FINGER-ATIVELY SPEAKING

BY BISWADEEP GHOSH

Has anyone bothered to remember the 'No Kapil, no test' call in Kolkata when Kapil Dev Nikhanj, a Jat from Haryana, was dropped from the Indian team because he had played an irresponsible shot in the previous test? Sunny Gavaskar, the captain, was pelted with oranges while fielding and the crowd was openly hostile towards him when he went out to bat.

I am not defending this moment at all. But all I am trying to say if the crowd in Kolkata can be so passionate when it concerned Kapil, who is as Bengali as Sherlock Holmes is Greek, can there be any reason why they will not cry out Sourav's name and jeer Dravid? That might be unsporting, but that is the way many Kolkatan fans are.

What Chappell should not done is stick a finger out of the bus later. He is the coach after all. But then, Chappell's methods have been ungentlemanly in a gentleman's game earlier as well. How can anyone forget why he made his younger brother Trevor bowl underarm in an act of 'experimentation' I suppose?

The media has been ridiculously biased when it came to reporting against things that have gone wrong even otherwise. Sourav has been the media's scapegoat for a while. Imagine what would have happened if we had lost our previous encounter against the Proteas, and Sourav had kept the best bowler RP Singh out of the attack after the latter had conceded just 18 runs in his seven overs? Abuses would have been hurled by one and all. But in this case, no one made a hue and cry about it.

The most comical of them all was the decision to send Irfan Pathan to bat as an opener. Had we been playing against Bangladesh, one would have understood why that had been done. But against the Proteas? That is out and out idiotic. As I say so, just think what would have happened if Ganguly had sent Pathan as the opener! I am not even saying it.

In an era of experimentation, and under an Australian coach-cum-non-playing captain who sticks a finger out of the bus that the board defends, what should we expect now? As I round this off, I can see Rahul Dravid bowling underarm and Chappell sticking a finger out from the dressing room when a Kallis or a Pollock spanks the cherry for a six!