Published: Jun 14, 2011, 10:46 AM (IST)
Edited: Mar 26, 2014, 11:25 AM (IST)
By Madan Mohan
Simon Katich’s unsavoury falling out with Cricket Australia is the latest in a series of player-board spats. Shahid Afridi, it seems, would want to have nothing to do with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), and all of Chris Gayle’s heroics in the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL4) can’t get him a place in the West Indies cricket team. Suddenly, relationships between players and cricket boards appear to be plumbing unheard-of depths.
Strained relationships between players and boards are not new to cricket. In the not-so-distant past, David Gower and Mike Gatting were controversially ousted from captaincy while Brian Lara didn’t get along particularly well with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
But those were times when the media glare on cricket was much less penetrating. It was also much easier to sweep unpleasant affairs under the carpet. Note that David Gower’s ouster was not swept under by any means, but those were the days of print and television media. They probably ran the story for as long as it held the attention of the public and then got a move-on. The internet, on the other hand, never forgets.
You can go back to that heated exchange of words weeks and even months later and fuel the fire. And I speak from experience! On a serious note, this means the temperature remains rather high for a longer time than before. Fans, cohorts, detractors alike can also jump into the fray and offer their comments on the issue and things said herein can lead to more acrimony between the ‘victims’ in question.
During IPL4, bitter Twitter wars were waged first between Shane Warne and Rajasthan Cricket Association Secretary Sanjay Dixit, and later between Dixit and Lalit Modi. Oh, and should the internet choose to forget, the current television news reporting ethos won’t. They’ll blare the ‘Breaking News’ like a broken record until your ears hurt from the deafening din. It is very difficult these days not to notice any cricket controversy, let alone player-board fall outs.
All this probably makes player-board fallouts a lot uglier than we can recall in recent years. Another factor is the IPL. The IPL has made players realize they can be assertive and aggressive and not only demand but also obtain their pound of flesh from the cricket board. The IPL has put a number to each big name in the world of cricket and made it easier for players to assess their worth in the eyes of those that matter: sponsors and television channels. And as seems to be the case with Gayle, players have realized that in an era of depleted and depleting talent pools, the boards almost need some players more than the players need them.
Even those players who don’t play in the IPL, like Afridi, have become a lot bolder and hold their ground and have their say. The cricket boards on the other hand haven’t caught up with this adjustment in power equations between players and boards. They appear to be still prone to act high handed and continue to be opaque with briefings and announcements.
Judging from the releases over the years by Andrew Hilditch and James Sutherland, Cricket Australia also seems to have led from the front in introducing a contemporary flavour of public relations management to cricket boards. In other words, dry, self-congratulatory messages that often give cause to more questions than answers. This may well have instigated Simon Katich’s stinging response to his contract not being renewed.
I don’t know of course and, as with much of the article, am only drawing conjectures and surmises. But a sharp increase in media limelight and penetration of various forms of media combined with cricket boards living in the past has seriously strained player-board relations. It also leaves us with the question of whether players organizing themselves and ditching cricket boards is a not so distant possibility on the horizon.
(Madan Mohan, a 25-year old CA from Mumbai, is passionate about writing, music and cricket. Writing on cricket is like the icing on the cake.)
