10 days back, in my post ‘Can donkey kongs become World Champions’, I raised a point. What should we do if players who fake injury or illness, or were dropped, or for personal reasons withdraw from a fixture, suddenly become good to play in the Indian Premier League or Big Bash League or any of its other national/commercial variants?
As usual, it sank like a stone. Perhaps the readers thought that it was an idle question, a question that can be asked only by an unconventional person.
But 2 days back, Michael Holding, and no one would call him ‘unconventional’ raised a similar point in this article ‘Harbhajan got his priorities wrong’ (Deccan Chronicle/Asian Age), where in he explicitly stated -
quote - Added to that, from what I have been hearing, youngsters in India do not really think playing for India is top priority anymore. It is all about IPL. After the IPL contract is secured, if the call up for India comes along, fine but that’s secondary. I am wondering where Indian cricket is heading - unquote.
Will the BCCI finally take heed?
Or continue to bury its ‘head in the sands’ or a more appropriate version, bury its collective ‘head in the moolah’?
Just a few minutes back, I was talking to a parent of a kid being coached in one of the finest cricket coaching centres in Chennai. He said that 8 or 10 year old kids have taken up the talk that ‘get your fielding standards up. Fall down, scrape your knees, bang your elbows, it doesn’t matter - improved fielding is the best way to get into IPL and playing in IPL is enough; no need to aim to play in Ranji Trophy or even (God forbid) represent India’.
8-0
God save Indian cricket!
As usual, it sank like a stone. Perhaps the readers thought that it was an idle question, a question that can be asked only by an unconventional person.
But 2 days back, Michael Holding, and no one would call him ‘unconventional’ raised a similar point in this article ‘Harbhajan got his priorities wrong’ (Deccan Chronicle/Asian Age), where in he explicitly stated -
quote - Added to that, from what I have been hearing, youngsters in India do not really think playing for India is top priority anymore. It is all about IPL. After the IPL contract is secured, if the call up for India comes along, fine but that’s secondary. I am wondering where Indian cricket is heading - unquote.
Will the BCCI finally take heed?
Or continue to bury its ‘head in the sands’ or a more appropriate version, bury its collective ‘head in the moolah’?
Just a few minutes back, I was talking to a parent of a kid being coached in one of the finest cricket coaching centres in Chennai. He said that 8 or 10 year old kids have taken up the talk that ‘get your fielding standards up. Fall down, scrape your knees, bang your elbows, it doesn’t matter - improved fielding is the best way to get into IPL and playing in IPL is enough; no need to aim to play in Ranji Trophy or even (God forbid) represent India’.
8-0
God save Indian cricket!
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