BOMBAY, 27 November 2004 — The clamor for change or, to put it bluntly, demand for some heads to roll is the hot topic these days in Indian cricket.
Take your pick: the head of the captain of the Indian cricket team or the expert, John Wright, if not both. What is at issue here stems purely from the sentiments of the cricket-crazy multitude and their majority opinion. These demands have begun to surface more frequently after the Indian team’s steep decline of late.
The Test series defeat against Australia and the loss to Pakistan in the one-off ODI to mark 75 years of Indian cricket, and a rather lackadaisical start to the Test series against South Africa, have only accentuated the general anguish of the people over the manner in which the team is being led by a man who has himself run into poor form and has more than his share of injury problems.
In a matter of just six months Saurav Ganguly has had to sit out of four important Test matches, against Pakistan and Australia, on account of injuries from the neck to the thigh. As things stand, both Wright and Ganguly have come under fire. In a recent free-for-all television debate over 60 percent viewers voted for a change in the Indian captaincy. Fifty-six percent wanted that the tenure of coach John Wright be terminated.
Wright, as a man is himself the biggest fan of accountability and while he has been making all the right noises in his interaction with the media, he is not forthcoming while talking about the attitude of the Indian team, particularly of the senior players. If he can help it, he avoids the queries on the behavior of his captain on major issues concerning the team. After Ganguly ran himself out stupidly in the Bangalore Test against Australia which India lost, Wright was his usual evasive self when the media asked him about the skipper’s apparent callousness. “I am sure Saurav is disappointed as well because a run out is a waste of a wicket,” he said. There were no indications whether the coach had reprimanded the captain for the way he got out as he would have any other player in the team. When pressed further about the captain’s attitude, he said, “I am not in a position to comment on it.”
It is patently clear that the coach, after being with the team for more than three years is unable to assert his authority over the senior players. There was a time, some months ago, when it was being rumored that the coach and the captain were not on very cordial terms and many believed that the two hardly talked. There were serious differences of opinion over the choice of players and they did not bother to sort this problem out. Ganguly insisted on retaining wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel, despite his poor show. It was the selectors who finally put their foot down. There was nothing, however, that the selectors could do as Ganguly went on changing one of the openers from Test match to Test match. Ganguly’s apparent dislike for bowlers Anil Kumble and Ajit Agarkar is well documented. If given a choice, he would drop both of them, as he did on so many occasions. Questions were being asked by officials and former players “Why didn’t Wright put his foot down and press for the inclusion of the right players for the right job.” The exclusion of Kumble for the ODI against Pakistan was baffling, as was the inclusion of three seamers in the eleven. Similarly the topsy-turvy Dom in the first Test against South Africa at Kanpur by way of playing all the three spinners was hard to understand.
Ganguly is encouraged to take such decisions because he knows that the coach will not interfere with his decisions. And it is a well-known fact that Wright has decided not to cross swords with the senior players.
This aloofness is now affecting the team in which even the old unity among the leading players is now threatened. If you ask these players privately, they would certainly give their opinion in favor of a change, both of captain and the coach.
