“Kem chho? Majaa ma?”
Wriddhiman Saha said this in a video message on Twitter a few days ago to mark his association with Gujarat Titans, who acquired him for Rs 1.9 crore at the IPL auction.
Right now, Saha himself is not particularly majaa ma.
The 37-year-old was told by India coach Rahul Dravid and chief selector Chetan Sharma that he’d not be considered for India selection hereon, as the team management wanted to groom a younger wicketkeeper. Saha sounded hurt, if not crushed, by the news. He may have an IPL gig and wear a Givenchy hoodie, as he did while posting the video message on Twitter, but no athlete likes to be told he will not play for the country again.
But at least Saha was shown the courtesy of the decision being conveyed to him in person. Some don’t even get that.
Dravid himself was left out of the one-day side in 2007-2008 by the selectors without much of an explanation from Human Resources, so to speak. He was 35 then and the new captain, MS Dhoni, wanted to build a team for the future. Hard fielding was a priority for him, as the team was heading to Australia where the grounds are vast.
Sourav Ganguly too had been dropped from the team for similar reasons.
When the then BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah was asked about the exclusion of the two heavyweights, he said, "The emphasis was on fielding abilities and they (selectors) wanted a young fielding side for the series.”
Sachin Tendulkar too was shown no grace by the Board when he was removed as captain in 1997.
"At the end of the series (against Sri Lanka in 1997), I was unceremoniously sacked as skipper. No one from the BCCI managed to call me or inform me of my removal as captain before someone from the media called to say I was no longer captain," Tendulkar wrote in his autobiography.
However, the slight motivated Tendulkar to do keep performing.
"I felt extremely humiliated to hear this, but the manner in which the whole thing was handled strengthened my resolve to be a better cricketer in the years to come,” Tendulkar wrote.
"I told myself that the BCCI mandarins might be able to take the captaincy away from me, but no one could do the same as far as my own cricket was concerned."
Nonetheless, Tendulkar continued to feel a "sense of ignominy” and pain even as he tried to move on. But eventually, he found his zone.
"During my tenure as captain some of the players used to call me 'skip', so when one of the players shouted out 'skipper' in our next engagement in Dhaka, I automatically turned around to answer the call. That's when it really hit me that I was no longer the captain of the Indian cricket team,” Tendulkar wrote. "Now I simply had to focus on my batting and win some matches for the team. So that's what I did.”
Words that could soothe Saha and help him move forward.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
