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SPORTS:
CRICKET
The
End Game
After
a stage-managed exit Kapil puts cricket behind him but perhaps not his
troubles
By
Sharda
Ugra
If
Indian cricket were a stage play, it would surely be slotted under the
genre "Theatre of the Absurd". Kapil Dev's resignation drama
was meant to look like a tussle between one of India's finest cricketers
struggling for his honour and the stumbling officials of the Board of
Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). In actual fact, it turned out to
be less about pride, more about politics and an elaborate practical joke
on the public. The resignation has left Kapil with the last word, the
BCCI with a job vacancy they had to work very hard to create and a bunch
of Indian cricketers wondering who was in charge of their training with
less than 48 hours to go before the start of a conditioning camp for the
biggest tournament in world cricket outside the World Cup.
 |
| Kapil's
stint as coach finished farcically |
What preceded
the resignation was a few rounds of shadow-boxing: BCCI President A.C.
Muthiah first announced on September 8 that a search was on for an overseas
coach for the Indian team. On September 10 he let it be known that Kapil
"may" be called to look after the 23 probables at the conditioning
camp in Chennai. Late on September 11, Kapil's office called a news agency
with the information that he had received a letter from Board Secretary
J.Y. Lele asking him to report to the Chennai camp. The next afternoon,
Lele announced that Kapil had tendered his resignation to the board, which
named Anshuman Gaekwad as a stopgap coach. Board sources say that had
Kapil delayed his resignation by a couple of hours more, Muthiah would
have announced that Kapil had put in his papers. The invitation to Chennai
was merely a sop to Kapil's pride; the coach was expected to reject the
offer and quit at once.
'All
This Drama': "All this drama was done for the benefit of Kapil
Dev and Jagmohan Dalmiya," says a senior BCCI official. Former coach
and captain Bishan Singh Bedi agrees: "Considering the rush with
which everything happened, it seems it was all stage managed. But I would
give credit to Kapil for the way he handled himself." But former
manager Sunil Dev believes the cricketer did not time his exit well, "The
decision not to step down as coach after his name figured early on during
the match-fixing furore meant that Kapil was skating on thin ice. He has
done the right thing but far too late."
The Kapil
issue has divided a board once united by the Sports Ministry's constant
demands on it. The BCCI's working committee handed over the Kapil affair
to Muthiah on August 20 but with no consensus as to what action had to
be taken against the Indian legend. While Muthiah and former president
Raj Singh Dungarpur preferred to ease the coach out, former board secretary
Dalmiya believed the former allrounder had to be treated with more courtesy.
The end result of this tug of war was the tragi-comic compromise formula
which came into force this week. The senior official adds, "This
episode does not make the board look good at all and it will weaken Muthiah's
position. In the past the BCCI has removed Sandeep Patil, Madan Lal and
Gaekwad, so what is the big deal about removing Kapil? He was a great
cricketer no doubt but as coach he was in no way superior to them."
Kapil has
retreated to a life outside cricket, Muthiah to his business and other
officials to their customary wheeling and dealing in the run up to the
annual general body meeting on September 29. But what happens now to the
larger entity called Indian cricket or the core group-the national team?
Skipper
Saurav Ganguly sought to bring a new complexion to the affair, dismissing
his coach's emotional resignation as "his problem" and added,
"Frankly, it doesn't matter who the coach is." It could have
been a tired throwaway aside but it does give an indication of just how
fractious the atmosphere inside an Indian dressing room can be. The team
returns to competitive cricket on October 3 but don't expect any good
news soon. "I don't see how the players are going to feel secure
at this time. If players have to perform, they need a congenial and healthy
atmosphere, which seems impossible at the moment," says Bedi. Kapil's
predecessor, and now successor, Gaekwad- who had been sounded out about
his reappointment over the weekend-says he accepted the stopgap job because
of the situation: "On any other occasion, I would have insisted on
a longer term. But at a time like this you can't really say no, the team
needs you." In return for accepting, what is in truth, an emergency
posting, Gaekwad may find himself chairman of the selectors by the time
October is out.
At the moment,
it appears Muthiah has extricated himself from a corner only after having
conceded a fair amount of ground to Kapil. Or maybe not. Not a single
player caught in the centre of the match-fixing investigations features
in the group of 23 probables picked for the ICC Knock-Out Trophy. Their
old coach has just quit. The only group still unpunished for being raided
by the taxmen and "tainted" by featuring in the match-fixing
episode are Dalmiya and BCCI Treasurer Kishore Rungta. What happens now
to board officials will indicate the true intent and extent of Indian
cricket's clean-up.
-with
Sayantan Chakravarty
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