Shahid Afridi will feel vindicated. Adam Gilchrist will be elated. V.V.S. Laxman will add another morose chapter to his sullen face and fortune. The latest blow comes in the form of the captaincy of the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers.
That heads were going to roll for the bottom two of the IPL heap was obvious. But perhaps even Laxman was hoping it would not be his. After all the Deccan Chargers’ management said they would look into the matter when Afridi insinuated that Laxman was not made for the Twenty20 version of the sport because he was slow to the needs of the game. But there is no doubting who is having the last laugh at this point.
Adam Gilchrist led the Deccan Chargers in eight of the fourteen matches. The Deccan Chargers could only manage two wins in the entire inaugural IPL season and it appears the fall would have to be big. After all, it was incomprehensible how a team comprising big hitter likes Gilchrist himself, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds, Shahid Afridi and Indians Laxman and Rohit Sharma found themselves struggling in this version of cricket. Much was expected of them and they were perhaps the biggest shock disappointments of the tournament.
Shahid Afridi did little to justify his presence in the Hyderabad team. But he was quick to point out that the captain, Laxman, was not the right man for the job. It will be interesting to see how Afridi operates under Gilchrist, ruled by the Australian penchant that demands perfection in result and discipline in working towards getting those results. Will Gilchrist continue to tolerate Afridi’s banter or the lack of runs off his bat?
Now the move to appoint Gilchrist has been two fold in that even Robin Singh has been replaced by Darren Lehmann for the coach’s position. It may seem like Australian controls running the team from here on with both Indians displaced off the two prestigious posts. Laxman’s only salvage, it appears, is the Test version if he can keep it going and escape the impending retirement noose hanging around the careers of the fab five.
