India’s cricket legends deserve genuine respect

Mohinder Amarnath), trophies (Gavaskar-border) or an annual showpiece event, the Tiger Pataudi lecture. Hyderabad with its Shiv Lal Yadav Pavilion is an exception. That Test player Shiv Lal was president of the Hyderabad CA when this decision was made is another matter!

Other countries do this with grace and dignity. Australia has statues of legends, from Bradman to Warne, around the MCG. West Indies named stadiums after Gary Sobers, Viv Richards, even Darren Sammy! England puts plaques/photos of players at venues and the great makes it to the Lord’s pavilion.

India stands out with repeated instances of disrespect for its stars. Isn’t it scandalous that Ganguly (Chairman, BCCI Technical Committee, captain of India in almost 200 matches) is bypassed by the BCCI on technical matters? What happened to SRT and Laxman, members of the Cricket Advisory Committee is even more bizarre. This high profile group (collective experience — 1307 internationals) started with much fanfare but was suddenly benched. On the odd occasion when assigned a task — like selecting the India coach — had their decisions junked.

Sourav thought this ‘appalling’, Anil Kumble maintained stoic silence. But nobody, let alone the third highest wicket taker in Test cricket, should be disrespected. Dravid and Zaheer Khan too got hit in the coach selection crossfire.

These greats are not alone. MSD too was humiliated. When the IPL Pune team replaced captain Dhoni with Steve Smith, relatives of the franchise owner made insulting statements on social media. IPL did nothing while Indian cricket’s biggest and best was rubbished. Dhoni’s wife expressed anger but the forever cool Dhoni ignored the no ball. He remains an icon and nobody remembers the franchise.

The greats of Indian cricket gave us immense joy .The ‘return gift ‘ they deserve should be genuine respect !

The writer is a veteran sports administrator and tweets @Amritmathur1 Views are personal