Viru rings in peace!

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, September 21

Guess who rang the bell at Eden Gardens to kick off the game? Well, it was Virender Sehwag and Jhulan Goswami. For the uninitiated, the practice of ringing a specially-installed bell before the start of a cricket match was introduced at Lord’s in 2007 and the Cricket Association of Bengal embraced it last year during the India-Zealand Test. 

The honour of ringing the bell for first time at Eden Gardens went to Kapil Dev, followed by Sunil Gavaskar in the India-England ODI earlier this year. Coming back to Sehwag, he’s as worthy of the honour as the two other legends. 

Nevertheless, the former India opener getting to ring the bell becomes interesting in the backdrop of what happened between him CAB president Sourav Ganguly a few days back. Sehwag started it when he commented that he didn’t get the India coach’s job because he didn’t have a “setting” with those who made the decision. 

The decision-makers were Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman. Ganguly’s response to Sehwag’s comment, as reported by PTI in both English and Bangla, was that “Sehwag spoke foolishly”. The former India captain, however, was quick to deny this comment. “My quote on Sehwag completely false... right quote... Sehwag very dear to me, will speak to him soon,” Ganguly wrote on Twitter.  

So was asking Sehwag to ring the bell Ganguly’s way of showing his affection for him, or was it an attempt to placate him in case he had taken offence? Whatever the motive, Sehwag ringing the bell shows all’s well between the two. One wonders if Ravi Shastri, who got the coach’s job ahead of Sehwag, will ever get a chance to ring the bell!

Star-struck

Kedar Jadhav got out, and Eden Gardens let out a massive roar of anguish... Errr, joy actually. To be fair, the spectators weren’t celebrating Jadhav’s dismissal, the joyous roar was for the next man in, the very popular MS Dhoni. 

Yet, the timing of the roar just wasn’t right. Jadhav, like Dhoni, plays for India, and his presence and contribution (and that of the other less-famous players) shouldn’t be ignored so blatantly. How star-struck are we is evident almost everywhere, even in the sale of Team India shirts on match days on the streets. While Chennai wanted only the Dhoni shirts, in Kolkata, the demand was for just the Virat Kohli and Dhoni shirts. No one wanted any other shirt, not even Rohit Sharma’s, the man who struck a majestic 264 in his last outing at Eden Gardens. Like the general cricket fans, the press is also star-struck. In Kolkata, when Kuldeep Yadav stepped in to address a pre-match conference, which is generally addressed by the captain or coach, the media let out a huge sigh of disappointment, leaving the rookie spinner in an awkward situation.