Overreaction Monday | BCCI's mid-night incompetence and South Africa losing the plot
Overreaction Monday - November 30 edition
|SportsCafe
It is that time of the week when we decide to sit on our perspective haunches to filter out the good opinions and challenge the wrongs (well, we canât be neutral surely). Bursting the myth is fun and it is even more so when the experts land some unfathomable comments for the sake of it.
South African players decide not to take the knee
South African players combinedly decided not to take the knee, saying that they want to show their intent by the work done and not in words.
SC Take: The history of cricket in South Africa has been marred with race problems and it is not news that how deep the rot goes. It has resulted in many bloodsheds and over-promised under-delivered transformation targets with the Black community sitting on the duck. Hence when the Black Lives Matter movement kickstarted earlier this year, it was of paramount importance for the cricket community in South Africa to embrace the movement with open arms. The 3TC was a start but the players decided not to take the knee against England which left a lot of questions that could never be answered satisfactorily.Â
Rassie van der Dussen explained the reasons at an online presser why the players unanimously chose not to take the knee at the upcoming matches but explained that they are ready to work towards the cause. While the world needs a strong retaliation towards the cause that has engulfed the larger community, South Africa, losing the plot, leaves the gaping hole too strong to boast about. It was a chance lost but more importantly, it is a battle lost while fighting a war.
Devang Gandhi claiming there is no place for Suryakumar Yadav
Devang Gandhi slammed those who were asking for Suryakumar Yadavâs inclusion by saying there is no place for the Mumbaikar, with no single batsman in the Indian team currently being replaceable.
SC Take: This is as ridiculous an explanation by the now-former Indian selector who was in charge of picking the squad for the Australia series. Simply because Yadav has set the IPL and domestic stage on fire in the shortest version of the game while Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey have failed to make any sort of eye-catching contributions with the bat tells you everything that you need to know. Iyer and Pandey have been two important components in the 50-over format, where they deserve their spot thoroughly, but very few have been as an able middle-order bat in the shortest version of the game as Yadav.Â
He is the only uncapped player to have scored over 2000 runs in the T20 format but more than that, the audacity with which he did that leaves a mark. Yadav doesnât try to play correct strokes but focuses on getting the runs as many as possible which is the fairest indicator in the 20-over format. The sport has evolved to a whole new level where the understanding of the intricacies plays a huge role but it is sad that wise men like Gandhi are not grasping the very idea and defending the horror selection process with a resort that doesn't make any sense. Utter shame!
BCCI sending press release in mid-night
After Virat Kohli, in no uncertain terms, slammed the BCCI for their lack of communication in the Rohit Sharma injury debacle, the BCCI sent a press release in the mid-night to salvage the situation.
SC Take: The ridiculousness of sending a press release at midnight was not lost on the Indian cricket board, but the fact that they successfully hid the most important news at the bottom to push an utterly-unnecessary at the top was ironic. The way the BCCI handled the situation was shambolic and the fact that the captain had no clue about it left a lot of things, including the relationship between the skipper and the white-ball vice-captain, to conjecture.
The BCCI could have managed it better but their frustration to salvage the situation was an overreaction at many levels. It shows a basic lack of accountability which is fundamental to the stature of Indian Cricket. By laying bare the whole fiasco, they left their own incompetence on the road. When Ganguly gives his next interview, he shouldnât forget this drama and how badly his board handled it.
Illusory Sanjay Manjrekar or Illusory Hardik and Jadeja
Sanjay Manjrekar has made it clear as daylight that he doesnât have a personal problem with either Hardik Pandya or Ravindra Jadeja but absolutely tore into what they offer for the Indian team in the white-ball format.Â
SC Take: Stop, arenât we in 2020? Whatâs with it looking like a carbon-copy of the 2019 incident from the World Cup in England? Oh, same people involved but this time new terminology after âbits and piecesâ didnât work out in the right way. Sanjay Manjrekar, the commentator, is back for the Australian tour and so are the comments, that tear into the only two all-rounders in the Indian national team - Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja. This time the word being âillusory,â now for all of you who are hearing the word for the first time - it means not real, although seeming to be.Â
Now about the comment - if you have specialists who can walk-in based on one discipline - thatâs where things get a bit dicey. I know the squad selection was not upto the mark but in the ODI format, the selectors couldnât possibly select Suryakumar Yadav and replace him with Hardik Pandya right? Thatâs where things get worse, India are currently facing the heat for not giving opportunities to other all-rounders in the country and here Manjrekar talks about one-disciplined players, a pretty outdated concept. India needs to groom an all-rounder badly!
