Doesn't BCCI deserve some credit?

Indian media has a favorite whipping boy in the form of the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) - which is almost always depicted as a body full of political squabbles or even worse, a bumbling but powerful idiot with the huge might of the Indian market at its disposal. BCCI is portrayed as a reactive body - I understand the hope that BCCI be proactive, but honestly, how many sports bodies in India are reactive at least? Also, the media does not appreciate enough, how BCCI brought in big money into cricket over the years; true, it capitalized on the success of the Indian cricket team in 1983, but again, how many sports bodies have been able to capitalize on the successes of their wards?

This post, though, is not about how BCCI has got the short shrift from the media in general. I stick to the specific instance of team selection for the inaugural Twenty20 world cup. These days, cricket is analyzed so much (especially the off-the-field shenanigans) by the media that I find this omission about the BCCI's good management of team selection glaring. First things first, though - this Twenty20 world cup has 12 teams participating, of which, eight teams, have been around for long enough on the international scene as more-or-less permanent fixtures in both the longer (Tests) and shorter (ODIs) versions of the game. Of these eight teams, Australia has been rebuilding in the spate of retirements of players post-Ashes glory and it was clear that their Twenty20 team will not hold any surprises. England had lot of experience in the shortest version of the game through several Twenty20 matches played between its counties and hence, picking up a team was not very difficult. Of the remaining six teams, New Zealand and West Indies do not command the same market power as the other teams, and as such, their Twenty20 teams were not expected to evoke much reaction from the media.

The remaining four teams had interesting pasts recently - Sri Lanka did well in the 2007 ODI World Cup; South Africa did alright but could not get rid of its chokers tag; India and Pakistan did badly. Once the teams for Twenty20 for these four countries had been made public, lot of controversy got generated except in the case of Indian team. The selection committees of these four teams probably wanted younger players, but the way they went about it was very different. In the case of South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, players such as Kallis, Yousuf and Atapattu were not considered and this had repercussions including these names being linked to the Indian Cricket league (ICL) that is to kick-off shortly in defiance to BCCI. In the case of India, the trio of Sachin, Sourav and Rahul made themselves unavailable for selection, leaving a free hand to the selectors. However, Sourav's statements later on seemed to clearly indicate that the trio has been persuaded by the BCCI behind the scenes - leading to graceful exit of the trio and a free hand to BCCI. More importantly, the trio seemed to have been taken in confidence very well - unlike in the case of the players in other teams, they did not sulk - the performances of Sachin and Sourav especially reminiscent of their halcyon days. Given that the media generally castigates BCCI for mismanagement, shouldn't it have doffed its hat to BCCI on this occasion for its good man management? I don't recall seeing any such article or analysis in the media - or is it possible that I missed such an analysis due to information overload? I can dismiss that possibility given the brush that media uses to portray BCCI generally. Which brings me back to the question, doesn't BCCI deserve some credit? and more importantly, perhaps, why is it that Indian media fails to see positives?

Aside 1: One of the supporters of ICL took a very interesting dig at the name of BCCI, saying that BCCI is only interested in the "control" of cricket, and not its "development" and hence, it is opposed to ICL.

Aside 2: That India has defeated South Korea 7-2 in the men's Asia Cup hockey tournament, coupled with the success of the film "ChakDe! India" could potentially mean that any slip-ups by the Indian cricket team in the inaugural Twenty20 world cup would lead to increased interest in hockey. While I do wish that we do well in Twenty 20, the Indian men's hockey team deserves all the attention it can get especially after that victory margin despite playing with only 10 men for better part of the game.

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