiya, Sharad Pawar and N Srinivasan have been unchallenged veto-wielders, cricketing legends Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Kumble loved unparalleled fame and unequivocal clout. But, it wasn’t greater than mere gentle energy. They is perhaps hailed as Indian cricket’s golden era, however they remained the revered clever males of BCCI’s grand durbar. Ganguly’s elevation to the BCCI president was a watershed occasion, it was as unlikely as a navratna changing Akbar on the Mughal throne.

The enablers of this coup, the Lordships, have been patting one another for empowering the cricketers. The very first churn had resulted in probably the most illustrious cricketing chief magically rising as the brand new BCCI chief. The Committee of Directors (CoA) have been smiling on their final day within the BCCI workplace.

CoA chief Vinod Rai stated he was “personally glad as a result of he (Ganguly) shouldn’t be solely a former cricketer however a really profitable captain and an skilled cricket administrator”. The person who headed the committee to type the brand new structure, Justice RM Lodha, referred to as it “a giant success”.

Chants of “Hail Dada” rang triumphantly. Across the nation, gamers have been on the telephone, calling one another, dreaming of nook workplaces in swanky buildings. Gamers couldn’t consider, they might now be the decision-makers.

The script hasn’t gone the best way the courts, directors, and even nearly all of cricketers, would have preferred. The SC-approved new BCCI structure is being questioned by those that benefitted from it. Ganguly emerged because the president solely due to the court docket order that made the outdated guard ineligible. Now right here he was endorsing a BCCI plea within the Supreme Courtroom to tweak the tenure clause in order that he may keep on the helm longer.

Nonetheless, in his to this point brief stint, Ganguly has ensured that he would simply go down as one of the vital seen BCCI presidents. On most match days, he’s on tv, between overs, endorsing a fantasy recreation. He’s extolling followers to earn 5 occasions greater than they shell out.

Ganguly ends the gross sales pitch with a coy smile and a “Dada ka Vada” of profitable Rs 1 crore if the players beat the group he has picked. Trying past Dada’s many vadas, that is in regards to the query of propriety and conduct unbecoming of a BCCI president. Is it kosher for the BCCI president enjoying selector, even when it’s for a fantasy recreation, each different day? Extra worryingly, can he have a industrial association with a fantasy league recreation that’s in direct competitors with IPL’s official companion?

There’s extra. Simply final month, Ganguly put out an Instagram put up the place he’s carrying a JSW Cement (Jindal Metal Works) T-shirt in his avatar as the corporate’s model ambassador. These incestuous connections — JSW Group partly owns the IPL franchise Delhi Capitals and Ganguly’s boss at JSW Cements is an everyday at auctions and is seen on the dugout on match days — doesn’t trouble the BCCI president. Doesn’t this quantity to battle of curiosity? Ganguly advised this newspaper he doesn’t suppose so.

These celebrating Ganguly’s rise to energy final 12 months are silent now. Neither the Lordships nor the directors need to discuss his conduct, his reservations in regards to the structure or his many conflicts of curiosity. In non-public they do discuss disappointment, betrayal and a lack of face.

The courts thought that the gamers could be “brokers of change”. They proved to be slaves of the established order. They nonetheless stay on the mercy of officers for his or her commentary contracts and match charges. It doesn’t actually matter if the person on the prime is a captain of trade, a political heavyweight, a authorized eagle and even the God of off-side.

So have been the judges unsuitable in empowering gamers? Perhaps not, however their optimism and sense of accomplishment on seeing a extremely profitable cricketer as BCCI chief was naive. With regards to separating the great directors from the unhealthy, you don’t take a look at runs scored, balls confronted or captaincy information.

The authorized luminaries, like most blind followers, appeared to have made the widespread mistake of blending the 2 contrasting worlds that the sporting icons seamlessly preserve switching between. On the sphere, due to their extraordinary sporting talent set, they could possibly be impeccably organised and outstandingly inspirational. Away from it, like most mortals, they’d have their weaknesses and weak moments. Those that watch sports activities from a distance are largely wedded to the romance and nostalgia of the sports activities celebrities’ golden days. The photographs of some heroic innings or a closing ball six are burnt on to the nation’s retinas ceaselessly. They count on them to maintain performing miracles past the stadium.

The social media hype, the PR-team choreographed interviews and paid information association add to myth-making. What was “good” as soon as is named “sensible” now, “genius” is the brand new “good”. Whereas there is no such thing as a recorded proof of evolution of the human race within the final couple of a long time, the inhabitants of “alleged superstars” has seen an enormous spike. That is an period of arduous promote and exaggerated claims. What you see, isn’t what you get. The failings and ordinariness of stars, raised and guarded in echo-chambers, by no means reaches the plenty.

This explains the shock and shock over Ganguly’s conduct and Manjrekar’s apology. Ganguly was anticipated to show across the BCCI, like he did with Indian cricket. Manjrekar was anticipated to stay to his stand with the identical conviction as he had displayed when he referred to as Tendulkar, “the elephant within the room”. The religion, as soon as once more, was additionally based mostly on Manjrekar’s batting days and the braveness he confirmed whereas dominating these imply pacers of the 80s — Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop, Imran, Wasim, Waqar. How unsuitable we have been. We thought they have been all-rounders, they turned out to be bit-and-pieces gamers.

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