Pre-emptive strike

So Kapil Dev has decided to relinquish his day job. And the only aspect that has any significance is the timing.

Tomorrow, the BCCI executive committee meets in Bangalore, to decide various issues including that of the coach of the Indian team. And Kapil Dev's tenure was on the line. And hence, the emotional outpouring of today.

The decision to quit was inevitable once Board President A C Muthiah made up his mind that Kapil had to go. And it needs mentioning here that it was not merely the income tax raids and assorted other unpleasantries that helped Muthiah make up his mind -- the equally strong reason was incompetence.

While earlier coaches, notably Madan Lal and Anshuman Gaekwad, had been given short shrift following defeats abroad, Kapil Dev had been persisted with despite the Australia debacle. However, the disaster against South Africa, when India lost its sole remaining cricketing cachet, of being unbeatable at home, followed by further disgrace in Sharjah, was pretty much the final straw.

Word within cricketing circles is that several senior players had, independently, approached Muthiah asking for a change of coach. Their input was that Kapil was not contributing anything of any significance. One senior player in fact told Muthiah that if contractual obligations meant that the BCCI had to keep Kapil on, then the board should at the very least consider supplementing him with another coach, preferably a foreigner. The formula put forward by this player was that Kapil remain a figurehead coach, while the team gets a professional to do the real work.

Such a solution, though, would have been expensive -- and the one thing the BCCI does to perfection is save money by the simple expedient of not spending a penny more than it absolutely needs to.

Muthiah, thus, had decided that Kapil would go, as mentioned by Onkar Singh in this story. Trick was to get him out and at the same time, let the onetime star salvage some face in the process.

Thus, Kapil was privately tipped off that it might be wise to jump before he was pushed. That a change was imminent, and that he would do himself -- and everyone else -- a big favour by gracefully exiting, citing some plausible grounds. Health, business pressures -- plausible excuses are easy enough to find.

And the announcement from Kapil had to come before D-Day -- August 19 in Bangalore.

The former all-rounder stayed with the timing, but made one departure from the script when he went into emotional high gear. Equally interestingly, his announcement is equivocal. He has not said he is quitting. He has merely said that he has had enough -- with the codicil that it is up to the board to decide whether he should serve out his full-term.

Thus, having started off by saying that he wants no further part of cricket, he then goes on to say that if the BCCI wants, he will complete his two-year term -- of which over a year remains -- and "then have nothing further to do with cricket".

Which leaves the ball back squarely in Muthiah's court. And the board president's thinking should become clear within the next 24 hours, when the executive committee meets in Bangalore to decide the emergent issues on its agenda.

Related Stories:

'I've had enough of cricket': Kapil

Kapil Dev to be replaced