The Board, for example, pays chosen television commentators handsomely, and it's only natural that they echo the BCCI's viewpoint on air. It also has in place a system wherein match referees, coaches, umpires, administrators, etc, many of whom are former players, are well looked after. There are also gratuity funds, pension funds, grants, gift cheques, etc so that nearly everybody falls in line. The odd rebel is shooed away.
A number of these initiatives are indeed praiseworthy and ensure that former cricketers continue to enjoy a decent lifestyle. However, there is a belief that a number of former legends are employed in trivial pursuits in the belief that they are giving back to the game. A lot more can be done though.
India's top cricketers are badly needed in more important areas, including in identifying, grooming and motivating youngsters from far flung and remote areas of the country. The fortuitous discovery of Umesh Yadav is a glorious example of the potential that is waiting to be unearthed in rural India, and iconic players like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, and may be even VVS Laxman, who inspire immense confidence and faith by their words and deeds would be ideal for this work.
Tendulkar and Dravid have probably made enough money to last three generations and on their retirement from all forms of the game must shoulder the responsibility to become talent spotters and development personnel, rather than getting behind the mike or turning match referees. Surely in a country as vast and diverse as India there are a lot more Umesh Yadavs to be discovered.
Umesh, son of a coalminer grew up in Valni, a shanty town with a population of about 5000, all of whom are from miner families. Umesh, who studied up to 12th standard, played all his cricket with a tennis ball in this dusty bowl. On turning 18 he tried to get into the police force but was turned down as he did not have the required marks. It was not until he turned 20 that he first bowled with a cricket ball; in fact, he is the first from Valni to ever play with a proper cricket ball!
But his raw pace, even when bowling a yard from behind the crease, was sufficient to make a Ranji Trophy captain and off spinner Preetam Gandhe to sit up and take notice. Preetam had been alerted by his brother who had umpired a match when Umesh bowled. Preetam backed him all the way, till he made the Ranji Trophy team, which was within a year.
Twenty wickets in four matches earned him a berth in the Central Zone team for the Duleep Trophy. In that match he bagged five wickets, including the scalps of Dravid and VVS Laxman. His world had changed forever.
The story of Umesh boggles the mind. But for the fact that a former Ranji Trophy batsman saw some spark that prodded him to follow and encourage a non-entity, Umesh might well have been lost to Indian cricket. The despair is that so many other Umesh Yadavs might have been lost because of a poor talent-spotting network.
It is this network that our iconic cricketers must help build.
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