Is it deference?

Deference to one's elders is a trait that binds Indian society but weakens its sporting teams, for rare is the man who has the courage to upset the pecking order - Andrew Miller

In the recent past there have been a lot if instances where the school of thought abiding by the above have raised a concern and demanded for the head of the senior players, not always unjustified.

All generalizations are bad, including this one.

What I mean to say is that the only way to handle situations like this and that is on a case to case basis.

I can not refute the fact that Indian sporting teams have been hurt by the prolonging of the careers of its senior sportsmen on more than one occasion. And, whenever this has happened, it has been due to the fact that the seniors have not been able to come to the terms with the fact that their time has come.

So, when I say that the seniors have on numerous occasions hurt our sporting teams, this is the only aspect of the above quote that I agree with. Where I begin to differ in my opinion is with the cause of the problem.

Players in India have an inappropriate prolonging of their careers for reasons apart from just deference. Youngsters in India as SRK said in one of his interviews that youngsters have very little respect for reputation and even lesser baggage of history. They are gutsy! They are raring to go! They want to conquer the world! And…they know they can.

When players become stars, they are elevated to the level of being demi – Gods in our country. They get the adulation like none other. So, when their time does come, it becomes very difficult for them to accept it, come to terms with it.

We do understand that the senior players get in the experience that no youngster can. But at the end of the day, you need to be able to contribute in one department – performance which has no substitution!

Through a long career, players often go through a phase where they have no competition and are a certainty in the side. Suddenly when their aura begins to dim and they see young blood keeping them on their toes, they are no longer in the mental and physical shape to take on the competition. So, to avoid such a situation, senior players often do not provide the encouragement to the youngsters and thus serve their vested interest. There have been stories of a senior fast bowler advising Srinath to bowl short. This he believes wasted the early half of his career and prolonged the senior’s.

There have been situations where in the senior players have been involved with practicing politics just to keep their own place in the side. This is exactly what caused the rift between Ganguly and Greggie. There was no doubt that Ganguly was going through a real long unacceptable lean patch while there were players on the brink of selection.

There are other instances when senior players have been performing and more than justifying their position in the side as well as providing the much required inputs to the lesser experienced juniors. Seniors like these can never hurt any sporting side, in fact they are an asset!

Also, India is not a Pakistan where a boy is literally picked from the streets to represent the country, but we have had very successful debuts of players in their late teens who have come in and done really well for themselves and the country and on most occasions, ousted a senior cricketer.

Seniors have to move on and juniors have to take their place, but the transition has to be smooth and not knee-jerk.

Summing it up, seniors have hurt the sporting teams of our country but it is not deference to blame for it, it’s the seniors themselves and there can be no generalization!