Why weren’t Kumble & Co invited?

Memonics

Conservative followers of sport are somewhat disturbed at the ‘naked’ display of wealth that is being hurled at the cricket team which won the tri-series against Australia. I have no issue with the BCCI rewarding the players so handsomely or holding a public felicitation (though why everything should become a tamasha beats me). But why were Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Wasim Jaffer and RP Singh ignored?

It’s not a ‘seniors versus juniors’ issue, nor is it about the money. It’s about understanding cricket and player sensitivities. If the BCCI could spend Rs 10 crore on the winning team, it could have spent a couple of crores more to make it inclusive; or the 10 crore could have been divided between five or six more players. More importantly, inviting the players who played only the Tests to Delhi would have acknowledged their contribution in making this tour of Australia perhaps the most engaging and crucial in the history of Indian cricket.

True, winners must be given their due, and the one-day team triumphed where the Test side lost 1-2. But this has been a most extraordinary tour, and where I am concerned, the one-day series cannot be seen in isolation, but in conjunction with what transpired during the four Tests earlier.

Almost everybody has agreed that the result of the Test series does not quite reflect how the cricket was played in the middle. But for the atrocious umpiring in the Sydney Test, the verdict could so easily have been 2-1 in India’s favour. Indeed, what happened during that match brought the team completely together, the BCCI offered unstinted support, and while the Test was lost by India, so was Australia’s domination.

To me, the defining moment of the entire tour was the Perth Test, not just the two one-day finals. On their favoured track, and against all odds,  Kumble led his side to one of the more remarkable victories in modern cricket. It was a superb team performance in which almost every player played a crucial part. Thereafter, Australia were always under pressure.

Kumble’s role in this amazing turnaround cannot be undermined. He got his team and the BCCI to rally behind Harbhajan when the Aussies seemed bent on denting his confidence.

It was Kumble’s inspiring leadership and support which allowed Ishant Sharma to become a nemesis for the Australian top-order as the tour progressed. Both Harbhajan and Ishant were to play crucial roles in the ODI series, but you have to go back to the Tests to trace the genesis of their success. In that sense, Dhoni inherited and reaped the benefits of what Kumble had set in motion.

Also, the contributions of Laxman, Dravid and Ganguly is not to be measured only by the runs they scored, but how they used their experience to ward off the desperate thrust of Aussies during the Test series to regain the psychological advantage. True, Jaffer was a failure with the bat but he was an integral part of a unit which showed the gumption and desire to beat the best team in the world.

The Test team failed to achieve this narrowly, but without their heroism, would the one-day victory have been possible?