Indian Cricket's lost voice

The confused fan needs to be reassured and comforted. And at times, told of what the scenario is actually like. This role is well suited for former cricketers on whom they have had tremendous faith. Journalists, rightly or wrongly, are often considered to be story-seeking, TRP-driven mongrels, so why not cut them some slack and let them do what they do best i.e. report? Why not shift the burden of explanations, and that of asking questions, to our legends, which include the captain of our cricket team?

MS Dhoni is the Vice President of the company which owns his IPL franchise whose Team Principal, in turn, happens to be behind bars. In the current scenario, you can’t expect more than a tilted smile to uncomfortable questions, and much like the commentators, he has too many strings attached to those running the sport in our country today. Contrast this with the 2000 match-fixing scandal and Sourav Ganguly, the then newly appointed captain, told the fan that his players were clean and would do anything to bring glory to the country. The least Dhoni could do (which Ganguly himself pointed out) is to say in explicit terms something like – ‘Yes, I know you are hurt. I can empathize, I promise you that my boys and I will do anything we can to win the Champions Trophy and bring back joy…’

Kirti Azad has been protesting against the IPL since day one, and even if he has honest intentions in mind, I simply see his views as personal agenda and that of the ‘I-told-you-so’ brigade. Kapil Dev, someone closely linked to the match-fixing saga that happened last time around and someone who often complains of being victimized, has not condemned it in a way that the message would be loud and clear. Anil Kumble has been non-committal on the issue, despite sharing the twin roles of a legendary cricketer and the President of a state cricket association. The only inference that I can get from that is that he is too happy with all the perks that he is getting currently by not questioning the BCCI (read: Chief, BCCI Technical Head and Chief, ICC Cricket Committee). The only statement that came out from his end was that of stripping Sreesanth off all his medals.

Laxman has spoken and so have Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly. Beyond those over-clarifying and, to a point, blatantly pretentious tweets from some of the ‘reputable voices’, I see a lot of hope in these four pillars of Indian cricket. What they need is a united front, where they can say that enough is enough, clean up the mess. I am sure that they are in a position to do so; all four of them have ended their careers, have a combined bank balance that can afford an IPL team, have records that most cricketers can only dream of and do not require any back-patting approvals from the BCCI, leave alone a provident fund. It’s time that they talk a little about the destruction of the monument they built so painstakingly, that of a new and successful image of Indian Cricket.