An ugly exposé

Chetan Sharma has indeed become a laughingstock as the ex-chairman of the Board for Control for Cricket in India’s selection committee. The sting operation on the former India fast bowler, himself a well-known TV expert in his previous role, has rocked Indian cricket. It is well known that the BCCI selectors and chairman, at large, have been stooges. Most of them have taken orders from the high command in the BCCI, depending on which way the wind was blowing.

Frankly speaking, what Chetan Sharma has been caught saying in the sting video, now viewed by billions on social media, is something well-known to most fans. Everyone knew there was a witch-hunt on for Virat Kohli, former India captain, and the man who made Team India famous, coach Ravi Shastri. That Kohli and Shastri forged a great partnership is well-known, though a lot of things are now coming out in the open.

One man who has now slipped into near anonymity, Sourav Ganguly, is also part of the controversy as Chetan has hinted that the relation between the Prince of Kolkata and Virat Kohli was frosty. It makes it even more clear that Kohli has been his own master, never cared two hoots about men in power, nor has been a bootlicker. That Kohli today enjoys an exalted status in Indian cricket is well known, having reached that giant stage by sheer weight of performance in T20s and ODIs. At the time of writing, the Border Gavaskar Trophy series is on, with action in the second Test taking place at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi’s Ferozeshah Kotla.

What Chetan blurted out is known to one and all. He let his guard down while speaking, not knowing a sting operation was on. In an age when even normal conversations on the mobile phone have become dicey, and you wonder if the person at the other end is recording your call, doing a sting operation is no big deal. That a famous media group did it shows there was an agenda to go for Chetan’s jugular.

First things first, when India flopped in the ICC T20 World Cup last year in Australia, knives were out. The first stiletto was driven into the selection committee and its then chairman Chetan Sharma. The selection committee was rushed into naming teams for the tours to New Zealand and Bangladesh, just after the World Cup. The bigger mystery was Chetan being re-hired as chairman of the selection committee. It went on to show that Chetan also knew how to pull strings, given his political links.

That, however, did not give the BCCI’s selection committee head the licence or authority to speak against players and former BCCI bosses, notably Ganguly. Chetan had gone into an overdrive, making far too many things public. This is not the first time the name of Ganguly has been dragged into a controversy. When Dada was captain, he had his differences with maverick coach Greg Chappell before matters were sorted out by the then BCCI Prez Sharad Pawar.

The BCCI’s leadership today is different. Roger Binny is the President and Jay Shah wields great power as secretary. To say that the BCCI is red-faced would be stating the obvious. The timing of the sting operation really stings. A famous Test series is on, which has the world watching with great interest, from India to Australia and England to Pakistan. Focus should have been just on cricket, but Chetan Sharma has walked into a trap.

Initially, the BCCI might have given him a chance to explain but his position had already become untenable. When there was a massive trust deficit between captain/players and chairman of the selection committee, it was impossible to see one man who had spoken far too much continuing. Over decades, relations between Team India captains and selection committee heads have been cold.

There is a difference between the chairman of the selection committee today and what it was a few years ago. Today, the chairman and rest of the selectors are paid as employees of the BCCI. They are bound by principles of contract and confidentiality, which was evidently breached in the case of Chetan. One couldn’t brush off the sting operation, for Chetan had not only ruffled feathers, but had also blurted out too many secrets.

Cricket fans knew Jasprit Bumrah, with a back stress fracture, was rushed into a comeback. It was a disaster. How long it will take before the fast bowler comes back fully fit is unclear. The goal should be to have him ready and raring to go for the ICC World Cup, not the Indian Premier League. That is, if the BCCI has its priorities right! Then again, what selectors are “made to do” by the BCCI bosses is well known.

Indian cricket history is replete with instances where captains and chairmen of the selection committee have been at the loggerheads. Maybe, some captains were assertive and had the Board’s backing. Now, Chetan has made it public that the BCCI Prez Ganguly could not stand the aura of Virat Kohli. “We were not favouring Rohit as a captain; we were just against Virat Kohli. The BCCI took advantage of Virat’s poor form and removed him from the captaincy. They should not treat the country’s number-one batter like this. Shameful,” Chetan Sharma said in the sting operation.

Chetan talking about players taking injections is crazy. The word injection creates doubts in the minds of fans and anti-doping agencies. Everyone knows, cricketers are very much under the anti-doping scanner, at home and abroad. If there are injuries, and injections like cortisone steroids are prescribed, it must be documented well by the medical team management. Chetan made it sound as if these cricketers were some kind of junkies by talking so loosely on injections.

It indeed appeared dubious whether Chetan would continue as the chairman of the selection committee? The mind goes back to the era when gutsy cricketer Mohinder Amarnath, outspoken and frank, called the selectors a bunch of jokers! Today, it is Chetan Sharma who has made himself a joker in the eyes of the public. There is no way he and the captains — Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya — could have met eye to eye. The speculation that Chetan could have been a part of the team selection for the third and fourth Tests now stands thwarted, and for the right reasons. That job can be done by the seniormost selectors.

The BCCI will be careful who they hire next. When they hired, sacked, and rehired Chetan, there was intrigue. There was no way you could have a man at the helm of the selection committee who had spoken all that he should not have. Just imagine, if CEOs and presidents of big companies come out of the board rooms and start washing dirty linen in public, how will it pan out?

Indian cricket has seen selectors come and go. Even Dilip Vengsarkar, a man respected for his batting skills and three centuries at The Lords, nicknamed Colonel, was sacked by the BCCI in 2008 for backing Virat Kohli. For the record, the BCCI President at that time was N Srinivasan, who still pulls strings in Indian cricket from behind the curtains.

To be sure, getting rid of Chetan Sharma was no big deal for the BCCI. When they could destroy captains and coaches of huge stature, Chetan was a small fry. He was a speedster, short in height, who bowled well within his limitations. If memes are being produced on how he was hammered for a last-ball six by Javed Miandad in Sharjah in March 1986, that’s the social media beast, these days.

Sting, or stung, Chetan Sharma may still find a TV role for himself. Even if he is asked not to blurt out more on shenanigans of Indian cricket, he will be useful as an expert in studios. His shelf life will not end, he may even get a higher value now! For the sheer amount of cricket being played and produced by India and the world market, there are enough jobs available for former cricketers. There is a demand-supply gap.

With the auction for the WPL, the women’s version of the IPL, having taken place, big bucks have been splurged. Indian women cricketers have been the beneficiaries, past and present. Last but not the least, maybe Chetan Sharma was actually speaking the truth in the sting op. We will never get to know that, as a lid of manhole weight will be pulled over the controversies soon.

Trust the BCCI to do such jobs efficiently!