Board Of No Control

"IMG to hold back payment to BCCI for failing to send full-strength team to Toronto." "Azhar says the team will do well in Toronto next year if there's no Commonwealth Games." "Non-serious Indian cricket 'professionals' are dampening Olympic spirit, says Suresh Kalmadi."

"BCCI announces Rs 16 crore surplus. Team flies back from Toronto to Delhi after 26-hour journey, leaves for Harare within 24 hours because London-Harare tickets are expensive."

ALL in a month's work for the BCCI, the headlines on your left capture in a microcosm all that is wrong with Indian cricket today—and has been for some time: illogical selections, cramped scheduling, crass commercialisation, poor professionalism, misplaced priorities, stunning stinginess, even plain subterfuge. All of it is hidden under the miasma of moolah the Board is rolling in, and the team's winning run this year. But now that Kuala Lumpur and Toronto have happened in the space of a week, will we wake up? Or wait till we get walloped in World Cup '99?

How BCCI is playing havoc with careers?

Consider: 45 players have represented the country in 101 one-day matches in the last 33 months in a Board-okayed pick and pan scheme that beats all logic—and has beaten the confidence out of our best. The selectors have chopped and changed with such fury, with the board's okay in a naked dance of inefficiency and powerplay, all in the name of "building a core group of 60", that forget the Commonwealth, we can send teams to NAM, NATO and ASEAN all at the same time and achieve the same result.

When continuity, aimed at creating a team that knows its strengths and weaknesses, is the name of the international game, the outgoing chief of selectors, Kishen Rungta, calls the mayhem the biggest achievement of the five wise men: "We have created a situation where any player doing well in domestic cricket believes he has a chance of getting into the national side." In the process, the bright sparks have been snuffed out. Rahul Dravid, who mauled Alan Donald in a one-dayer in South Africa and was the best batsman on sight in the first Sahara Cup, scored 1, 9, 18 and 4 in the four matches this year. Dropped for "slow" batting, picked and shuffled around (as the selectors found virtues galore in V.V.S. Laxman and Hrishikesh Kanitkar) the cracks are on The Wall. Lucky to be retained, Zimbabwe is Dravid's last chance to redeem himself before the World Cup. "It's tough," Dravid told journalist Ashish Shukla for 'Rediff on the Net'. "I don't know what comes next."

That insecurity has already claimed Venkatesh Prasad. Ceat International Cricketer of the Year not long ago, Prasad—like Anil Kumble, Sunil Joshi and Dodda Ganesh—first paid the price for Karnataka taking Inder Singh Bindra's side in his battle with ICC chief Jagmohan Dalmiya for the BCCI last year, although their own performances didn't help. Then, as captain of the Board President's XI against Australia, he committed the ultimate sin: he won the toss and decided to bat first. The selectors wanted him to bowl so they could see how fit he was.

With the Karnataka association splitting, and Debashis Mohanty being picked for Kuala Lumpur, Prasad got the ticket to Toronto. But with the Damocles' sword hanging on him all the time—thanks to the selectors' confidence in speedsters of the calibre of Mohanty and Harvinder Singh—he seemed to have forgotten all the tricks in Toronto. The swing, the sting, the line, the length, even the slower one. "Haven't these selectors ever heard of bowlers who hunt in pairs?" asked Geoffrey Boycott, of Javagal Srinath's most potent partner. Never the most economical (the punishment for bowling the final overs), Prasad conceded 252 runs in the five games. Dropped for Zimbabwe, future uncertain.

How the Board is insensitive: Nothing, though, matches Sunil Joshi's case. After initial promise, the lefthander had never quite fulfilled his title of an all-rounder although he continued to do well in domestic cricket. Not even among the 18 probables chosen for the conditioning camp in Chennai, Joshi was among the six later called on by the Board, when it seemed the government would step in to ensure participation in Kuala Lumpur.

After the first three games in Toronto, it seemed the bad run would continue. But Joshi came back spectacularly in the final two games. Then tragedy: the squad for Zimbabwe had already been announced. "Sunny, can't the selectors show more sensitivity," Boycott asked Gavaskar on air. With just a 24-hour stopover in Delhi between Toronto and Harare, there was no other option, explained the great man.

There is no such sympathy—just insensitivity—for a whole lot of others consumed in the quicksand of selectorial whims. Abey Kuruvilla, who filled the breach manfully in the West Indies when Srinath was not around, has been forgotten while Mohanty and Harvinder set the turfs 'ablaze'. Rajesh Chauhan, cleared by the ICC for "chucking" after the BCCI got him to bowl with just his banian on, has had to watch the likes of Kanitkar, Noel David, Aashish Kapoor and Sanjay Raul twirl their arms.

Also forgotten: Praveen Amre and Vinod Kambli, Saba Karim and Nilesh Kulkarni. Never even considered: Amol Majumdar and Sridharan Shar-ath. Wonder that will never cease: Sujit Somasunder and Vikram Rathore and Pankaj Dharmani. Inexperienced selectors? Vindictive selectors? "Arre," says Rungta. "Even a paan-wallah can pick a team. But he will pick from known names. Would the average person have picked Harbhajan Singh?"

How the Board is caught in a pincer: In a way, the selectors' merry dance fits well with the Board's scheme of things. The turnaround in its fortunes from a Rs 81 lakh deficit six years ago to a Rs 16 crore surplus this year, thanks to TV and sponsors, comes at a price. And it is paid by spreading the cake thin and wide. And fast. In the last three years, India has played 30 per cent of all international matches played by the nine Test-playing nations. Given the varied interests at work, dirt is bound to fly. Little wonder, when the IMG was said to be holding back $400,000 to BCCI for this year's Sahara Cup, for failing to send a "top team" to Toronto, even somebody as clean as Sachin Tendulkar had to state, "Neither I nor anybody with whom I am associated, has anything to do with the selection of the India team."

Besides, given the polarisation of the BCCI into the Bindra and Dalmiya camps (17-13 last year, 27-3 this year), it has become essential to reward loyalty. Office-bearers of state associations strut around as selectors. Friendly associations get matches and managerships on tours. Carrots are thrown at friendly umpires. Masala matches organised with the help of friends for others. Not quite cricket.

How the Board has forgotten the future: Upon their election two years ago, BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur and secretary J.Y. Lele said a cricket academy was their immediate priority. And promptly forgot about it. They remembered it again. Before their re-election last year. Yet, in spite of a 16 crore profit this year, in spite of a Rs 17 crore profit last year, in spite of a Rs 23 crore profit the year before....

And in spite of getting Rs 22 lakh from Wills in logo fees for every Test staged, Rs 17 lakh for every one-dayer, and Rs 67 lakh for every Test from Pepsi in sponsorship and Rs 47 lakh per one-dayer, and in spite of other humungous earnings in TV rights and guarantee money from staging associations, a cricket academy, where youngsters can be readied for the global arena, and older ones rectified, remains a dream.

Result: in spite of the imposing roster of players unlike Pakistan, we are still searching for a paceman to partner Srinath. We are still searching for a quality one-day all-rounder, both Robin Singh and Kanitkar being handicapped in one of their specialities. We are still looking for an opener, Mongia remains a makeshift. We are still searching for a spinner to team up with Kumble.

How the Board gets away: An endless cricket season ensures nobody pays notice to the creases. The theory: The loss in Kuala Lumpur and Toronto will be offset by the wins in Zimbabwe, and then things will be the same all over again. Hasn't a success rate of a mere 33 per cent in 115 matches last year climbed to 60 per cent in 84 matches this year? Public memory is short.

So Bobby Simpson appointed six months ago has only just had a conditioning, not a full-fledged camp. The next one is scheduled for January '99. If that doesn't happen, it will be in April which will clash with Sharjah. If that does happen, he will accompany the team to World Cup. Then, we will sit and wonder what went wrong.