‘Fab Four’ Back In Indian Cricket, Will They be Able to Deliver?
Is the CAC just another committee formed by the BCCI or can some concrete change be implemented in Indian cricket?
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The last time the Fab Four of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly got together, they changed the face of Indian cricket forever. Now, the quartet has reunited in different capacities post their retirement, but in a more strategic/administrative role with the BCCI.
It is all very well to get the four involved in the running of Indian cricket, but one can’t help but suggest that their contribution needs to be high on delivery and low on optics.
More Flab, Less Action
The trio of Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman are part of what is called Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which in fact, is just another addition to the long list of panels in the BCCI. Instead of co-opting the trio into the already existent Anil Kumble headed technical committee, another layer has been added.
Kumble’s technical committee presently debates and recommends the way forward for domestic cricket. So one can’t help but wonder why the CAC members could not just have been added to the Kumble panel replacing the existing non-cricketer members.
Already Actioned
What has ended up happening is that the CAC has added a lot of star value, but collectively they are suggesting ideas that are already in place.
a) Suggestion: Have more A tours.
Fact: India A has played more first-class series, home and away, that too before a big senior tour, in the last three years. India A has played 14 first-class matches in six series played home and away since 2011. Other sides like Australia A (eight first-class matches, four series), England Lions (eight first-class matches, four series) and South Africa A (12 first-class matches, six series) pale in comparison.
b) Suggestion: Create a pool of bowlers
Fact: BCCI lines up promising bowlers at specialist camps annually. There is now a tie-up with the MRF Pace Foundation, where their head coach Glenn McGrath has already trained a set of promising pace bowlers and will train more in the coming months.
c) Suggestion: Revive TRDO
Fact: The scheme was good in nature, but ended up ‘allegedly’ being nothing but a glorified junket for retired cricketers who made merry at the cost of BCCI.
Appoint CEO of Indian Cricket Teams
This whole business of being a honorary ‘servant’ of the sport is frankly passe. The trio or maybe just one of them should have stepped up to take the role of being Director of Cricket or Executive High Performance Manager, much like Andrew Strauss in England or Pat Howard of Australia.
We need Indian cricket to move forward with people being paid to perform and being held accountable for it. We need someone to be what you may call the CEO of Indian cricket teams- taking decisions for the senior/A/under-19 sides irrespective of what happens in Board rooms. This appointee can be the link between the Board/team think-tank/stakeholders/players by tracking workloads/schedules/planning fixtures et al.
Dravid More Hands-On
The only man out of the Fab Four who can take up this definitive role is Mr Dependable, Rahul Dravid. However, he has chosen instead to slowly move up the ladder as the India A/U19 coach first, much like what his comrade Greg Chappell does for Cricket Australia (CA) as National Talent Manager, thereby taking care of junior Aussie sides.
Dravid was the man who led the fight to bring in the first professional player annual retainer contracts for Indian cricketers in 2004-05, maybe he is once again showing the way for his peers with this new role.
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