Cricket and seniors in India have been in news globally for some time now, IPL to retirement, everyone in Australia, SA, Pak and England have an opinion column on. Talking greats- Michael Atherton, Boycott, Imran Khan, Ian Chappell, Sanjay Manjrekar have been at the forefront. Well they do get paid for it. But, why pay such guys, when cricket can be well analyzed and written by people who probably have not played as much cricket as these cricketers (read Harsha Bhogle, Peter Roebuck, Bobilli, Ayaz Memon etc)

Problem is, the latter do not create controversies around Senior Indian Players to make a good writing, the former it seems have been plagued with this intention. They believe they have complete authority to decide what’s right for Indian cricket, who the future of India is and how Indians should treat their seniors.  Surprisingly the same people have a differing attitude when it comes to their own country players. Ricky Ponting had an India batting average with which no other Aussie Captain or Cricketer would have ever made with to India. But, instead of asking him make way for younger players (read Ricky is 34 now) and handing over the captainship to Clarke, Greg Chappell gave him batting tips to succeed in India (look what it did to Ricky' confidence). Imagine, Greg, is the same guy who humiliated Sourav, India's most successful test captain, to make way for a docile Rahul Dravid by stressing on need for change due to falling batting average. (Sourav in 2008 still averages above 40 in Test Cricket).  Similarly we can accept Adam Gilchrist to replace Laxman as IPL team captain, when Laxman proved better in overall results in the tourney. Laxman obviously admits he is not a 20-20 material, but why put him into such a position and then allow an icon to fall? And why do Indian hands need to be behind this move? Anyways with Gilchrist’s recent fiasco, I doubt his popularity to stay where it was.

The real shame around all these incidents is in the form of lack of support from media and respect to our heroes, who have been battered, bruised, struck with failures only to rise larger than life. For now a hero's life is at the mercy of all those who have neither played cricket in present era to realize the game and its essentials as per present data, nor have they the audacity to admit, their nations could never produce such a formidable Fab 5 players who could serve their nations for more than 12 odd years. Its amusing to see real action greats (Viv Richards, Lara, Sunil Gavaskar) saying that they would pay to watch Sachin play, whereas the talking greats (Imran, Ian,Sanjay) otherwise like brandishing Sachin at their will.

Its painful to see at one side how cricket has taken centre stage in recent years due to these fab 5 players - Sachin, Rahul, Sourav, Laxman, Kumble, and on the other side their own countrymen desert support to them when they fall. Sourav’s retirement is in contrast to his statement 2 months back where he said he still had 2 years cricket left in him. While the moment shall be forgotten, its passionate cricket followers who will still remember this unfortunate forced moment.

Obviously all this did not matter to these heroes till now, evident with the longevity and results, but spare a moment and think deeply, they are all, at last, human beings who feel pain. If anything, a nations support to their cause and respect to their decisions, can only enhance a phase out everyone would want to remember with a smile. These guys do deserve a lot more for changing the game we all love. Knowing economics, I am not too optimistic of this change; nevertheless, to hope is still optimistic enough.   

Cheers