A politically correct statement was expected from the BCCI to douse the fire, rather rumours, and it came from its vice-president Rajeev Shukla.
“This is a completely wrong statement to be made,” Shukla told reporters in Delhi on Monday. “There’s no rift between the chairman of the selection committee (Ajit Agarkar) and the coach (Gautam Gambhir). There’s no rift between the captain (Rohit Sharma) and the coach. It’s all rubbish that’s being spread by a section of the media.”
Turning the attention towards the media and accusing it of trying to create unrest is an age-old tactic of the powers-that-be. Shukla was never going to speak about the dressing room discord in public. But the fact of the matter is that, as AB de Villiers said: “When there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
The counter-argument could be that the South African legend wasn’t part of the Indian dressing room. How did he know? Such a question would be naive. “I have been part of dressing rooms where it’s been hostile,” de Villiers said in a video on his X (formerly Twitter) handle. “Especially when you are away from home, you are missing your family, and you are not playing the best cricket of your career.”
A losing dressing room can never be a happy dressing room. India went to Australia on the heels of a home series whitewash against New Zealand. And as things started to go south Down Under, issues cropped up. Some team insiders would attest how the head coach and the captain differed on several things, including team selections. India went with completely unbalanced XIs in the final two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney. On a spicy SCG pitch, they played two spin-bowling all-rounders who barely bowled.
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According to sources, even if the dressing room wasn’t fractured, it had cliques. Players preferred to move in groups or with their families. There were hardly any team-bonding meals. Communication, or rather the lack of it, allegedly was a big issue and it sort of led to Ravichandran Ashwin’s mid-series retirement and his subsequent return to India.
Even on the eve of the final Test, Rohit didn’t turn up for the press conference and Gambhir chose not to reveal the playing XI. It was despite the fact that the skipper had decided to stand himself down on the back of 31 runs from five innings. A couple of days later, Rohit gave an interview to the host broadcasters and rubbished retirement rumours. It felt like a riposte.
The dust barely settled on India’s series defeat, when people, ex-players, started to take sides. Speaking to News18 Bangla, former Bengal and India batsman Manoj Tiwary called Gambhir a “hypocrite”. “Gautam Gambhir is a hypocrite,” Tiwary, who shared the Kolkata Knight Riders dressing room with Gambhir, was quoted as saying. “He doesn’t do what he says.”
As Harshit Rana and Nitish Rana, the two current cricketers, jumped into Gambhir’s defence, Aakash Chopra, the former India and Delhi pener, aimed a thinly-veiled jibe. “Harshit Rana and Nitish Rana voiced their support for Gambhir on social media. If you look at it, it looks like a Chat GPT product,” he said on his YouTube channel.
Mohammad Azharuddin, the former India captain, and Navjot Singh Sidhu, the ex-opener, meanwhile, have thrown their weight behind Rohit, backing the current skipper to get out of the rut.
When Gambhir replaced Rahul Dravid as India’s head coach, eyebrows were raised. The former’s lack of coaching experience – he worked as mentors at Lucknow Super Giants and KKR – was called into question. Some observers even called it a “political appointment”, given that Gambhir had served as a BJP MP from East Delhi.
Looking at the political profiles of the people who have been sharpening their knives at the moment, one might assume that the Gambhir-Rohit discourse might be talking a political slant. Hopefully, it’s not the case, for that would hurt Indian cricket.
Rohit, Gambhir and Agarkar met with the BCCI blazers for a review meeting of the Australia series. As things stand, Rohit is unlikely to feature in India’s future Test scheme of things. The support staff, handpicked by Gambhir, are under the scanner but the head coach’s job is considered to be safe at moment. Some upheavals are expected during the period of transition, which is a mitigating factor.
So far, India have lost an ODI series in Sri Lanka followed by back-to-back Test series defeats against New Zealand and Australia under Gambhir. In fact, India have lost six out their last nine Tests.
From that perspective, the upcoming Champions Trophy is going to be very crucial. Sport, at the end of the day, is a results business and things can change quickly. The dressing room will always have the last word. Greg Chappell’s position as India’s coach became untenable because he lost the dressing room. Anil Kumble lost the job because he fell out with Virat Kohli. The dressing room will decide whether Gambhir will be given a long rope.
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