Ravi Shastri has been appointed “cricket manager” of the Indian Cricket Team for the Bangladesh tour. He will be supported by Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh. As was the case when John Wright and Greg Chappell were appointed, this seems to be a great idea. Many will disagree, but both Wright and Chappell were great appointments and summers these men from down under spent in India have benefited the team and Cricket in general. If Chappell was a more controversial appointment than the understated Wright, then Ravi Shastri is in many ways even more so.
He was a tenacious cricketer from the hard Bombay school of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, when Sunil Gavaskar would reputedly return from an international tour at 3 am in the morning and be at Dadar Union’s ground in Matunga at 10 am to represent his club. Shastri excelled against the toughest opposition and average 38 against Pakistan and 31 against the West Indies with the bat, with 5 Test centuries in 34 Tests against these two teams.
He started out as a brilliant, attacking left arm spinner who could bat a bit. The story goes that he lost his action when he gained a few inches in height within a short span of a year in his formative years, and ever since became a restrictive bowler rather than an attacking one. In the Indian line up in the 1980’s, he played foil to Maninder Singh. His cricket has always been characterized by the ability to make the most of whatever he had. He remains one of the very few cricketers in the modern era to have batted in all positions in Test Cricket. He played 80 Tests taking 151 wickets and 3830 Test runs and remains the only spinner apart from Shane Warne and Gary Sobers to have taken more than 150 Test wickets and scored over 3000 Test runs. He had embarked on a new role – as Test opener when a perennial knee problem finally ended his playing career – prematurely at age 32.
Shastri was a gutsy cricketer – reviled for his slow batting, but on the other hand also the only player apart from Sobers and Gibbs to hit six sixes in an over. He stayed with Cricket after retirement and made a name for himself in television commentary. He also had an association with World Tel, the company which first turned Sachin Tendulkar in the multi-millionaire mega brand that he is today. Shastri has tasted all that modern Indian cricket has to offer – he probably understands first hand the opportunities and pressures faced by the modern cricketer better than any other living cricketer in India.
His opening commentary, which many will see almost as a disclaimer, is telling : “I make no promises. What my endeavour is to see a happy Indian team playing cricket…….. What I want to tell them is that this is sport and they should go out there and enjoy it. And if you lose in that fashion then I am ready to take it on the chin. So, no promises whatsoever. I just want India to play happy and good cricket. And you guys watching should enjoy it too.”
Ultimately, what he will be judged by is the results India achieve. People may say that it is “performance” that they demand, but performance is a much abused word. Results in my view are the outcome of performance, luck, quality of the opposition, playing conditions and many other things. I hope India can play cricket like it is a sport – that they be allowed to compete as sportsmen and not as gladiators. That they be allowed to compete knowing fully well that there are reasonable judges of their efforts.
The argument that “they make so much money, they deserve the abuse when they lose” – is a losers argument soaked in defeatism and low self-esteem. Shastri’s challenge will be to ensure that the players are shielded from this abuse against which they are defenseless. Sportsmen will take criticism and adverse comment on the chin when they lose, if they are able to compete as sportsmen in the first place. Hopefully there will be the chance to clear the air and begin anew. There is clearly plenty of quality in the squad. It is a shame that it is suffocated in the maddening smog of a parasitic press desperate for 24/7 attention and an unsporting public glued to this press. Ravi Shastri’s challenge will be to reclaim Cricket as a Sport when India play – and he definitely has the talent at his disposal to do that. The composition of the squad is secondary in my view, because “change” has to begin at a level far more fundamental that that. Failing this, it will not be long before the new blood is infected in the unhealthy environment that prevails around cricket today.
Best wishes to the new cricket manager and his staff. I hope they can enjoy their tenure as well….
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