Aliens and BCCI : Communalism, regionalism, racism- Part of the Infrastructure.

Disrespect and racism is the product of BCCI’s ways of working. The board must do away with its delirium as quickly as possible or cricket may soon be following hockey’s footsteps to absolute disorientation.

We spend fortunes searching for extraterrestrial intelligence believing it exists out there somewhere. We Earthlings, however, are still struggling for our own identities. We are scarred of each other, unsure and uncertain to an extent that we go on and even term each other as ‘Aliens’.

We see aliens around us all the time. Latest example is that of a man from Orissa who sees an alien in Greg Chappell. These thoughts are instilled deep in an average Indian and an average cricketer alike by our cricketing infrastructure. We see selectors locking horns with each other all the time over demands of better representation of their states in the national team. This man who slapped Chappell was not happy with non inclusion of Orissa cricketers in the team, apart from other things. He thinks he has been able to get his message across and now the ‘plight’ of his state’s cricketers will be noticed. Communalism regionalism and racism are descendants of the same forefather that is ‘Bias’. We need to do away with this system as soon as possible.

BCCI may want to guard against complacency here. Hockey- a religion once- is struggling for survival today. Fan following CAN disappear thus can’t be taken for granted.

Lets do away with state representation as an issue. A centralized point system is the way to go. Let the veterans fight for their states as they understand the local and traditional ways better, but let them do that from their states only. Have a central body with its chapters in each state from where these people would operate. Let the cricketers be rated and watched with their data maintained centrally. Central body will also help maintain standards pertaining playing conditions, pitch, facilities etc uniformly. It will help every aspiring player play and practice in conditions that are same as anywhere else in the country. Reach schools and colleges with your programs. Make the cricket more accessible for people at that level. Let’s not leave the aspirants at the mercy of somebody who ‘has a say’.

Mould the system so as to enable the aspirant to represent himself.

Cricket veterans may not like this idea but I would rather opt for ‘no Gavaskar’ over ‘a biased Gavaskar who openly backs Mumbaikars’, I didn’t like it when Sidhu would go gaga over Ratinder Sodhi, and many such incidents. These are passionate cricketers of past and if their hearts go out to the youngsters who grew up in front of their eyes, these are human beings we talking about. But if all that is coming in the way of the game’s progress it should be done away with.

Coming back to the unfortunate incident- an indolent BCCI wont do here. Chappell is Team India’s coach and he is their responsibility. Chappell is the responsibility of the whole country in fact. Unruly crowd having its way, bottles thrown at foreign cricketers, mismanagement, suffering viewers, lack of amenities at cricket grounds, we’ve seen it all, and this is not something you would expect from the board which is richest in the world. BCCI keeps passing the buck to local authorities but why. They have been sitting on the money they have for quite some time. Its time they started using it FOR THE GAME. If they don’t know how to do it, hire somebody who does, this country is not short of brains.

To conclude I would say, such an incident wouldn’t have happen with John Wright. He was calm and a genial character. Look at him and you would say Cricket is really a gentlemen’s game. You face aggression when you opt for it. To hold your nerve is the key here. Ganguly faced what Chappell is facing today. Dravid and Wright however had better approach in this regard. Ganguly and Chappell 'working togehter' were a recipe for disaster and we all saw that.