Nothing wrong in Virat Kohli playing county cricket, but CoA's involvement reeks of undue interference in cricketing matters

Virat Kohli’s desire to play in the English County Championship is most understandable but not the short-sightedness of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) in letting him skip the inaugural Test against Afghanistan in Bengaluru. No one can fault the Indian captain for nursing a desire to play County cricket. For, there can be no doubt that every player around the world will want to parade his talent in the world’s oldest first-class competition, and Kohli is no exception. Besides, his eagerness to improve his performance in England is an added incentive. [caption id=“attachment_4240845” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of India’s captain Virat Kohli. AP[/caption] It is absolutely fine that he seems to have made the call to skip the Test against Afghanistan. But those who acceded to that request are probably not the best suited to place their stamp of approval on the decision. Chairman of the CoA, Vinod Rai, has been quoted as saying that his committee had always asked Test specialists to hone their skills in county cricket. “CoA has taken a conscious decision to encourage the players, especially Test specialists, to play county (cricket) and hone their skills for the England series. No question of stopping them to play versus Afghanistan. The team that played in Sri Lanka will play versus Afghanistan,” he said, all but usurping the power of the selection committee. Instead of implementing the Lodha Committee report as endorsed by the Supreme Court, the CoA has done everything else. From overseeing TV deals and player remuneration, from deciding that the team which played against Sri Lanka would take on Afghanistan to leaking information at will, it has done much more than it was mandated to do. It is a pity that, for someone charged with the task of cleansing administration of the game, CoA has taken over cricketing decisions too. Will it soon oversee the posting of umpires and the making of pitches across the country? This is a far cry from the time Indian cricket administrators refused to pick Vinoo Mankad since he skipped selection trials for the 1952 tour of England and instead played for Haslington Club in the Lancashire League as a professional. Mankad was, however, roped in ahead of the second Test at Lord’s. Of course, cricket and cricket administration in India have been churning — sadly, in different directions, what with some officials beginning to resemble unabashed fans. It is not wrong to give cricketers leeway but it would have been more right to offer them the right advice and ensure that would benefit Indian cricket at large. Ideally, the decision should have been left to the team’s head coach Ravi Shastri and the selection committee. But the impression conveyed is that the skipper convinced the CoA to let him skip the inaugural Test against Afghanistan and play in England, ostensibly in preparation for the ensuing series there. It just needed one look at Surrey’s fixtures for June to realise that Kohli’s wish to play a first-class game in the Oval will come true not in the County Championship but in the final Test match in September. Of course, he may make his County debut in a game against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl in Southampton but the other two games are in Guildford against Somerset and Scarborough against Yorkshire. To believe that these games are the ideal preparation for what can be a challenging tour — helped somewhat by the fact that the Tests will be played well in the second half of the English cricket season — is to clutch at straws. The fact that the die was cast ostensibly without consulting key decision-makers will make some wonder if preferential treatment is being accorded. After all, the Board has a history of refusing many requests to let Indian cricketers figure in Twenty20 tournaments around the world, not the least being the Big Bash in Australia and the Global T20 league in South Africa. In making the latest decision, the Board’s mandarins — or at least those fancying they are in control — have perhaps opened the proverbial Pandora’s Box. On what grounds would the Board now deny any of the Indian Twenty20 specialists — and there are quite a few now — the right to ply their trade overseas. In making this decision, which comes across as pushing a Test match to the backburner, Vinod Rai and Company have not paid heed either to the past or shown concern about what the future can hold. “Will not repeat the mistake that happened versus South Africa. The Working Committee of the BCCI is us, so doesn’t matter it is says or thinks,” Rai said. Perhaps, the CoA — which now calls itself the Working Committee and has taken over the task of the Selection Committee as well — will send the Indian team to play domestic cricket in Australia ahead of its next series Down Under.