Not so long ago there was a boy who came scored heavily in every cricket match conducted in his school. Be it a practice match, test match, ODI or the T20. In the beginning, he was calm, sweet to everyone, helped other students in the match and let his bat do the talking. The coaches and his team mates loved him. He was the blue-eyed boy of his class. As he grew up so did his scores and his arrogance, but no one cared as he was achieving new milestones every time there was an game.
Soon the school became number one in the city, winning all the major trophies under their charismatic captain cool. The blue-eyed boy was the man of the series in most of the tournaments won by the school. The coaches loved his feisty attitude on the field, it was a welcome change from the poker face of captain cool they have been seeing from the last decade.
Eventually as every fairy tale must have an end. Captain cool was passing out of the school and there was a void on who would be the next captain. The school made its blue-eyed boy as the new captain, despite the fact that he hadn’t won any awards as a captain in intra school tournaments for the last ten years despite having the best team on paper and overlooked that fact that boys like Maggi have won the tournament often.
The school appointed its former iconic spinner as the coach of the blue-eyed boys’ team ending a 16-year-old tradition of giving this role to outsiders.
Soon Blue-eyed boy started off with a bang winning home games against solid oppositions like Poms and Kiwis and thrashing weaker schools like Lanka and Windies away. He even won a game against self-proclaimed best team in the world named Bangla at home. The blue-eyed boy became invincible, he was everybody’s darling.
The next assignment was against a former great team called Aussies at home. Blue-eyed boy expected to win 4-0. The school won 4-0 under captain cool against even tougher Aussies team. Aussies were supposed to lose, it was a foregone conclusion, how bad were they going to lose was the only relevant question.
As the first game proceeded, the Aussies were giving a tough first to our blue-eyed boys team. Until today, blue eyed boy didn’t know what losing felt like. There were flashes of weakness in his captaincy, he knew how to captain the side when it was winning, but he has no idea about how to captain a side when the team was losing. He let his mouth do the talking instead of his bat. The blue-eyed boy’s runs started to dry up. He started taking ego satisfying DRS reviews just for himself. The series was going so bad that the blue-eyed boys injury was the best thing that happened to the school. The school won the decider under a new captain who looked a better captain than the blue eye boy in that series. This series showed the world the blue-eyed boy was a blue eyed bully.
It was just an aberration. One series doesn’t justify us to brand the blue-eyed boy a bad captain thought the school. There was an important tournament, which involved the top eight schools in the city coming up. Everyone as focussed on the tournament, except the blue-eyed boy. Just at the start of the tournament, he complained to the school management that he did not like the dictatorial leadership of the iconic coach despite the fact that he; himself was a dictatorial captain on and off the field. This came at a time when the coach applied for a renewal of his contract.
The school was in a dicey situation, they didn’t want to hear the tantrums of the blue eye bully they had created or disrespect a legend. It made a committee of the best players ever played for the school to select a new coach. The committee once again chose the iconic coach. However, the damage was already done.
Our school started the tournament with a bang thrashing their arch-rivals. There were few hiccups in the middle of the tournament but they made it to the finals once again pitted against their archrivals. Our school was the favourite to win but they choked.
Our blue-eyed boy not just choked, he showcased the mother of all chokes. Right from making a wrong decision after winning the toss, to choosing a spinner instead of a pacer in the playing 11 on seaming friendly track, to getting out the next ball after he was dropped . They didn’t just lose, they were hammered.
Just after the debacle, the iconic coach tendered his resignation citing that he is not getting along with the blue-eyed bully in an emotional letter to the school management. As of now the school is left without a coach, any coach coming in next would be aware of the blue eye bully and even the blue-eyed bully will be under scrutiny. The chucks in the blue-eyed bully’s captaincy were exposed. His honeymoon period is over. His runs won’t save him. The school and the public will not accept his milestones for an empty trophy cabinet.
You of course know who we are talking about!
