FIRST a disclaimer. I know just enough about cricket to perhaps manage to impress my house help. Or maybe not. But you can’t be a journalist with an Indian passport and feign ignorance about a news event as important as Virat Kohli fading out. Honestly, it would be some time before we know the truth about his resignation. There was no phenomenal talent snapping at his heals for natural succession unlike with Ganguly (Dhoni, Dravid being nightwatchman) or Dhoni (Kohli). Not unnatural if Kohli allowed his recent form to get to his mind, and not the first time if the BCCI bosses wanted a captain eased out for whatever reasons. At various points in time, Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Azharuddin, Dravid - all have been eased out. One would say almost every captain! Stats show Kohli as India’s best captain in all forms of the game. But that’s for the cricket experts to dissect. Remember, I am not. So here’s a bit of pop sociology and the works, if you will.
It’s a cricketing legend that when Kapil’s Devils brought the world cup home in 1983, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had to organize a Lata Mangeshkar concert to raise funds to decently felicitate the star cricketers. The then BCCI chief (and a union minister to boot!) NKP Salve was not deemed important enough to be sent a pass for the final at Lord’s. Last year, the BCCI had a turnover of about Rs 15,000 crores, or a little over USD 2 billion. Every international match India plays, pays the cricket board about Rs 40 crores. An IPL fixture even more at about Rs 55 crores. What a journey from 1983! Google richest cricketers in the world. Top three in all lists are Indian names, Kohli being in all of them at about Rs 1,000 crores of net worth. This presumably excludes his wife Anushka Sharma’s assets who is a successful individual in her own right.
Why is this important? Indian cricket’s journey from penury to riches can be seen as coterminous with that of India on the move. The wealth – both personal and public – getting reflected in individual and national attitude. Commenting on the visiting Indian team under Sachin Tendulkar’s captaincy sometime in 1998-99, former Australian captain Steve Waugh could not help but notice in his autobiography, the meek surrender the Indians would do every time they faced adversity on the ground. Same Waugh records, howsoever grudgingly, the transition that took place under Sourav Ganguly, mind games and all. “India was no more the soft underbelly squad under its feisty leader Sourav”, Waugh said after losing his farewell match to the ruthlessness of Ganguly in Sydney in 2003. Remember Ganguly’s famous late arrivals for the toss? Or the half Monty at Lord’s? Something was changing. If coming of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the mid-2000s was a sensation, in good measure it was due to the way the small-town upstart would conduct himself with no quarters given elan. Kohli only took it to the next level, with his tattoos and devil may care attitude. These years also saw the deepest bench strength perhaps for the Indian cricket team – and consistency of performance.
This was also the time India was liberalizing with the economic reforms push. Foreign exchange reserves were steadily increasing. Growth was bringing in corporate profits, and hence sponsorships. Governments, both at the centre and in the states, started having more revenues at their command to invest in infrastructure and public services. From the meekly stewardship of a Sachin Tendulkar to the in-your-face nouveau riche of Sourav Ganguly to the internalized aggression of a Dhoni to the institutionalized aggro of Kohli, it has been a progressive transition that reflects how India has changed last three decades. That Indian cricket and India have moved together was most tellingly underscored by another former Australian captain Michael Clarke last year. In a radio podcast, he said that he notices many of his compatriot cricketers desist from sledging Kohli or his team for the fear of losing out on IPL contracts! One could paraphrase the same for Prime Minister Modi in the world of global politics!
So how does Kohli’s leaving captaincy square up? Irrespective of whether he quit on the issue of form, or deeper disagreements with cricket bosses – BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal is on record saying Kohli still had 2-3 years of test captaincy ahead of him – at 33 years he has lived a full sporting life. Despite statistically the most successful captain, its likely the legacies of Ganguly and Dhoni would weigh more heavily on the shaping of Indian cricket in this century. The jury is still out.
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