‘Nikal do seniors ko and let’s see what the juniors do. You can’t say Rahul, Sachin, Ganguly are the only ones’

No, I think we are known to react in this manner. Over-reaction is something you don’t expect. If you ask me, I think the reaction was what I had thought it would be. They played poor, horrible cricket. But why the surprise? I think we failed in our judgment. We were expecting too much from them. They don’t have the capability, or, perhaps, they only have it on paper. I don’t wish to hit anybody below the belt, but I think there are people who are just going through the motions.

MINI KAPOOR: Any names?

It won’t be right to point fingers at anybody. When a team faces a defeat like that, everybody, including the BCCI and former cricketers like us are equally responsible.

COOMI KAPOOR: Would you compare our cricketers to. . . dogs who are content with their bones . . . are they too satisfied?

If a dog has a bone it won’t allow anybody to come close. I think they didn’t have the urge to perform. I just visited Kolkata and I was pleasantly surprised. When you look back, one chief minister occupied the post for 25 years. The growth wasn’t good. But in last three years, Kolkata’s growth has been unbelievable. Fresh blood can change things. Talking about Indian cricket, the younger lot looks up to stars in the team. If these stars don’t have the right attitude, it sends the wrong message. What we need today is that the younger lot come out and push the seniors to give their best.

SAUBHIK CHAKRABARTI: Following up from what you just said, the CPI (M) did eventually manage to ask Jyoti Basu to leave. Do you think the cricketing establishment can ever gather the courage to ask Sachin Tendulkar to leave?

To me, my country is more important than anything else. I love my cricket team. Tendulkar, Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar or Kapil Dev or anybody who comes in the way of cricket’s progress should be kicked out.

SAUBHIK CHAKRABARTI: But do you think the present cricket establishment, as it functions, as we tend to react to cricket, do you think we can ask Sachin to take a break, like the Australians asked Steve Waugh to step down from the ODI team?

If it is required and he doesn’t understand, and they cannot do it, then the Board is too weak. The cricket board is weak. Betterment of the team is the priority. The game is bigger than any player. And the nation’s interests are paramount.

JAYANTH JACOB: Were you happy with the composition of the team India sent to the World Cup. Wasn’t there too much reliance on old players?

If I look back, the answer is ‘No’. The team had a blend of seniors and youngsters, just as every team would want to have. But what you need is fresh legs, those who can take charge and fight. The seniors have to tell the youth that, ‘Look, this is the way we worked and reached the top. Now it is your time to take the lead.’ But then seniors have to perform when the situation demands. If they crack, they have no business to be in the team.

ANANDA MAJUMDAR: When you are captaining a team like India, how important is it to be a tactician and a motivational captain?

I think up to a stage, a tactician is required. But I was not so much into computers. I was basically a field player. Everybody has his way of doing things. The method doesn’t matter, what matters is that you win the match. You may have a hundred computers and tacticians, but at the end of the day the boys have to get runs and take wickets.

ANANDA MAJUMDAR: So what you are suggesting is that it is very important to be a motivational captain rather than a good tactician.

No, everybody cannot be the same. I cannot expect everybody to be working like me. Cricket is a beautiful and very different game. It is as much a team game as it is an individual game. Tell me how many times has Sachin scored a ODI hundred — 80 per cent will say 40, 35, 38, 42. But if we take his ODI centuries, how many times has India won. You don’t have a ready answer. So what is more important, the individual or the team. That’s the beauty of this game. Even if India loses, we ask, how many runs he got, how many wickets he took.

How many times we won as a team is important. A great player knows how many times he went and won the match for his country.

SUJIT BHAR: If we talk of performance-based incentives they can’t be worked out in a team game, it can’t be worked out on the basis of individual performance in a team game. How do you think performance-based incentives should be given?

We cannot blindly copy the Australians or West Indians. Our culture is different, our way of thinking is different. Look at the Australians, their traditions are different. There, grandfathers play cricket on Saturdays and Sundays. Do you see that happening here? You go for a movie as a source of entertainment here. In Australia and America, people take their grandchildren for mountain climbing, river rafting, but here we would rather make them go for tuitions!

We are an intelligent people, but do not have the right body. Out of one billion people, why can’t we produce a single player? Not even 200,000 play sports. Sixty per cent don’t get square meals. Out of the people who get their meals, 50 per cent are vegetarians. Out of that 50 per cent, 30 per cent are rich people who don’t want to step out of AC rooms. When somebody says 100 crore hai, I say, kya 100 crore, 70 per cent live in villages. I don’t think we ever face the reality.

MANINI CHATTERJEE: In the last five or ten years since (the arrival of ) 24-hour TV, the growth of consumerism and marketing, far too much money is now involved in cricket. Has that adversely affected the game?

Don’t give them money and they will change their style of play! If that works then change things, but personally speaking, I don’t think that works. I have played with them and I don’t think they will change. Incentives, on the other hand, can get you better performance. There’s nothing wrong in it.

I did one advertisement for Birla Sun Life Insurance, but I see myself 365 days a year. The ad is running 24 hours on channels. But I didn’t give more than six days in a year to the ad. Does Sachin spend 365 days doing advertisements? If Dhoni gives 30 days to ads to make his life more secure, what’s wrong? Money comes and goes, but the important thing is that the game shouldn’t suffer. I don’t think money is spoiling cricketers.

VIDHI MAINGI: Whenever people say there’s too much money in cricket, that’s usually a hint towards match fixing and betting. Do you think viewership has taken a downslide because of all these things?

Maybe yes and maybe not. I am not sitting here and judging that. You cannot stop individuals from doing wrong. Neither has that been possible in the last 5,000 years nor will that be possible in the next 10,000 years. What is shameful is when everybody starts developing tendencies of corruption. Every IAS officer is not bad, but the odd one will take money. We can’t blame everybody for one person’s actions.

UNNI RAJEN SHANKER: Is it a problem that politicians have taken over administration in cricket?

No. Why are cricketers coming into politics? It’s not their field. The politicians might as well say, we will go wherever there is politics. It is up to us to see whether we want to have them.

AMITABH SINHA: You have spoken about youngsters coming into the team. But where are the youngsters? By this time, players like Yuvraj, Kaif, who started their careers six-seven years back, should have been the backbone of the team. But when we talk about replacing Dravid, we are looking at names like Ganguly and Tendulkar. People like Raina, a lot of other youngsters, either have not performed or they have not been given enough chances.

Nikal do seniors ko and let’s see what the juniors do. You can’t say that Ganguly, Rahul, or Sachin are the only ones till you haven’t tested Yuvraj with captaincy. But in reality it’s tough to captain a team with senior players under you. I was a 22-year-old when I was captain. I had a damn tough time handling seniors. Not that they had any ill feelings for me, but I didn’t know, as a youngsters, how to treat them. Should I give my seat to them? They had given me orders throughout my cricketing life. And now suddenly I was required to give orders. What do you do? Plead and request them to take their field positions or shout at them?

AMITABH SINHA: Even if we leave the captaincy issue aside, are there youngsters who have a permanent berth in the side?

Whoever plays well should stay. Nobody is permanent. A permanent player is one who performs permanently.

SHUBHAJIT ROY: Should Tendulkar be dropped ?

If you ask me whether to drop Tendulkar, I’d say he is a great player and has served the country beautifully. An exceptionally talented cricketer, but unfortunately he has to be dropped one day. But had I made this statement to some sensation-seeking journalists, the headline the next day would have read, ‘Kapil says, drop Sachin Tendulkar’ and left out the fact that I have said that he is an exceptionally talented cricketer.

VRINDA GOPINATH: Who in your view is a perfect cricketer.

Nobody. The moment you say you are perfect, it’s time for you to move out. Somebody asked me who is my favourite captain. I said the heart of Bishan Singh Bedi and the mind of Sunil Gavaskar.

SAUBHIK CHAKRABARTI: Your 175 against Zimbabwe in 1983 was not captured on television. Could you tell us about that innings?

It was 24 years back. We were in trouble, I batted, we got runs. But if somebody asks me what happened, I don’t remember. Do you think Sachin or Dravid or Dhoni would be thinking about money when a genuine fast bowler comes on? They won’t even think whether they are married or not. Somebody asked when Vivian Richards hit the ball and it went up, what were you thinking? I said dead. The moment thought comes into your head you are bound to drop the catch. Reflexes take over. I just went in so disgusted and upset. But every time the bowler came in I had to save my wicket. Main out ho gaya to kya hoga? The next ball and I thought I had to stay a longer.

SUJIT BHAR: Is doping prevalent nowadays in cricket?

Who knows, people might have been doping in our time as well. Who knows, because there was no technology to test for the use of performance enhancing drugs. Ham bhi suna karte the ki few cricketers kash lagate hain. Doping has been happening for thousands of years. Chor, chor nahi hai, jab tak woh pakda na jaye.

SHUBHAJIT ROY: Greg Chappell’s coaching has been a bone of contention since the beginning. There is a view that he was not happy with the composition of the team and his choice was not allowed to go to the final team. What is your view?

If he was not happy, he should have resigned. From the Indian team’s point of view, they should have taken the best out of him. We are paying so much money, get the best out of him and say good bye. He must have something to teach us. He is forthright, the way he comes and talks. We are not a very straightforward people. We have big egos. These people don’t have egos.

UNNI RAJEN SHANKER: Who is the best batsman you have ever bowled to, and the best bowler you ever faced?

Vivian Richards is the finest and the toughest I have ever bowled to, because he was ready to take challenges. Ninety per cent of the rest played me quietly and waited for my spell to finish. But Richards was one player who said, “Don’t let him go, let’s attack him.” The best bowler? Whoever got me out (laughs). In my view, Sachin Tendulkar is the most talented cricketer and Ravi Shastri the most intelligent.

SHUBHAJIT ROY: Should we have an Indian coach whenever Chappell goes?

Whoever does the best job for my country should coach India. India also sends its expertise abroad in medicine, IT etc. What if they were to send them back? The world has become a very small place. As far as it is mutually beneficial, you should not hesitate. I will not doubt the coach unless he fails repeatedly.

SUJIT BHAR: You have been playing another game. You have also seen the non-cricketing side of cricket. Do you think that with this much money going into cricket, something should be given to some individual sport, where we have achieved world recognition.

The Indian establishment has to understand a simple thing — that our body structures are not suited for all games. But even then we follow fast and hard games rather than skill games. We can be very good in table tennis, badminton, where skill is required. Speed is not our forte. You cannot find any cricketer more wristy or stylish than an Indian, Pakistani, or Sri Lankan cricketer because the subcontinent is blessed with the art of wrist work. We can top games like squash, tennis, badminton, table tennis, which require wrist work, but we don’t promote games correctly.

ADITI NIGAM: We have seen great all-rounders like you, Hadlee, Imran Khan, in the eighties and nineties, but after that, cricket has not seen any great all-rounders. What is the reason?

Oh, there were hardly any all-rounders earlier also. It’s a tough job. It happens in a group. I was not an all-rounder, purely a bowler and learnt batting slowly. Imran was purely a bowler. Botham was a true all-rounder. Gary Sobers was a true all-rounder. I think competition brings the best out of us. See Warne and Murli. They talk about their game and their performance improves.

MINI KAPOOR: Who would you like to see lift the World Cup. Your favourite team?

I think I would like to see New Zealand lift the cup. I feel they have it in them. Sure, the best team should win. But as far as my feelings go, apart from India, if New Zealand pick the cup it’s good for the game.

G.S. VIVEK: I have spent time at the National Cricket Academy, of which you are the chairman. I get a feeling they are getting it too technology-oriented for under-19 and under-16 youngsters. Don’t you think cricket should be kept simple at the early stages? Let them learn their spin, swing, drives and not get too technical about their body mass index etc?

In a way yes, but then the young age is the best to learn. At ten years you can learn ten languages overnight. Education and knowledge about the game is important. When you play for the country, you have to know all the rules. Today, cricket is not just a bat and ball game. Knowing the rules is important.