Storms in Teacups

A few years ago, we lamented about the loss of characters from cricket when Flintoff was penalized for pedalo-gate. Until recently, I didn't really understand this desire by journalists and "elites" for squeaky clean sportsmen and now ex-cricketer administrators.

When I was a student in a college in India, many times I would be asked as to how I managed good grades "even though" I enjoyed an occasional drink. Well, maybe not occasional....but you get the point. For the life of me, I never understood the connection between good academic performance and alcohol. In many ways, I (along with a few others) were the outliers.

Many of those that posed that question were squeaky clean A-graders and teetotallers. My misfortunate was that this lot was the majority and they probably now constitute the profile of the majority of opinion-makers.

To bring a long introduction to a point....such a lot (people who have never run cricket or played competitively) is now (Sambit Bal included) questioning Anil Kumble's ethics in running a sports firm and being a sports official. Sports is meant for enjoyment. Sportsmen are entertainers. They need money to feed themselves. So Kumble's firm Tenvic manages a few of the players. Sports is not religion and does not need priests to run it.

In this world, many things are inter-connected. It's incredible that we manage to figure out these connections and try to drive Kumble out of office in Karnataka, just because Vinay Kumar was selected to the India team.

Shame on Sambit Bal and his ilk for such idiotic journalism. Even if Kumble were to have influenced team selection, why should we assume that he had anything but the team's welfare at heart? I wish someone like Kumble were around to manage Vinod Kambli and get him a few breaks. I wish someone like Kumble manages Irfan Pathan. And thank you Sambaran Banerjee for having a conflict of interest and recommending Saurav Ganguly.

In the end, all players are picked based on numbers, recommendation, gut-feel and several other factors. If numbers were the only parameter, then Vikram Rathore would have eclipsed Tendulkar's records by now. Selectors themselves are taking a leap of faith even when they pick proven performers because past performance is no guarantee of future success. Vinay Kumar has done most of the stuff required to merit selection.

We are now hell bent on driving characters like Flintoff, Symonds and Gayle out of cricket and soon we'll drive out administrators with characters like Kumble. Soon Sambit Bal and his ilk will want cricket to be run by tetotaller IIT PhDs only and want cricketers to play slowly so that no one gets hurt.