The message from Gandhian legacy, and the famous turn-the-other-cheek attitude seems to have penetrated to somewhat more than expected abysms of modern day cricket in India. His most respected ethos of ‘showing passive resistance to injustice’ has been successfully put down as now days, our spirits are impounded by fatigue and the aversion towards the undecipherable. The ethereal doctrine that enkindled energy and vigor into our souls has been broadly manipulated and transformed to the other way round, as we are relentlessly motivated at every walk of our life to LET OFF and Move on. This piece of work is just to recollect a couple of such incidents that makes you nod your head in acceptance.

1) John Wright worked with the team India as a coach for a significant period of time. It was conflux of successes and setbacks right across his tenure. He commands the heaviest share of respect from the entire country for sailing the team India successfully out of the turmoil waters of match fixing to opulent display in the world cup 2003 and up to the historical 2004 series against Australia. All is fine until he muttered something like this at the fag end of his tenure- "some senior players of the side have misbehaved with me". Except a couple of unheard jabberings from few former cricketers, none of us bothered to know who are they?

Who ever they were…. we successfully LET-them-OFF.

2) The new coach- literally with ZERO credentials apart from the hubbub about the wretched under-arm caper, done absolutely nothing great as a couch so far, accompanying the team for a petty less than a month, alleged the Most Successful Captain of India as "Mentally and Physically unfit to lead", with a surprising resemblance to a veridical perception that "If you wanna kill a dog-call it mad".

For whatsoever reasons we chillingly LET-him-OFF.

3) To discus these foggy allegations, a committee comprising six former cricketers, those believed to be the well-wishers of Indian cricket was constituted, and the issues were duly discussed. At the end of the day, we learnt that the coach has amorally lied and the many of the allegations were far from truth. Hence proving the nefariousness of the senior member of the side who, on the other hand, conjectured to posses the high integrity levels. Exactly a day down the line, the same guy was busy coaching our chaps for the forth-coming champions trophy- leaving us baffled about who was wrong? Who was the culprit? Six-member panel? The coach? The captain? Or, the board it self?

Whoever might be the culprit ... we blindly LET-them-OFF.

4) And here is the most boisterous event- "The Finger Gesture".
Some body said Chappell shown the finger to the whole India. Other lad prompted that he has shown the finger only to Kolkata. Another guy stood-up and said he has pointed the finger only at those, who making ruckus. One Media vehicle enounced that Chappell said, "yes I did." Another one insinuated that he "vehemently denied". BCCI media manager said, "He was attending to his injured finger". Charu Sharma said, “there is a provocation”, Kirti Azad said, “it is unbecoming to his stature". Hearing all these, Sharad Pawar said, “It’s insignificant”. And that’s the end ... No one knows what does he mean by this act???

Whatever he might have meant... we ignorantly LET-him-OFF

5) Saurav Ganguly was ousted from the team that playing Sri Lanka in Ahmedabad test. The reason explained as young lads were given preference. No team member was even bothered to say BYE to Saurav. Rahul Dravid come-up with a celestial and scornful grin to say, " that's the way cricket is". Though, this move justifies neither the performance measures, nor the winning combination logic.
And far off, what hindered the rest of the team to at least to say BYE to him? Is this the way to treat a senior member of the side, who successfully lead the team for almost 5 years? Youngsters those coiffed under him lacked even an atomlike courtesy? Or otherwise, does any one in the team asked them not to? On the contrary, was his inclusion such an awful move that demoralized the team? What has he done so badly to deserve all that? Don’t you think we owe the answers?

Whatever might have triggered this… we, of course, reluctantly LET-that-OFF.

6) An utterly preposterous cyclorama in the Gadaffi stadium. A lamentable documentary of a most frolicking event ever in the Indian cricket. An invigorated showdown of three ikons, former, skipper and the coach. Some one wants to open, another one doesn't want to be bullied by the world and the third doesn’t like to dilute the game plan and this and that…As usual, we were so much prized and privileged to receive yet another sluggish explanation, “we were talking about cricket”!!!! Thank god for not talking about union budget-2006. Pranks aside- actually no one knows what was that for?
Through, one thing is clear, there was a disagreement, which is not good for the game and not good for the team ...what was that????

Whatever might have been the basis of disagreement...... we uninterestingly LET-that-OFF

7) One fine day, we all learnt something new about Saurav Ganguly, in spite of knowing him for almost 10 years or so. That he was hanging on to the captaincy for the sake of finances. Thanks to "The Guardian". Though, making such scandalous avowals against any specific member of a side is clearly offensive and deserves a stern penalization....

Whatever it might have deserved.... we mercifully LET-him-OFF

8) John Wright was consulted twice for a couple of issues post his tenure with team India. One, when the leaked e-mail states that Saurav's vicious ism of divide & rule was allowed in his regime and the second time when, Raj Singh Dungarpur, reportedly commented that Saurav is Lazy and he had had repeated pleas to get him out of the team. Both the times, the former coach declined the allegations against Saurav. But, one doubt remained unsolved- if Saurav is Mr. clean then why are these allegations? If he is not, then why are these denials? It's evident that some one among this ‘league of extraordinary gentlemen’ was lying....

Whoever might be the liar.... we handsomely LET-him-OFF.

9) Just ahead of the April Fools day, there was a news item that has practically proved us- It’s need not only be April 1st to make us fools, any day is OK. Inevitably, that has created waves across India. Yes, I am referring to “The depraved business nexus between the selector and coach”. To place it more prominently, ‘a mutually beneficial, clandestine, reprobate and lucrative business nexus between two most responsible pros of Indian cricket.

One guy went one step ahead in the production line to pick the boys whom he wants to be coached and the other went one step back in the production line to coach the boys whom he wants to play. Altogether, the syndicate formed “end-to-end solutions” for the place in team India.

The question here is, was this not unethical and immoral? Why the public kept unaware of this unless there was an investigation? Why was this not revealed to BCCI earlier? Does this justify the roles they play? Can we believe that this relationship got nothing to do with Saurav’s saga?

Whatsoever the arguments were… we comfortably Let-them-OFF

10) Sometimes, I feel my self hounded by a bunch of high-sounding words ...Experimentation, Grooming Youngsters, Flexibility in the batting order, Fitting into the scheme of things, making better use of power play, stroke makers, game finishers ... blah blah blah ...and surprisingly, and not so surprisingly, all this tumult will finally links up to the WORLD CUP 2007. In the last 6 months, we have heard these sentences some thousand and odd times through Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid. It’s really good to see that our team has a clear vision for a major tournament coming up.

And boy!!! How many of you believe that we can win the world cup-2007? You think all these brouhaha could pay the dividends? Can these multi billion commercials deals, immensely lucrative yearly contracts be justified? All these experiments work at all times? The strategies can be succeeded on any circumstances??? Can everyday become a Sunday???

What if not?? What if we cannot win the world cup 2007? Can they rebuild the careers of those whom they are destroying today, under the tag of building a team for world cup 2007? Can they wipe-off those allegations, which they thrown against few players, who are otherwise, believed to be the pride of India? Can these accusations allow our children to flaunt about Indian cricket in future? Where do we see Saurav Ganguly then? What should Rahul Dravid do? Where should Greg Chappell go? What happens to Kiran More?

The Answer is Simple ……………

We will ……….. happily…merrily … joyfully….. LET-them-OFF.