Indian players in trouble
Just like their Pakistani counterparts the Indian cricket team, is renowned for attracting one controversy after another, and the men in blue who were ousted after a dismal show in the T-20 World championship super eights stage, have been receiving the ire of the Indian media ever since their capitulation. Six players are in even deeper trouble than the rest, as the Board of Control for Cricket in India has served them notices for breach of the code of conduct.
The notices were served to seek an explanation, for their alleged undisciplined behaviour in a nightclub, after the team’s loss to Sri Lanka in the last super eights encounter, which sealed their fate in the tournament.
The players at the centre of the controversy include, Zaheer Khan, Rohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Ashish Nehra, Ravindra Jadeja and Yuvraj Singh. Most of these players had an ordinary World cup in the Caribbean, Zaheer was a shadow of himself, and leaked runs with both the new and old ball. Rohit Sharma scored a belligerent 70 odd in the losing cause against Australia, but failed to do much in the rest of the tournament.
Piyush Chawla hardly made an impression, while Nehra was the pick of the bowlers yet failed to inspire his team to a positive result especially in the crucial super eights stage.
Ravindra Jadeja and the flamboyant Yuvraj Singh were both ordinary, leaking runs with their left-armers, coupled with their failures with the bat. Yuvraj in particular looked totally out of sorts, he was the hero of the Indian triumph in the inaugural T-20 World championship in South Africa in 2007, but the pace and bounce in the West Indies found him hopping for cover. The team’s failure was their third consecutive exit before the semi-finals in an ICC world event, an expectedly the passionate cricket fans in the country are not willing to spare their offenders!
The six players, who have been served notices, would have to put in a special effort if they are to convince the BCCI that they are still their worth in gold. The lack of discipline has been a major concern both in India and Pakistan, and reports of dissent and infighting offer appear in media after a major loss. Besides the six players the captain of the team MS Dhoni is also under fire, for his negative approach in recent world events. The cricket experts in the country including stars like Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Arun Lal have time and again claimed that there are serious chinks in the Indian armoury that need to be rectified ASAP.
However, despite their failures in the limited overs format, the Indians are currently ranked as the top test team in the world.
Last year they recorded impressive victories over the Australians and South Africans, which propelled them to the peak of the rankings. One reason for their success in the longer format is that the test team comprises of some outstanding batting talent in Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid. The problem in the limited overs format, especially the T-20 is that the trio is unavailable, which leaves the batting order exposed in tough conditions.
Meanwhile in the wake of the T-20 World championship debacle the Indian Board is set to take some stern action and the players who have been caught out on disciplinary grounds are set to bear the brunt of the loss.
What remains to be seen is whether the players can come out with an explanation to their behaviour in the nightclub, where they were apparently caught brawling with distraught Indian fans. At the same time what ever the explanation might be, one thing is for sure we will never have an end to such controversies in the sub-continent, long live the game and long live the controversies?
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