Tags:
Journalism of Courage
India’s flannelled heroes finally returned home to a press meet in a five star hotel jointly owned by the BCCI chief in Chennai. How ironic that a battered and bruised Indian cricket team were privileged when the Asian hockey gold medallists after 32 years had the worst of receptions in Mumbai.
Be that as it may, both Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar have seemingly done their homework in speaking the same language even though the wavelength was different. In my open letter to the BCCI president, I had suggested compassion in dealing with our much maligned cricketers. I must compliment Dr Muthiah’s calm composure.
In any case, whoever is indulging in such scepticism has many ridiculous ideas up his sleeve. Truth is a cow which will yield BCCI no more milk. So they have gone to milk the bull!
We hear a lot about sporting wickets against South Africans. Pardon my ignorance, could someone please educate some of us laymen what is a sporting wicket and who is responsible to prepare such a surface? With all due regards to Messrs Srikkanth and Co., I am not too sure of their technical knowhow of 22 yards of turf. In the name of credibility, having past cricketers on some sub-committees or other is a convenient gimmick. Add a little stupidity to serious plans and enjoy being silly at the right moment. Such recipes are the specialities of our cricket administrators.
Any culture, good or bad always stems from top and trickles downwards. No use cursing our players when a non-existent cricket culture is at the helm. TheAussie volcano has destroyed our players’ confidence. It has also brought to light the gap between BCCI and the ACB. Not that it was not visible earlier. But now the electronic media has made an average cricket follower lot more wiser.
I am surprised Kapil and Sachin took so long to observe and absorb the cricket facilities Down Under. And also the high standard of the Australian domestic cricket. Let us not forget that a lot of effort has gone into converting a champion side after a sobbing Kim Hughes left the scene more than two decades ago.
The trio of Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh have achieved success by sweat of the brow. Nothing flamboyant about any of them. Just a simple streak of ruthless efficiency backed up by enormous national pride is a confirmation that there can be no transformation of darkness into light and apathy into movement without emotion. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye. We lift ourselves by our thought andclimb upon our vision of ourselves.
