That Raj and the current raj!

The late Raj Singh Dungarpur at the CCI in 2004. Pic/Ashish Raje

When I first started contributing to this newspaper as a freelance writer in 1988, I was amazed at the number of interviews the late Raj Singh Dungarpur - the then chairman of the national selection committee - gave to cricket reporters all over the country.
He copped his share of criticism (especially after he dropped Mohinder Amarnath for the 1988-89 tour of the West Indies), countered his critics and always stuck to his guns.

Those were days when the BCCI didn't organise many press conferences after major selection meetings. They don't do so now too, but there was a time when chief selectors interacted with the media on a regular basis. Ramakant Desai, Kishan Rungta Chandu Borde, Dilip Vengsarkar and Krishnamachari Srikkanth faced the media regularly.

Sportsworld magazine was one publication that interviewed Raj Singh often. Their prolific and brilliant cricket writer Mudar Patherya once wrote an open letter to chief selector Raj Singh in which he called him, "articulate and one of the few accessible burra sahebs of the Board."

As the year 1989 was approaching its end, Kolkata-based Patherya travelled to Mumbai and interviewed Raj Singh after the team for the 1989-90 tour of Pakistan was picked. That Test side - the last one before the Mohammed Azharuddin captaincy era began - had a 16-year-old Sachin Tendulkar, but not Mohinder Amarnath, 39.

Patherya posed Raj Singh a question about what would he have done if given a choice to pick either "an old cricketer who was capable of delivering the goods or a young one who may go phut." The question ended with, "Is youth an excuse for selection?" And Raj Singh replied, "Selection, my friend is never an excuse. It's an exercise in collective wisdom."

Raj Singh batted for youth and had no qualms in saying so in his media interactions. He made it his business as it were, to create his team of the 1990s and he succeeded to an extent.

There was some talk about Tendulkar being taken to the West Indies in 1988 and I wonder what Raj Singh said to justify keeping him behind. But he told me many years later that his selection committee held Tendulkar back because they were apprehensive over him spending nearly two months on tour without his parents.

Back to Patherya's 1989 interview with Raj Singh. Tendulkar figured towards the end. Q: If [Salil] Ankola could have been chosen because [manager] Borde can nurse him in Pakistan, couldn't Amarnath also have nursed Tendulkar? A: I don't want to answer. Two questions later, Raj Singh walks off.

Sportsworld got Raj Singh again a few months later. This time the interviewer was Andy O'Brien. They spoke, among many issues, about Ravi Shastri captaining India for just one Test in 1988. (Azharuddin was skipper by then). Raj Singh came up with an explanation: "I thought he [Shastri] was going to be India's future captain long before I became a selector for the second time. In 1986, when I was the manager of the Indian team in England, he was my vice-captain and I could quite clearly see that he was captaincy material. But it all fell apart. Why? Because I think he was mentally and physically totally stale."

Raj Singh was reflective, resourceful and radiant. Doubtless, he was one of the finest non-Test cricketers to hold the chief selector's post. He stayed available to the media even when he put on his BCCI chief's robe.

The other day, on Raj Singh's death anniversary, I recalled the first time I approached him for a quote. He was the BCCI chief in 1998 and there was a storm when one of the vice-presidents' son was picked for India ‘A' to tour Pakistan. I sought Raj Singh's reaction to the controversy at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) lawns. The following day he called the then editor of this newspaper to say he was unhappy with what had appeared under his name. I duly made a call to the CCI reception. He came on the line, clarifying that I had quoted him correctly, but should have used more of his utterances. It's another matter that our professional relationship blossomed after that bump. What is important is Raj Singh's willingness to talk no end about issues that mattered. By the way, he justified the selection of the BCCI vice-president's son. "So what if he is the son of an official? Hasn't this happened before? He may not be a bowler who is very close to playing for India, but he is good to be in this [‘A' team]. He has a good outswinger," Raj Singh told me.

Today, journalists get no official explanations. It's not chief selector Chetan Sharma's fault. It's the BCCI top bosses who should realise that important inclusions and omissions need explanations to the media. How else, for example, will the public know why Mohammed Shami is among the standbys for India's T20 World Cup squad and not in it?

Too much of a good thing is detrimental. For how long will BCCI continue releasing silent movies after silent movies and expect the public to lap them up?

mid-day's group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello

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