Lee-Hesh Controversy: What Ails Indian Tennis?

London Olympics is barely a few months away and instead of focusing its efforts on trying to win a gold medal, Indian Tennis is embroiled in a new controversy. Leander Paes (39), the most successful Indian tennis player ever and the top ranked doubles player for India wants to partner either Mahesh Bhupathi (38), another legend and power center of tennis in the country or Rohan Bopanna (32). The problem stems from the fact that both Bhupathi and Bopanna want to partner each other and not Paes. Paes does not want to partner younger players like Yuki Bhambri (19) or Vishnu Vardhan (24).

The All India Tennis Association (AITA) is also to blame. It can send two teams to Olympics and that will surely not decrease our chances of getting a medal. But it has ruled out the option and insists on sending one team with Paes as one of the players. Paes has threatened to pull out from Olympics if Bhupathi or Bopanna are not made to partner him.

The two team option would be the best with AITA sending a young player with Paes despite his protests. If that doesn’t work out, Paes should be allowed to pull out and Bhupathi-Bopanna should go in the interest of Indian tennis. But AITA, being the wise sports body it is, is having none of that.

What is even more regrettable is that online forums are filled with user comments siding with either Leander Paes or Mahesh Bhupathi and calling each other names. I believe Leander and Mahesh has done a great service to Indian tennis and nobody who doesn’t know the truth should question the commitment and nationalism of these players and call them selfish. The best we can do is speculate about the motivations and what could have gone wrong and form our own opinions. These opinions may be far from truth until unless the true story comes out.

The first question that then beckons is why nobody wants to partner Leander Paes. These pointers might help a reader form an idea. It, however, needs to be mentioned here that these are mostly rumors and grapevine and what exactly happened may never be fully known.

• Grapevine has it that Paes contrived to keep Bhupathi out of the squad for the Davis Cup tie against Uzbekistan and succeeded.
• It is rumoured that Paes tried to convince Bopanna to partner him even when he was playing actively with Bhupathi in 2011. Bhupathi has termed it an act of back-stabbing. Paes’ father has said that Leander broke up his partnership with Bhupathi because he wanted a younger player with fresh legs.
• Another rumour is that Paes gave a tongue-lashing to Bopanna after they lost the doubles game in Uzbekistan and this didn’t go down well with Rohan.
• It is alleged that as Davis Cup captain, Leander Paes ruled with an iron fist and AITA gave him a free hand to decide who will play what game. In 2008, four players – Prakash Amritraj, Bopanna, Bhupathi and Karan Rastogi revolted against Paes’ captaincy and wrote to the AITA that they will not play Davis Cup ties if Paes was the captain. Prakash Amritraj had this to say about Leander’s captaincy – “This man has taken the joy away from playing the Davis Cup,”
• Firstpost.com in an article had this to say about Leander – If you speak to officials or former tennis players, they will tell you in no uncertain terms that Leander Paes is selfish. They will tell you that with Paes — the arguments begin with him and end with him; no one else has a chance to participate.

In the last six months and since breaking up with Bhupathi in 2011, Leander has not played with an Indian partner on the tennis circuit. Since the start of 2012, Bhupathi and Bopanna have played together with an eye on the Olympics. Therefore, the second question is why AITA is so adamantly supporting Paes’ demand to be paired up with Bhupathi or Bopanna.

The answer is not clear though there are rumours that AITA doesn’t like Bhupathi much because his company, GloboSports, organized a few ATP and WTA events in India and managed to get players like Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams, Martina Hingis and Mary Pierce without AITA playing any significant role in those tournaments.

In light of these rumours, facts and arguments, following questions remain open for Indian tennis fans to ponder over and decide what is it that ails Indian tennis?

• Doubles is all about coordination and camaraderie. Why doesn’t a sports body like AITA get it?
• Bopanna gave up a successful partnership with Pakistani player Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi to partner Mahesh and prepare for Olympics. Is AITA justified in trying to thwart his Olympic dreams?
• If India can send two teams based on individual (Paes is ranked 7th individual doubles ranking) and team rankings (Bhupathi-Bopanna are ranked 7th as a team), why is AITA insisting on just one? Wouldn’t the probability of winning a medal increase with more teams representing India?
• If Leander wanted a younger player with fresh legs, what is stopping him to partner Yuki or Vishnu?
• If Leander was so concerned about his chances in Olympics, why is not playing with an Indian player on the ATP circuit?
• Just because he is the highest ranked Indian, does Leander have a right to jeopardize someone else’s dreams by demanding that they break-up with their playing partner? Is he not responsible for striking a partnership himself with players who are willing to play alongside him?
• Are we and the AITA fair in expecting Bhupathi and Bopanna to be available to partner Paes whenever he wants it while Leander is free to dump them when it serves his interest?
• On 7th June 2012, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza won the French Open mixed doubles. But AITA wants Sania to partner Leander at Olympics. Why?

Both Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are legends as far as Indian tennis go. Get angry, ridicule their arguments and form your opinions if you may but don’t get abusive towards the men who have given their lives to the sports. Whatever they do now and in future, they deserve respect for the laurels they have brought to India and Indian tennis in the past.

References:

http://www.dnaindia.com/sport/report_what-makes-leander-paes-such-an-outcast_1703737 

http://www.firstpost.com/sports/olympics-2012-why-nobody-wants-to-play-with-leander-paes-345305.html 

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-19/london-olympics/32316617_1_leander-paes-mahesh-bhupathi-rohan-bopanna

http://www.rediff.com/sports/2008/feb/24davis.htm

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/aita-wants-to-pair-sania-leander-for-olympics/266208-5-22.html

 

First published on Reader’s Quotient on June 21, 2012

http://readersquotient.com/columns/lee-hesh-controversy-what-ails-indian-tennis

Just Not Cricket

Whatever happened in the last test between India and Australia at Sydney has highlighted that cricket is no longer a gentleman’s game. Kumble’s comments at the end that only one side was playing the game in the right spirit aptly summed up the behaviour of the Australian side led by Ricky Ponting. It has also highlighted that the Aussie behaviour has gone from arrogance to inacceptable.

Ponting is a man unable to understand the thin line between playing mercilessly and winning at any cost. In my analysis of the issue, I look at several factors that sum up why Indians were justified in feeling sore after the loss and demanding the removal of Steve Bucknor and why reigning in Aussies is a right thing to do. I also analyze as to why the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) needs to play a more active role in ICC.

The Umpires: Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson
There were nine wrong decisions in the game and both umpires were guilty. And eight of these wrong decisions went against India. Now statistics will tell you that this is a significant proof that one side benefitted from the umpiring decisions. No prizes for guessing how Australia equalled the world record of 16 straight test wins. And one must not forget that even the third umpire gave a wrong decision. When this happens despite the technology, it makes one feel that India were playing not against an Australian side of eleven but against fourteen men. Isn’t it obvious when you see umpire Benson asking Ponting whether Ganguly was out or not?

Bucknor’s history against India. Go through the list below to find out how he has been giving wrong decisions against India on a regular basis:

1. Tendulkar at Brisbane in 2003 when Gillespie said he was very lucky to have gotten that LBW. See Tendulkar lbw Gillespie
2. Tendulkar vs. Pakistan in that game in which he denied India’s appeal for bad light, and then proceeded to give him caught behind with the ball nowhere near the bat. (Search Youtube for Tendulkar Bucknored, and you can watch this video.)

The second Test could have very well gone in India’s favour but for the poor umpiring. Symonds, centurion in the first innings, got at least three lives, one inferred by the TV umpire. He himself admitted of being out at the score of 30. Skipper Ponting got two lives. Similarly, in the second innings Michael Hussey got thick edge of RP Singh before Dhoni caught it but Mr. Bucknor thought otherwise. Umpiring was equally horrendous during India’s batting. Wasim Jaffer was given out in the first innings off a no ball. In the second innings, Steve ‘Slow Death’ Bucknor lifted his index finger even when the ball caught behind was deflected of Rahul Dravid’s pad. Mark Benson, decided not to lag behind and asked Ganguly to leave as Michael Clarke caught him off Lee’s delivery in slips. The TV replays showed Clarke didn’t collect the ball neatly. Even if one ignored this, nobody could overlook Clarke’s followthrough. He didn’t complete the catch as the ball touched the ground when Clarke fell and rolled.

It seemed Team India is up against two teams, Australia and the Umpires. Had umpiring been upto the mark, the Border-Gavaskar series might have been levelled in Sydney. Bucknor’s erroneous outing in India’s last tour Down Under in 2003-04, fetched him zero from Sourav Ganguly in captain’s report. It seems Bucknor is determined to sustain his score and his decisions have not only influenced the match but his fellow umpires.

Catch the clip on Youtube: Bad Umpiring leads to Aussie Victory

Aussie Sportsmanship
Ponting has completely lost it when he keeps repeating ad nauseum that he sees no problem with his team’s behaviour. The team and ACB keeps repeating that their team plays hard and fair. But there is no fair angle to their style of play. It was so obvious to all that Michael Clarke had edged the ball to slips, yet he waited for the umpires decision. He should have walked. Adam Gilchrist appealled for the catch behind off Dravid when he would have known that Dravid did not hit the ball. It is a form of cheating and is disgraceful. Australia is now trying to say, ‘We uphold the spirit of the game’, but it is a very unusual spirit of the game. If you are upholding this spirit you cannot appeal for something when you know a batsman is not out. You cannot stand there when you have hit the cover off the ball. Ponting points to the incident in the first innings where he declined a catch as he had not taken it cleanly. But integrity is not a one-time gesture.

In Sydney Morning Herald, one of the most respected cricket writers in the world, Peter Roebuck wrote – “Ricky Ponting must be sacked as captain of the Australian cricket team. If Cricket Australia cares a fig for the tattered reputation of our national team in our national sport, it will not for a moment longer tolerate the sort of arrogant and abrasive conduct seen from the captain and his senior players over the past few days. Beyond comparison it was the ugliest performance put up by an Australian side for 20 years. In the past few days Ponting has presided over a performance that dragged the game into the pits. He turned a group of professional cricketers into a pack of wild dogs. The only surprising part of it is that the Indians have not packed their bags and gone home. There is no justice for them in this country, nor any manners.”

There isn’t any need for any more proof.

The Race Row
Harbhajan Singh was banned by match refree Mike Proctor for making a racist remark to Symonds. It is said that Harbhajan called him a monkey. There was no audio or video evidence. Sachin Tendulkar was close to Harbhajan and he denied any racist remark ever being made. Tendulkar has earned respect for his sportsmanship yet Proctor chose to ignore him and trusted the australians. Australian sympathizers are saying that since Harbhajan has apologized to Symonds during the India tour, he should be considered a repeat offender. But the fact is that there is no evidence against him this time.

Indians themselves are of various shades of brown. It is purely silly of australians to think that Indians are racially abusing Symonds because of his skin color. India is a country that let go off an opportunity to win the Davis Cup because South Africa’s policy of apartheid.

Australian Hypocrisy
Australians play their cricket not only with their bat and ball but also by their mouth as the whole world knows that they are the greatest sledgers. Cricket fans will recall how the australian greats sledged West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan when he stood his ground against their pace bowling. Everybody knows that the aussies abuse their opponents on a regular basis and call it mental disintegration. Isn’t it strange that now they have a trouble with sledging when India has stood up to them and paid back in the same coin?

Wasim Akram rightly described them as ‘cry-babies’ for whingeing about racism when they had been cricket’s worst sledgers. While Peter Roebuck criticised the aussie behaviour, he himself tried to strike a reconciliatory note with the national team a day later. This time Roebuck said that the behaviour of the Indian team was far from ideal and is a factor too behind the recent controversy. This is another case of aussie hypocrisy as anybody who has followed the match would vouch for normal behaviour from the Indian camp. Roebuck himself failed to enlarge on any perceived criticism of the Indian players’ behaviour.

Racist World stands up for Hogg
As per Naseer Hussain, putting Brad Hogg on dock on charges of hurling abusive language (using the word bastards) on Anil Kumble and Co. during the controversy-ridden Sydney Test was kowtowing to the financial clout of BCCI.

On Harbhajan’s alleged offence, Hussain says – “India may claim that the use of the word monkey was not meant to be offensive but, I’m sorry, for Harbhajan to use it, if he did, to the only player of mixed race in the Australian side just a few months after Symonds received racial abuse from some Indian fans on tour there means he is on very thin ice”. However, he defends Hogg by saying – “If any Australian cricketer who used words like that had faced a charge over the years, they wouldn’t have got a team out on the park”. My questions to Mr. Hussain:

1. How can ‘monkey’ be an objectionable word, leave alone racist if ‘bastard’ is fine in the world of sport? If Australians object to ‘monkey’, Indians are right in taking offence as the word ‘bastard’ is seen as something very offensive in Indian culture.
2. Does he mean that Australians should be allowed to abuse others because they have been doing it for years?

Bias of Cricketing World against India
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), former England captain Naseer Hussain and West Indian great Clive Lloyd have described Bucknor’s removal as bowing to the whims of the richest cricket board, the BCCI. According to them, this sets a dangerous precedent as any team can now demand an umpire’s ouster. But they forget that at 61, Bucknor perhaps is no longer competent to umpire and must go. If he is costing team matches by his poor umpiring and judgment, it is better for cricket to have someone else in the elite panel of umpires. Britain’s spineless media commented – “Bucknor deserved better than to be ruthlessly tossed aside by the ICC at the whim of India’s powerbrokers.ICC has dumped a black umpire to appease a team accused of harbouring a ‘racist’. A shudder must have run through every white coat, every match official in every sport, as Bucknor became the scapegoat.” Steve Bucknor: A scapegoat? Britishers sure have some sense of humour.

India is one country that has always help sportsmanship above winning or losing. The BCCI is the richest cricket body in the world and this is often held against India whenever our cricketers are shortchanged. While everybody is agreeing that India lost because of umpiring decisions, they argue against Bucknor’s removal as this showcases BCCI’s muscle. Even as Harbhajan is banned without evidence, learned men say revoking the ban would mean selling off to BCCI’s financial clout. If we know that justice has not been done, is correcting that mistake unfair?

Conclusion
Steve Waugh was admired for his mind games and toughness but Ponting’s behaviour has shamed the world of cricket. Michael Clarke stood his ground when even a blind person would have given him out. May be Australia are backing the wrong person to be their next captain. The aussie arrogance is evident in some sections of the media hailing Ponting as a hero who has exposed racism in cricket. But they suffer from selective amnesia. How can australians fight against racism when their white society is one of the main perpetrators of racism. Any asian who has lived in Australia would know how the whites treat others.

India would be justified in cancelling the tour if Harbhajan’s verdict is not overturned. Pride comes before sport and Indian team should pride itself for standing up to a “win-at-all-costs” Australian side who won’t shy away from cheating to make a few records.

Dreams Die First

Team India has hit a new low and chances of winning the World Cup look slim. The battering that it has received in recent times proves that this is not just a slump of form – there is something seriously wrong. The youth that raised hopes of winning the world cup has suddenly started to let the team down. If we wish to replicate the success of Australia, as we keep dreaming about, we need to do something about the way cricket is run in the country. Here’s a lowdown:

Sack Chappell: Greg Chappell was certainly a great batsman but he is no good as a coach. For how long can we buy his ‘team of the future’ idea when the present looks so horrible? Chappell has always been an arrogant individual and if the players have picked anything from him, it’s his arrogance. Look at Sehwag – after India lost the fourth ODI against SA to lose the series 3-0, Sehwag hoped for improved showing in the Tests and said that losing the ODI series doesn’t matter much. With this attitude, my dear Nawab of Najafgarh, you are going nowhere. An Indian coach might not make much difference to our fortunes, but we will certainly save some money.

Stop experiments with batting order: Jack-of-all-trades, masters of none. Every team relies on experts but Chappell insists on an ad-hoc batting line up. Experiments might work sometimes but that doesn’t mean that is the way to go about. Besides, with less than five months to go for the World Cup, every player should know where he would be batting; then only they will be able to get prepared mentally for it.

Bring Back Ganguly: Even if he is not the captain, his aggressiveness is something Rahul Dravid can use. Ganguly’s experience and views can help a team that is starting to look like an easy match for the opponent. While it is true that the younger guys are much better fielders than Ganguly, they cannot demand a place on that basis alone. Dravid has not marshaled his resources well and he needs seniors like Ganguly out there on the field.

Stop criticizing Tendulkar: Sachin has already done his bit for India. Though he is past his prime and currently not in great form, he is still performing better than many of the younger players. We cannot afford to dump him. That his wicket is still valued by opposition bowlers proves that any team does not take him lightly. Only we have a habit of asking for his axing.

Drop Sehwag and Kaif: Let them not consider themselves certain for the world cup. If performance was the criteria for dropping Ganguly a year back, what are these two doing in the team? Kaif, after five years in the team, has still not been able to cement his place. It’s time we try someone else. Yes, he is a good fielder but what’s the use if our batsmen can’t put up a good score. Fielding can help a team win matches but it alone won’t do it. One needs to bat and bowl. Sehwag is definitely a match-winner. But only once in 50-60 matches. And the manner in which he gets out seems to suggest that those performances are nothing more than flukes. Sure, he is talented but he is not responsible. He doesn’t play according to the situation. A strong message needs to be sent to him so that he can either correct his ways or be content with playing for Delhi.

Ban or Limit the endorsements a player can do: This, alongside the performance-based package that BCCI is considering, is required with immediate effect. The players must not think that they can earn lots of money through ads even after repeated failures on the field. They are cricketers not models.

Improve Pitches: Let us have spinning as well as fast and bouncy tracks. This will help bowlers as well as batsmen.

Change Domestic formats: Most of the cricket our players play is of the five-day format. One needs to focus on one-dayers if we want to do better in ODIs. Moreover, it won’t be a bad idea to copy the Australian Sheffield Series format, as it is considered to be the toughest in the world.

Implement these measures and see what change takes place. Unless until every player learns to value his wicket, play according to the situation and takes pride in playing for India rather than taking his place for granted, Team India can kiss the World Cup goodbye.