For a follower of Indian cricket, sifting through fact and fiction over the last week would’ve either been very easy or extremely difficult. No middle path existed. You could’ve either immediately dismissed news of VRS schemes and instant retirements, or spent endless, helpless hours trying to find out what was really happening, who had heard what, and what it all meant.

The drama outside the selection committee meeting surrounding Sourav Ganguly’s inclusion was so much more intense than what was going on inside. Reporter after reporter told us stories of how a deal had been struck with Ganguly to give him a proper farewell. As time went by, the scale kept getting bigger and soon deals were being struck not just with him but with the whole lot. The anchors on TV were explaining their unsourced reports in such detail that it seemed they had themselves just finished mediating with Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar on behalf of the BCCI.

Ganguly and Kumble have had to spend substantial time over the last three days denying any such retirement arrangement, both publicly in front of the cameras, and privately to their acquaintances in the media. When we hesitantly called a usually reliable BCCI official to ask if there was any substance in the theory, he shot back: “If you believe that, you’ll believe anything.” Touché.

Indian cricket’s latest obsession is how to give the Famous, Fabulous, Fantastic Five (choose whichever adjective your reverence or sarcasm demands) a decent farewell. A noble thought, no doubt, but team sports rarely work that way, and definitely not games which don’t allow substitutions like football or basketball. And the biggest problem with this whole bye-bye debate is not its content, but that this may not be the time for it at all.

... contd.