Selection meet -- Miffed Kapil may call it quits

Selection meet -- Miffed Kapil may call it quits
PRADEEP MAGAZINE

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 19: The worst for Indian cricket is still to come. Sunday's selection committee meeting to pick the team for the first Test against the South Africans is, in all probability, going to be mired in confusion, subterfuge and a farcical drama. One in which Kapil Dev may be `forced' to quit due to the humiliation of being told not to attend the meeting, but only `brief the selectors' before the actual selection process takes place.

Though Kapil chose to go incognito in the Capital today, and refused to take any phone calls, when he was traced after much effort, he only had a two-word answer for the question -- Would he go to Mumbai to `brief' the selectors: "No comment".

As the news filtered in from Mumbai that Kapil had been told by the Board to brief the selectors and not be part of the selection, the important question which arises is: Will Kapil take this humiliation? Knowing the man, it is unlikely that he will go to Mumbai and do as briefed.

Though the Board constitution does not empower the coach with a vote in the selection and neither is it mandatory for him to attend. Yet, going by past convention, the coach has always been part and parcel of picking the team. The same rules apply to the captain as well, though it is believed that Sachin Tendulkar has been spared this ignominy and has been `invited' to join the selectors.

So, not for the first time, even before the Indians face a strong rival team like the South Africans, the Indian Board is back at playing a cloak and dagger game. But, what is likely to raise public ire this time, is that the man they have chosen to humiliate, happens to be one of the `greatest' and most popular sportsmen in the country. There may have been `lapses' on his part, but to have appointed him the coach with "powers to do what he deems right for the game" and then not even ask him to attend the selection committee meeting smacks of nothing else but vendetta. The same thing which he and Sachin Tendulkar have been accused of in keeping Mohammed Azharuddin out.

It is no secret that there is no love lost between the current and the former captain, and, if Azharuddin gets back into the team on Sunday, one could have suggested even the possibility of Tendulkar withdrawing as captain or his rallying around Kapil and forcing the Board to change its mind. This scenario is very remote, knowing Tendulkar's dislike for getting embroiled in any controversy.

This is all conjecture and knowing the way the Board functions, a change of mind overnight, a bit of give and take, and a facade of unity may yet be presented on Sunday. It is going to be a long night for the Board, Kapil and Indian cricket. But no one is going emerge a winner. It is a lose-all situation, whichever way you look at it.