Foot-in-mouth disease is bad enough, but the chief of Indian cricket selectors telling a mediaperson to shut up? In trying to defend the indefensible, K Srikkanth did the unthinkable, and then tried to explain his indiscretion by resorting to Hindi only he could understand.
One of the TV headlines called the selectors spineless. What no one called them was jokers or court jesters. That is what one member of the present panel described them as decades ago, when he was unfairly treated by the wise men then in power. I always wondered how Jimmy Amarnath would defend his own actions as selector when things went wrong or how he would react if a player or critic were to compare him to clowns and buffoons. I’m still waiting for his reaction.
Harsha Bhogle has been calling for the empowerment of the Indian selectors so that they can look players in the eye and tell them they are being dropped. That seems to be a cry in the wilderness. According to Srikkanth, Tendulkar is a great player who knows when he must go, and the selctors consulted him before including him in the Asia Cup squad.
One final question. If we are to believe the theory that Tendulkar is still available for ODIs because he wants to get his hundredth international hundred, will he opt out if India qualifies for the tri-series finals, and he manages the feat in Australia?
