WHY SACHIN?

Sachin Tendulkar ended all the speculation about the captaincy. Sachin does not want to lead the test team for a third time. The refusal set off in motion all the rumour mills. It was alleged that Sachin was miffed over the ‘treatment’ meted out to the ‘senior’ players and as a protest did not accept the captaincy. As it is the habit, the BCCI came out with the denial of such an occurrences.

Ever since Rahul Dravid decided to give up the captaincy, there was a suspicion that the Mumbai lobby led by the likes of Sharad Pawar and Dilip Vengsarkar was behind the moves to make Sachin the captain. I wonder whether Sachin did not want these allegations to stick and hence decided to stay away from the controversy. It is hard to believe that Sachin decided not to just because the selectors were not treating the seniors fairly.

Whatever the case is, there is one thing that makes the whole thing appear wishy-washy. Rahul Dravid decided to give up the captaincy and informed Sharad Pawar about it. Now, Sachin has also followed the same route. The selection committee led by Vengsarkar was not in the know of the things. Earlier, it was Pawar who had talks with Ganguly when the Kolkata left-hander was dropped out of the team.

What makes Pawar a favourite and Vengsarkar a hated figure for the senior players? It is evident that Vengsarkar is someone who doesn’t believe in operating behind the scenes. He is proactive to the point of taking the attention away from the players. Pawar, on the other hand, is a politician who in the true Indian style is good at making compromises even at the cost of merit.

In the fitness of things, it would be better to hand over formally the powers of the selection committee to Pawar.

IS IT RACIAL ABUSE?

The racial allegations leveled by Andrew Symonds have opened the proverbial can of worms.

Initially, there was the disbelief that Indian spectators could subject white coloured foreigners to any kind of racial abuse. I use the word disbelief deliberately since even in the context of Indians, the colour of the skin has a very important bearing. There are ‘fairness creams’ which promise to make the dark coloured girl fair much to the relief of her father and family who find it difficult to find a groom. The creams also promise to make the wearer shine on the career path as well. It is no secret that most of the mothers want fair skinned daughters-in-law.

The Indians always hold white foreigners in awe and no wonder even the advertisements for underwears feature a white male or female. Indians attach great prestige to the recognition given by people of the Western world. An Indian novelist or a poet or for that matter anyone from any walk of life is not considered good enough unless there is an approval from a foreigner, especially one with a white skin. The Indian cricket fan is also not different. Giving something back to the Aussie players is not an option since the retribution is feared.

The win in the T20 World Cup where the Aussies were one of the victims of Dhoni and company, emboldened the Indian fans. Suddenly, the fans realized the prospect of the Aussies looking beatable. This added to the noise and Symonds might have misconstrued this as racial abuse.

The Aussies have the right to be aggrieved if the Indian spectators hurled racial abuse. But in the event of no such evidence, there is no way the Aussies should complain for their fans are notorious for their hostility towards players from other countries.

With the allegations, the media made Indians feel ashamed over the racial slurs. Some cricket writers also joined in castigating the behaviour of the Indian spectators.

The reaction of Sharad Pawar in the whole episode was typical of a politician. He argued that the whole issue was due to the inability of the Aussies to decipher the Indian languages. Pawar himself expressed his inability to understand many of the Indian languages. No wonder, the farmers are committing suicides since their pleas cannot be understood by Pawar who is also the Minister for Agriculture in India.


There is no place for racism but it cannot be removed.

A RELIEF INDEED

It is a relief that Sharad Pawar has decided to withdraw himself from the race for the top post of the ICC. Pawar is now categorical that the post should go to a South African, since Percy Sonn who passed away recently, was also from that country. Is this out of compassion for Sonn died in the post or this a strategy to win the support of South Africa in the future?

I say relief because Pawar has shown very little of administrative acumen, either as the President of the BCCI or as the Union Agriculture Minister. The BCCI is at a loss to explain many things. Of course, the BCCI never had the reputation of being organized along professional lines or run by people with experience.

As the Union Agriculture Minister, Pawar is presiding over a ministry that does not care anything about the problem of scarcity of essential food grains. It is indeed a paradox that while the farmers on one hand are unable to realize their costs and the hapless consumer
Is forced to pay through his nose that the big retail chains on the other are claiming to sell the products at reasonable prices.

It is no achievement to lord over the ICC when the BCCI is not in order. Ever since Jagmohan Dalmiya made it to the top, every cricket administrator in India wants to go all the distance. Let us not bring the question of race or nationality here. It is simply a question of excellence.