how many more dressing room secrets has he leaked?

Is there now a case for routine and / or random screening
of mobile phone records
of all international cricket players and team management?

It is fairly confirmed that Greg Chappell
had sent an SMS to a Rajan Bala which has now been made public.
Is that not leaking confidential news of team selections?

But two years ago in Bulawayo, when Saurav Ganguly
confirmed to a press conference that he had been asked to step down,
all hell had broken loose.
It was said that Ganguly had acted unprofessionally.

In the amount of debate it had generated
and the blame that was heaped on Ganguly,
one question was never raised.
How did the journalists become aware of this conversation in the first place?
Was it another such SMS that had been sent out to them?

Wasn’t it Greg Chappell who had framed Bennett King,
by starting a false rumour in King’s name
after he lost out to King for the West Indies job?

I have written about my speculation on the possible changes
in cricket related betting with the advent of modern technology.

In a an era of so many meaningless ODIs being played every week,
what if the team could be chopped and changed,
batting order turned upside down at the last minute,
and that information could be leaked out to bookies
what would stop them offering odds based on inside knowledge?

All that was needed was mobile phones and nifty thumbs.
And what better way than SMS,
with absolutely no chance of being eavesdropped?

The more unexpected the final XI,
the more bizarre the batting line up, higher the odds would be,
more the amount of money raked in from unsuspecting suckers.
(What would have been the odds if on the morning of a Test match
it was revealed that the captain had been sacked?)

Given the need to build a team fit for Vision 2007,
what better excuse than necessary ‘experimentation’s;
would anyone dare suspect that there were dishonest reasons for it.

What if senior players who were established with definite roles
were more difficult to convince and were seen to be a problem?
What if one of them was the captain who had built the team
and did not want to give in to the experimentation?

What if the easiest solution was to gradually sideline them
and replace them by unsuspecting and grateful ‘young legs’
(the perfect guinea pigs for experimentations)
who would yoyo up and down the batting list at a moments notice?

Add to this
Team India never disclosed their final XI till the last hour, even to the playing XI.
It is said to prevent team strategy from leaking out to the opposition,
only the Coach and the Captain knew the team order.
What if that team list and batting order was being SMSed out to bookies?
Isn’t it very easy, if you think about it?

Well, would you then accept a team of oldies for the star event itself?
Team India, it was taken for granted! would be playing nine matches…
would you be angry if you realised that all well laid plans had come to nothing?
I would.

But if asked, would you call it match fixing?
Of course not, no matches were fixed, were they?
It was all legitimate cricket.

Oh yeah?

Could someone please track all the numbers dialed from the Coach’s mobile phone?
Should we check the phone records of all individuals in and closely linked with the team?
We may at last have the answers to many of our unanswered questions
that may have cost us a place in the Super 8s, if not the Cup.

And please please please BCCI, let us hear it from the players.

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Disclaimer:
this is purely my speculation based on the news reports I have quoted.
It is for you as readers to decide if this may have been possible.