Dada almost does it like Kambli

Finally on a national television, Ganguly’s outburst on Dravid’s captaincy skills found its way. This certainly ends up the speculation that ‘All was well’ between two of the best cricketing minds of recent times. It seems, the great urge for not leaving a single opportunity in bashing his long time good friend & mentor Greg Chappel has just over did it this time! Perhaps, Chappel being a consultant to save the aura less Australian side against strong Indian batting line up and remarks over Ganguly’s captaincy style in his biography played as  provocative factors, and he carried away in the tsunami of words and ended up saying something, which he should not have uttered at least at this juncture. 

While Kambli who blamed former Indian skipper Azhar for finishing his career over his knowhow of match fixing mole, Ganguly’s recent statement alleges Dravid for not having guts to go against Chappel and supporting his teammates. Further, Kambli’s allegations are on more than a decade old story and thus are least bothering for current players, whereas, Ganguly’s revelations are against someone who is in excellent form, on a very important tour and most importantly against Rahul Dravid, who is known for giving 110% while on field. Therefore, despite of little or more fact it may have, Ganguly’s comments are bound to draw negative attention for him for perfectly wrong timing. In a rare case and fortunately for him, media has acted responsibly this time and hasn’t gone haywire sensationalizing his remarks.

It appears, ever since this former skipper has recommended Chappel as a coach for the national side, his life has become nightmarish. The famous spat with Chappel not only took away the captaincy from Dada but also kept him out of business for considerable time. That has left the Ganguly furious and the volcano of his anger still erupting lava. As written by Chappel himself in his biography, Ganguly wanted to manage the team on his terms and that created rift between the good relations of two. Indeed, favoritism and groupism were also prevalent in an Indian team as the players like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan were enjoying benefits of being favourite to aggressive and successful skipper. Perhaps in a harsh way, but the Aussie mentor insisted for much better disciplinary standards which required players to live their comfort zone. As known to all of us that dominating nature was the reason for Chappel’s cut short stint with Indian team. 

However, Ganguly himself cannot claim to have clean hands as a captain under Chappel. If he blames Dravid for being not supportive to his team mates, what was he doing when the careers of two extremely talented players were being spoiled under his captaincy?  Perhaps, it was difficult and altogether too much to expect from an individual like Dravid to deal with the likes of Greg, but, flamboyant Ganguly, who is known for swimming against the tide and minces no words could certainly have saved careers by opposing the strategy of coach Greg. Therefore, he himself needs to do the soul’s search and give out the honest answers of few questions. 1) Was not he supposed to intervene when Irfan Pathan was forced to be a batsman, which resulted in to losing his bowling form, skills and place in the team? 2) Why did not he support Md. Kaif who rarely got to bat at the positions he fits the best? We all know classical batter like Kaif was forced to bat during the slog phase, which is completely contradictory to his batting style.    

The presence and approach of coach Greg not only haunted Ganguly, but it also affected Dravid, as he not only lost captaincy post infamous 2007 world cup but also lost his place in ODIs and most importantly form. Thus, Ganguly’s recent outburst against Greg Chappel is just a reflection of past Indian team lived. Further, his intentional/ unintentional comments over other’s role during Chappel’s time are unwanted and meaningless. Wouldn’t we all want to see our beloved ‘Kolkata Tiger’ to live a life beyond ‘Chapter – Greg Chappel’ and maintain the dignity and stature he has gained?                                 

A Profession That Isn’t Noble Anymore

Not so long ago, medicos were considered demigods and people used to put utmost faith in them while they treated their loved ones. Contrarily, the successors of those are not trusted the same way and the popular tag for the profession is left just for namesake, as the fraternity itself will accept this bitter truth. 

A news show on latest Kolkata -AMRI tragedy taught me a new word- ‘Hospital Entrepreneurs’. Till now, I thought that, even though corporate hospitals are known as money making regimes, the healthcare facilities are not yet looked entirely as a business model. And as I was wrong, that unfortunate incident of a ‘Five Star’ hospital claiming many lives not only revealed that the patients are treated as goods to be repaired, but also broke a myth that such hospitals also take complete care about other aspects of our safety. Certainly, hospitals are lacking the old human touch they carried as the words ‘Patient’ & ‘Customer’ seems to be synonymous in their dictionary.   

Today, doctors don’t think twice or hesitate to charge you with fat figures when you are at their mercy, left without any option but to accept & bear. When your keen or loved ones require immediate medical treatment, the first question one will face from the medicos will be regarding the insurance cover of the patient, as the approach and cost of treatment are determined on the basis of that! The competition between the Doctors is so fierce that I have heard a Doctor whimpering someone on a phone, as his neighboring clinic staff was snatching away his patients in perhaps the most tarnishing fact of this ‘Not Anymore Noble’ profession. That’s why, if the circumstances permit, people insist to go for 3-4 opinions for not only going under the scissors but even for diagnosis.        

It’s not just the doctors; all areas of health care industry are turning purely into money making business. One of such nexus between doctors & insurance providers was very well known. However, as the later started making losses due to hefty charges by the doctors, the mutual understanding broke down. This resulted into banning few hospitals from insurance cover & cashless treatment facility. In this famous standoff, it’s only the common people who are at the receiving end, as despite of having insurance cover, they need to arrange money for the treatment on urgent basis. Another infamous nexus is between the doctors and pharmaceutical companies, where, doctors not only get the commission but also get other perks for prescribing medicines. In this mutually benefiting relationship, doctors are also reported to provide under test medicines to poor patients and check the results of same.

Incidents when patients were operated at a stage when surgery could have been completely averted or delayed, and the ailment could have been cured by medicines frequently come into light. The cases of medical negligence, causing either death or leading to untreatable damage to the patients are also not new in either Govt. or private hospitals. In addition, doctors today lack the skills to diagnose diseases without doing numbers of tests compared to their predecessors, who mastered the art of diagnosis by knowing the symptoms & feeling the pulse. That also in an era when diagnostic tests were rarely practiced if existed. Apart from fierce competition, the other reason behind such negligence could be the reformed education system in many states, which allows financially capable parents to educate their kids in medical science irrespective of their academic performance and caliber. Such pass outs will surely have urge to recover & earn the money spend behind their education. Therefore, despite of advances in medical sciences and resultant healthcare facilities, such mindset may be partially responsible for the deteriorating healthcare standards through negligence or hasty calls for treatment. 

Ironically in India, while urban areas are literally flooded with health care providers, majority of rural areas are still awaiting for primary health care facilities, as very few doctors opt to go rural. 

On a positive note, there are still ‘Noble’ professionals who have kept the tradition going through their honest practice, while maintaining the dignity of their profession. They still reach out to needy people and extend their selfless service to the society. And these are the same ones who act not only as representatives but also reinstate respect and trust of this noble profession among the people.    

15,000 Not Out & 13,000 Unbeaten

Figures above have brought joyous occasions for Indian cricket fans, as they represent two of the most prolific run scorers and all time great batsmen the game has seen. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are undoubtedly two of the best cricket players of our generation & we are nothing less than privileged to watch them playing. Known as ‘Little Master’ & ‘The Wall’ respectively, both are 38+ and yet going strong. The fans of Sachin Tendulkar have gone even beyond that declaring him the ‘God of Cricket’. While Tendulkar has always been in the limelight of media due to his sky touching feats, Dravid has been found to follow him closely like a silent stallion more often than not. Much has been talked & written about their impeccable batting styles, trademark shots and cricketing ethics. Thus, here is just a view on the journey of both cricketing legends from an eye of a cricket fan (not an analyst) and let us find out that how they have still remained unconquered amidst of all odds.  

Sachin Tendulkar

Rahul Dravid

His journey towards becoming the iconic cricketer began at the tender age of 14 soon after scoring 326 not out in a partnership worth of 664 runs with his schoolmate Vinod Kambli. In the following year, he was representing India while playing against Pakistan at their home turf in a test where he made a blood spilled debut and yet scored a half century. His first international century came very soon and he scored that against England at Old Trafford. The rest is a well known epic as he is about to be the first centurion of International centuries along with having highest runs in both the formats of game. He dominated the world cricket through his gifted and thoughtfully improved batting for the following one and half decade without much trouble. It is important to remember that this was also an era of lethal pace attack from South Africa, Australia, Wes Indies and Pakistan. In the mean time the only factor that had affected his batting performance seemed to be the burden of captaincy during 1996 - 1998 & 1999 respectively. Perhaps the first real criticism he received for his batting was the changed approach and rate to score runs after the back injury that threatened to put full stop on his career. Though, he rightly defended himself from our unreasonable expectations by reminding us that he was not 20 anymore and changed approach was required to maintain his body cricket worthy as long as possible & we know the result now. However, this was not the end of troubles for him as the injury in the form of tennis elbow haunted him again and kept him out of cricket during significantly important tournaments. It was after that phase when all started to speculate about his retirement. Although, destiny had other plans and he entered another golden phase of his career in 2007-08 season which is still continuing majorly making new records and peaks which younger generations will have to climb to achieve the stature Tendulkar has gained for himself. In an honest opinion, not even a single bowler who has bowled against him would say ‘it just felt like bowling to others’. Thus, it would not be an exaggeration to say that ‘it will be impossible to fill in the shoes of Sachin Tendulkar’.

Dravid had the hard way to gain his place into national side as he paved his way into Indian team only after 5 years of playing first class cricket. His first outing in ODI against Sri Lanka had gone unnoticed as he managed just 3 runs in that Indian win. However, he made his test debut at the ‘Mecca of Cricket’ Lord’s and went on to make 95 runs which were sidelined by the century of another debutant Sourav Ganguly. Even though his suitability for the ODIs remained under the scanner for number of initial years, his place in the test side was cemented by his excellent temperament and classic batting style. He along with Tendulkar, Ganguly & Laxman formed the ‘Fantastic Four’ of Indian middle order in the test arena for more than a decade. In addition, surprising for an Indian batsman, he averages more while playing overseas than at home. With the passage of time he not only molded his batting style to suit the shorter format of the game but also excelled by becoming the third highest scorer for India. His flexibility to bat at any number along with ability to keep wickets proved very handy for team India until Dhoni was handed over the wicket keeping responsibility on permanent basis. More importantly, carrying the baton when others are already puffed and clueless has remained the highlight of his career, earning him his famous nick name. Even though he retired from ODIs just couple of months back with a positive note, his career in the format was virtually ended in 2007. It was then when everyone thought the sun of Dravid’s career is about set as the element of old Dravid seemed to be missing which took the toll on his batting by deteriorating performances. But that’s when he exhibited the phoenix trait and scored back to back centuries against Sri Lanka followed by another one versus Bangladesh in 2009-10. He was the lone warrior & centurion for Indian team when other batsmen failed make any impact on English bowlers in the nightmarish tour of England earlier this year.  Certainly, he is the perfect role model for budding cricketers by showing true virtues of sportsman and serves as the best example for the sport called ‘Gentleman’s game’.

Despite of such great skills, achievements and status neither of two have been indulged in controversies that may put their prestige and dignity at stake. Most importantly, both of them have successfully managed to keep their personal and professional life separate through strong work ethics. From my personal experience, I can surely say that even though having such a huge fan following, Tendulkar is the most modest and polite to all his fans compared to his colleagues. On the other hand, Dravid seems to be afraid of crowds and tries to keep himself away from all the hype and attention.

However, as a fan of both these cricketing legends, at times I feel that the career parallel to Tendulkar’s along with his glittering stature & media galore around him have done injustice in appreciating Dravid’s services to Indian cricket. At number of occasions, his achievements had either overshadowed by other teammate’s performance in the same game or had been recognized few days after the game. Though the contributions of Dravid are praised by them, even the commentators don’t go ecstatic on his achievements. Although, the humble Rahul Dravid has seems to be absorbed the famous lesson from ‘Bhagvad Gita’ very well and thus never bothered about it and always kept himself focused on just what he is meant to do, as this has been a part and parcel of his cricketing career from his first international test match appearance at Lord’s. It may be my over expectation, but as a fan, the only thing that bothers me Tendulkar’s batting is- I am always more afraid than reluctant to leave my seat while he is at the crease thinking what if he gets out while I am not watching. Oppositely, I could prepare my own snacks in the kitchen while Dravid is batting as I know he would surely be there when I go back!

I can remember only couple of incidents when anxiety of fans had turned into anger for Tendulkar. The first one was the infamous ‘booing incident’ at Wankhede, his home ground and the other would be the laborious 35^th  test hundred to surpass Gavaskar’s record at Firozeshah Kotla. Apart from these incidents Tendulkar always had the support from his fans, teammates and importantly from the management during all the ups and downs he faced as a cricketer. Contrarily, Dravid had to fight and earn his place into the team, especially, during the early few years of his career as he was considered slow and thus unfit for the shorter version of the game. After debacle of 2007 Caribbean world cup under his captaincy, he resigned as a captain and subsequently also got axed from the ODI side. But the worst was yet to follow as he was called up to play again after 22 months in response to short pitch woes of strong Indian batting line up and surprisingly got disposed in less than a month. This happened to someone who has scored 10,000+ runs in the same format. It was just his disciplined approach and work ethics that he did not utter a single word out of anguish and took it all with wholeheartedness. And that’s why I believe he is rather unbeaten at 13,000…