Indian cricket chief Sharad Pawar’s comment that Kapil Dev was not sparing enough time for the National Cricket Academy and seemed interested in other activities is like realising the monsoon’s arrival well after it has crippled life in many parts of the country.
Or may be, the reaction is yet another attempt at putting up a cool exterior under mounting pressure because Kapil has been the driving force for the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) and has also challenged cricket officials umpteen number of times to sack him as the NCA chief.
The Board certainly needed to act more swiftly if it was so intent on nipping the ICL in the bud, and the messages it sent through former chief I.S. Bindra for Kapil was but a hopeless attempt to bring back into the fold, a player who brought glory to the country and ironically heads the premier coaching wing of the Board when he is a supposed rebel.
That the Indian cricket officials are not in sync has been evident time and again over the past few months, the most glaring example being of secretary Niranjan Shah announcing that Dav Whatmore was the front-runner for the Indian coach’s job but the Aussie was not even short-listed by the panel nominated to pick the official.
The grapevine has it that the officials are already pulling in different directions and that may not be easy for Pawar to handle because neither does he have the time to spare, nor the expertise that a certain Jagmohan Dalmiya had, because of working his way up through the system.
Pawar’s comment on Kapil came at a media interaction in Bangalore on Friday, where he also slipped on other occasions. By saying that Greg Chappell was never considered in a consultant’s capacity contradicted his very own words after the World Cup debacle, that “he (Chappell) could definitely be associated with Indian cricket and help in implementing long-term plans.” That previous statement of his followed the characteristic ‘leak’ to the press, which the media attributed to “Board sources” in their story of Chappell being sounded for a post in the NCA and on other select panels.
Pawar has also said that the Board is not worried about the ICL and that organising events will be a problem for them, but at the same time, Shah has announced that those associated with the ICL will face life bans. So, is the BCCI really worried about the ICL or not? One will probably have to wait till the BCCI’s August 21 meeting in Mumbai to know what the administrative body’s stance really is.
In the meantime, expect the ICL to come up with more announcements about those joining what is definitely a parallel body, now that Kapil has said that they will not restrict themselves to just Twenty20 cricket.
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