3 November, 2000

G'day, folks....

By now, you've probably read, maybe even re-read, the CBI report.

And been suitably depressed.

Me too. Only, I am not too depressed about the naming of Azhar and Jadeja and Mongia and possibly Sidhu as well -- we've known it was coming, for some time now, haven't we?. Or even the naming of a few international players -- the argument that corruption was a purely Indian phenomenon has always seemed to me myopic.

No, what got under my skin was a little incident reported by the CBI which, given the glam names figuring elsewhere in those 162 pages, might have escaped close attention.

It relates to a Ranji Trophy fixture between Delhi and Bombay. Apparently, some of the Delhi lads were due to play English county cricket (and remember, here, that since none of them were top rung stars, they weren't even playing the premier circuit, merely the lower leagues). Had they beaten Bombay, they would have had to stay back and play the subsequent rounds, which would have entailed that they missed the English outing. So they tanked -- or, as some of the players so coyly put it when deposing before the CBI, they didn't "show interest in winning."

So much for our premier domestic tournament. A side that has won the trophy can, collectively, tank because it can't be bothered trying to win it again. Next time we wonder why young talent is not coming through, maybe we should remember this little incident?

Someone once said, peanut prizes can attract only monkey contestants. By the same token, if the BCCI is only prepared to pay Ranji players a mere 4000 bucks per game (heck, a reasonably fit guy can earn more renting himself out to move loads in the local dockyard), why should anyone take it seriously?

Then again, why blame the BCCI alone? If the game mattered to the players, they would then play for the sheer love of it, for the pleasure of performing, wouldn't they?

While on this, did you read a report, the other day, which said that Steve Waugh wanted to make the 2003 World Cup his swansong? In that story, there is a little paragraph worth quoting:

"The fire's definitely there. I loved playing (club cricket) for Bankstown recently," he said. "I made nought, played on a ground covered in chook (chicken) manure, which smelt pretty ordinary, but when we had the opportunity to win I got pretty excited."

Huh? Steve Waugh -- enshrined as Wisden's Cricketer of the Year, inscribed in the record books as the man who led Australia on a record-breaking win spree -- still has enough hunger in him to turn out for an ordinary club game on a chickenshit ground. The man who has flattened the best that the rest of the world has thrown against his side, still finds the hunger to win sufficiently fierce, that he gets excited at the prospect of a little club -- HIS little club -- finding itself in a winning position.

Here is a man who, at his age, can be forgiven for taking it easy during the off season, resting his limbs and his mind for the tough tasks ahead. A man who can be excused for taking it easy when he can, because he has his sights set on playing at the highest level for three more years, at least. And what does he do?

You know.

Now look around you at the members of the Indian team, on whom we spend so much time and money and emotion. Can you name one single player who would turn out for a no-account game for an insignficant club on a rare day off, simply because he is fuelled by the burning desire to compete, to excel, on any stage he can find? Even if that stage is covered in chickenshit?

No?

Well -- now you, and I, know why some people are destined to win, while others seem forever doomed to lose.

On that thought.... Stay safe, and smiling, all....

Prem

Mail Cricket Editor