Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Gimme the name & I'll give u the rule

The BCCI is about to admonish the North Zone selector for criticising Rahul Dravid in public. cricinfo reports:

Although they will not directly take action against Bhupinder just yet Cricinfo has learned that the BCCI will be writing to Bhupinder on Wednesday seeking an explanation. They will also, in the same missive, be reminding Bhupinder that it is not in his place to be making comments about individual players in the Indian team.



Your first reaction: "That is impressive". But I am afraid you are in for a long wait if you are about to take your hat off to BCCI on that. No way, they just won't let you. Apparently these press ettiquettes, e.g. not singling out players for direct criticism, are to be expected ONLY from the selectors, those necessary evils that rank just below the players on the list of topmost necessary evils.

That ettiquette book, however, gets thrown out of the window when the board secretary speaks. He is obviously swimming in another ocean and can blast any individual player in public at will. Niranjan Shah has this to say about Munaf Patel and his mysterious injury:
"I had yesterday summoned John Gloster to get a report from him on Munaf Patel. According to his report Gloster said they had taken all the fitness tests necessary and felt that he was totally fit. I think Rahul [Dravid] and the other members of the team management must also have been convinced of Munaf's fitness before taking him in the eleven. Certain injuries are such that the physio may believe that the player will recover any time. Whether the player has that same confidence or not is something else. The players should be honest with themselves, there's no point blaming the physio."


Moreover, if you get into the intent behind the Bhupinder blasting then it sounds more the rant of a disappointed Dravid fan than the planned assault of a ruthless critic sharpening his knife since the ODI debacle. Let us take a look at Bhupinder Singh Senior's take on the probable reasons of Rahul Dravid's unimpressive returns on South African soil:

"I just feel that Dravid's mind was not on the game....."

"Maybe the poor form of the top order was affecting his confidence. We all know what he is capable of and lack of runs from his bat definitely wasn't helping our cause."

"Dravid is like a bedrock on which our batting revolves. He looked a far cry from the kind of batsmanship we are used to seeing from him. In fact, the whole batting department was a big disappointment."


If I were the Indian skipper and had done my job to the best of my abilities, I would perhaps be a little hurt by that first line. But I then would also feel reasonably compensated by the stuff that follows. It is a veiled appreciation for Rahul Dravid the batsman, an indirect proclamation that we take Rahul's overseas success as granted and that even reasonable shows by the rest of our middle order batting could not compensate the unexpected failure of the 'bedrock'.

Do write back if you feel "India's most promising fast bowler for the future" would think the same of his board secretary's discourse on his physical misfortune to the media.

1 comment:

Cursor said...

After reading Bhupinders comments here, it doesnt seem unreasonable at all. Indias loss in South Africa is mainly because of Dravid's form loss during the series. And to add to that, Rahul Dravid definitely was the key in India's win in WI in the early part of the year and the famed drawn series against Australia in Australia