Lessons for the learning

Prem Panicker

IT is Thursday -- the day of Thor, god of thunder and lightning. But here, the weather is set fair, and I can safely promise you that what follows is also mild and clement, just like the weather. No thunder, no lightning -- just another day's ration of thoughts....

...Like, if you live in an city in India, you will notice that every second person seems to be collecting, in cash and kind, for the relief of the victims of the Gujarat earthquake. Some are bonafide, some not. This morning, for instance, I noticed that Lion's Club International has pressed into service the entire student body of one particular Mumbai school. They were present at street corners and traffic lights, coaxing and cajoling motorists to give of their plenty. And quite a good thing it is, too, to involve kids this way -- while the coins and odd currency note falling into their boxes might be a drop in the limitless ocean of loss suffered by Gujarat, spending a day working for the cause will, hopefully, teach the young ones to empathise, teach them too that sorrow, grief, and loss are universal, that disaster knows no boundaries.

I am afraid I can't say the same for the BCCI, though. Or is it that I have in time learnt to mistrust that body, no matter what they do? You have, I presume, read this news story, wherein a BCCI vice-president proposes to hold a benefit match for the victims of the quake. As it stands, the Indian board has after much heartburn sorted out a major goof in scheduling of the Australian tour -- an issue reported in depth on this site. And now, just when the calendar has fallen into place, comes this proposal for an additional match.

One way of looking at it is to think that this is evidence that the BCCI has a heart, that it does empathise with issues other than cricket. Another way of looking at it would be to think that for the BCCI, any excuse to organise a cricket match is good enough. It is pertinent, too, that the offer has come from a member of the Delhi District Cricket Association -- Delhi, you will recall, was originally slated to host a one day game involving the Aussies, but that fell through. Then the BCCI planned to give it the warm-up game between Australia and Ranji champions Bombay -- but Raj Singh Dungarpur, as head of the CCI, raised holy hell and insisted that his body not be deprived of a game. In the final analysis, Delhi lost out on hosting any event of significance during the upcoming tour. Could it be, that cynical imp inside of my head asks, that this fact is behind Delhi's eagerness to do something for the quake victims?

Maybe that is an injustice. But still, it strikes me that if the Board really had the interests of the Gujarat people at heart, it would have unilaterally announced that a 20, or 25, per cent share of all profits to be made during the forthcoming Aussie tour, Tests and ODIs both, will be handed over to the Gujarat administration to be employed in earthquake relief operations. That would have been a gesture worth applauding. The proposal to hold an extra match, however, tells me only this -- that no matter how noble the cause, the BCCI will not countenance losing a single penny of its profits.

In fact, why only the BCCI? Our cricketers could with profit learn that lesson, too. At an individual level, they have contributed when people and organisations have asked them for help. But in the face of a calamity of this magnitude, should the cricketers not have immediately come forward to mobilise public support -- given that their voice resonates loudest with the general public? Could the cricketers not have immediately donated autographed bats and other memorabilia, for a nationwide auction? Could the cricketers of each state not have gone in a body to various parts of their own cities, exhorting the people to contribute? Could they not have donated a bit of their time, and their energies?

You know those kids, sweating in the daytime heat of Bombay all day today, shaking their tin cans in the face of onrushing traffic? The BCCI and the cricketers could learn a lesson from them -- to wit, the truly generous are those who give of themselves.

...MOVING on, to a news item that both delights, and depresses. It has to do with the question of zonal selection. Now, each time this is brought up, the BCCI responds with a lot of blah about how India is such a vast country, it is not possible to have a centralised selection panel because of the logistical difficulties, and so on and so forth.

Which is why I was interested to read, the other day, that the Women's Cricket Association of India has done away with zonal selection altogether, and introduced instead a three-member panel comprising Sreerupa Bose, Shanta Rangaswamy and Diana Eduljee -- players, all, of proven credentials and credibility. Appointed for a two-year term, which right there does away with the kind of politicking we see among the members of the men's selection committee.

The statement put out by the WCAI is significant: "Having five selectors from each zone was creating problems as each selector gave preference to the players from that particular zone."

Simple, isn't it? They recognise a problem, they figure out the solution, they implement it. No fuss.

It would be equally simple to implement a similar system on the men's side -- after all, former cricketers and cricket experts have been arguing for a three-member, non-zonal, panel for years now. But to do so, there is one thing that is required -- the will to work for the good of the game. A commodity, unfortunately, that is in short supply among the motley crew that now runs Indian cricket.

...And finally, an aside. Did you read that news item, about the felicitation accorded to Saurav Ganguly? Apparently, a silver plaque and shawl were handed over to the Indian skipper, who in his acceptance speech said, "Any honour from Calcutta is always dear to me, especially as I have grown up in this city."

All well and good, but what caused my eyebrows to lift a touch was the identity of the body doing the felicitation -- namely, the Umpires of the Cricket Association of Bengal.

Umpires felicitating a player? Does that stick in your craw, a touch?

Design: Devyani Chandwarkar
Illustration: Dominic Xavier