Broad’s omission has given broader perspective

management handled a tricky situation in what the English would term ‘in a splendid fashion.’

For starters by allowing Broad to face the media (cameras in this case) they nixed whatever conspiracy theories that skeptics would have propounded. Letting Broad speak his heart and get his feelings in the open must have helped the atmosphere in the dressing room to be much lighter and brighter with no dark corner of resentment. A lesson to be learnt by many cricket boards, particularly the one that handles Indian cricket.

While many Indian cricketers of repute and merit were dropped from the playing eleven or as captains (the last being worthy of noted), none ever got an explanation from the selectors or any worthies that represented the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Whatever reasons that were given for their noninclusion invariably appeared in the media attributed to the ubiquitous ‘sources.’

Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar learnt he was to tour England under Srinivas Venkataraghavan in 1979 after leading the country to victory against Alvin Kallicharan’s Windies in 1978. Poor Venkataraghavan learnt about his sacking as captain for the Australian series (that was to begin a week after their return from England) from an enthusiastic pilot who broke the news on the aircraft’s public address system.

Before that heroes like Gundappa Viswanath, Syed Kirmani, Dilip

Sardesai and many others were never ever given an explanation or a hearing about them being dropped. The case of Karun Nair, who converted his maiden hundred into a triple against England fell out of the selectors radar just four innings after his mammoth achievement, was perplexing. Nair may have fallen short of the team managements expectations due to a poor run in international and domestic cricket but, if media reports are to be believed, no one told him why he was eventually left out of the squad, forget playing eleven.

On a personal level, I cannot forget the first morning of the third Test that India played against Clive Lloyd’s West Indians at Calcutta (Kolkata) in the 1974-75 series. It was my first view of the magnificent Eden Gardens and the experience of watching a Test match in a packed stadium was unbelievable. The dampener came immediately as the first over from Andy Roberts progressed to see Sudhir Naik, my boyhood hero, walking back with a blob against his name.

To make matters worse, I was soon joined by Eknath Solkar who sought me out in the crowd and wanted to speak with me. Ekki, as we called him, was almost in tears as he was dropped for this first time in his Test career with hurt written all over his face. “No one told me that I was not playing till I found out when the final eleven was declared before the game,” he stuttered even as the crowd roared.

“Today would have been my 25th Test match, you know, my silver jubilee,” he said as he trailed off to the players area bang next to my seat.

Managing players as the game gets more commercial is a mandate for today’s team managers. Handling of Broad’s noninclusion is a lesson for team managements on how to turn tricky situations into those that could be considered normal. A new level of transparency along with the new normal in cricket is the need of the hour.

This becomes imperative as social media takes primacy over traditional media and rumour mills and conspiracy theories take centre stage even before a decision is announced. One hopes that closer to home, people that matter will take note of this and manage a player’s emotional quotient better than the past.