by Veena Gabriel
W ell it had to happen, anyone going against the dictates of the mighty BCCI and oh so powerful IPL has to suffer. After all the IPL is big, big money for anyone even remotely connected with it.
So when the Indian coach Gary Kirsten dared to raise his voice against the IPL, he was gagged.
To analyse the miserable defeat of Team India in the ICC World Twenty20 in England, he just spoke what is staring everyone in face but no one except few million cricket fans saw and commented upon. All he said was Team India was tired after playing constantly without a break. He cited IPL and also had the guts to say that many of the Indian players carried injuries in World T20, picking up ‘niggles’ from the IPL.
At least he was candid enough to admit that team India did not show the intensity which is expected from the national team and implied that the interaction which is a must for a successful team play was missing to the extent that even injuries were not declared as they should have been.
Obviously such honesty has not gone down well with the BCCI top brasses. First as a face saving measure, the BCCI media and Finance Committee Chairman Rajeev Shukla said that Gary would not be censured for his comments, in fact he went to the extent of admitting that Kirsten had given many positive non-controversial suggestions which they will be picking up in near future.
But within 24 hours all the tolerance seemed to have vanished from the BCCI camp. They have gagged Gary Kirsten,in fact they have issued a gag order on players also advising them oh so gently yet firmly not to speak anything about the IPL in the media.
Gary should be used to gagging, he was also gagged before and was stopped from writing anything about Team India and BCCI on his own website.
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