21 August, 2000

Jatin Paranjpe, one of the nicest guys in contemporary big time cricket, got married this Saturday. To Ghandali, who for movie buffs is the sister of Sonali Bendre of Bollywood fame.

Considering the starry connection, it was a quiet, simple affair staged in the auditorium of a school in Bandra. And featured the predictable mix of cricketing and celluloid celebs.

But that interlude apart, the weekend brought little joy. There was, for starters, the fiasco that was the BCCI executive committee meeting in Bangalore. For two days, the board bigwigs shot the breeze in the Garden City -- and came up with what, precisely?

Predictably, they ratified the code of conduct. Which means zip -- they now have to submit it to the Sports Minister, and something tells me Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa is not going to be too pleased with what he sees. And quite right, too -- the code as framed is completely ridiculous, not to mention downright insulting.

A lot of flaws in the original code were pointed out at the time. We thought the board would sit down and iron those out -- but instead, what we get are more flaws. Take, for instance, this clause which says that a player should declare any gift given to him of Rs 50,000 or above, to the board.

What is this intended to do? Curb corruption? How, pray? For instance, suppose I wanted to bribe X player to the tune of say one lakh (no player worth his India blazer will even look at that kind of money, but still...), all I have to do is give him Rs 49,995 in my name, another Rs 49,995 in my mother's name, and Rs 10 in my dad's. None of which he has to declare because they all fall below the cut-off mark.

If this is ridiculous, the way the Kapil Dev affair has been handled is even more so. On Saturday, day one of the executive committee meet, they decide to discuss Kapil's recent outburst the next day.

The next day dawns, they discuss it, and then decide to let board president Muthiah handle it in any way he sees fit! Which begs the question -- what then was the point of all this discussion (which, of course, comes at a price -- the executive committee members get to fly down to Bangalore, stay in five star comfort, pad their expense accounts and milk more money from the board's coffers).

The trouble is, the board knows what it wants to do, but does not have the courage of its own convictions. It has been no secret that for some time now, the board officials have wanted to get rid of Kapil. In fact, about one month after Kapil took over as coach, Jaywant Lele -- ah, here we go again! -- told Faisal Shariff in response to a question that the board (Lele is like that, he tends to confuse himself with the body he is part of) would not break into a sweat if Kapil were to quit.

Now they have the reason they were looking for. But also, there is this fear that fans of the former all-rounder might react with outrage. And therefore they want Kapil to go on his own. While Kapil for his part, equally aware of the mood within the board and of the fact that his days are numbered, wants to be the martyr -- he won't quit, but wants the board to sack him so he can climb up on the cross and play victim.

And so we have this ridiculous standoff, with Kapil saying things like "I have had enough of cricket but of course, if the board wants me to continue then I will" and the board saying Kapil's statements are ridiculous but the board has nothing to say about it, it will let the president decide what to do, "including dropping him".

And meanwhile, effectively, India has no coach.

You would say this is not such a tragedy just now, since we are not playing cricket. But don't the duties of a coach go beyond actually shepherding teams to match venues? It is during the off season that top coaches are in their elements -- they get time to spend with individual players, working on their skills, their motivational levels, etc, none of which can be done when a tournament is on.

But we, of course, don't function that way. We have had no cricket for two months now. And in this time, the coach and the physio have been inactive, as have the players. So, when the season starts afresh, we will lose a few tours and tournaments, and excuse it by saying that we are rusty, we have had this long layoff, and therefore it is taking us time to settle down.

And then we will settle down to losing more tours -- but by then, we have the other excuse, that we have been playing cricket continuously for some time, and are tired.

Meanwhile, the executive committee of the board will meet in some salubrious venue. And the only thing they will decide is when and where it will meet next.

Nothing ever changes, does it?

Prem

Mail Cricket Editor