LONDON: A day after the World Cup semifinal shipwreck, acting BCCI president CK Khanna sent out a message conveying that the board stands by the team. Praising the “boys” for playing their “hearts out”, he said they “tried really hard but it was just not our day”. He expressed hope that the team “will work hard and come up with more success in future”.
It’s praiseworthy on part of the establishment to support the players in times of distress. One can remember messages from the BCCI congratulating teams after success, be it the seniors, women’s, India A or under-19. But seldom did the board issue statements saying they are with them when a majority of the fans are unhappy with their performance. Khanna’s words are a departure from this past and an effort to tell the players that the parent body is with them when the going gets tough.
At the same time, Khanna and others in positions of running the board should also ask themselves a few questions. What did they do to make sure that the team doesn’t cut a sorry figure in big matches of big competitions? It owns the richest cricket league. Does the board have a system to nurture teams that can become a force befitting this financial might? India have not won anything after the 2013 Champions Trophy and ended up on the losing side almost every time they played Test series abroad. Patting them on the back is good. What about some soul-searching?
In the turmoil that the BCCI has found itself in since 2013, almost everything that existed has collapsed. The National Cricket Academy has a celebrated director now. Nobody knows how it functioned in the last few years or whether it did anything at all that justifies its name. The board sits mute when a coach resigns because the captain doesn’t like him. Nobody questions when the selection committee names a list of probables and players not in that are picked when someone gets injured. A confused Committee of Administrators and board officials busy making fun of their helplessness watch from the sidelines.
It’s easy to say Rishabh Pant shouldn’t have played that shot. Whose responsibility was it to ensure that the youngster had adequate games under his belt before being thrown into a World Cup? It was evident that the Indian team was going to the big event without a middle-order in batting. Shouldn’t a system to monitor performance have detected this when there was time? It was clear that Mahendra Singh Dhoni was past his prime. Why wasn’t anyone groomed for that role?
It seems that the establishment - CoA and BCCI officials - believed everything is on auto-pilot mode and matters will take care of themselves. Virat Kohli’s performance with the bat and the emergence of a strong bowling attack created a sense of security. Nobody cared whether this was foolproof or if there were chinks to be covered. This suggests that amid the creation of some fancy posts and a whole lot of trumpeting, the aspect of developing a system got neglected.
Yes the players did not do well and that’s the main reason India lost the World Cup semifinal. But cricket, or any team game, is not played only on the field. Thoughts are put in, plans are made for every possible eventuality and preparations are made accordingly so that if Plan A doesn’t work, there is something to fall back on. India’s defeat against a New Zealand side much low on resources is an indicator of failure on this front. It tells there are flaws in the system. Addressing that would be more worthwhile, once the powers that be are done with sending out messages that they stand by the team.