Will India be handicapped without Anil Kumble ?
Kumble’s operation may “injure” India !
By Vimal Kumar

Will he ? Won’t he ? Perhaps, he will…..!! But, finally all the speculation –regarding Anil Kumble’s availability against the much-hyped Australian series, is over. Now, it’s official that our most powerful weapon against the unstoppable Aussies won’t be playing in the coming high-profile series. And to say that Indian fans' worst fear came true, would be an understatement. To put it bluntly, everybody is shocked to hear that  Anil won’t be playing in the coming series, starting from February this year.

Kumble’s unavailability might not have come as a bolt from the blue for captain Sourav Ganguly and Coach John Wright but it can be easily understandable that it has done incalculable damage to India’s strategy against Australia. The Captain and Coach must be ruing Kumble’s absence because Anil has always been a major factor in India’s win in Test matches, especially at home. His formidable record against the Aussies in home can’t be simply ignored. 32 wickets in just 4 Test matches - this kind of statistic was enough to give a nightmare to even the best of the Aussies’ batsmen, before they land their foot on the Indian soil.

Sadly, now Aussies must be feeling relieved and their confidence level, which is already sky-high, must have increased further. As for India, Kumble is Sine Qua non  and his replacement would be an arduous job for the selectors. Having said all that, one should not forget that Cricket is such a beautiful game that it has never relied on any individual . So, Indian cricket has to move on and one can only wish that someone should come with prodigious talent and make sure that Anil’s absence won’t be felt.

Have We Seen It All?
Is BCCI trying to protect someone?
By S. Zeyaur Rahman

Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but so that the horses may not be stolen. This is an age-old dictum, which has stood the test of time. This is what we mean by exemplary punishment, or to borrow a more fashionable word, that it should serve as an effective deterrence.

The seemingly unending match fixing saga is nearing its climax. The guilty have been identified finally. It is a ridiculous statement because; their identity was never in doubt in the first place. The law took its own course (Justice Chandrachud Committee and later CBI). Not satisfied with that, The BCCI took its own course (Madhavan Report). As if that was not enough, there was a General Body Meeting. And at the end of this long and tiresome process, one single concrete action is yet to be taken.

What is that withholds the BCCI from taking a solid step? Perhaps it has not forgotten the humiliation at the hands of the Supreme Court, when it had to literally chew its words and revoke the ban on six players. Under a democratic set up, the process is definitely lengthy and it does require a lot of patience to reach the end.

The Board President Mr A C Muthaiah went on record saying that the players would not be punished. The logic provided was that other boards (ACB) had let off their players, so why should we be unduly harsh on our players. The same person was advocating exemplary punishment for the culprits, in view of the larger interests of the game. When the time to deliver came, he wanted to give the players a chance to defend themselves and was later talking o contributions and services of these players to Indian cricket.

It is not even a case of ideological dichotomy. It is sheer shoddiness, lethargic and lackadaisical approach, which is so characteristic of the BCCI. I do not recount a single instance, where the board had taken a rigid stance and stuck to it. It proposes a measure, only to recant, it takes a step, which it is not legally qualified to or at it worst, does not have enough guts to execute it.

There are umpteen examples to illustrate the above statements. What can be more revealing than the Board sending emergency orders to not to include a player, which it itself had chosen a couple of days back. Is not the board aware of the players that it is selecting?

Let us come to the core issue - that is of the nature of punishment to be awarded to the players. Out of the five only Azharuddin has 'serious charges'. It is funny that even the most serious of the charges may not be able to hold water in court. Azhar's acts only 'tantamount' to match fixing and there is no provision for that under the Indian Penal Code. Any ruling based on these charges can very well be contested and the board may and up being sued.

According to its own laws, the Board can ban a player for a period between one to five years, which has a provision for reconsideration and can be subsequently revoked etc. One can understand the lack of teeth in our laws. But one cannot understand the wavering attitude and the fickle mindedness of the Board.

Among the other four, Ajay Sharma is a non-entity as far as cricket is concerned where as Mnaoj Prabhakar and Nayan Mongia have ceased to be people who matter. It is only Jadeja, whose career will be mostly affected in case of an adverse judgment.

It is as if by hands of destiny that all efforts are being made to save this man. Even in Azhar's case the board has tried its best to find out some loophole through which its longest serving captain could escape. It is Azhar's misfortune that even on the face value of the charges against him, the man cannot be spared.

The very clandestine and hesitant manner of the proceedings give rise to suspicions and are discouraging to people, who were eager to see an honest effort, which would get rid of the malice. Why is the Board so magnanimously forgiving, where strict actions are warranted, if not for ulterior motives?

Despite all the prima facie evidences and 'logically proved' malpractice, the Vice President feels that there was more corruption in the CBI than in cricket. Not even Narasimha Rao leveled such a charge against the CBI. And a former Board president is still ready to believe in the integrity of 'our' players rather than nay bookie. This is not a case of rushing the filth under the carpet but a case of turning a blind eye to the filth, the carpet et al.

I wonder what ends the Board will achieve through its wavering approach and what larger interests it has in mind. Recent events have forced everyone to be skeptic. Then is it impossible that the Board is trying to protect people who are its very own? Or in the worst case is the Board itself hand in league with the filth? After all who had expected icons like Azhar and Kapil to have truck with bookies? And was not the house of the ICC President raided in connection with some financial irregularities?

So could it be that the next time we tape a telephone, it turns out to be…!

 Time to think ahead 
By Vimal Kumar

Verbal bravado has always been a way of life in a country like India. And the Indian cricket captain has been involved in one of these brave talks when he said that India’s pace attack, comprising Srinath, Prasad, Agarkar, and Zaheer Khan are as good as Pakistanis.

What one saw after that brave statement was the thrashing that the Indian team got at the hands of Jayasuriya and his team? Fortunately, at Dhaka where his team had to play the minnows, Bangladesh. Ganguly tried to put his words into action, so he played with three pacers on a batting track. The outcome was a mixed one.

But the very next weak, the first test against Zimbabwe, Sourav chose to play with two spinners. Not a bad decision really. But it was shocking to go defensive against a team like Zimbabwe, India dropped its fastest and perhaps- the liveliest of all among the present lot to accommodate V. V. S. Laxman.

If India can’t play with five bowlers against Zimbabwe, that too, in home, where it will? In Australia or in South Africa! One doesn’t expect this kind of decision from an aggressive captain- who always emphasizes on positive attitude. When India has three top class batsmen in Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly and player like Ramesh who is averaging above 50, it is bizarre to play with an extra batsman. Also, India possesses a good lower order bat in the form of Dahiya, Agarkar and Joshi.

By playing an extra batsman, we not only gave an undeserving respect to the Zimbabweans new ball attack, but also sent negative signals. It was the fiery Zaheer Khan along with the sensational Yuvraj Singh, who brought back the team spirit and enthusiasm in Kenya, not many days ago. They were hailed as the best thing to have happened to Indian cricket in a long time. What a pity! Neither one of them played in the test match. Ironical indeed. If the idea was to play with six batsmen, Yuvraj would have been a better choice because of his useful left arm spin. He could have provided the captain a little bit of flexibility with the bowling options.

The last point is about the track. Shouldn’t we have played on a greenish wicket as the captain had so much faith in his bowlers? It would have made more sense, considering that our best spinner and the chief architect of Indian victories at home- Anil Kumble was not playing. As we all know that, apart from him we have not found a spinner who can win matches on the pitches of sub-continent. What was the point in playing on a flat track? The last tour of down-under had cruelly exposed our weakness against our ability to play quick bowling. There was a lot of talk about making sporting pitches by the board officials. The euphoria has evaporated much sooner than later. Sad indeed!

By preparing green top wickets against Zimbabwe, we could have gotten a good match-practice before Australia’s tour of India in early February. Remember, Australian bowlers will still give a run to their worth, to their opponents, even if the track is benign. They are hungry for this win. Beware and be awake Indian cricket.