Also, lets get a new captain.
By Gaurav Parab | #thatwriterfromindia | @gauravparab |
Better an inquisition after the Melbourne Victory, than a post mortem after Adelaide.
Having no skin in the game lets me to share what the sports-media complex that possibly prevents better writers, experienced observers and past champions from commenting on what should not be commented on. Except for Mr. Gavaskar. The Little Master always had big eh...guts.
Virat Kohli is back home to welcome the birth of his first child. I was fine with it.
I applauded the decision before the Adelaide Test. It was a welcome change for us in India, since culturally we put work before everything including birth, death and sickness of near and dear ones.
And cricket is but a game. A made up set of rules and props where people with otherwise strange non-productive life skills like the ability to hurl 5.75 ounces at speed down a very specific 22 yards find employment and success. At the other end waits another with a three pound wood plank to deflect, hit, cut, drive, pull the said 5.75 ounces around a defined area. It is not a life event on most days. To skip three matches of this to return for the arrival of your first child is fine. I get that. I really do.
Professional Cricket is also a career. An economic activity that has grown to impact millions around the world. When viewed as the sum of all that goes into it, cricket morphs into a serious beast. Lives depend on its conduct for those impacted by its staging, those playing it and those passionate about it.
Test Cricket is also national duty. You may not be defending territory or protecting lives, but you bear a unique responsibility every time you wear an India Jersey in any sport. Unique, for you get to fight for the happiness of your countrymen. And for a simple belief by a citizen that she is a winner in life when her country wins at sport. Fleeting, but a belief nevertheless. Could there be better, bloodless and more noble causes to fight?
It is not a privilege inherited or awarded it is earned. Often by bartering the sacrifices of families and one's childhood. Like that young man, merely 18, who on the day his father died turned up for Delhi in a Ranji game. To play, deal with grief and demonstrate a work ethic which over time has surpassed that of the most obsessed practioners in history.
After that 36th, should the next Indian Test Run come under Virat Kohli's captaincy?
I share this view as I am concerned that apart from Mr. Gavaskar no one has brought it up. Even if the world is different today – with gender harassment, bullying, racism, minority rights and some of our other great plagues rightfully and gradually being chucked out of our lives – there is still some BS masquerading as woke views that tends to shut down objective thinking. This new, and in this case - forced view of thinking scuttles challenging discussions and ignoring the Kohli not in the (dressing) room just after his team got nuked.
Some of you are not going to like this. Listen on.
It is not easy to be selected for the housing society's cricketing team, forget a first class or the Indian Test Team. Less than 300 Indians have played Test cricket for India since 1932. These guys have earned the right due to their hard work, a bit of fortune and the ability to deal with challenges far greater than cricketing skills like winning the favor of selectors at multiple levels. For each of those 300 who made it, there are easily 30 million who had the chops to make it. The India logo, rather the BCCI logo is an honor not to be taken lightly. I am no Orpat Calculator, but statically far, far easier to get into an IIM, an Ivy League College, the space program or headline a Bollywood movie than in the India Test Team.
On the pinnacle that is Test Cricket there is another flight of steps going upwards. The opportunity to play in Australia. A sporting team so intimidating that one wonders if they all do double shifts as undertakers to the careers of visiting cricketers. We go higher, when you factor in the boxing test and MCG. And when all that is ahead is just after Adelaide, you got ask.
Your Team got out for 36 runs. (For those emerging from quarantine or from Maldives THIS REALLY HAPPENED) . What Would you as a Captain Do?
Should Virat Kohli have stayed back? Not for the optics or as a gesture, like a ship’s skipper going down with it humming an old sailor’s tune. But for the truth that he is one of the best batsmen ever not to mention the team captain. The team definitely needs you now more than ever. If you want to be dramatic, the country needs you.
Not a fun fact. Every batting team since World War 2 in Test Cricket has scored more than 36 runs in every innings played. A mountain. Not a molehill.
Returning home is a personal choice as a man. No right, no wrong. But as National Team captain, unless the missus is on an island and you are the only doctor around…
OK, fine. The last sentence is nasty and my fingers did hover over the backspace key for a while. But I retain it in the interest of balance as I did not use the soldier argument. At least yet. Which I will tangentially do now. My Dad missed the birth of both his children as he was away on national duty. We did not hold it against him as much as we did for the delay on not getting a telephone, even if during my birth my Mom was critically ill and written off has a goner. (Yeah. I have been a pain since Day 1). There are millions of others who have dealt with this situation. Including one going through it right now in the India squad.
Different times no doubt, and national duty holds different meanings in different contexts, with circumstances as well as access to choice being different. But the choice Kohli has made while being rightly celebrated for reasons highlighted at the start of this piece, should also be remembered and more importantly noted by the powers in charge. That is all I am saying. Kohli gives no doubt, but he receives manifold. Should organizations have different rules and privileges for folks in different hierarchies ? Is that for the sake of the argument, a woke thing to do?
Virat Kohli, the young man who turned up on the day his father passed away, is not beyond scrutiny or criticism. His continuance as India team captain, independent of this decision to return has to be objectively looked at while using the decision as a trigger to get talk about it.
Make no mistake about it. No one’s career should be impacted for putting family first over your team, but when it comes to situations like post Adelaide, the significance of the rest of the series not only for the team, but for the sport in post pandemic world, how can we bury our heads in the Juhu beach and not have it discussed in the BCCI building ?
Even Virat Kohli, why cant we acknowledge that beyond the fist pumping, random profanities towards the sky , and that ability to chase down targets from depths lower than the Mariana Trench has priorities above his traumatized team. Why cant we toss this in a pot of other demonstrated behaviors – more so recent ones - and the move from whether you want a team captain who will lay everything he has for the team, and to whether he is the best choice we have.
Do we stop the naivety and the free passes given to Kohli like we have to other superstars before him in this day and age when every word, every action, every privilege is open to scrutiny?
The moment Kohli publicly stated his confusion about Rohit Sharma’s participation, showing absolute juvenility and clear malice from a Test captain to his star performer - WebEx sessions between selectors, management and Dada should have been set up with 12345 as password for quick and urgent access.
The list of those that have been Kohlied is distinguished and grows. Starting with Anil Kumble. A man who has won more matches for India than even the great Tendulkar, the country's highest wicket-taker and that simultaneous bearer of a cricket ball and a broken jaw. Anil KUMBLE! No less, got elbowed out for not getting along with Kohli. Who can have a problem with Anil Kumble ? Even the traffic around Anil Kumble Circle follows rules and self disciplines.
R Ashwin, one of India’s greatest match-winners gets sidelined across formats for strange reasons. Jadeja - the leading Test All rounder since 2016 - becomes a visiting cricketer to the team. Suryakumar Yadav, a young deserving aspirant gets stared down for having the gall to stare back in a competitive situation. Fans are asked to leave the country for criticism by their own captain, and then Mr. Gavaskar is targeted by the machine behind Kohli for a non-offensive jestfull comment.
Have the invisible MBA types, agencies, brand managers in Team Kohli that powerful to bully BCCI - our main battle tank? Not only eyebrows should be raised at this pattern of behavior, but eyes opened.
Kohli has shown clear cognitive biases in preferring Mini Kohlis in the playing eleven. The perception today is every guy has to have a six pack, the same agent, a tattoo, crack the yo- yo test, grow an annoying modern beard, or play for RCB to represent India. This shows a complete lack of understanding of the history of successful teams who had strong, distinct individuals with personalities and methods of their own and a captain who celebrated the differences. Dada, Waugh, Steve Waugh, Ranatunga, Imran Khan and above all Dhoni are great examples of leaders who managed to inspire performances from both superstars and average players.
Team tinkering for the sake of tinkering, over thinking, friction with other stars, the irritating reverence of a few like ABD, Dhoni and that inevitable pushback to criticism are warning bells that have wrung out time and again calling for missing trophies in spite of the generational talent available in the selection pool.
The media stilts holding up Captain Kohli, along with his own solid record so far as India's most successful Test Captain have put a shield around him and we run the danger of losing a generation of champions who will return home without any championships.
Kohli has made a difficult choice of putting family first. The cricket team will benefit the most from similar maturity in cricketing matters by him. No doubt, Kohli is more man than most men. But the recent past shows Kohli is not the best Leader of Men available. The miracle win at Melbourne under Rahane – who has as much steel as Virat, and whose record has unfairly been scrutinized is one candidate right in front of us. A guy who marshals youngsters and inspires them through a better work environment and by not referring to the sisters and mothers of strangers should be considered.
Then there is Rohit Sharma, proving time and again why he is the real inheritor of Dhoni’s astuteness in the shorter formats but getting the C against his name only when Kohli is taking a break.
What do you think? I hope the BCCI is thinking too.