Abhi Toh Main Jawaan Hoon...

I read the headline on a website today. It read, ”Kumble named the test captain”
You must be joking. Yes, I know he is a sincere player. Yes, he is one of the best spinners we have had. Yes, he has got those marvellous records like the 10-wickets in one innings. But captain at 37! It’s like fulfilling a dying man’s last wish. How long can he be captain? 1 year, 2years? I doubt. If Kumble plays all test matches for next 2 years, he will have to retire on a stretcher. If you are convinced by the first argument that this is a stupid decision then hold on, it only gets better. Kumble has often not found a place in the test side when our team plays in Australia and South Africa. The Reason: Most pitches in these countries are not conducive to spin. Hence having two spinners makes no sense. Since Kumble hardly spins the ball, Bhajji usually gets the preference over him. He gets preference over Bhajji either when the track is conducive to spin or Bhajji is not performing well. So now we have a captain who probably shouldn’t be in the team in the first place. And this gets better. Our next tour is against Australia in Australia! Now, who made him the captain!
Tendulkar refused the captaincy stating that a younger player should take on this responsibility. Its amazing how the Board found the youngest of them lot. The Australian tour might turn out to be Kumble’s deathwish after all. As a captain he will have to play all the matches. He will have to bowl in all the matches. He will be hit out of the ground by the Aussies on most of their pitches except one. Once that happens Kumble will truly realise what an honour it indeed is to lead the Indian team.This will be one of the toughest overseas tours that this “young” Indian team will ever make. Australia are not England, it will be a completely different ball game. Especially after the aggressive attitude shown by Sreesanth towards the Aussies, they are all charged up to receive India. In such a scenario, an old warhorse leading the army is not a good sign. I would have trusted Dhoni or Yuvraj more any day. This decision could have had a long-term positive effect. Unfortunately we are only looking at our short-term goals or maybe not even that. Ravi Shastri had objected to Dhoni’s name saying that since he has to keep wickets and concentrate on captaincy at the same time, he is not the right man for the job. So if that’s really the case then Dhoni should never be named captain for the longer version of the game! That’s rubbish according to me. It’s all a game of politics.
The Board, selectors and ex-cricketers don’t want anyone to become a heavy weight sportsman like some of the senior cricketers we have (don’t count Dravid). They want a team that is not as powerful as them. This helps them as then they can keep manipulating them as they wish. The moment you have strong players who can lead the team and make India win in any form of the game, the Board has a problem. The balance of power shifts more towards the players then. The players can then negotiate better contracts and demand more from the Board. They can then ask for any team they want and the selectors have to agree. The role and power of the ex-cricketers like Shastri get curtailed and they have not much work to do other than being tame advisors. So they don’t want Dhoni or Yuvraj to have the status that Tendulkar or Ganguly had. All these people have seen what a strong captain like Ganguly, backed by a superstar player like Tendulkar are capable of doing. Hence this time they want to kill the plant at its roots or atleast restrict its growth. I wonder how the BCCI and its gang learnt such good politics. Indeed knowledge flows from the top!