Why Indian skippers are treated shabbily and shafted

Being captain of a team or being the best in the world in an individual sport is stressful. Take John McEnroe for example. Being the best is stressful: “I was always fighting the establishment, trying to run through brick walls,” he said in an interview to The New York Times. All leadership positions are stressful but captaining the cricket team of a country that literally draws sustenance from the game can be perennially nerve-wracking. Especially, when millions of fans put their own unrealised aspirations on the shoulders of eleven men led by a captain! Why is it then that a cricket mad country, with a board that is as rich as some small nations and powerful enough to dictate the playing schedule internationally, finds it so difficult to ensure a smooth transition when it comes to its captains? Similar are cases in corporate, government (take UK for example) and transitions feel like arm wrestling with Khali.

But when an Indian cricket captain (s) are treated shabbily and shafted in public glare, you begin to wonder. For that the tussle between coach and captain needs to be understood. The balance between an aggressive coach and a spirited captain is necessary. Yet a coach can’t be seen being slavish. And neither a captain. Cricket is one of the rare team sports where a captain calls the shots, thus the build-up of power and the resultant arrogance and power centres that follow. It’s also the culture where quiet, unobtrusive captains even if they are brilliant in their work are somehow not taken seriously. That is why Mike Brearley, widely acknowledged as one of the great England skippers said: “You have to try to reply to criticism with your intellect, not your ego.” Moreover, the media doesn’t help by creating stories that seemingly work in the social media space where ’likes/views’ more than the factual argument works. With so much riding on one sport, and the spotlight, scrutiny that comes with it, it sometimes leads to a battle between ‘captain’ and the management with ego being the driving force, not common sense, and teamwork. Bishan Bedi ran into problems with the management often enough. He was dropped for a Test match for giving an interview, had an acrimonious relationship with Sunil Gavaskar when the latter assumed captaincy. And, till today, he is highly opinionated. Ask Muralitharan or Harbhajan. READ:  Rohit Sharma says Men in Blue’s new T20I approach will witness occasional failures In 1980, he led a major revolt for the Delhi cricketers by asking for more pay from Delhi and District Cricket Association, clashing with DDCA president Ram Prakash Mehra. Mehra refused the hike and Bedi was dropped ahead of the match against Haryana. Players like Madan Lal, Rakesh Shukla and Sunil Valson walked out in support. Sunil Gavaskar went as far as to call the selectors a bunch of jokers. With his impeccable record and canny diplomacy, he avoided the quagmire of retribution. But when Mohinder Amarnath repeated Gavaskar’s observations about the selectors in 1988, he never played for India again. It’s safe to say, the list of shabbily treated captains includes the “greats” of the game - Ajit Wadekar, Sunil Gavaskar, Venkatraghavan, Bishan Bedi, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, and Virat Kohli , among others. Taking the case of Virat Kohli as a spigot , several factors emerge. His sacking as India’s ODI captain was a sucker punch. His angry press conference made it clear he was not kept in the loop by the Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) while removing him as skipper in white-ball cricket. Questions flew as to why better courtesy wasn’t extended to Virat. That too when a former captain was the BCCI president. Some in the know say what happened to Ganguly, happened to Kohli. And there were apparent reasons for it. The manner in which Anil Kumble had a fallout with Virat as skipper left quite a few of the old boys annoyed. They included Ganguly, Laxman, Tendulkar, and Dravid. Another perspective came from an excerpt from Vinod Rai’s book ‘Not Just a Nightwatchman: My Innings in the BCCI.’ On 30 January 2017, the Supreme Court appointed Rai as the interim president of the BCCI. “We had long conversations with Kumble after he had returned from the UK. He was obviously upset about the manner in which the entire episode had panned out. He felt he had been unfairly treated and a captain or team should not be given so much importance. It was the duty of the coach to bring discipline and professionalism into the team and as a senior, the players should have respected his views.” It’s here the examples of John Wright and Gary Kirsten can be taken up. Sourav Ganguly had a great equation with Coach Wright. Former India player Ashok Malhotra once told me: “Wright was more Indian than us.” “Sourav and I complement each other. We are two different personalities. He is softer than me. I probably spoke my mind in the change rooms in a rougher way than him. Sourav and I formed an odd couple but it seems to have worked,” said John Wright. Gary Kirsten as a coach was quiet and self-effacing. He let his experience dominate. But he always backed his captain. “I would go to war with Dhoni by my side.” Lack of communication often stems from ego or pettiness. Many believe Ganguly never forgot how he had been mistreated as skipper in the past during the Greg Chappell episode. Some cricket journalists even went to the extent of saying no selector had the courage to call up Virat to convey imminent change. But the process indicates the selectors take a call collectively, which is then relayed by the Chief Selector to the BCCI President and Secretary. It is for either of them to decide on how to close the last link. Sounds pretty simple, but it isn’t. Flashback. Ajit Wadekar was informed by waiting journalists at his home that Tiger Pataudi had been sacked and he had been made captain for the West Indies tour of 1971. Wadekar was to win that series for India. In 1979 Venkatraghavan got to know of his sacking through an in-flight announcement. The pilot of the aircraft was carrying the Indian team back from England. The pilot announced that Gavaskar had replaced Venkat. Both players were on board. Mohinder “Jimmy” Amarnath was asked by the management to reach Chandigarh as he was picked to be captain for the 1987-1988 series versus West Indies. He reached Chandigarh to find Dilip Vengsarkar already there and named captain. The abrupt guillotine did not spare the legendary ones either. Kapil Dev, post his fabled 1983 World Cup win, was sacked as skipper. Unhappy with his performances, the selectors replaced him with Sunil Gavaskar. Sachin Tendulkar, after being made captain in August 1996, was replaced by Azharuddin in December 1997. In his autobiography ‘Playing It My Way,’ Sachin admitted he felt humiliated and embarrassed on his “unceremonious” removal as captain of the team. Current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly let it be known in 2020: “The others are not innocent either. A foreign coach who doesn’t have any say in the selection cannot drop an Indian captain. I had understood that this is not possible without the support of the entire system. Everyone was involved in the scheme to drop me.” Speaking on the Cricket Life Stories podcast, Chappell said: “Some of the issues were around Sourav being captain. He didn’t particularly want to work hard. He didn’t want to improve his cricket. He just wanted to be in the team as captain, so that he could control things.” Another hark back is to the time of Vijay Merchant who would unceremoniously fire Tiger Pataudi as captain. As per documented reports, Merchant carried a grudge with the Pataudi clan because he felt the senior Pataudi, Iftikhar Ali Khan, was made India captain for the 1946 tour to England over him on no merit. If current Coach Rahul Dravid complained of going through six captains after taking over, something similar happened in the 1958 Home series against West Indies. India had four captains for the five Tests starting with Polly Umrigar and ending with Hemu Adhikari. But Indian cricket has shed its skin over a period of time. And one of the biggest triggers was the Reliance Cup (World Cup) in 1987 which was jointly hosted by India and Pakistan. Australia won it. Indian cricket drastically changed with the advent of big money. Sponsors, branding, logos, advertisements, TV rights came cascading to change the fortunes of BCCI forever. It gradually led to the IPL with its mindboggling revenues and valuation figures. The BCCI stood to make more than 50,000 crores after the last round of IPL bidding. In its wake came power centres into the game. Even if Virat is not the skipper, he is still a powerful figure. The other two being Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya (after his IPL win as captain). Even as India remains in the driver’s seat where cricket is concerned; it still needs to look after its captains better. They are human Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .