So, what BCCI will do now? That’s one question crossing every Indian cricket fan. That’s a positive sign for corporate!!! Indian can’t quit thinking about cricket. Right now we have 50 million opinions in India. I am also one of them.
I will again go back to my old point that I discussed after Indian debacle in South Africa. BCCI goes for a short term solution or a long term solution.
India is not short of talent in Cricket but our cricketers lack character. A character is built in adversity and competitive environment. Our institution of domestic cricket is ordinary. It may create good players who look good on Indian pitches but it can’t give you a strong character unit like Australia.
Would you like to see an organization run by people who are part time members and the organization generates close to $1 billion revenue per year? I don’t think any management thinking or any sensible individual will endorse to the view the way our sports organizations are operating on a day-to-day basis. Probably this attitude explains number of Olympic medals won by this 1 billion population country in last 60 years.
The reforms must start from BCCI. Government should stop recognizing BCCI as an autonomous body. It was created to promote Cricket in India which has been accomplished. Now, this body should be dismantled.
Instead government should create a corporate body responsible for cricket. If possible, this corporation should be listed in Share market but government should not become the owner. I guess many corporate will be interested in acquiring the ownership and it can be decided by a fair and comprehensive process.
The corporation should be responsible for overall development and administration of cricket. As I believe this corporation will be governed by able professionals and India have plenty of excellent leaders and managers who will be interested to work for this organization. Listing it on share market will boost people’s interest in share market and at least one crore more investors will join share market which will be definitely better for our bourses. India has currently approximately 4 crore people out of 100 crore who invest in equities either directly or through other various financial instruments.
The domestic cricket structure needs a major boost. I watch Ranji trophy and other domestic tournaments on Neo sports and it tells the true level of cricket competitiveness and standard. BCCI has least bothered to attract people to watch these games. The key lies here. Once you attract people to these games, the competition and character will start coming to teams.
The number of teams should be limited. Not more than 4 or 5. The new corporation should ensure a time period when this tournament will be held and participation of top cricketers must be mandatory.
This also calls for pitch reforms. The pitches for these matches should be fast and varying in nature. Then you have a domestic infrastructure in place to select top 15 players.
The team selection process should be changed as well. You have 3 selectors who decide the team and then the captain…not other way round. Had this been the case, Ganguly would have been out of the team after 2003 world cup and many individuals who cried after Srilanka game would have been playing either domestic cricket or county cricket in England.
These are sweeping reforms. People at top hate reforms in this country. This reform may take time to settle and produce results but it will ensure that we don’t feel ashamed after each tour of South Africa and Australia.
Listing the corporation on share market will ensure accountability to the public and public will feel a part of Indian cricket. At present, fans (the customers of BCCI) are last consideration for BCCI. If you don’t believe it, buy a one day international ticket and enjoy your experience in the stadium. It is pathetic right from ticket purchase to last ball bowled.
Now, let’s look at our current team. This team has performed pathetically in every foreign tour from West Indies to South Africa to Malaysia (except Pakistan). It has performed badly in champion trophy. That performance should have been enough to draw attention but we start reacting when water goes above the head and breathing becomes impossible. We wait and wait till the situation becomes worst.
The game at top level is played by character and attitude, talent becomes secondary because every team has plenty of it. The tough character comes through difficult experiences…at least not when you hit knee-roll high balls to boundary 40 times a day in a Ranji trophy game against a weak opposition. You may be given opportunity to open Indian innings in test match in Australia after scoring triple century against Tripura but nobody remembers your name thereafter. I was talking about Devang Gandhi.
One typical case is Mr. Agarkar who even after 183 one day matches looks mediocre on many days. He performs once in a while and claims his place back? Why? Because we simply don’t have enough players or we don’t believe them good enough to replace Pathans and Agarkars. Murali Kartik is gone… he could have been definitely a good replacement for Anil Kumble and Ramesh Powar for Harbhajan Singh! Alas! We are so obsessed with brands that when it comes to crunch tournaments, we go by brand names rather than current form. Pathan selection is a typical example…he was selected and not selected…both are true. These men at BCCI are so confused!!!
India needs fresh blood and confident men who believe in destroying opposition and in hanging on 50 overs on any pitch. My next captain is Yuvraj; he has played more than 150 one dayers and has enough experience. Rahul Dravid may be retained in the team as a batsman, but not Ganguly, Shehwag and Tendulkar. Mohd Kaif should be back as vice captain.
BCCI has more data and information to select rest of the team. Munaf Patel and Sreesaanth should be retained. Rest of the lot should decide what they want to do next in life.
You may disagree with my team but my emphasis is on reforms and selecting 11 men who believe in themselves to beat any team on any pitch and they do it day-in and day-out. Even if, everybody in this country agrees to my reform agenda, we will take at least 5-6 years to produce results. Australians were patient…they invested close to 10 years to become number 1.
You may also take a deep breath after reading and say “come on – it is just a game!” You are also right.
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