BOMBAY, 3 September 2004 — With India’s ultimate honor stuck on just one piece of silver, questions are already being asked at home whether the country should send such a big contingent of no-hopers to the Olympics. The most saddening of the many failures was the performance of the hockey team, which could win just a solitary game and finish seventh in overall standing. What a fall it was for eight-time champions.
Every four years, a new hype is created in the form of a certain medal in hockey, but, as has happened so many times, hopes turn to despair. The last-minute appointment of a German coach this time at Athens is rightly being dubbed as the worst blunder. This has led to a review of the very policy of appointing foreign coaches on such fabulous fees.
To make matters worse, India’s lady weightlifters even got entangled in doping controversies under the supervision of a foreign coach.
It is now being admitted that officials back home knew of instances of drug abuse and readily winked at these cases, as they done in clearing participants who were far from fit.
Similar is the predicament of the current Indian cricket team. Fitness reports of players, including the superstars, are manipulated at the behest of sponsors who fear the loss of their star material and ruination of their elaborate campaigns created at very high costs.
Could this be the reason that the highest paid model and brand ambassador in Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulkar was cleared for the tri-series in Amsterdam, the Natwest series and the Champions’ Trophy in England?
Although the master-blaster has been with the team for two weeks now, he hasn’t put bat to ball even at the nets. Further, he has been ruled out for the three matches that India are due to play in England. There is a big question mark against his name even for the Champions’ Trophy.
Sachin’s problem is that he has developed a “tennis elbow,” an ailment that is acquired due to heavy work with the arms over the years. For a batsman who uses the heaviest bat in international cricket, this is an occupational hazard that perhaps could not be avoided. Since this is not a sudden injury sustained on tour, one is surprised that the BCCI officials and the selectors were unaware of the state of fitness of India’s most popular player, who is always a big draw in England, as much as he is wherever the game is played.
Has Tendulkar bluffed his way into the team that is going to be exposed to big glare of publicity through television. Have his many sponsors, who have millions upon millions at stake, played a hand in the clearance of the biggest name in the game?
In view of what has been happening in the last few years in the matter of selection of players who are not fully fit, Tendulkar’s case is being taken as philosophically as were the earlier instances of Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and V.V.S. Laxman, and at what cost. Srinath had to return from the West Indies, two years ago, without playing a single match. Both Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan hardly played more than one Test on the last tour of Australia. Laxman was a passenger during the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka.
The case of Ajit Agarkar is perhaps the most mysterious of all. Every time he is omitted due to injury, he is included post-haste next time out, only to expose his lack of fitness.
Left out from the Asia Cup, Agarkar returned to the squad for the Holland series and the two tournaments in England. But after only one match, he declared himself unfit. His track record of fitness is indeed highly dicey.
Laxman has never been fully fit after his knee operation a few years ago. Although his strokes have been as good as before and he has scored quite heavily, his movement on the field and between the wickets have not been up to the mark. Forced to field around the bat, he has developed into an efficient close-in catcher. His running between the wickets is still rather labored and this has been the cause of several of his or his partner’s run-outs. How can he ever be swift in his running when he has to wear two knee caps, over a bandage wrapping on his right knee? But his brilliant form with the bat enables him to overcome this handicap.
With Zaheer and Agarkar being frequently in and out of the team, India’s bowling strength which had shown a healthy trend, has had setbacks. The side must be looking up to the day when they have a full quota of fully fit bowlers to pick from. Since batting is India’s strength, with such rich talent, the absence of one of the leading lights hardly matters any more.
If the Indian team’s performance invariably falls below expectations, especially when it comes to a crunch situation, it is due not to lack of talent, but lack of fitness. There are already a couple of important players, of doubtful fitness, to accompany Tendulkar on the sidelines. Such a situation does not augur well for the team’s overall performance. Even if Tendulkar opts for a lighter bat for the sake of his tennis elbow, India is bound to make heavy weather of the challenges ahead.
