Don’t speak, let us survive

It is also a world where even a lie is taken seriously till proper investigation shows what it is worth.

This is a world of the Australians, South Africans, West Indians, Englishmen and even Pakistanis. And in this world, the Australians are the world champions, South Africans not far behind and Pakistanis tottering somewhere in between. In their world, the players are not gaged. They don’t live in fear or only talk to journalists in whom they have faith, unlike their Indian counterparts. Faith, that the journalist will only quote them when they are praising the officials and when they talk about their wrong doings, it will be conveniently forgotten.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has a huge list of do’s and don’ts for the players, and one of the don’ts is: You shall not talk to the press without the permission of the manager. No other cricketing team has this kind of clause in their contract with the Board and even if it is there, it is never taken seriously.

The Indian Board is an exception. It would like the players to crawl in front of them. This has been happening here right from the days the Board was formed. One would have thought things would change. After all, the world has changed and it is no longer what it was in 1932, the year when the first Indian team went to England to play in a Test series. But may be not for the Indian Board. They still treat players like necessary evil. They can’t survive without them but to keep power firmly in their hands they want to keep the players on a leash.

This is a perfect recipe for the survival of the officialdom but it can have disastrous consequences for the development of the game.