Staying true to his straight-talking, combative demeanour, India head coach Gautam Gambhir resolutely fought the corner of one of his players – Harshit Rana – and once again defended his decision-making in the face of criticism from a prominent former player.
Speaking at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground on Tuesday after India’s seven-wicket victory over West Indies to sweep the Test series 2-0, without taking names, Gambhir took aim at K Srikkanth for targeting Rana after the former World Cup winner and former India chief selector criticised the inclusion of the Delhi pacer in the squad that is travelling to Australia for three ODIs later this week.
“Look, it’s a little shameful, and I’ll be honest with you. It’s unfair that you are not even sparing a 23-year-old kid to run your YouTube channels. It’s unfair because, after all, his father is not some ex-chairman, an ex-cricketer, or an NRI,” Gambhir told reporters here. “Whatever cricket he has played, he has played on his own merit, and in the future too, he will play on his own merit.”
In a video on his YouTube channel, Srikanth had said: “Best is to be like Harshit Rana and be a constant yes-man to Gambhir to be selected. There is only one permanent member – Harshit Rana. Nobody knows why he is there in the team. You don’t pick someone irrespective if they do well and take others even if they don’t.”
Gambhir took issue with Srikkanth’s comments because he believes that the criticism was not an appraisal of his performances, but instead personal in nature, which was unfounded and led to a lot of online vitriol. Rana, Gambhir says, may be too young to deal with that kind of pressure.
“Targeting someone individually is not fair. You can target someone for their performance, and for that, there are people… there are selectors,” he said.
“But when you say such things to a 23-year-old kid, and then social media amplifies it even more, just imagine his mindset when he hears all this. Tomorrow, even your kid could end up playing for the country. The least one can do is realise that he is not 33 years old; he is just 23. You can criticise me; I can handle it. But a 23-year-old boy is a 23-year-old boy, and this is unacceptable,” the Indian head coach added.
Gambhir would appeal to members of the cricket cognoscenti, as well as the spectators following the game, to understand their “moral responsibility” towards Indian cricket when commenting on the team. “Target their performance, not the individual,” he said.
Rana has already represented India in all three formats, making his international debut in Perth last November at the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, then featuring in ODIs and T20Is at the start of this year against England.
While the timing of Gambhir’s offensive towards a former player may look odd after India’s composed and dominant series victory over the West Indies, it was not the first time the India coach has felt like he needs to defend himself and hit back at criticism from former players.
Earlier this year, in his column for Sportstar, India great Sunil Gavaskar had questioned Gambhir for not taking an equal share of prize money with his fellow coaching staff members from India’s Champions Trophy-winning campaign, like his predecessor Rahul Dravid had done after the T20 World Cup. It was a fairly innocuous and arguably unnecessary dig at the India head coach, but Gambhir hit back, again feeling like the nature of the criticism was personal.
“It’s people’s job to criticise me, and they should criticise. But there are some people who have been sitting in the commentary box for 20-25 years. They questioned everything I did. They think that Indian cricket is their property. Unfortunately, Indian cricket is not someone’s property. It is the identity of 140 crore Indians and it will remain that way. They questioned my coaching, my records, my concussions and even my prize money,” he said at a summit organised by ABP News back in May, again without taking names.
“Rather than questioning where I have given money, the country should question those who have been NRIs, check in at immigration at 11:55 pm, and stay 180 days abroad for retaining NRI status. I don’t need to tell this country where I am using my money,” he had said.
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