Some days back Sehwag made remarks about burnout of players of Indian Cricket team due to excessive cricket being played these days. To quote him “There is too much cricket... players need a break because they (may) burnout from cricket. They need time for fitness also, time to think about their game and to recharge their batteries.”
The days that follow, saw lots of media coverage to the statement and then finally the bold (and unbecoming?) move from BCCI. The Cricket Board sought to gag players from speaking about Sourav Ganguly and the issue of player burnout by warning vice-captain Virender Sehwag from speaking on these subjects to the media.
If you have apprehensions of a burnout, take rest and do not give your opinion on Ganguly, Sehwag was bluntly told.
Days after the dashing opener had said that Ganguly, coach Greg Chappell's anathema, was "missed" by the team and that the issue of player burnout had been taken up with the Board, he was verbally warned by BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah.
"Sehwag has been warned verbally from speaking to the media on burnout and the Ganguly issue. Players cannot speak on Board policies and selection matters," Shah declared.
"If any player feels there is burnout, he can take rest. The Board cannot change its policy or itinerary for any player," Shah told further to media.
What is the real issue here? Of course excessive cricket is the hard truth for Indian Cricket these days. If 1983 (107 days) and 2002 (109 days) were India’s busiest years in cricket, 2006 is certainly not going to lag behind. Too much money is involved in this sport in the Indian continent and around the world. All the schedules are fixed in years in advance. Its really a religion in this side of the world.
What Sehwag told is not wrong. We have seen one by one almost all our top players getting injuries and then taking forced rest to recover. Sachin is away from game in his prime age. The fact that everybody is tired can not be denied. Yesterday many of the former players and even Indian Coach supported the talks of burnout of players because of excessive cricket.
What sehwag did (coming out in media) is also not his fault alone. Cricket in India is religion and media has left no opportunity, to make use of it. There are minimum 10 full time news channels (leave 100s of small time channels that also have a sports news section). These entire news channels have donated their prime time for two things: cricket discussions (post mortem) or sting operations. Now cricket is cheaper and safe option for them on any day. They have primetime shows discussing crickets. In this country everyone is cricket expert. And anyone who has even featured in a single level (even Ranji team) can become a cricket expert. They have all the rights to criticize Sachin’s stance or Rahul’s decision. As very little cricket is played today (seeing only 105 days of cricket in a year of 365 days), every other day they try to raise a new point and create a controversy out of it. Sourav ganguly controversy comes into discussion after every team selection, Indian loss and any other day. So is Chappel’s attitude. Even Dhoni’s hair style was in discussion for two three days (the saloon which gave him the style has a article on its website about the new look).
For media there should be something cooking in cricketing pot every day. Our players, most of them coming from small towns, just get carried away in all the media attention and hype. Sometimes they start speaking what media (or someone else) want them to speak. Sehwag may have done that. Or else he is really silly to have spoken out.
In all this media hype, the core issue gets lost most of the time. And I am sure this will happen this time also.
So Mr. Sehwag, I feel very sorry for you. You chose the wrong time, occasion and place to speak out.
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