The Hindu Business Line : Hockey defeat by China worse than cricket drubbing in S. Africa

We have in our office a fine, little Parsi fellow by the name of Tariq Engineer, interested in sports, particularly cricket and golf, which he plays. Grandson of the well-known radio cricket commentator Balu Alaganan, he has cricket stories to tell; of the day when his mother had tea with the greatest cricketer of the world Sir Garfield Sobers.

This writer still recalls the gentleman's steady voice over AIR: "This is Balu Alaganan from Chepauk." And then cricket would flow as the radio commentators had something interesting to say. These days, the TV commentators go on and on, forcing viewers to watch cricket with the TV on mute. Cricket on TV screens can generally do without commentators.

When Australia dumped England before a crowd of sea gulls at Adelaide, commentary seemed an intrusion. The TV shots of a hollering great called Warne and a grim Flintoff were enough.

"Its all over for England. They won't have the Ashes to carry home," remarked Tariq. My friend Tariq is also distantly related to Farooq Engineer, former wicketkeeper.

The impish fellow has the rare quality of writing clean and simple reports and the other day he was telling me, "Give me a chance. I would like to follow the Indian cricket team for a year." If I had the power, I would assign him the job of covering the World Cup in West Indies, the Indian visit to England in summer and more.

Like all Parsis, he abounds with a quaint sense of humour and horror. When the Indian public damaged the Allahabad home of Kaif, Tariq couldn't take it. "How can you do that," a shocked Tariq asked and one had no answer. The Parsi norm of decency does not admit violence, not even an abuse. Yet for this writer, the defeat of the Indian hockey team at Doha by China is worse than the tearing up of the Indian cricket team by South Africa.

Possibly, the Indian hockey team has lost to every team in the world and K.P.S. Gill will continue to be forever the boss of the Indian Hockey Federation.

Wonder, why Gill should not be sent home. But in Indian sports, defeats are a badge of honour. "Why don't you get your aging grandfather to dictate cricket tales of his times to you for putting in a book," one asks Tariq often. "I have talked the issue many times but he thinks there may not be any readers for the book. I am going to push him again and also request him to assign the royalty, if any, to me," says Tariq with a hang-dog chuckle.

Like the Parsi gentlemen regularly visiting "their" Central Bank of India (they refuse to accept it is a government bank and are worse for it), Tariq comes to office dressed in a white full-sleeved shirt, dark pants and polished black shoes. When one gets bored of business reporting, there is Tariq to talk sports, which is a blessing.

In the latest issue of Sportstar, there is a brilliant piece on the fine art of spinning (Tariq agrees) a cricket ball by Frank Tyson and we agreed it was one of the best we had read for a long time. At least this writer did not know the critical difference for spinners bowling on English and Australian pitches. "But tell me what is our cricket team doing," asked Tariq. Well, even the Indian team management does not have an answer. They know we are playing badly when we should be doing better. Sourav is back in the team after playing Ranji matches though one does not know why the same rule does not apply to Sachin Tendulkar, Viren Sehwag or Harbhajan Singh.

John Wright followed Greg Chappell for a panel interview to select a coach for the Indian cricket team. A.C. Muttiah, Raj Singh Dungarpur, Hanumant Singh, S. Venkataraghavan and Lele formed the panel.

"There were two particularly pointed questions: would I drop Tendulkar? — without hesitation I said yes, if I had to — and what sort of money was I expecting? I told them what I was getting at Kent; India was a much bigger job and I would expect a fair wage but money wasn't an issue for me. Some of the subsequent media coverage suggested that the remuneration issue had loomed a little larger in the other interviews. There was certainly a perception in some quarters that Indian cricket was a golden goose," says John Wright in his Indian Summers.

Is there anyone in BCCI or the Selection Committee headed by Dilip Vengsarkar who will dare suggest such a move? Sachin's days are over. Neither Sachin nor BCCI realises the fact. It could turn out to be bad for Indian cricket. This writer firmly believes Sachin should not be sent to World Cup 2007. That does not mean Sachin is not a great cricketer. Only the greatness has left him and it is particularly disappointing to watch an ordinary Sachin.

John Wright writes well and does not rant. Wright and Sourav together did the best turn for India. We drew Steve Waugh's Australia in Australia, defeated them in India, beat Pakistan for the first time on their turf and built a team of youngsters, who today seem to be failing.

"The players had grown up in a culture of seniors and juniors; it was a subject that came up time and again in newspaper articles and on television. Ganguly and I were as one on this: it had to change. He was determined to create a new culture and did an admirable job of making the younger players feel that they belonged," Wright writes. Somewhere India seems to have lost its way under Greg Chappell.

P. Devarajan