Indias’ first triple ton goes unfeted

By Qaiser Mohammad Ali

MARCH 29, 2010, marked the sixth anniversary of Virender Sehwag's first triple century, scored against Pakistan in Multan in 2004. That day the team management and his teammates promised him that they would celebrate his feat on their return to India. Six years have passed but the celebrations have still not taken place and it can safely be assumed that they will never be held.

After scoring 309, which went a long way in setting up Indias win, Sehwag had a quiet dinner in his hotel room, savouring arhar ki daal and a potato dish. The atmosphere in Holiday Inn — specifically on the floor on which the Indian team was staying — did not look any different from the other days; hardly anyone visited his room and no champagne bottle was uncorked. “They said that they would have a party in India to celebrate the feat,” Sehwag had told this reporter that evening in Multan.

Apart from verbal congratulations from his teammates, the opposition, and the media persons, the then Indian cricket board president Jagmohan Dalmiya sent him a congratulatory fax and a bouquet was presented to him on behalf of Hero Hondas Pawan Munjal.

On the teams return, everyone went his way and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) too conveniently forgot about felicitating Sehwag. And, as if to add insult to injury, the BCCI, ironically, forgot to include his remarkable feat in a documentary that it got made on the occasion of its platinum jubilee celebrations later.

Never one to hold back his feelings, Sehwag pointed out the anomaly to BCCI officials, but except for a “sorry” he didn’t get anything else as compensation.

And this week, the board rescinded the no objection certificate it had given to Sehwag to play for Northamptonshire in the English county league, citing “ heavy workload”. The BCCI has strange ways of functioning. And that’s the way it has been for many years!
(This story first appeared in Mail Today, New Delhi, on April 3, 2010)