by Rex Clementine
On the eve of the first Australia versus India Test match in Nagpur, top order batsman Usman Khawaja provided more information on the ‘homework gate’ which happened exactly ten years ago when the Aussies were in India.
In 2013, Australia had fared badly in the first two Tests and lead up to the Mohali Test, Khawaja, a young Test cricketer at that point was going to get the first game on tour. However, he along with three other players became ineligible for selection for not completing homework they had been assigned ahead of the Test match. The other three players were Mitchell Johnson, Shane Watson and James Pattinson. They had been assigned to write down a few notes on what had gone wrong on tour and what can be done to put things back on track. This was called the ‘homework gate’ and Arthur was sacked after there was a storm of protest in Australia.
But Khawaja, who will now play his first Test match in India after a ten year long wait, has provided clarity that it wasn’t just Arthur who wanted to go harsh on players but both captain Michael Clarke and Manager Gavin Dovey shared the same view point demanding that players needed to be penalized.
It looks bit childish as these are stuff that you associate with schoolboy teams. But why single out Arthur?
Well that’s because in cricket more than the captain it’s the coach who can be the easier scapegoat. It’s not only pertaining to Australia but happens so frequently in our own backyard too. That’s why in the last ten years in Sri Lanka we have had only one coach completing his term. Several coaches have left Colombo with a heavy heart after being fired and some of them have not taken it on the chin but have gone onto sue SLC.
Sometimes the President of the board decides to double the number of teams that engage in First Class cricket just to please his vote base and when diluted competition reflects on the poor performance of the team, it is the coach who has got to go and not the Board President. Graeme Ford is a classic example.
Ironically, in some other cases, a coach may have won you a multi nation tournament against many odds but your Chairman of Selectors decides to play politics giving credit to someone who wasn’t even in the dressing room. Spare a thought for Chris Silverwood.
It’s a common feature in cricket that when the team wins everyone wants part of the credit, but when the team goes through a bad patch, it’s time to sack the coach. Abraham Lincoln summed it up all nicely when he said, ‘victory has thousand fathers, defeat is an orphan.’