Sehwag Dropped Because of Sachin Tendulkar and India is still a developing country …

The other day I read the news about Virendra Sehwag being dropped from the Indian squad. I was saddened. I strongly feel that this is all because of Sachin Tendulkar
 Now a days whenever I think of Sachin Tendulkar I start getting nervous.
Here is a man who has been a performer.  No one can deny that he has been best batsmen ever to play the game of cricket . I can vouch for him to be ahead of Don Bradman simply because he has performed for a longer period of time and across the world on different venues. He has been the best in business, he has been a treat to watch, he has been the GOD .. Wait a minute .. GOD !!! are you kidding me ….

 Now look at his record.

Flexibility : – He has been opening for India in ODIs and batting 2 down in Test. Whenever he has been asked to play a slightly different role he has shown disappointment and like a spoilt child got what he wanted. Now, sometime he performs, sometime he does not. Just like

any other player. Infact his batting average is not miles ahead of other contemporary batsman.
Other players like Sehwag who have adjusted their  game as per the team requirement and have batted at positions which were alien to them. And they have been a success. (ironic enough that Sehwag lost his place as he was not performing as an opener)

Leadership:- This is what pricks me the most. He is the most capped cricketer on earth. 

Yet he is never ready to take the challenge of leading the side. Now leadership is not about making field placement and changing the bowlers. It is much more.
In MBA terms leadership involves

 (1) Having a  vision for the team,(2) Selling the vision to the team and getting them to perform to realise that vision(3) Conflict management within the stakeholders and motivating them to achieve the goal.(4) Assigning specific role to each team member and getting him to perform the given role.It is about taking responsibility of actions and reactions.After Mohd Azaruddin there was no one else more qualified to be the captain of Indian team than Sachin. But still there have been people like Ajay Jadeja, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Kumble and now Dhoni.

He said that the captaincy was affecting his batting. He wanted to give away leading people just because he was not able to concentrate on his game. If he was into corporate world, he would have rejected the promotion to the post of a CEO because that would not have given him time to do his routine clerical job as a Asst General Manager.I can’t even term this as self centred attitude. Only if he had a strong backbone he would have taken this opportunity to build Indian Cricket.

I dont buy the fact that people put pressure on him to perform with the bat. We all want your team to win. If the team wins, we don’t really care how many runs Sachin scored.Did he give away captaincy just because people love the way he batted. Would you not be a CEO of a company just because people like the way to do your job as a clerk.Even when the team was desperately searching for the someone to lead where was the most experienced player? M. S. Dhoni was just 2 years into international cricket then but still he took on the challenge. As if being a wicketkeeper batsman was not enough, now he had to think about long term and short term strategy, choosing his team members, assigning them a role, developing them to perform. And while everything is happening… answer the media and keep them happy.And then he still had to deal with senior players like Sachin who just refused to adjust.

Unpredictability :- There was a time when Sachin had started choosing his matches as per his will. Just before the selection committee met, he used to declare if he was available or not. once he was available he was chosen in the team regardless.Look what happened in australia. All of a sudden he declared that he wanted to play in Australia. Dhoni of course wanted to try the combination that would be around till 2015 for the world cup. So he wanted Rohit Sharma, Jadeja, Raina etc in the middle order.So, only to adjust Sachin in the side, he had to go for a silly rotation policy at the top. Result was a disaster not only on the points table but also in the dressing room

 

I think the selectors were at fault equally for letting Sachin do whatever he wanted to.You have a person in your team who does not have a long future, who is not ready to take additional responsibility and not even be flexible as per the team requirement. If Indian Cricket was a MNC, this person would be getting the VRS.He has been playing on his past reputation and has no promise for the future. Which is so obviously blocking the progress of the team. Now, here is my view on the argument the team needs him.I don’t believe he can be too much of help to the team on the field (as a batsman or as a fielder). He can be present in the dressing room and can share his experience as an outsider. This would definitely benefit the team much more as he would always have a fresh view as a third person.I would love to see him play 1st class cricket. That would help in two ways, ]It will certainly develop the quality of 1st class cricket in the country. To add to it, it will pull the crowds to come and watch Ranji Cricket which will be a great advertising to the tournament.      I think what we should learn from Sachin is that there is no one who is going to go on and on and on.. so each one should be replaced in time and the selectors and the team management should know what is the right time.If you just have someone and worship him as a demi god .. someday you will make him immovable and that will block your road to future.That’s the reason I feel, dropping Sehwag was a right choice. you didnt want another person in the team because of his past laurels and no future. (I deeply pray to God that Sehwag plays the 2015 world cup)

 PS .. I see Indians worshiping Sachin Tendulkar and I feel thats the reason we still are a developing country. A country in which your performance is measured by how you performed on your KPI. A country where the youth is more obsessed about finding a safe job rather than working on a start up. People refrain from taking decisions with the fear of failure. They don’t want to try something new. Don’t want to take harsh decisions that mite agitate others.They are happy to perform their given job and care least about where it is leading to.We need people who are more assertive, who have a vision for the society and believe in it. and are ready to initiate agitation to do what they feel is right. We need people who an arouse a conflict and have a capacity to solve them .We don’t need good batsmen we need good captains.