Wrong number

It’s been ages since BCCI and sanity parted ways. Reconciliation is a long way off. At least that is what the travesty surrounding Ishant Sharma suggests.

After all the oddball games, it emerges that Ishant is not going to South Africa. A call that was not to be, but what a cruel joke on an aspiring cricketer.

It was Team India’s media manager Rajan Nair who tipped the mitt of Ishant’s selection. And he was the one who retracted from the statement as if to suggest there is some R K Narayan in the media with an extraordinary appetite for fiction. Worse still he pronounced that Ishant would be better off playing Ranji. A remark that he should have ideally reserved for the Indian openers.

A leading daily has reported the queer turn of events. Sample the number of intermediaries in this comic opera: Board secretary Niranjan Shah (now in Singapore), Chief Administrative Officer Prof. Ratnakar Shetty (in Mumbai or wherever), Delhi District Cricket Association Sports Secretary Sunil Dev (Delhi) and the team management in South Africa.

Right from Wednesday afternoon the boy enjoyed a flurry of congratulatory notes. In the evening he was made to confront reality. Apparently, Shah asked Prof. Shetty to keep Ishant’s selection on hold. Then Prof. Shetty was told to intimate the think tank’s change of mind to Dev who in turn had to convey the bitter-end to Ishant.

Frankly, news that cascaded from wire agencies and other sources had our heads reeling. We were told Irfan Pathan had been asked to dislodge himself from South Africa and find some form in domestic cricket. Till the first hour of the second day’s play, he was conspicuous by his presence. In full gaiety and at peace with himself.

Later, reports filtered in that Munaf Patel was heading home. Reason? His ankle continues to rankle. Now do not ask this writer who will posture as India’s fourth bowler should another speedster crack-up before the third Test. It is disillusionment and not intuition that has inspired this piece.

At times this business of selection comes across as a poker game. Poor Ishant, little did the 19-year-old know that he had packed his cricket gear way too early. In a single day he kited joy. And then felt the hurt of his dreams gone to pot. For now Ishant’s India cap has to wait. It remains to be seen if the team management is willing to apologise for this farce.

His tally of 19 scalps from four matches not withstanding, the idea of roping in Ishant for the last leg of the tour seemed bizarre. There is no first-class fixture before the third Test at Cape Town, unless Dilip Vengsarkar does another voluntary act of squeezing in a two-day game. So where is the question of providing him “with the necessary international exposure.”

And should another pace engine break down, can Ishant be expected to hit the straps right from the outset? That too in a zone alien to him. If at all Team India needed a replacement it should have been Ishant’s more illustrious team mate, Ashish Nehra, who has experience of the conditions (2001 and 2003) and is not doing badly in the domestic circuit.

As this article is being written, floats in news that Ishant is being reconsidered for the tour. A request, don’t tell him this.

Just made a pact with parody. After all it is the flavour of this season.