Sitting on the outside, you would often speculate if all is well between two of the team’s most influential players or whether a particular cricketer held a grudge against a coach for not getting a long rope. Were there simmering tensions that could explode into a major public controversy some day?
The players were stoic in their stance. Rumors of a rift between Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were laughed off and the team presented a united front everytime gossip flew thick and fast in certain sections of the media. At the end of it all, the Indian cricket team is an extremely professional unit and you cannot help but marvel at the calmness of these young men who perform consistently against the best in the world in the face of constant scrutiny.
However, recent developments have laid bare several cracks in relationships among some of Indian cricket’s biggest names.
ALSO READ | Wriddhiman Saha to not reveal journalist’s identity ‘who threatened him’ if BCCI wants name
In December, just before India left for the tour of South Africa, Virat Kohli set alarm bells ringing with his comments and it was apparent that not all was well between him and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly.
After Virat Kohli had stepped down as India’s T20I captain, Ganguly had claimed he had asked the former to continue as skipper. In front of the national media, Kohli said his decision to resign as T20I captain was welcomed and hailed as a progressive move. Before India’s departure for South Africa, Kohli was sacked as ODI captain and that clearly did not go down well with him.
There was talk of the BCCI planning to send a show-cause notice to Kohli but that was refuted by Sourav Ganguly with a terse “not true”.
A little over two months later, Sourav Ganguly appears to be in the middle of another controversy.
Wriddhiman Saha is the complete opposite of Virat Kohli. The wicketkeeper from West Bengal is not prone to outbursts and is known to be a man who measures his words. An outright team-man, his playing days for India were nearing their end but no cricketer in India is ever in a hurry to accept that.
Ironically, Saha had made his Test debut in a Nagpur Test against South Africa back in 2010 because of a last-minute injury to Rohit Sharma. That setback meant Rohit had to wait for over three years to play his first test. Today, as Saha walks into the twilight of a gutsy career, Rohit Sharma is captain of India across formats.
But that’s just the irony. The real talking point is a Ganguly text to Saha.
Saha, at 37, is not the first choice wicketkeeper for India. A younger, fitter Rishabh Pant hath grabbed his opportunities with both hands. Then there is KS Bharat who flaunted his batting skills for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL and showed his mettle with the gloves when he was standing in for Saha in the Kanpur Test. It was at the end of this test that Saha claims he received a text message from Ganguly, saying he did not have to worry about selection as long as Dada was at the helm of BCCI affairs.
Not long after, Rahul Dravid, long-time teammate of Ganguly and now India coach, called Saha to his room and basically told him his time was up. Dravid, according to Saha, told him he would not be selected for the Sri Lanka Tests and the wicketkeeper felt he was being nudged to retire.
Later, the chairman of selectors Chetan Sharma reiterated the same stance to Saha: from now on, he won’t be considered for the Indian team.
What Dravid and Sharma did is understandable. The curtain has to come down on a player’s career at a certain time and the coach and the chairman of selectors are well within their rights to communicate their decision to a player. Saha perhaps has every right to be miffed too. He had scored useful runs when India were in a spot of bother in Kanpur and then he was assured of a spot in the squad by the board president, who by the way, does not (or should not) get involved in selections.
ALSO READ | Indian Cricketers’ Association issues statement, condemns ‘threat’ to Wriddhiman Saha
And then, Saha was in the middle of another storm. While he spoke to the media and made public his frustrations, Saha tweeted a screenshot of a WhatsApp text from a journalist who had used a threatening tone after an interview request was rejected. This, of course, is an unrelated instance but former cricketers and coaches were quick to jump to Saha’s defence: name the journalist, they said.
Several members of the media urged Saha to name the journalist who had sent those messages to Saha. The BCCI said it would investigate the texts but eventually, nothing came of it.
In a series of tweets, Wriddhiman Saha, said he does not want to name names because he wasn’t the kind of man who would want to harm someone’s career. This comes from a player who knows his career with the Indian team has come to a grinding halt.
For over a decade, Wriddhiman Saha has been the epitome of a team player. He did the hard yards, earned the respect of his teammates, went about his job with plenty of determination, but at the end, even someone as reserved as Saha became embroiled in a circus which is perhaps a by-product of ego, pride and a natural instinct for survival at the top.
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