Indian Cricket's Million Dollar Question: After Gary Kirsten, Who?

Amidst the flurry of rumours about cricket, the one that has been bothering me the most is about the million dollar question: After Gary Kirsten, who?

Google about it and you will find yourself staring at a list of names that includes ageing hotshots like Justin Langer, Stephen Fleming, Shane Warne and a host of others waiting to pounce upon what is considered the most demanding job.

Well, who wouldn't want to hog the limelight and flood his vault with the millions of dollars I was talking about?

So, why exactly is this bothering me you ask?

Well, all I have to say is would it not bother you if you came to know that Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was hiring Shahid Afridi, Ricky Ponting and a few more players into the Indian National Team?

A coach is as important as any player, if not more. But surprisingly, it can be seen that the board and also the people are now so accustomed of seeing former players of foreign origin as the coach of the Indian cricket team that no one even finds this as a horrible act of ugly outsourcing.

I know I might be exaggerating things too much if I said that this could be termed as voluntary colonialism at a small scale but by employing such practices what point is the BCCI trying to make to the world?

We certainly don’t lack in man power or individuals with talent or even financial funding for grooming the support staff, do we? How do we defend our decision of having someone who is an alien to the national sentiments as an integral part of the national cricket team?

Does it not alter the very essence of nationalism?

Cricket is a very entertaining sport and is mostly appreciated in its international format rather than the domestic ones—not just because one gets to see highly skilled players exhibit their skill, but because there exist countries like India and Pakistan that consider it as a matter of national pride.

And when you stoop so low to hire someone of foreign origin, you are just depriving yourself of the very glory that you set out to achieve. I do not wish to sound like a chauvinist, but we need to understand that the Indian National Team should not have a foreign coach anymore.

When I declare this, I strongly believe that a cricket crazy nation with a population of more than 1.2 billion will definitely have the at least one qualified and potent candidate worthy enough to uphold the nation’s pride at such times of crisis.

Visionaries like Gary Kirsten and John Wright have been impeccable with their sporting acumen; nobody would ever doubt that and I do not intend to demean their contribution to Indian cricket by this post. But not everybody can pull off the team without being emotionally attached to the nation.

This post is the anguish of an Indian patriot—his humble plea to the BCCI to try and break the current trend by discovering and recognizing the talent in the country.

It's time for The Swadeshi Movement.