Sonia gives a cricket boost for Indian Muslims

By John Cheeran
I have been waiting for a long time for secular cricket historians and broadcasters to come up with an analysis telling us how the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre has shaped a fundamental shift in Indian cricket.
To be precise, in the policy to select the Indian team.
They are the great secularists of our time. Now let me tell you how these gentlemen may go about their thesis. They will look at the fourteen members of the Indian team.
Here is the list.
Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Mohammad Kaif, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel and Piyush Chawla.
Now hear the revelation.
Four out of the fourteen cricketers are Muslims. And I’m certain that some of our cricket historians will be able to tell me that this is the first time in Indian cricket’s history that four Muslims made it to the national team at the same time.
Four out of 14 is 28.5 per cent. In the age of representative politics this is too much. Or is it not enough?
Muslims make up only 18 per cent of the Indian population.
The secular thesis will explain that, this would not have happened if the NDA government were in power. Only Sonia Gandhi’s leadership and vision would have emboldened chief selector Kiran More and company to plump for Muslims.
(They will not admit that it is these concerned players' sheer talent that has taken them to the highest honour in India now.) I will not even buy the argument, which is most likely to come up, that Kaif and company had to work twice harder than others because of their minority tag.
Muslims are a confident community now as the NDA is in the doldrums and cricket team is the mirror that reflects this positive development, the secularists would have commented.
This turn of events, you should keep in mind, has come about when central government is assessing the Muslim representation in the Indian Army, in order to set right the percentage game.
Is not cricket selection the best place to begin with?
Secularists from Calcutta will point out that the selection of Mohammad Kaif over Sourav Ganguly when an injured Yuvraj Singh was unavailable for Nagpur Test has enhanced the image of Ms Gandhi.
Dawood Ibrahim must be content now.
So must be an omniscient editor in New Delhi who asked Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi that the killing of Muslims in the post-Godhra riots wouldn’t have denied Team India more talents like Irfan Pathan.
It is time to recall Mohammad Azharuddin, if not as a player, as a consultant.