Overreaction Monday | Aditya Verma's Conflict problems, Aakash Chopra on Rahane and Afridi unwinding Sachin chapter
There you go! To beat the Monday Blues, we are here, with a recount of some of the overreactions from the week gone by and how the ridiculousness of all defied all logic. Was there a semblance of hope? Aha, Not really, despite Windies pulling off a coup in a stunning fashion.
Aditya Verma stating Sanjeev Gupta's claims against Kohli and others were harmful to Indian cricket
Aditya Verma, who filed many petitions in the Supreme Court against Indian cricket administration, has asserted that Sanjeev Gupta’s ‘conflict of interest’ claims on players, including the recent allegation against Virat Kohli, is causing harm to Indian cricket.
SC Take: Well, the buck stops right there. Aditya Verma, the former secretary of the unrecognized Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB), had fought legally and personally, for full-member status for Bihar in the BCCI. After being chastised for long, he became the face of a legal battle which brought the entire BCCI structure to their haunches. Well, there was nothing wrong in that - for it began a new chapter in Indian cricket - but the way he stood next to N Srinivasan and Anurag Thakur hand in hand ahead of the BCCI Election in October, that didn't do any good to his reputation.
Going by his past, Verma doesn’t have any moral right to claim that Sanjeev Gupta’s complaints were malicious in nature, for Verma was the first person to bring the conflict of interest to fore and even successfully upstaged N Srinivasan from the BCCI president position. While Gupta’s complaints might have been irritating, the measuring truth of it is any case of conflict, which legally creates a problem, is a problem in the first place. The BCCI has come to this dwindling position because of their own disillusionment, lest Verma forgot.
Shahid Afridi thinks that Sachin was scared of Shoaib Akhtar
Shahid Afridi reiterated the controversial statement he made back in 2011 by stating that Sachin Tendulkar was scared of facing Shoaib Akhtar on several occasions. He also added that during the 2011 World Cup, Sachin was scared of Ajmal, too.
SC Take: Well, Akhtar was a terrific bowler, one of the all-time greats of the game, but calling Sachin was scared of him is borderline confusing. This is a batsman who took on the very best of the world at the age of 16, this was a batsman who downplayed the Malcolm Marshall threat in his teenage, and this was a batsman who played many a freak innings against Pakistan, of which Shoaib Akhtar was very much a part of.
In the matches involving Shoaib Akhtar, the Mumbaikar managed to score 864 runs in 19 ODI matches at an average of 45.47. Be it that 98 in the 2003 World Cup or the 93 he scored in the Carlton & United Series in Hobart in 2000, Tendulkar dominated Akhtar quite convincingly. That said, it is easy to understand why the duel was never a monomer, rather a binary every spectator across the border loved it to the core.
Gambhir believes Dhoni was a lucky captain because he got an amazing team in every format
Gautam Gambhir, who played a crucial role in India winning the T20 World Cup and the 50-over World Cup, believes that MS Dhoni was ‘lucky’ for having a brilliant team at his disposal that helped him during his captaincy tenure
SC Take: The word ‘lucky’ has sometimes been tagged to MS Dhoni for too much - be it as a batsman who loved finishing it in the last overs or as a skipper who landed the team almost everything from the unimaginable distress, but this Gambhir statement is downright wrong. When MS Dhoni took over the India captaincy in the T20 format, he had largely an unproven side. His cutting-edge smart captaincy landed the first T20 World Cup. By the time 2011 World Cup happened, Dhoni smartly decided to do away with a few slow legs that cost India big time.
While Dhoni helped India to the top of Test rankings, he did that with the help of senior players and his own built resources - two fundamentals for every team that has reached the zenith in any sport. Without a Scottie Pippen, Jordan wouldn't have had as big a legacy as he has now, Kobe Bryant wouldn’t have what he became without Shaquille O'Neal to support him or Sachin Tendulkar’s legacy might not have cemented without Rahul Dravid protecting him from the new ball. The obvious really doesn’t translate to Lucky, Mr. Gambhir.
Aakash Chopra states Rahane was dropped from ODIs like a fly is removed from milk
Akash Chopra backed Ajinkya Rahane’s comeback dreams by saying the Mumbaikar was handed out a rough deal after his consistent performances in late 2017 and early 2018, which he feels was unfair to the Indian Test vice-captain. Chopra further believes that Rahane should be given a chance once again in the ODI set-up.
SC Take: Well, of all overreactions this week, this by Aakash Chopra takes the cake. He is factually right when he says that Rahane did well in the ODI set-up batting in the middle order but his inconsistent run of form and the inability to take the pressure off the other batsmen didn’t help the cause either. When Rahane batted, irrespective of the conditions on offer, he did that on a single gear, failing to capitalise on the part-timers coming in the middle overs. That created a lot of pressure on Virat Kohli when he tried to push when he shouldn’t have.
The second part of the statement also needs complete reasoning. The Indian middle-order is now populated with KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey, all of whom are very capable batsmen and bring contrasting style to the fore. So much so that the middle-order issue seems to be all but solved even with Virat Kohli failing to fire at the top of the order. Is there a place for someone like Rahane? Well, your guess is as good as mine.