IT is a war of anonymous sources. Top Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials have described as "complete nonsense" reports that the Board is about to relieve Sachin Tendulkar of the Indian captaincy. "Whoever thinks Sachin is losing his skills as a batsman is blind. And whoever thinks skippers are picked at the 'Board level' doesn't know how the game is run," a source says on condition of 'anonymity'.
"The Board hasn't made a decision. In fact, no decision can be made by the Board. It's the prerogative of the selectors," adds BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur. "We don't even know if the report is authentic." Agrees Ramakant Desai, chairman of the national selection committee: "How can an anonymous national selector get rid of Sachin even if he wants to? It takes at least three selectors to do so."
Doing that now, as Dilip Sardesai points out in his Rediff-on-the-Net column, is next to impossible: "After beating Pakistan 4-1 in Toronto, and losing 1-2 in Pakistan, Sachin's got a 5-3 record against our archrivals." Moreover, says the BCCI source, the captain and the team for the upcoming Sri Lanka series will be picked in Chennai on November 6 after the general body of the BCCI meets. "Forget Sachin's fate. This is the end of the anonymous selector." But, as cricket writer Hemant Kenkre points out, the report has added to the confusion, mistrust and suspicion of a 24-year-old captain already bent double with the expectations of millions of arm-chair critics. "Manoj Prabhakar (who alleged in an Outlook article in June that he had been offered Rs 25 lakh by an anonymous player to throw away a match against Pakistan) has done more damage to journalism than cricket," adds the BCCI source.
But Desai's 'anonymous' selectors have been a godsend at a time when mammon-worshipping players have been diving under the Board's "code of conduct" to evade speaking without a cheque in hand.
Desai says BCCI secretary J.Y. Lele has been asked to trace the latest leak: "It's possible to find out whodunit. After all, we are just five of us." But Lele denied he was planning to meet the selectors individually.
There's no dispute, yet, about Sachin's batting. Sure, the average is down from 54.92 to 45.27 in Tests and from 39.37 to 36.18 in one-dayers after he donned the mantle. Sure, he has not been his usual flamboyant self. "He is reaching for the ball instead of letting it come to him. That's why he's cutting off the front foot and slashing uppishly," says Sardesai, tipped to replace Desai as the representative from the West Zone.
Everybody agrees Sachin's record is a good example that great cricketers don't always make great captains. But as Tiger Pataudi told Amrit Mathur: "The win percentages of Indian captains since Nari Contractor have remained fairly static but for Ajit Wadekar." Sachin's no whizkid captain, but having handed him the baton at 24, without a good bowling attack, when he was far from the finished article, give him his due.
Consider: He's played tough series abroad all year. He's never had a settled side: only five have survived his '96 Sahara Cup side. He's never had Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad at peak form together. "Minus the full bowling strength, a captain cannot be judged," says E.A.S. Prasanna.
Even so, India narrowly missed winning the last Test in South Africa, narrowly missed winning the Barbados Test in the Caribbean, lost the one-dayers 1-3 which could well have been 2-2; drew the Tests in Sri Lanka and should've won two of the first three one-dayers. Toronto 4-1. Pakistan 1-2.
"Post-Lanka, Sachin's going through his brightest patch as captain, and team morale is at a new high," says H. Natarajan, sports editor, The Indian Express, Mumbai. "It's unlikely any selector would contemplate a change now." Chimes in Brijesh Patel, tipped to replace Shivlal Yadav as the South Zone representative: "We aren't winning, OK, we are improving. The team just needs a bit of luck." And Robin Singh told Saisuresh Sivaswamy in an Internet interview: "Despite so many changes, Sachin has done fantastically,"
"Unseating Sachin would be foolish and harmful," says Sardesai. "Even if the captaincy is taken away, it will have to be returned to him in a couple of seasons." Moreover who do you replace him with? Azhar? "Azhar as captain and Jadeja vice-captain—both under the matchfixing cloud?" asks Vedam Jaishankar of The Indian Express. "At least, the team gets along well with Sachin. As soon as Azhar was out of the field, he would closet himself with Sangeeta Bijlani."
Captaining is a tough job if you are 24—or 42. With a home series on designer pitches coming up, results will follow. But as Pataudi says, there's a special difficulty in leading India and Pakistan: "We make them Gods or drop them in the gutter."
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