'BEDI BULLIED BOYS': SOURCES
This ‘and’ between J&K is the problem!
By: Gowhar Geelani
A hapless cricket fan in Kashmir Valley is biting the dust. He’s pulling his hair out. Dejected! And, more importantly, is confronted with this rudimentary question: “Why doesn’t my State team win even a single match in Ranji competitions?” Unfortunately, there aren’t any ‘satisfactory’ answers coming. Because it’s no secret that the state cricket’s governing body – Jammu and Kashnir Cricket Association [JKCA] – remains a divided camp. The “internal squabbling”, communication gap and “ego fights” between various officials aren’t helping either. One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand that the budding talent in Kashmir is left to ruin in wilderness. This, however, is only one side of the story.
The reasons for J&K’s dismal show in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2011-12 are plenty. This time too, J&K boys have failed to register even a single win in 5 matches they’ve featured in. Even the former India captain, Mr. Bishen Singh Bedi couldn’t ‘turn’ it in Kashmir! Much was expected from the head coach, but unfortunately nothing seems to have changed.
What has gone wrong?
“I’m shell-shocked. We should have easily won some of the games. We came so close to winning some, but couldn’t get over the line,” Mr. Bedi told me during our candid telephonic conversation.
Frankly, I’m a well-wisher of the team myself. I don’t intend to harm team’s interest in any way by focusing only on the negatives. And that’s why I’m trying to find some honest answers to some of the genuine questions which are troubling a cricketer inside me. I’ve watched some of these boys training hard; sweating and performing. I’ve played with some of them. I know what they’re capable of doing with the willow and red cherry in their hands. I know they aren’t getting what they actually deserve. In all fairness to the boys, they’re getting a raw deal.
Kashmir Valley’s pace sensation, Abid Nabi was not even in the squad. That gives you some idea about the selection criterion and the bizarre rationale behind it. How does one justify this move? It is absolutely unacceptable. Abid Nabi, sources say, was declared “unfit without going through the mandatory fitness test”. Amazing!
I don’t blame Mr. Bedi for this; because he’s the coach, not a selector. With Mr. Bedi at the helm, the team hasn’t won a single game in the last 15. These include the recent five 50 over games in the Vijay Hazare Trophy - North Zone, five First-class four-day games [Ranji Trophy Plate League – Group B] and five Twenty20 matches in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy- North Zone.
The question is why?
“Well, I don’t have a magic wand, really. The hunger for winning seems to be missing in these boys.
It seems they’re satisfied with the scores of 20s and 30s for their own survival in the team. They just don’t have that attitude and the outlook to walk that extra mile and go over the line. A lot of that has to do with the culture, upbringing and their overall attitude towards the game,” Mr. Bedi opined. He, however, quickly added that the team needs to forget what has happened and look towards the future now. “What has happened has happened. We’ve to be positive. For the next season, we need to start preparing now. A lot needs to be changed; especially the outlook and attitude of these boys towards the game.” He further said that some of these boys seem to derive “satisfaction” very easily and hence “lack that killer instinct and hunger for more success”. “It is my desire to see them perform well. The boys need more exposure and should participate in tournaments outside the state to get used to the competitiveness,” he said.
Satisfaction, they say, is the death of desire. But how fair is this to blame hapless boys for everything? Do they have the same facilities and infrastructure enjoyed by the other teams? Do they get that pat on the back? Is there some respect shown to their mettle? The answer perhaps to all these questions is a big NO!
I, for one, was quietly thrilled when Mr. Bedi was appointed as the head coach of the team. I thought his rewarding international experience was surely going to help the team in more than one way. Or, so I thought! While representing India in 67 test matches, Mr. Bedi has claimed 266 scalps. This is no ordinary feat.
But it seems there are many serious problems confronting Jammu and Kashmir cricket, which are beyond repair; at least in the immediate future.
The wily slow left-arm orthodox bowler, Mr. Bedi, can’t help the pace battery of Kashmir much. A spin bowler has a different approach towards bowling. A spinner relies heavily on the guile; flight, turn, and the ‘demons’ in the track to go things his way. On the contrary, the fast bowlers thrive on aggression, speed, swing, seam movement and intent, which make things happen for them. Are we missing a trick or two here?
Jammu and Kashmir team has three splendid pacers in Abid Nabi, Samiullah Beigh and Sameer Ali. And how unfortunate this is to see that one among them [Abid] wasn’t even selected; another treated as a ‘passenger’ [Sameer] in the squad while the remaining one [Samiullah] dropped for the last two games because of non-cricketing and off-the-field reasons?
Out of 15 members selected, only six were from Kashmir Valley. To me, this is no less baffling. Doesn’t this suggest a visible bias in the selection process? Regarding this, the General Secretary of the JKCA, Mr. Ehsan Mirza had this much to say: “This question, I’m afraid, is for the chairman of the selection committee to answer?”
Sameer Ali, the 26-year-old right-arm medium-fast bowler from the summer capital Srinagar, has 42 wickets to his name in 31 games [First-class, List A and T20 all included] he’s played overall since his First-class debut in 2005. But for some strange reasons, Sameer is always made the scapegoat! Treated as a “passenger” in the squad during this tour, Sameer was ‘forced’ to warm the benches in some of the games after recovering from his injury. I was informed by Mr. Bedi that he had injured his side muscle during the tour. Well, then the question is where was the replacement? Why was an ‘injured’ player kept there in the squad?
To understand the reasons behind what exactly is bothering JK cricket, I asked Mr. Ehsan Mirza a very simple question: “Why wasn’t Abid Nabi picked? And if Sameer Ali had injured his muscle, according to Mr. Bedi, why wasn’t the replacement sent?” Like a true gentleman, Mr. Mirza said: “As the JKCA General Secretary, I did not receive any official communication in this regard from the coach or the support staff. A request has to come from them. If that was the case, we would have sent the necessary replacement.”
Fair enough.
But, this brings another question on the table? Isn’t there a serious “communication gap” between the high-profile head coach and the JKCA office bearers?
Mr. Mirza made one important point though. He said that the JKCA office bearers didn’t interfere one bit in the selection matters and gave absolute freedom to the coach and the selection committee to pick the squad. “No office bearer of the JKCA has anything to do with the selection. Mr. Bedi organized a two-and-a-half month long camp, we provided all the support and facilities, and the infrastructure, but we’re disappointed and surprised with the results.”
Yes, everyone should be. Me too.
Abid Nabi, another 26-year-old right-arm pacer from Sonwar in Srinagar, has played in the ‘rebel’ and now defunct Indian Cricket League [ICL] while representing Delhi Giants. Imagine, a bowler with 145 wickets in 71 games at the Ranji level wasn’t even part of the Jammu and Kashmir squad.
Samiullah Beigh, yet another right-arm speedster from Srinagar, has been trained by the Aussie great Dennis Keith Lillee at the prestigious MRF Pace Foundation in the city of Chennai. This Caribbean-style lanky fast bowler made his First-class debut in 2003-04 and has never looked back since. He has 135 wickets from 79 games. Not only this, he’s more than handy with the bat with 1241 runs, which include five half-centuries. But this worthy all-rounder was ‘forced’ to bat at number 8, 9 and even 10.
Credible sources confirm that Samiullah had a ‘discussion’ with Mr. Bedi over his batting slot, which annoyed the coach so much that the pace spearhead was ‘dropped’ for the last two games. And this despite the fact that Samiullah had taken three wickets in the first game against Delhi [52/3], including the key wicket of India international, Shikhar Dhawan in his second over. But, Mr. Bedi had an interesting answer: “Honestly, the guy didn’t bowl well.”
A gentle reminder to Mr. Bedi, it was Samiullah who had removed the world record holder in one day internationals, Virender Sehwag, in his very first over in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in October last year at Rohtak. When you’ve a bowler of his calibre who bowls with such panache and has an uncanny knack of removing the top order batsmen like Sehwag, Yuvraj, Dhawan and Saurabh Tiwary ; well, you don’t drop him!
Mr. Bedi, on his part, refused to acknowledge that there has been any “incongruity” on regional grounds. However, the sources maintain that Kashmiri boys were “bullied” and “mistreated” for speaking against the apparent “injustices”.
I asked Mr. Mirza what was his take on this whole scenario. “Well, no one has told me about this so far. No one has come forward with a written complaint about the mistreatment meted out to our boys. But these are all important questions which have to be answered,” Mr. Mirza said.
When asked about why the cricket association wasn’t informed about Sameer’s injury during the tour, exclusion of genuine wicket-keeper Arshad Bhatt from first few games and batting order of two quality all-rounders in the team – Parvez Rassol and Samiullah Beigh – Mr. Mirza said: “I was in Delhi when Arshad Bhatt wasn’t selected in the playing XI. Mr. Bedi informed me that he wasn’t physically fit. And yes, if a genuine batsman like Parvez Rassol is made to bat at number 9, this has to be answered.”
According to the JKCA General Secretary, all these genuine questions will be asked and a detailed analysis of the tour is due. “We’ve asked for a detailed analysis and a comprehensive report of the entire tour from the coach,” Mr. Mirza added.
I was genuinely pleased with what Mr. Bedi had to say about the team Jammu and Kashmir. In his words, this “and” between “Jammu & Kashmir” is the “real problem”. “When this J&K becomes JK, things will improve for sure,” the former India captain hoped. But then the immediate question is: “where is the accountability and equality”? How can a team play without its real strength, which of course lies in the genuine pace bowling from Kashmir Valley?
It seemed to me as if no lessons have been learnt from the idiomatic expression, “horses for courses”. A dashing young opener like Adil Rishi was made to keep wickets in some of the games this tour, which had a drastic impact on his batting performance in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. This 23-year-old right-handed batsman had an aggregate of only 36 runs in five 50-over games. And this is the same boy, who was an instant hit in the First-class matches not long ago. Rishi had scored close to 400 runs in five Four-day games at an impressive average of 56.71 while scoring 88 twice and scores of 40 odd four times. Was there a deliberate attempt to tire him down with added responsibility of keeping wickets – not his main job – so that he doesn’t perform with the willow, which is his main strength?
Parvez Rassol – another youngster and right-handed middle-order batsman from South Kashmir’s Bijbehara region, batted as low as number 9 in one match against Punjab. But the gutsy cricketer scored an undefeated fifty [51*] in the same match, which the team eventually lost by 19 runs as he ran out of partners. He has a First-class century and five fifties in the List A 50-over matches. And even then, he was forced to bat at number 9. If this isn’t bizarre, what is?
I’ve played this game myself. I understand this game to a very large extent. I understand its various nuances and facets. I’ve been watching international cricket for more than two decades now. I write about this game. I analyze it. But when it comes to cricket in Jammu and Kashmir, I’m reminded of the internal bickering in the pathetic Pakistan Cricket Board. I fail to understand the rationale behind selecting a 33-year-old middle-of-the-road player, who debuted in 2000-01 and whose highest score in the List A 50-over games in the past 11 years has been 22; with an overall mediocre average of 9.75? There is a problem. A big problem.
This season, it seems, nothing has gone right for Jammu and Kashmir team. Inside sources maintain that there was “huge discrepancy” in the team selection, “ill-treatment” meted out to players belonging to Kashmir Valley and “unthinkable bias” in finalizing the playing-XI for all games during the disastrous tour.
The team led by the 30-year-old Hardeep Singh, an average batsman himself, had only 6 players from Kashmir Valley. “This is a crying shame,” said an insider pleading anonymity. There is credible evidence, according to the reliable sources, that suggests that the team’s head coach, Mr. Bedi played a “partisan” role throughout the tumultuous tour for “personal reasons”.
How unjustified is the fact that Mr Bedi ensured that only three players from Kashmir Valley were part of the playing XI in match one against Delhi; four in the second game against Services, five against Punjab in the third game, only three again in the fourth and fifth game against Himachal Pradesh and Haryana respectively?
The question that is staring us in the face again is: Why?
Indeed, there is no dearth of talent in Jammu & Kashmir. But, there is certainly the lack of will; and reluctance to instigate the much needed changes in the team composition. Without a whisker of a doubt, there is dearth of professionals with an eagle eye who could recognize the talent; encourage talented players, believe in their abilities, back them, inject confidence in them, and then, do everything possible to nurture and groom that talent properly without any prejudices, and with sincerity have a clear vision. Injecting youthful energy is pretty okay, but games are won by a judicious blend of experience and youth! These are very basics.
I concur with some of the points made by Mr. Bedi. For instance, the team players need the necessary infrastructure, competitive atmosphere, and their outlook needs to change and that the boys should aim for excellence; not mediocrity! But then, the coach, the selection committee members and the office bearers need to sit in front of the mirror; introspect, and then ask themselves: “Have we been fair to the boys?”
Gowhar Geelani is a professional journalist with more than a decade-long national and international experience. Passion for the game of glorious uncertainties runs through his veins like blood!
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