Several personalities are responsible for the Indian team's World Cup triumph and Dungarpur deserves a mention in the scorecard of success
Several personalities are responsible for the Indian team's World Cup triumph and Dungarpur deserves a mention in the scorecard of success
India's 2011 World Cup win can be attributed to a process which kicked off in 2001 with the captain-coach partnership of Sourav Ganguly-John Wright that blossomed even though both were poles apart in personality.
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| Sachin Tendulkar with Raj Singh Dungarpur. The former BCCI chief passed away in 2009. Pic/MiD DAY Archive |
It is a factor that cannot be ignored when it comes to analysing India's journey to the top of Test and one-day ranks. Several personalities are responsible for the current achievement, starting from the late Raj Singh Dungarpur, the former Board of Control for Cricket in India president, who passed away in 2009.
In 1990, Raj Singh coined his 'Team of the 1990s' credo and stuck to his mission of making Indian cricket the best in business. In 1998, when he was BCCI chief, he got the team its first trainer (Andrew Kokinos) and by 2001, he played an important role to rope in Wright as coach. It must be stressed that senior Indian players expressed the desire of having a foreign coach and Wright was recommended by some reputed names in the game like Colin Cowdrey and Bob Simpson.
Even though he was not president in 2001, Raj Singh had enough clout in the Board to appoint people ufffd he ufffd and not necessarily others ufffd thought would be beneficial to Indian cricket. He was not always right.
Not always rightThe decision to appoint former Australia batsman and coach Geoff Marsh as BCCI consultant was, according to several in the Board, a waste of money. Also, the role of Simpson as consultant to the 1999 World Cup team was not seen as successful.
But no one could doubt Raj Singh's intentions for Indian cricket. He would have been one of the happiest men in India if he were living today. Honorary Cricket Club of India memberships to team members would have been announced and he would have obliged every news channel or newspaper with his tributes to Team India's achievement.
Raj Singh was in Johannesburg where India lost the 2003 World Cup final to Australia. After watching the first seven overs during which Australia raced to 50-0, he left his seat and went for a walk around the Wanderers. He called his nephew Jaideep Parmar in Mumbai and said to him, "it's all over. My dream of watching India win another World Cup is over."
The Board though has not honoured him enough. Surely, he deserves more than just a trophy ufffd BCCI's Corporate Trophy ufffd named after him. That it has been a flop show for the last two seasons is a different matter.
At a condolence meeting to mourn the death of Raj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar had suggested that the gates of the CCI be named after the great administrator.
Tendulkar today is the toast of the nation, the main character in a fairytale six-chapter World Cup storybook. In 1989, it was Raj Singh who took a risk in sending a 16-year-old to face the might of Imran Khan & Co to Pakistan. No, Raj Singh didn't score all those runs, but he deserves a mention in the scorecard of Indian
cricket's success.
