Rahul Dravid termed it the way forward for Indian cricket, a pronouncement that has been met with mixed reactions. The Big Three of Indian batting will not be seen in action in the inaugural Twenty20 World Championships in September, and while that might not completely undermine the value of the competition, there is no denying that the tournament will be poorer for not being another world stage for Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and the Indian captain himself to parade their not inconsiderable wares.
The announcement of the 30 probables for the most abridged version of cricket ought to have been no more than a formality until Dravid called up selection panel chairman Dilip Vengsarkar from England and informed him that the current skipper as well as his two predecessors would like to be excused from being considered for selection. Exactly what lines the conversation between Dravid and Vengsarkar assumed is unclear, just as one can only speculate about the reasons the 34-year-old proferred for the collective decision.
Young man’s game
The general perception is that Twenty20 cricket is a young man's game, with onus as much -- or perhaps more -- on adrenaline and unalloyed hitting as on cricketing skills. That the Twenty20 game makes serious physical and mental demands, given the amount and intensity of action packed in 180 minutes, is not in doubt. To infer, on that basis, that there is no place for 30-somethings in that format of the game, however, is stretching things too far.
Try, for instance, telling the likes of Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Mike Hussey, all on the wrong side of 30, that they are 'too old' for Twenty20 cricket, and that they must voluntarily make themselves unavailable for the world meet! These men thrive on competition, they love a challenge; if not for anything else, at least to prove as much to themselves as anyone else, a majority of them will want to play in the South African event with characteristic flair and aggression.
For a while now, and particularly in India, there is the growing perception that Twenty20 cricket is hardly serious business. The concept germinated in England, where youngsters were being weaned away from cricket by Premier League football. The English bosses, desperate to fill cricket grounds with fans that weren't all drawing pension, came up with this ultra-condensed, bat-thwack-ball contest, music and free-hits et al, in a bid to mix sport with entertainment. At least in Old Blighty, it has been an unqualified success, a three-hour family outing full of fun and frolic, and the result almost inconsequential.
The rapidity with which the International Cricket Council (ICC) has embraced this version, and the expediency they have shown in elevating it to World Championship status, smacks of a cash-driven desire that at once appears both unseemly and supremely premature. India, for instance, have played just one Twenty20 international, and reluctantly introduced a national Twenty20 competition last year only because the World Championship was imminent. In fact, at one pont, India seriously considered not fielding a team at the inaugural event until the larger goal of a successful bid for the 2011 World Cup left them with no option but to toe the establishment line.
September bash
The unavailability of Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly for the September bash is perhaps an extension of the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) attitude towards the Twenty20 game. Even Dravid, the master of speaking a lot without actually saying anything, must have realised that he was being less than convincing when he spoke of the trio's pull-out as being the way forward for Indian cricket. A more meaningful way forward might have been to plough ahead in 50-over international cricket without Tendulkar and Ganguly, like India had done in Bangladesh not so long back. That would have meant a genuine transferring of responsibility on to the youngsters, most of whom are intelligent enough to understand that even sensational exploits at the Twenty20 event will count for precious little when it is time for 'serious' business, and the top guns decide to return to the international arena.
Given the quantum of cricket that lies ahead of India in the next ten months or so, the 'veterans' are perfectly within their rights to stay away from an event they believe isn't the most meaningful. Whether there was any need to attempt to put a honourable spiel on it, one is not so sure about. Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly will most likely quit international cricket without playing a Twenty20 World Championship. At some stage, that will surely rankle.