How long will bowlers be given a raw deal?       

                                                                                                                              

The sudden (not shocking for me, at least) retirement announcement by Ashwin in the midst of a series in Australia has brought into the spotlight the raw deal given by successive Coaches,  Captains, the Selection Committee, and the BCCI to the bowlers in general and Ashwin in particular for the last 3-4 years.    

Even before Ashwin's father went public, an average cricket follower could make out that the sudden retirement announcement by Ashwin, the world premium spin bowler, had come due to frustration with the humiliating way he had been treated by captains like Virat and Rohi, coaches like Shastri, Rahul and Ghambir and the Selection Committee.  

Why the difference yardsticks?

Though batters and bowlers play equally important roles in a cricket team's success, from time immemorial, different yardsticks have been applied to batters and bowlers' selections for a series first and then picking them up in the final eleven to play any match.

While the 4-5 front-line batters select themselves and their places are permanently fixed as if they have put fevicol on their backs, it’s a musical chair as far as bowlers are concerned.  Any batter who has shown consistency for 3-4 years and became popular by performance on and off the field can consider his position permanent despite running into poor form for a very long time also.   They are given long rope test after test and series after series till they regain the form and hit a half-century or a century giving a sigh of relief more to the coach, and selectors than themselves and are given another 5-10 matches and it goes on and on.    A cursory glance at the career of Rishab Pant, and Virat records in the last 5 years can demonstrate this trend on the part of the Selection Committee, Coaches and Captains.  But it's not any new trend but it is an old-age practice, at least from 1975 onwards when I started following the game.  

Bowlers have to prove themselves all the time

As per the expectation of the Selection Committee, Coaches and Captains, bowlers have to prove themselves all the time and even the most premium bowlers are not assured of their place in the 15-member squad for a series or the final eleven.   So many factors like the reputation of the ground/pitch to be pace bowler or spin-friendly, the weather condition on the day of the match, the batting lineup of the opposition and their vulnerabilities, all these factors are taken into consideration to make even the world top premium bowler to sit out and warm the benches and accommodate and give another chance to a pedestrian batter to justify their selection and cement his position which is shaking badly. But no such consideration has ever been applied while considering a batter selection, like bouncy pitch, vulnerability of the batter against bouncers, fishing outside the off stump and dancing to the spinners.  

                                                                                              

                                                                                             

In mid-70s no one dared to think of dropping Gavaskar, Vishwanath or Vegsarkar despite whatever form they were in for a long period specially in the case of Vishwanath.    During the same period, there used to be tossing amongst Bedi, Chandra, Prasanna and Venkataraghavan and more specially the latter two – all those four world-class spinners would have walked into any team final eleven as the first choice.   Not to speak of Karsan Ghavri, Madan Lal, Binny who used to manage get a look at only after selectors and team management has finished packing the team with as many batters as possible.   You will be shocked to know when none of those bowlers or one of them found favours from the Team management, it was Gavaskar who used to bowl 2-3 three overs before spinners took over a 5-6 over old ball and bowled beautifully right throughout the innings.   This was a time and on those pitches when Australia, England opted for 4 front-line pacers and WI 5.     But team management at that time never thought it necessary for team-building to give a long and consistent run to the military medium-pace bowlers like Binny and Madan Lal to improve their skills and be a permanent feature like the batters.  

You fast forward to the early 2000 you have tock solid batting lineup comprising of likes of  Saurav, Sehwag, Rahul, Sachin, VVS and later Dhoni, and it was a crime even to think of dropping any of them for any reason except injury.   Even when Sachin had tennis elbow issues, it was left to him if he chose to play or not and he played many tests though he was not match fit fully.   During the same period, we had star bowlers and match winners in the form of Zaheer Khan, Kumble, Harbhajan, J Srinath, Ishant Sharma, and Umesh Yadav, and all of them were never assured of their place in the final eleven as that of the batters referred to above.   The present pack of batters with fevicals on their backs are Virat, Rohit, Pant, as against match winners bowler/all-rounders like Sami, Siraj, Kuldeep, Chahal, Jadeja and world best spinner Aswin who are forced to play musical chairs and the best sitting out for many matches/series. 

The shameful treatment meted out to Ashwin

In recent times the best thing to happen for Indian cricket after Kumble is Ashwin.  He is the best contemporary spinner, intelligent, attacking and wicket-taking spinner. In every parameter, the number of wickets taken, his strike rate, averages and the fast clip he took from 50 to 500 wickets is phenomenal and he was at par with Virat Kohli.   He was on the right course to break the record held by Kumble as the highest wickets taker and Warne record and might have just fallen short of Muralidharan’s record of 800 wickets.   Compared to Kumble, Warne and Murali, he is a far better batter and scored 6 test centuries which many players who played for India as batters in 30 – 40 tests have also not scored.    But for some strange reasons, he was never considered as an all-rounder but on the other hand whenever he was dropped and Jadeja was favoured for his all-around abilities were put forth as the reason. 

 The shameful treatment of the most premium bowler Ashwin started under Virat Kohli's captaincy, and Ravi Shastri was at the helm as a Coach.    There was a time when Virat was all-conquering and racing in the chase to break Sachin’s records, most of them he did and the 100 hundreds looked to be within his reach.   Naturally, he has become the poster boy and darling of advt agencies.    For some strange reason, in Indian cricket when a player, mostly batters/captains reaches such an unassailable position they develop a sense of insecurity about losing that unassailable position by someone as talented as they are and contributing more than them.  Gavaskar had with Kapil, Dhoni had with Sehwag and Gambhir.    In the Indian scenario, though in popularity charts bowlers never succeed in being as popular as or more popular than the batters, Kohli started feeling a sense of insecurity with Ashwin being around.    Taking advantage of his being captain and the `you starch my back and I scratch your back’ understanding he has with team Coach Ravi Shastri, he started giving the cold shoulder to Ashwin, and to the shock of his fans, he was dropped from match after match and also not picked up in many series.   For me it was as bad as dropping Gavaskar, Sachin, Virat at their peak which of course is unthinkable.    It went on for such long time that for over 3 years, Virat was going pathetic form with centuries completely dried and after close to 3 years he scored a century and in tests, in the last 5 years he scored only 3 centuries.    So during this period if there is one who should give way to any other player including Ashwin it was Kohli but he was accommodated in every match and in every form and during the same period Ashiwn was made to sit on the bench in many tests and limited over games.   It has become so brazen that many ex-captains of India and other countries, writers, and commentators cried horse how a match-winning premium bowler like Aswin can be made to sit out.    Had he been playing for any other country, he would have been the first person whose name would be written in final 11 picked up to play any match specially a Test match.   But whatever is written and said, did not affect the captain, coach and the ecosystem created by them.    The fate and treatment of Ashwin has not changed in a big way under Rohit captaincy and Rahul as Coach.   Things improved a bit immediately after Gambhir took over as a Coach, but it looked like Rohit started to prevail over the Coach in recent times to accommodate the average performer like Virat, himself and his fav Jadeja.    Ashwin was pushed to a breaking point, and his not being picked in 2 matches in Australia and the upcoming England series has become the last straw on the camel's back to announce retirement amid an away series.   Every cricket follower, including PM of India, felt that he had a couple of years of cricket left in him.   If we take into consideration the number of matches Kohli has dropped Ashwin would have taken a minimum 100 wickets more than what he has taken and had he played for a couple of years more, he would have ended his career as the highest wicket-taker of India and the second highest wicket-taker in the World.   But unfortunately, that was not to be, and despite pathetic shows and averages in recent times Virat and Rohit keep blocking two seats in the final eleven.  

Cricket has been reduced to a batter game

When only test cricket was played, Batters and Bowlers had a level playing field.   The bowlers – both Pace bowlers and spinners – made the game as interesting and attractive as the batters.   For every Viv Richards, Lloyd, and Greenidge you have Andy Roberts, Holding, Garner and Marshal, for every Chappel brother, you have Thomas and Lillie, for every Gavaskar and Viswanath you have a Bedi, Chandra and Prasanna and Venkat and for every Miadad and Zaheer Abbas you have Imran and Sarfaraz.   I vividly remember the magical spin web cast by Bedi, Chandra, Prasanna and Venkat around top Australian bowlers in their backyard in 1977 series.   We should not forget that most innocuous-looking military medium bowlers like Mohinder, Madan and Binny have successfully defended a very modest total against the star-studded and destructive batting lineup of West Indies in the final of 1983 world cup win.  Who can forget Bumrah’s magical spell, which was ably supported by Arshdeep and Hardik when the World Cup final was all but lost?  

But over a period of time, specially after the advent of limited-over cricket in the form of 60/50 overs a side matches was first introduced by a disgruntled media mogul Carry Paker who failed to bag TV streaming rights from the Australian Cricket Board.   The limited overs matches caught the imagination of youth who need quick fixes and all of them always liked the bat dominating the ball and taking an aerial route popularised by greats like Sobbers, Tiger Pataudi, Viv Richards has become the norm of the game, especially in limited over matches.

The `Tamasha’ called IPL

As if 50 overs aside limited-over matches are not enough T20 matches have become popular – first among the test-playing countries, then came the Tamasha called IPL.    It has redefined the way cricket is played, marketed, revenue generated, and player put on auction and getting picked up at a vulgar price tag, much higher than what the respective Boards of different countries pay to their player for playing for the entire year, in just 45 days.   

Thanks to the tremendous efforts of Jag Mohan Dalmia, the tainted Lalit Modi and Srinivasan, the revenue generation of IPL for BCCI and to all franchise, players and support staff running into hundreds is phenomenal and way ahead of anyone’s imagination.    ICC has come under complete control of BCCI and happily plays a subordinate role, and the wish of BCCI and its President is a command to ICC.   With every player from every country permitted by BCCI to play in IPL matches (except Pakistan), happy to offer himself for auction and the Boards of all test-playing countries have no option but to bend their backs and keep the window of 45 days clear for IPL to avoid their player boycotting matches under their respective Boards, the way the WI players have done.  

With media and telecasting rights going as high as over 40 thousand crores and a huge amount at stake, there is a huge pressure to make IPL colourful, entertaining, thrilling, and reducing cricket to a tamasha at mega proportions.   As in the case of 50-over matches, in T20, everyone wants to have a high-scoring match, and the batter butchering the bowlers hitting sixes and four all the time reducing the bowlers like Bowling machines.   The entire game has become non-sophisticated, non-traditional, and rustic and every rule was skewed against the bowlers and in favour of batters.    The bowlers are still expected to tell the umpire from which side of the wicket he is bowling and by which arm he is bowling but the batter is not under any obligation to bat with the hand and side he is talking the guard and switch sides after the bowler bowls the ball, thus making a mockery of the field set by the captain and the bowler.   The batters are allowed to continuously move in the crease before, at the time of release of the ball by the bowling thus distracting the bowlers and the margin for declaring wides and no balls is heavily stacked against the bowlers.    Going by what batters are doing, why not allow bowlers to switch the ball from one hand to the other and bowl with whichever hand he is comfortable bowling and also allow bowlers to dodge the bowlers the way batters keep moving in the crease and go for reverse sweeps and switch hits and hitting over the head.    There is a limit of the number of overs a bowler can bowl 12 in case of 50 overs and 4 in case of T20 but there is no such restrictions for a batter, in some matches, the opener has carried his bat through.   Why not put the same restriction on the batter that he has to retire after playing 24 balls or allow a bowler who is in good form to bowl 10 overs (the maximum that can be bowled from one side) at the discretion of the captain? 

Commercialisation of the Game    

With the phenomenal money generation by IPL/BCCL, the game and the players have been commercialised to the core.   For the first time, starting with Sachin, huge efforts have started to develop players as brands and the celebrity management agencies cropped up in a big way.   Mark Mascarenhas was a pioneer who managed Sachin brand for many years and the one who got him the first Rs. 100 crores brand endorsement, a figure never heard before.    These professional agencies do whatever it takes to keep the brand value of their client players  high and, amongst other things, ensure that their clients are picked up in the final eleven so that their brand value does not get affected.    That is what justifies Kohli still figuring in the final 11 of a test team, despite below par 30 plus average for a premier batter like him for one or two but five long years.   Unfortunately, premium bowlers like Ashwin and Bumrah are never the darling of Advt agencies and axe has always fallen on someone like Ashwin and I will not be surprised if at some future point of time, it happens to the other most valuable player of Indian cricket Boom Boom Bumrah to accommodate some favourite child Pant. 

Despite the raw deal given, Ashin you are a true champion player and a decent and thorough gentleman.  A glorious chapter will be written on you in India's cricket history and people talk in equal measure about what you have achieved with ball and bat and what you could have achieved, but for the dirty politics.  

Have a glorious post retired life. 

S. Prabhakar

21.12.2024