Where is the accountability of the Indian cricket team?

A nation of billion and the eleven of the most unaccountable chaps + 1 Aussie are selected to represent the country in (and bring back) the world cup. And what do they give us? Shattered dreams.

Both Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell have washed their hands off the entire debacle by saying ‘We are responsible.’ Now to me, that is as obvious a statement one can make. We all know you are responsible. Give us something more. What you have said is the effect. Let us know the cause. Give us something more than ‘We didn’t play well enough.’ Taking responsibility is fast becoming a fad. Previously, when teams lost a match or a series, there was some vague reason given for the bad performance. Nowadays, teams whole-heartedly agree that it was their responsibility. Saying that seems to release them from giving further safai. In the above-linked interview, Guru Greg blankly refuses to comment on the reasons for the early exit of the team from the world cup. The team won’t say what Sehwag was doing in the playing eleven, they won’t explain the complacency with which India played Bangladesh, they won’t explain what certain players were doing in the dressing room outside the team. All they will say is that they are responsible.

Spiderman was taught that ‘With greater power, comes great responsibility.’ I would like to take this one step further by saying, ‘Along with responsibility, comes accountability.’ Accountability is when you explain the reasons what went wrong and why it went wrong. When the Guru says this to the press,

I am not employed by you people, I am employed by the BCCI. Obviously, I will have to face up to them and give them a report and give them some indications of what I think.

the first thing that comes to my mind (especially from the second sentence) is a meeting of the coach and the captain with the BCCI and the selection panel, press cameras trying to get a glimpse or a few sound bytes, and the meeting ending with the members slapping each other heartily on the back and having tea and biscuits. The report will lie neglected on the table until some secretary will push it among his files and then add it as yet another official document to be relegated in the shelves. Well, I’m digressing from the topic.

Almost half of the players have become amateurs comparing the time they spend on the cricket field and on the ramp or in front of cameras. Why do you want to dabble your hand in everything? Do your modeling/marketing in your free time, not at the cost of your cricket or at the cost of others who are working much harder to get a place in the team?

What can be done about the Indian cricket team now? I can just hope that the selectors send some of them into exile. Play some county cricket, then earn your place in the team again. The team cannot should not carry on players who are at the verge of retiring just to give them a graceful exit. Play as long as you want, but only if you’re worth for the Indian team.

What can be done about the coach? Since the coach refuses to accept the failure of ‘their’ strategy, I don’t know. Chappell once said that the team was aiming for the World Cup and thus he qualified the messing and the muddling of the members and their playing positions. Now he says:-

Eighteen months is not a long time to build a team.

How much more time do you need, Guru Greg?

There are a lot of unanswered questions in the minds of Indian fans. Its time for the BCCI to answer these questions. Its the least they can do for a country which stays up late after midnight to faithfully watch India win. Being the richest cricket board is nothing, being the best is everything.

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