Fuddy-Duddy does some whitewashing !!

The grand old daddy of them all - BCCI - the very definition of Fuddy-Duddy acts, did some whitewashing - here and there and the usual 'kichidi' job was the end result. Vengsarkar, the superman of Indian selection committee, like many predecessors before him - contradicted himself umpteen times and in the end, we are left with a half boiled effort that in my opinion is not going to anywhere near what is needed. Let me look into the anomalies of all this and let me stir the pot for the post-WC edition, even when the long drawn WC is dragging on.

• It all started with the appointment of Ravi Shastri as manager for the B'desh tour. First of all, if he is even an interim replacement for Greg, then is he not supposed to be a coach? Why fudge and call it as manager? Another BCCI googly, which no one can understand. On the face of it, I welcome Shastri's appointment - he is one of the few who can talk some sense but the state of Indian cricket will require much more than that and as far as his assistants - Venky Prasad and Robin Singh - neither of them in the league of a Sir Richard Hadlee or Johny Rhodes respectively. Both were average cricketers at best and I am not sure what will be their contribution be. The way things are - if they do not do anything- that itself is good since playing politicking, backstabbing, leaks to media and what not have been the order of the day. We have so much additional baggage - another 2 more will not hurt.
• Let us see the other contradictions - Sachin and Saurav 'rested' for the ODI series. Fair enough; but, that decision has to come after the selection meeting and not before. It seems that Vengsarkar had called them before the selection and explained things to them. Ah !! here comes another googly from BCCI functionary.
• Viru is not in the test team and there is no sensible opener for the test team. Well !! another one of those misses - when you write 40 names, something is bound to miss and this seems to be one of them. Form book will of course dictate that Viru is fine in tests but such common sense and our cricket does not go together normally.
• Who is Rajesh Pawar? and why is Murali Karthik not picked - even God can not answer that. Karthik knew the vagaries of Indian selection and decided to make a few bucks by playing in English county cricket/

I can go on and on but I guess the point is made - It is one hodge podge list gleaned out to satisfy the average follower. The expected result here - somehow, India has to salavge something in B'desh and they will want the public to forget the WC disaster and all the other mess so that the moolah raj will return; sponsors will return and the billion rupee telecast rights will begin.(If BCCI is really serious about domestic cricket -why was the current 20-20 tournament not have a telecast? or why was the game not promoted enough to attract spectators? or why was the selection done before the conclusion of the tournament? What was the basis of selection after the WC hara kiri. After all, one has to wait for the tournament to conclude before deciding a few things. Anyway, I have seen stranger stuff than this and nothing will surprise me).

Crocodile Tears and washing dirty linen in public !!

Well !! Well !! It is one non stop drama and saga; too many skeletons are falling from cub-board as far as Indian cricket goes and the pitched battlefield is all set for a busy weekend action at Bombay. The leaked memos to the media are claiming various 'sources' and coming out with lists of problems against the so called seniors (in my opinion, the men who made crores and are shredding crocodile tears on behalf of Indian cricket and trying to cling on to their 'Patta' wicket moolah) and of course, the so called seniors in a pitched battle against a 'high handed coach'. All the talk of bonhomie is over and the Indian dressing room would have been one heck of a pot stirrer show piece stage, for this much of emotion to cook up. Good that India lost; otherwise, all this would have been buried and the long term damage will be much more.
Let me first analyze the info in the press, that quotes the sources about Greg's report on seniors. According to these press reports :

1. Sourav's penchant for batting for himself and chasing records top the list (According to me, what is new ? Any sensible cricket watcher could see from the dot balls and strike rate that SG was playing for himself, even against some school team attack like Bermuda)
2. Tendulkar being not a team man (Entirely agreed. He stopped being one, years before. Sachin countering these by claiming about his 17 year saga and being hurt etc is hog wash and plain Hindi movie sentiment business. Let him be a man and answer for his poor performace rather than wielding lobby attacks and being ticked off for not allowed to open against Bermuda)
3. Harbhajan and Yuvaraj having an attitude. (could not have agreed more. Yuvaraj behaves like a Maharaja of Maharajas on the field and as far as Bhajji, his singular failure to take wickets at vital junctures killed Indian hopes)
4. Seniors behaving like Mafia (how can otherwise cling on to their ad roles and milk the next gullible sponsor?)

Now, let us check, what the Seniors have to say against Greg. He was high handed and was not even in talking terms with Sachin. Actually, knowing the Western culture, what has Greg got to hide? It is Sachin, with his swelled ego who created this scene. I have nothing but respect for Greg but his methods are unlikely to work in a chaotic place like India. It is like asking a TGV train to run in Indian Railways track. There is a place for everything and in a world, which is full of down right politicking, money mongering, egoistic - personal feuds, team takes a back seat and folks like Greg have no place. You need folks, who can constantly indulge in sleight of hand techniques, play politics, constantly talk nonsense and above all be used to the lethargic, below par Indian cricketer.

Final verdict : Too much water has flown in and too much dirty linen has been washed in public. Inspite of plain common sense advantages of retaining Greg, it now looks like, things are beyond redemption. Rather than me attempting at what is best for Indian cricket, let me predict on what is going to happen - Sachin and co will have an audience with 'the boss' and shed crocodile tears and paint tearful stories of how they were mistreated (rather than going into aspects like how bone headed, they were when they played BD and SL and more important how his furniture was rearranged for the umpteenth time, when it counts most) and will see to that their lobby retains the power (and of course the crores). I think that there will be a band aid solution by bringing in some rubber stamp cricketer, who will be so colorless that nothing new will happen in the muddled waters of Indian cricket.