Thursday, March 20, 2008

Cricket's Generation Gap?


Just when you thought Indian cricket had redeemed itself, it begins to pick at old wounds. The latest round of exchanges involving skipper M.S Dhoni and the ‘senior’ players gives us another week’s worth of sports drama. This time, we see Dhoni sporting what he thinks is a well deserved last laugh; this after having proved that the junior players, whose corner he assumed, are worth their keep. And of course, where better to enjoy this laugh than under the ever watchful eyes of our rapacious media.

The reason I intentionally treated the word ‘senior’ in the previous sentence to those punctuation flourishes was to merely highlight the absurdity of the concept that the word implied. ‘Senior’ players are portrayed unfairly as doddering, old men who cling onto their places in the starting eleven until the latter have to be pried from their dead, cold fingers. Let’s explore this concept of seniority in Indian cricket. I suppose this category of fossils would include Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. Some others may refer to them as the ‘holy trinity’ of Indian cricket but oh, far be it from our BCCI to stoop to such vile acts of name-calling. Let us consider this: the average age of the Aussie team, who have held a monopoly over cricket for a better part of the last decade, is 30. Having played the part of the perennial number two squad who can boast of potential but never any silverware, the South African squad averages at 28. It must be pointed out that players like Roger Telemachus have made their debut only after crossing the ‘big three-O’. Even in the subcontinent, things aren’t very different as the average age of the Sri Lankan national side is 29. And India, after all its petty age squabbles, averages at a much lower 25.

We begin to wonder why so much is made of this seemingly small issue. We also wonder if it is one that is limited to our country alone. I mean, shouldn’t the selectors worry about form and consistency, instead of drawing up these watertight age compartments? Even then, they often find themselves, much like our cricketers, inconsistent in following their own selection policy. Why is someone like Sehwag, who turns thirty this year, picked for the series against Australia despite his diabolical form? On the other hand, why is cricket’s biggest comeback story, Sourav Ganguly relegated being only a part of the test squad despite his excellent form in the shorter version of the game?

We must admit that the away series win in Australia would never have happened if it wasn’t for those pivotal Sachin Tendulkar innings in both the finals. The team and its fans must start to encourage an assimilation of experience and youth. Sure, we need Ishant Sharmas and R.P Singhs but there is no need for harsh age distinctions. Dhoni justified his choice of younger players by mentioning ‘fielding abilities’ as the selection criteria. What about other characteristics such as strategy or composure, which are indispensable? After all, young Manoj Tiwary claims that if he took anything away from this tournament, it was Tendulkar’s batting tips. Not to forget that players like Robin Uthappa haven’t showed themselves to be very competent with batting technique. This is the stuff that sets apart a world-class player, capable of holding his own, from a rookie.

The Indian media’s treatment of our team is very similar to the relationship between the British press and its national football side. We seem to build up our youngsters, throw money at them and even base entire ad campaigns on this concept of a generation waiting in the wings. But how many youngsters have proven to be consistent? Wasn’t Dinesh Karthik once hailed as the next Indian Skipper? Now he can barely keep his place on the team. Performance related pay and a strict watch on player exposure to the media should be what the BCCI focuses on. Otherwise, we’ll be raising a generation of Salil Ankolas, victims of selector inconsistencies. Indian cricket at the grassroots level is undoubtedly an in exhaustive mine for talent. Let’s make sure we raise our young cricketers the right way. But let’s also treat our ‘seniors’ with due respect, appreciating what they’ve given the game.
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Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Letter

To,
The Editor,
The Hindu.

Dear Sir,
The recent polling during the Tripura elections has reaffirmed the citizen’s faith in our system of democracy. First, the high turnout of women voters, surpassing that of the men goes to show the political consciousness in the state. Furthermore, despite the Congress pulling out their “star campaigners”, Mr. Manmohan Singh and Ms. Gandhi, the voters seem to look beyond such political gimmicks and evidence of this is seen in their refusal to rally behind such a campaign. Our “educated”, urban voters can definitely learn a thing or two from the elections in Tripura, where heavy turnout was reported from the tribal areas. It is fallacious to suppose that the indigenous people often end up falling prey to false promises and cheap gimmicks of the powerful parties and consequently put the wrong people in power. Rather, the people of Tripura have set an example by successfully executing the first ever election using the Elector’s Photo Identity card.
Thank you,

Paul Dharamraj

(N.B: This was an issue that almost everyone in the media gave little importance to. They deemed it necessary to devote pages and entire programmes to IPL auctions. As expected, my letter didn't get published!)