A beginning to revamp cricket in India has to be made by scrapping the Indian Premier league, which has completely vitiated the ethos of cricket in the country. Money, not performance, has become the driving force
The Board of Control for Cricket in India has gone for drastic surgery. The coach, Mr Duncan Fletcher, has not been sacked, but his status has been downgraded. From being the boss, he will now have to report to Mr Ravi Shastri, who has been appointed team director, for five One Day International and one T-20 matches between India and England. The bowling coach, Mr John Dawes, and the fielding consultant, Mr Trevor Penney, have been axed. Mr Sanjay Bangar and Mr Bharat Arun are now the two assistant coaches. Mr R Sridhar will be the fielding coach for the ODIs.
The move, unexpected to many, clearly represents the BCCI’s panic response to India’s humiliating 3-1 defeat at the hands of England in the recent Test series. India has suffered worse series defeats earlier, and that too in a none-too-distant past. In 2011, it was trounced 4-0 each by England in 2011 and Australia in 2011-12. Yet neither series was followed by a drastic response. One reason for the difference was, of course, that the defeats appeared more humiliating this time because three of them came in succession after the country’s commanding win in the second test at lord’s, which had raised expectations to the sky.
The panic is understandable. Thanks to a rather extraordinary run of scams, scandals and shenanigans, the BCCI’s stock has sunk to the lowest since one can remember. To a vast segment in the country, it is a malodorous entity which has turned the gentleman’s game into an eyebrow-raising business enterprise, with the expected adverse impact on its quality and ethics. Given the strong emotions that cricket arouses in this country, continued humiliating performance by Mr MS Dhoni and his troop might have unleashed a massive wave of anger and a demand for a thorough restructuring of the BCCI. This, again, might have convinced the political powers that be of the necessity of intervening.
But while the BCCI’s response is understandable, the question whether it will produce results by itself, remains. One would doubtless be told about the inadvisability of expecting quick results and the inevitability of reconstructive processes taking time to deliver. Valid points. The fact, however, is that the present measures amount to no more than a desperate short-term bid to shore up a crumbling structure and divert public wrath from the BCCI and skipper Dhoni. The composition and functioning of the BCCI itself needs to be drastically changed if India’s cricketing fortunes have to be revived.
A beginning has to be made by scrapping the Indian Premier league, which has completely vitiated the ethos of cricket in the country. The money it has brought in and the huge sums that it puts into the hands of cricketers, has made money the most important concern for many of them, and performance and excellence relevant only to the extent they help in securing more of the stuff. Their auctioning has reduced their status to that of entities that are bought and sold from that of human beings whose honour has no price. This, in turn, has undermined, subconsciously or consciously, their sense of shame over poor performance. Money is the thing.
Besides, the IPl has completely vitiated the environment for cricket by bringing into the arena scantily-clad young women gesticulating wildly, and sometimes suggestively, whenever something spectacular happens in the field, and by instituting the custom of post-match parties. One can hardly blame cricketers if they look at, more than the game, the fun and games to follow, and let their concentration wander off the field. During Tests, wives and girl-friends are reportedly a cause of distraction. The BCCI’s reported move to restrict the stay of these ladies during future tours may help only if the cricketers can be restrained from adventures with women outside both categories. Otherwise, things can get worse, and not just in terms of concentration,
The undermining of concentration, and the associated inability to sustain attention spans, account for most of the lapses — the inability to play the swinging ball whether coming in or going out, even the not-very-exciting off-spinners of Moin Ali, and the dropped catches in the slips — that have occurred. This will become clear if one analyses each category of failures. The basic defect behind the shocking inability to play swing, has been freezing into the ‘half-cock’ position, which is playing neither forward nor back foot but standing rooted in the general area of the batting crease with the bat hanging in front. Doing this, the batsmen, standing in front of the wicket, have been unable to play ball moving just enough from the off-stump-middle-stump to middle-stump-leg-stump, to beat the bat and hit the pad or the wickets. The resultIJ Castling or the verdict of leg-before-the-wicket. Or, in the case of a slight contact, catches in the leg slip or short square leg off the bat and pad.
In the case of out-swingers, beside the suicidal propensity to ‘fish’ — instinctively hanging the bat out away from the body — outside the off stump, playing ‘half-cock’ to a ball pitched between the leg stump and middle stump — and even middle stump and off stump — has led frequently to batsmen being bowled or edging catches to the slips, the gully and behind the wicket, with the ball kissing the outside edge of the bat and moving away.
The ‘half-cock’ position is basically a safety device often adopted in the case of inability to read the ball as it leaves the bowler’s hand. One can drive, through the cover, extra-cover or the mid-off, either off the front foot or the back foot, if one knows that it is an in-swinger. One would, however, edge a catch to the cover, extra-cover or the point, if one goes for a front-foot drive, mistaking an out-swinger for an in-swinger. Equally, one would be caught in these positions, or the-wicket, or even bowled if one goes for a full-fledged back-foot drive against a out-swinger, moving from off-stump-middle-stump (off-mid, as one would say) to the off-stump or just outside, the area often referred to as the fourth stump.
Playing as an off-spinner a top spinner that straightens out after pitching can lead to one getting a leg-before-the-wicket decision or being bowled or caught behind the wicket or in the slips, the gully or the point. Not being able to read a googly can have equally disastrous consequences. Cricketers playing at the first class level, should not fail to read a ball because of poor eyesight. They do so because they are not watching with deep concentration the ball at the point of delivery.
Poor concentration, also the major cause of India missing one out of every two catches in the slips in this series, is a result of the gross debasement of the ethos of Indian cricket. Mr Dhoni’s inadequate captaincy, the insane refusal to have the DRS system, and other factors have contributed, no more.