Asian Games 2026 | 'The game against Japan was a good pinch for India': Sunil Gavaskar

India skipper Shreyas Iyer (fifth from right) speaks to his teammates during the match against Japan in Sano on Tuesday. Pic/BCCI

The Asian Games as always provides some feel proud moments for Indian sports lovers. There are also the moments where a medal is lost by the merest of margins and the tears of the athlete are also the tears of the entire nation's sporting community. How proud are we when the medals keep coming in and we look at each other and say, yes, we can do it and we did it.

This self-belief is one of the great transformative stories of Indian sports. From simply looking to participate in events we are now aiming for medals. With the Government of India backing the players and incentivising them with cash rewards, the medals are coming through thick and fast. The State Governments also are not too far behind as they also arrange felicitation functions that are inspirational for other aspiring athletes from the state too.

The women's cricket team brought the first gold by beating Sri Lanka most convincingly. They are playing some outstanding cricket and their wins in the Asia Cup and now the gold at the Asian Games has put some pressure on the men's team to emulate them in getting the gold.

The game against Japan was a good pinch for the Indian team where they were one good strike away from being beaten. That should keep them in fine fettle when they begin their campaign. They will have to be a bit watchful as the pitch is going to be uncertain and the outfield with its softness is something where the sliding stop can be a bit of a concern too.

If reports are to be believed, the teams for New Zealand will be chosen with a new Chairman of Selectors. Since the BCCI still follows the practice of choosing selectors from each of the five zones, it will be someone from the West Zone. The zonal system of the Ranji Trophy is a thing of the past, but the appointment of selectors from each of the erstwhile five zones is still going on.

There is, of course, honour of being the Chairman of the national selection committee, but it also comes with a target mark on the back. Like with umpiring, wicketkeeping and now, commentary, the nine good things that have been done will be forgotten and the one so-called error will be magnified a hundred times and discussed over and over again.

The thing that most people tend not to be aware of is, that many a decision could be forced on the Chairman by the other selectors, but since he has to front the media, he is the one who gets the blame. So, the mischief makers could be the other selectors but it's the Chairman who is singled out for criticism.

It's not sure whether nowadays, the skipper joins the selectors in choosing the team but in the earlier days when the skipper was co-opted to the selection committee, albeit without a vote, it was common practice for some of the selectors to come out of the meeting and ‘coochie coo' with their favourite media persons and blame the captain for the unpopular picks and omissions from the team. It's happened to me so many times that it's not funny, for it could have spoilt friendships with teammates. Thankfully, it did not, for most guys knew I was upfront with them and that I would have told them before the media got to hear about the official announcement.

Gundappa Viswanath, is a classic example of a Chairman of the Selection Committee, who had to face the barbs for many of the decisions the committee took where he was outvoted, but as Chairman, he had to come down to the room where the media was waiting and try and justify the omission or selection.

For someone, who in my view, is among the very, very few cricketers in India who didn't have a single enemy while he was playing, he lost a bit of that popularity when he became the Chairman of the Selection Committee. History shows us that Chairmen, seldom if ever, get bouquets for all the good work he and his fellow selectors have done. It's brickbats most of the time.

Whoever is going to be the next Chairman and however great or popular a player he may have been during his playing days, when he has to hang his boots up after his term, he will find there are more minuses however wrongly perceived, than plusses against his name.

Professional Management Group