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Opinion: India’s cricket legends deserve genuine respect
In India, ‘honouring’ past cricketers is usually opportunistic tokenism, driven by PR and publicity. Other countries do this with grace and dignity.
What happens when Tendulkar/Gavaskar/Kapil Dev/Rahul Dravid or Sourav Ganguly want to watch a Test match? Are they invited, fetched by a courtesy car and ushered respectfully to the best seat in the house?
No, the official protocol is different. And it has its riders.
All ex-Test players are entitled to two BCCI passes per match and for ‘outstation’ games this applies only if he attends ‘in person.’ Fair enough, but let’s remember, BCCI office bearers (past and present) enjoy a higher-per-match allocation --for life -- and without any conditions. The match ticket policy shows how cricket’s power structure works , and indicates that true respect for star players -- not just public adulation -- is often missing.
On the walls of the conference hall of the Cricket Centre, the BCCI’s headquarters in Mumbai, are framed photographs of all Indian captains, from CK Nayudu to Virat Kohli. Opinion is divided whether this a genuine gesture or just elegant optics?
Skeptics point out that the Cricket Centre is located in a corner of the Wankhede stadium, named after the distinguished former BCCI president, Seshrao Krishnarao Wankhede, a lawyer by profession. The stadium has a Polly Umrigar gate and stands dedicated to Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar.
LOW PRIORITY
Clearly, cricket officials are above our superstars in the pecking order. While stadiums literally set in stone the contributions of administrators, cricket legends share gates (Laxman, Sehwag), dressing rooms (Kapil Dev) stands (Bishan Bedi, Mohinder Amarnath), trophies (Gavaskar-Border) or an annual showpiece event, the Tiger Pataudi lecture. Hyderabad with its Shiv Lal Yadav Pavilion is a shining exception. That Test player Shiv Lal was president of the Hyderabad CA when this decision was made is another matter!
In India, ‘honouring’ past cricketers is usually opportunistic tokenism, driven by PR and publicity. Other countries do this with grace and dignity. Australia has erected bronze statues of Aussie legends, from Bradman to Warne, around the MCG. West Indies named stadiums after Gary Sobers, Viv Richards, even Darren Sammy! England puts plaques/photos of players at venues and the great makes it to the Lord’s pavilion.
India stands out with repeated instances of blatant disrespect for its stars. Isn’t it scandalous that Ganguly (chairman, BCCI technical committee, captain of India in almost 200 matches) is bypassed by the BCCI on technical matters?
HUMILIATED
What happened to his illustrious colleagues, Tendulkar and Laxman, members of the Cricket Advisory Committee is even more bizarre. This high profile group (collective experience -- 1307 international matches) started with much fanfare but was suddenly benched. On the odd occasion when assigned a task – like selecting the India coach – had their decisions junked.
Sourav thought this was ‘appalling’, Anil Kumble maintained stoic silence but nobody, let alone the third highest wicket-taker in Test cricket, should be disrespected. Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan too got hit in the coach selection crossfire.
These greats are not alone in being disrespected publicly. Dhoni, too, suffered similar humiliation. When the IPL Pune team replaced captain Dhoni with Steve Smith, relatives of the franchise owner made insulting statements on social media. The IPL did nothing while Indian cricket’s biggest and best was rubbished. Dhoni’s wife expressed anger but the forever cool Dhoni ignored the no ball. He remains a lifetime icon and nobody remembers the franchise.
The greats of Indian cricket gave us immense joy .The ‘return gift ‘ they deserve is genuine respect!
(The writer is a senior sports administrator and views are personal)
