BCCI - The Star Wars Empire

Senator Amidala to Senator Bail Organa:"So this is how liberty dies - with thunderous applause"

- Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

And this is how BCCI responds to crisis. With hypocratic self-serving short-sighted populist measures! Recap: Each player cannot endorse more than 3 products. No product can be endorsed by more than 2 players. So where does that leave the endorsement world? The shortest and the simplest answer is that it forces a lot of companies to enter into negotiations with the BCCI. So, we will see an official team TV, tape recorder, milk, cola, socks, shoes, trousers, shirt, t-shirt, car, bike, TV channel and the list is endless. The players will become puppets in the hands of their employers - BCCI and BCCI would reap huge rewards on the name of these players - spoils that will shared by the autocratic regional sarpanches. And since the player has to get the approval of the BCCI for their contract, the conclusion would be that we are in for a lot of court cases when the corrupt in BCCI block player endorsements that don't suit their interests. The rule of players not appearing for events upto 20 days prior to tournaments is equally beneficiary for BCCI - they would be available to promote BCCI sponsors.

I watched an interview of Ajay Jadeja in NDTV where he said that the players are the only people ever held accountable and no beauracrat has ever been held responsible in the history of cricket. I am not against a showcause notice sent against Sachin Tendulkar as long as the stupid VP was also issued one. But the shameless people who run BCCI have concluded that office-bearers should not give interviews. No show-cause notice. I am reasonably confident that the contributions of Sachin Tendulkar to Indian Cricket is much more than the beaurocrat VP. For all potential Indian cricketers, please take note - even Sachin Tendulkar comes second in priority to BCCI's office bearers. Times might have changed, but BCCI attitude does not. It always insults and backstabs its star performers - ask Sachin now, ask Kapil in 1984/85, ask Gundappa in 1970s.

I have no love for Greg Chappell and to see our BCCI fall at his feet is perplexing. The guy is the opposite of professionalism. If you notice, the only way he operates is through the media - silent leaks, SMS-es, e-mails. I am dumbfounded that BCCI did not censure Greg Chappell for the SMS or the NDTV leaks but sent a showcause notice to Sachin Tendulkar. Sorry to say this - 60 years after Independence, the color of the skin does continue to have an impact.

I have a doubt. Is BCCI still stuck in the age of the cold war era? Why is media exposure curtailed for all players? Maybe BCCI wants to continue the culture of media leaks as showcased by NDTV which leaked information from a source close to Chappell. Instead, please do the opposite - all cricketers are open to the media as long as it is non-exclusive and the player receives no money or benefits for talking to the media.

The world cup debacle was the right time for BCCI to interospect about its short-comings. For all those who make their money or spend time in criticizing the Indian players (including you - 'honorable' Greg Chappell) please remember that we went with the team because there were no other options. Chappell favorites like Suresh Raina or Mohammad Kaif don't have a strong case - atleast no stronger than Virender Sehwag. BCCI has taken no steps to address this issue.

At the very least, hats-off to BCCI for turning a bad situation into an opportunity for generating profits. None in the world can milk the cow as much as BCCI does. However, BCCI doesn't realize that the reason for their existence is to promote cricket, not gather cash. The game of cricket, in India is poorer for the autocratic decisions of the board.

Greg's foot in the mouth syndrome

"The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle have fallen into place in the last few weeks. There is a good balance, good experience and youth in the squad, and a good variety in bowling and batting. That will give us a wide range of options no matter what the condition and no matter what the opposition."

"Even in the last selection meeting, I fought for youth. The senior players fought against it and the chairman went with them out of fear of media, if youth did not perform,"

If these statements were made by the same person before and after the defeat. What does that mean? Greg Chappell is a very respected cricketer and captain and i have all the respect for him as India's coach.

However his now geurilla warfare by using parts of the media to quote him and the rest to speculate, throwing the team and BCCI into a dizzy is becoming a 'signature statement'. I am not going to call for his dismissal, thats for the wise men to decide. But i think Gregg Chappell should be censured and a fine should be levied for these irresponsible statements.

On a deeper note, why can't the BCCI give the Coach, Captain and the Chairman of Selectors complete freedom to air their views. Lack of transparency within BCCI is akin to dark ages in this era of information ...

dunno when BCCI is going to change.

I drafted a long blog on the performance, but after i visited my batchmate's blog - i recommend you read the article (Click here).

Ganguly as captain? Gimme a break!

A sense of perspective has never been a quality that India's cricket fraternity has possessed

I liked this sentence and fully agree with the author (Dhileep Premchand's analysis on India's recent test win) on India's passion / obsession called Cricket. I wanted to blog on this over the weekend by trying to find evidence of over-reaction within Indian media after India's splendid test victory in south africa

Alas, i did not have to wait for long because Ajay Jadeja was the first to mouth-off calling for Ganguly to replace Dravid as the captain for the World Cup. This, inspite of what all of us can now see - Ganguly was thrown off the team because he was getting obsessed with Captaincy that he failed to remember that batting contributions was required to be retained in the team. Now that this has finally dawned on him and he is batting as if every innings is his last, we saw a remarkable amount of freedom & responsibility in his batting - something Greg Chappell wanted and has now gotten.

In this situation, why would the Indian board want to hand captaincy to Ganguly? More over, people should realise and accept the fact that Ganguly's days as captain are over and he is on his last days as an international cricketer (maybe a year or so is the maximum left in him). Let us enjoy these days and not want to upset the already tipsy apple cart called Indian Cricket.

More than anyone else, Ganguly deserves it.