A Timely Call

The day has finally come! Ah, those ugly on-side shots are gone! The fielding standard of the Indians are once again up to the mark! And oh yeah, of course, the captain won’t speak much! Even if he does it won’t make much sense.

Sourav Ganguly has decided to call it a day as far as international cricket is concerned. With that, a mysterious and one of the most colourful episodes of Indian cricket has come to an end. Mysterious because in spite of being the second highest run scorer for India in one-day cricket, in spite of being the most successful captain of India as far as Test wins are concerned and in spite of being the proud owner of 15 Test hundreds, he’s been at the receiving end of attacks from all quarters, the reasons best known to the attackers.

The senior-junior debate has been going on in Indian cricket for quite sometime now. While clubbing Sachin, Rahul, Kumble, Laxman and Dada together and calling them seniors or veterans is a politically correct move, one fails to understand why Sourav was always the prime target of everyone! The prodigal VVS Laxman has managed a meager 2338 runs from 86 ODIs at an average of 30.76 with 6 hundreds over a decade (he made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in April, 1998) but he’s still a prodigy! Pundits never bothered to show us fans, the logic behind fielding a prodigy in only 86 ODIs in 10 years. One look at the video clippings of the famous final group league match against the Kangaroos at Sharjah in 1998 though exposes the prodigy. When Sachin was wrongly given out, India was agonizingly close to a memorable victory. But the prodigious Laxman struggled hard to get there without success. Still, he is a prodigy and the man who taught the toddlers to walk is a bad influence. Well, was. He won’t be corrupting the dressing room anymore.

It was interesting to see those reactions pouring in right after the announcement. Everyone from Javagal Srinath to Kiran More suddenly remembered what a great player Sourav Ganguly was! The same Kiran More, whose only claim to fame during his playing days was that he successfully instigated Javed Miandad once. The same Kiran More, who had announced in public that Sourav would never be called back to the Indian squad when he was the chairman of the selectors. That’s okay. If there is no better candidate than More to head the selection panel, then it does give him a right to speak. But what one fails to understand is what did he have against Ganguly? And whatever he had, where and how did that disappear the moment Sourav announced his retirement?

To Sourav’s credit, he’s decided to be the one to put an end to all the humiliation that he definitely didn’t deserve and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect! By announcing his retirement before the series, he’s made sure that the selectors would pick him for the last two Tests against the Aussies (the current squad is only for the first two) and he has now successfully pushed the ball to others’ courts. The first Test is over and the highest run-getter for India in that Test was Sourav Ganguly. It’s anybody’s guess what exactly would the other ‘seniors’ be going through right now. More importantly, what are the selectors thinking now? Anil Kumble has announced that the Bangalore Test against the Aussies was his last at home. So, a premature skipper’s cap for Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Tests? And what would be the future middle-order? Rahul Dravid in spite of his technical brilliance doesn’t justify the wall tag anymore and it’s clear that Sachin Tendulkar only has personal goals in mind at this point in time. Next is England at home in December. Doesn’t sound threatening considering the opponents and the venues. But permanent solutions will have to be found shortly. The one who would be gearing up to answer all those whom he had to ignore for so long is of course Sourav Ganguly. And we all know that he can speak. More fun in store for the Indian cricket administrators! Both on and off the field.

League gropes in the dark

Merely two days before the start of the I-League, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi painted a very sorry figure of Indian soccer.
Little over 17 months since FIFA president Joseph Blatter's first official visit to India (April 2007) with an apparent vision to take India to the next level, Football Federation president Dasmunshi and secretary Alberto Colaco were caught on the wrong foot during a press conference to launch the second I-League in Delhi on Wednesday.
Underprepared stadiums, shoddy preparation, a league committee sans a CEO and a hilarious fixture were some of the issues that emerged at a time when Indian football's bigwigs are talking about professionalism.
Leave alone "experimental" matches at the Cooperage in Mumbai, the fixtures abruptly end after the first leg. The reason for the 45-day break between the two halves of the I-League is another tournament (Federation Cup from December 4-23) and a national camp (January 2-10).
Other issues downplayed by Dasmunshi were selecting Barasat as a venue over the international class Salt Lake Stadium for five matches in the first leg, including the opener on September 26 between East Bengal and Chirag United. "Deployment of police is a problem at the Salt Lake Stadium", was all that Dasmunshi would say, without explaining how security arrangement would be any easier at Barasat, considering the fact that both areas are under West Bengal Police.
Dasmunshi added that similar arrangements were in place for the matches in Mumbai too. DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai is the "most expensive" option, and even Kolhapur is being considered as alternate venues to Cooperage. Colaco revealed that matches could be transferred to "neutral venues." He neither wanted to name these venues nor explain the reason why matches would be required to play there.
Sponsor of the I-League, oil major ONGC has also cut down the total expenditure from Rs 7 to 6 crore. This has been attributed to the "global oil crisis". However, the league will have prize money of Rs 10 lakh for the fourth-best team. The winners will take home Rs 50 lakh, the runners-up Rs 28 lakh and the third team Rs 20 lakh. The total prize money will be Rs 1.25 crore this year. The 132-match league is expected to be over in April.
Whether it was financial support for the clubs who need it, scholarship for footballers or infrastructural support for the national team that has qualified for the 2011 Asia Cup after 24 years, the AIFF president is urging corporate houses to come forward. He revealed that a separate project has been launched for the Asia Cup and a deal is expected to be clinched by next week with a corporate major in this regard, though he refused to divulge details on the progress.
When asked about the 400,000 USD grant announced by Blatter for India last year, in addition to the 1 million USD grant that every associate member gets, Dasmunshi said: "The FIFA grant is for separate purposes such as astro-turfs and getting foreign coaches and professionals."
Dasmunshi was rather candid in admitting that spotting talent, introducing football in schools and similar measures were not among the federation's concerns. He though talked about the federation's optimism about following the ‘EPL module' in conducting the I-League! There are miles to go, of course.
Blatter had talked about his motto ‘Win in India with India' and had also reemphasized India's growing importance in this part of the world. The Asian Football Confederation president Mohammad Bin Hammam had talked about how India played a crucial part in his Vision Asia project. And together, they had talked about the AIFF following their vision to lead India to the 2018 World Cup.
On Wednesday, the AIFF president asked the media "not to expect what Japan could achieve in three years from India in even five years". The second I-League would be on the AFC radar. If the AIFF fails to conduct the league professionally, following guidelines laid down by them, it may cost the country a Champions League berth. The AFC Challenge Cup heroics by Bob Houghton and his bravehearts will only go down the drain.