Winter Rant

The current coach of the Indian national cricket team is on a simple mission: to end the team’s “superstar” culture. He is accomplishing it, by becoming the center of attention.

I am nothing more than a fan who has followed Indian cricket since the age of ten. I have no practical experience in playing the game at any level. But as a near-lifelong viewer I can tell that something is off.

Normally in post-match press-conferences, the Captain shows up as the team’s primary spokesperson. I have long remembered images of Ganguly, Dhoni, and Kholi field questions from the press. These have been iconic leaders of Indian cricket.

More recently, the Coach – in this case Gautam Gambhir – has taken over that mantle of spokesman. It’s fine. But it has put a lot of attention on him. And has made him the de facto face of modern Indian cricket. Every where you look, it is Gambhir. I doubt people actually remember or know who captained the last international cricket match that India played last week. Hint: it was not Shubman Gill.

Gambhir wanted to end superstar culture in the Indian Cricket team. At first I took it to mean that he wanted players focus on their skill. And certainly not become bigger than the team or the sport itself. That is a nice idea to be honest. Too often, players like Kholi, Rohit or SKY (aka Suryakumar Yadav) start to resemble gods. Indian crickets can amass a disproportionate about of fame, and celebrity with stellar performances on field. In my opinion, there is exactly one player who has truly earned the fame and celebrity that he enjoys. But i digress. Sometimes high levels of fame, celebrity and attention can get in the way of actual performances – understandably. So if it can improve on-field performances – with good reason to think so – then why not end super star culture?

By all appearances Gambhir has certainly managed to nix any super-star culture in Indian cricket. No Indian cricketer in the national side is a household name any more. Unlike Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Yuvraj, Kholi, or Harbhajan. If anything the Coach is the current face of Indian cricket. And none of this has translated to on-field performances. The two may not be causally linked, or even correlated in some coincidental way. But two things are clear, related or not:

1. You can no longer think of players in the Indian cricket team as stars.
2. The Indian Cricket Team is not winning cricket matches.

Where this takes Indian cricket on the international circuit is anyone’s guess. I am holding out hope that it changes Indian cricket for the better. But Gambhir is going about this in the most ham-fisted ways possible.

I also suspect that he is fighting the very nature of cricket in India. Cricketers are famous in India. To be a successful, international cricketer on the Indian team, is to be a superstar — that’s Indian cricket.

To end superstar culture in Indian cricket is like saying, “I will take away ‘Silicon’ from the name Silicon Valley.” I suppose you can. But you are removing something that is so essential – almost elemental – that it binds the whole together.