Book exposes ugly underbelly of cricket establishment

New Delhi, Mar 6 (UNI) The powerful Indian cricket establishment -- selectors, senior officials, and now the coach -- have wrongly wielded expediency and influence in the matters of settling important cricket issues, at times even reducing captains as puppets in their hands, says former test star Abbas Ali Baig.

''A bold and imaginative captain is anathema as he becomes a threat to their power,'' writes Baig in foreword to a book, ''Indian Captains of Cricket'', written by K R Wadhwaney.

Making a caustic observation on the ugly underbelly of the all-powerful establishment, the fomer Indian captain says it is because of these factors that assertive captains have been few and far between.

''C K Nayudu was one but the intrigues in his time must have worn him out. Lalali (Lala Amarnath) had a running battle with the authorities, Pataudi was tolerated for a while then thrown out a dubious fashion.

''Borde did not have the opportunities due to prevailing circumstances. Bedi was considered a players' captain and more often than not was persona non grata, Shastri was never given a chance.

The only exception, according to Baig, was Gavaskar who stood out and was able to tame the establishment because of individual brilliance and strong personality.

With regard to Saurav Ganguly, he says the Bengal southpaw was given a long leash only because of the results he provided.

''A sorry story indeed and this anomaly of non-cricketing criteria being applied in matters cricket, should be corrected -- and this sooner the better,'' writes Baig.

As part of corrective measures, the former stylish opener suggests that selectors, officials and coaches should be made accountable for lapses and poor or unprofessional performance.

Baig also concurs with the author's questioning the role of the two foreign coaches (John Wright and Greg Chappell) who, having done precious little, would on returning home write nasty things about Indian cricket.

Paying kudos to Wadhwaney for coming out with an exhaustive account of Indian captains, he says the book bears his stamp of ''unscrupulous honesty and fearlessness. As always, he has been objective and unafraid to call spade a spade.'' The book, writes Baig, takes the readers through the dark lanes of intrigue and politics that have bedeviled Indian cricket from the weird appointments in the Raj era, then on the macabre machanisations of Vizzy, the amusing and uncenventional happenings in the times of in comparable Lala, then the merry--round of four captains in a single series against the West Indies, the infamous casting vote of Vijay Merchant to dispense with an irritable Pataudi (more as a revenge towards his father than anything else), Wadeker's lucky spell, gavaskar's iron grip on the establishment.

The list is endless. It includes Srikkanth's inexplicable ouster, Kapil Dev's ineffectual but turbulent stint and his intriguing relationship with Gavaskar, Azharuddin's unhappy end, Ganguly's successful reign and his spat with Greg Chappell and finally Dravid's dignified and unfinished era.

But the bottomline comes straight from the author's pen. Now, cricket as a game is played by mercenaries, against mercenaries for the entertainment of mercenaries who, at stadia, are provided 'egg, peg and leg', writes Wadhwaney.

UNI