Wriddhiman Saha is universally appreciated as a wicketkeeper-batter in the conventional mode. His work behind the stumps is always brilliant, yet seldom flamboyant. His anticipation is spot on and his movements so precise that he is rarely caught on the wrong foot, and forced to make a desperate lounge or a dive. He can gauge the turn and bounce of the ball delivered by the spin bowlers so well that he is always in a position to gather it once it passed the stumps. He never seeks attention nor is he known to indulge in needless sledging. He is dependable with the bat and always places a high price on his wicket. In many ways his batting is like his work behind the stumps - organised, effective and shorn off eye catching stunts.
Hence, it was surprising that this cricketer, universally acknowledged as mild mannered and unassuming to the extent of being almost inconspicuous, suddenly found himself under the spotlight by landing in the middle of a controversy. The first pertained to a conversation that the new national coach Rahul Dravid had with him at the end of the tour of South Africa. Dravid informed Saha that he did not stand a chance for being considered for the national squad and should seriously consider his future plans in the game. Saha did not stop with Dravid. Instead, he chose to drag in Sourav Ganguly too by referring to a message sent by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president congratulating him after a brave knock battling neck pain against New Zealand and promising him that his place in the side was secure. “How did things turn around so quickly?” was Saha’s lament.
Then a tweet by Saha created more controversy as here the player brought to light a threatening message from a “respectable journalist” for refusing to do an interview. The precise words of the journalist as tweeted by Saha were “Never again will I interview you. I don't take insults lightly. I will remember this. This wasn't something you should have done”. Saha refused to name the journalist though there are some murmurs about the identity of this person and the clout he has over the cricketing officialdom. Many former cricketers came out in support of Saha while some chose to point out the close relationships that some reporters have with players, owners of teams in Indian Premier League teams and BCCI officials.
By design or intent, Saha managed to open up for discussions two topics, both of which merit serious discussion. The first one is on the subject of retirement of players, an area to which little thought has gone into till date in India. There does not exist a system wherein the selectors and team management hold a discussion with the senior players about their future and the role envisaged for them at the start of every season as in Australia. This helps the cricketers nearing the age of retirement to understand where they stand and plan their exit accordingly. A message from the selectors to a player that they are on the lookout for a replacement for him during the season conveys in clear terms that he should be thinking about retiring from the game soon. This helps him to plan his exit from international cricket in an organised manner and more importantly avoid the embarrassment of being dropped from the side.
The practice followed in India till date places the onus entirely on the player as to when he should stop playing. While it is ultimately the decision of a player as to when he should hang up his boots, the practice also carries a flip side. One finds superstars of yesterday struggling to retain their place and getting dropped unceremoniously from the national side. It pained most of the followers of the game in India when Kapil Dev was reduced to the role of a mere trundler towards the end of his career and was finally dropped from the side. A word from the selectors that he was no longer figuring in their plans would have helped Kapil to make a graceful exit from the international arena.
Retirement is a sensitive topic for any sportsman for two reasons - one tangible and the other psychological. All successful sportspersons have invariably devoted their entire life to the concerned sport to the exclusion of virtually everything else. Hence it is a difficult decision to distance from something that is an integral part of life. There will also be fears and apprehensions while thinking about a future which will be spent away from the sport. Further, there also exists a deep craving for that one final victory which can form the perfect backdrop for bidding adieu, but which seldom happens despite the best efforts. For some, there will also be a distinct aversion to admit that age has slowed them down, despite strong evidence to this fact. So the natural instinct will be to keep going for as long as possible, thus prolonging the inevitable.
Dravid himself would have gone through these feelings during his twilight years as a player. He must also have seen others facing the dilemma of when to call it a day. As a serious student of the game, he understood the merits of the Australian system where a player is given an objective assessment about his place in the national side. Saha is the first player to receive such an “advisory” from the new coach and hence one can understand his surprise and slight bewilderment at this development. But this system will help senior players in the long run as it will help to give them a better perspective as to where they stand in the eyes of selectors and team management when they approach the last stages of their career.
The next issue has broader contours in that this covers the subject of relationship between journalists and the persons working in areas they cover. In the pre-television days, world depended on print media for news and to the sports lovers, the journalists on sports beat were as important as the players themselves. The advent of television and direct telecast of events changed this equation and the evolution of internet and social media have pushed print journalists to the margins. But the fact remains that some of them still retain considerable clout in the corridors of power in offices of organisations like BCCI.
The solution to this issue is there in the method adopted by Saha for making public this taunt of the journalist. The use of social media to interact with followers of the game will make redundant those journalists who thrive on reporting on the players and not the game. Players of yore needed media for reaching out to the public, either directly or indirectly. But the present generation does not require the media for this purpose. This was proved by Mahendra Singh Dhoni who chose to announce his retirement from the game through a post on Instagram. Gone will be the days when players called press conferences and informed the world about their decisions as more players take recourse to social media for communicating with the followers of the game.
Thus Saha, who had shied away from limelight and controversies throughout his career, finds himself at the centerstage of one at the fag end of his career. Both the issues that form part of this incident reflect the baby steps taken in a new direction, completely different from what has been the norm till date. Selectors and team management will institutionalise the practice of taking to senior cricketers in coming years and more players and even administrators will commence direct interaction with the public through the many channels available in social media. Quite unwittingly, Saha has marked himself out as a likely trendsetter in this regard!
(The author is a former international cricket umpire and a senior bureaucrat)
