Cricket of course! ( Oct 18, 2005 )

There's been a big hue and cry lately about the Chappell-Ganguly fallout.

This is one thing I fail to understand about us Indians. Why do we care so much about Politicians and Cricketers ? And why do politicians play games and sportsmen play politics here ? There seems to be a bunch of mindgames being played out on the public stage here, and Mr Chappell sure seems to know his politics well ! Just consider this...

An email purportedly sent to the Chairman of Selectors is leaked by "somebody". Considering that the chairman is a stooge of Mr Dalmiya, makes one wonder why he would have engineered the leak... I mean, what would the Dalmiya camp stand to gain by leaking the email ? Mr Dalmiya is surely smart enough to sense the pulse of the public on Sourav's performance for the last two years. ( He has been scratching around with the bat, and is a sore spectacle on the field ). So, what good would it do him to be judged by public opinion ?

Maybe the "leak" was staged by Mr Chappell himself bcc'ing people from the rival faction on his email !

Now, the board ( read Dalmiya and his comrades ) have no choice but to play by the book in Sourav's case. Now, it will be a big ask for Sourav to get back into the ODI side ( I think his Test career is pretty much over. ) , what with sachin back, and guys like Kaif and Yuvraj around, who are good batsmen and much better fielders.

Anyway, cricket in India is commercially viable and as such, requires no one's intervention to put it on the right track. That is the beauty of commercialization... Nobody wants to kill the goose that lays golden eggs !