Viswanath’s exclusion from 500th Test celebration invitee list is mind-boggling

Kanpur laid out the red carpet to celebrate the 500th Test match that India was playing. The Green Park in Kanpur is one of the original five Test venues that India had before the other centres came up with stadia and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), in order to popularise the game in smaller centres, began to give international games to these centres.

The result is there to see for everybody as more and more cricketers started to come from these centres and today India’s team doesn’t consist only of players from its major cities and metros but from the smaller cities as well.

India’s most successful skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni comes from Ranchi, which would have been unthinkable in the last century but it’s the way the game has spread that has given the opportunity to players from non-metros to come good and earn a place in the Indian team like Dhoni has done. Kanpur too has had its contributors to the Indian team with Gopal Sharma, Mohammad Kaif to name two but there are many more like Suresh Raina, Praveen Kumar, R.P. Singh, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar who are playing for India after having done well for Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy tournament.

The dinner on the eve of the Test had a discussion on the journey that India had made over the years as well as what the future holds with the legends of the Indian scene like Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Saurav Ganguly, Kris Srikkanth speaking on it.

The Indian women captains were also invited, which again was a terrific gesture. Then followed a most sumptuous dinner, so the mood was set for the 500th Test to begin the next day.

Before the start of the Test match the UP Governor, on behalf of the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association, felicitated the men and women captains. It was quite wonderful and well organised function and even the two captains for the Test match were given mementos.

Glaring omissions

What would have been even better was if all the Indian skippers over the years would have been invited for the occasion. There were some glaring omissions and whoever did the invitee list did himself no justice by not inviting all the Indian skippers who are with us. Sure some may have been unable to make it for a variety of reasons but an occasion like this is where all hard feelings have to be left aside and make the celebrations complete by having every captain come to the event. There can be no excuse like invitations were sent but maybe they were not received for, even if the cards may not have reached, a single phone call is all that it takes to invite the person. All of us have represented our country with great pride and it’s been an honour and a privilege to represent the country.

One can understand that for events like the CK Nayudu Award and the MAK Pataudi Memorial Lecture not every skipper can be invited but for occasions like the 500th Test match it would have been terrific if all those who captained India and are still with us had been asked to come for it. I am not aware of why some of the skippers were not invited and while I have a fair idea why one or two weren’t, am baffled as to why Gundappa Viswanath was not.

He does not get invited to the CK Nayudu Awards and the MAK Pataudi Memorial Lecture either. Every time Vishy scored a hundred for India, the team either won or manged a draw but never ever lost. There is not a single person who watched him bat who would have come away disappointed. His batting was a joy to behold and he invented some shots that simply took your breath away. The lack of invitation to the Pataudi lecture is most baffling since Vishy made his debut under Pataudi and played two of the finest, if not the greatest, innings seen when Pataudi was the skipper.

Vishy also has been the least controversial of Indian cricketers so his exclusion from the invitee list is mind-boggling to say the least. As the season unfolds, hopefully, the errors will be rectified and Vishy and the other skippers who were not invited get the invites which will only go to make the event and the evening the richer and more memorable by their presence.