Hello and welcome to stumped, your intercontinental hit of news,
features and debate from the quirky world of cricket. I'm Alison Mitchell in London.
Although it's a pretty sobering time to be in Europe at the moment. With everything going on
in Ukraine. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world. England's women managed to come
out of their isolation earlier in New Zealand in preparation for the Women's World Cup and
England's men have got a tour of the West Indies to look forward to. Where it certainly going to
be a lot warmer than the grey skies and pouring rain that's happening in London at the moment.
Hello, Ali and Charu. Jim Maxwell for the abc In Sydney. Well, you wouldn't want to be here, Sydney
is living up to its reputation as one of the wettest certainly cricketing countries, cities, in
the world. It's been raining for most of the week. You've had more rain than the usual for the month
and somehow New South Wales were able to get a shield game in against Tasmania and win in Trent
Copeland took its 400th first-class wicket. But the Aussies are about to get to Pakistan
and hopefully, the rain will stop. But not in a hurry. Unfortunately, as we creep in
until March and the excitement await us in New Zealand, as Ali mentions.
Oh hello, Ali and Jim this is a Charu Sharma once again for All India Radio. I am in Bangalore back
from a coffee plantation, but I'm not at home. I'm at the fabulous Sheraton Hotel in Whitefield
suburbs where the Convention Center has been turned into kabaddi court. It is the final weekend
of season 8 of the pro kabaddi league. So I've been brought in for a few meetings.,
prior to the final it tends to be or looks to be another bumper season. We'll see how
it all ends. But great to be back on Stumped and of course, cricket wise Srilanka are
now in India. It's nonstop action back home where India as always continue to be daggers.
The cricket never stops, does it? First on the programme today we will start in a part of the
world that is at the centre of global attention for reasons other than cricket. Because at the
time of recording, Russian forces have launched a major military assault on Ukraine with reports of
missile strikes and explosions in major cities. It is a time of massive concern and uncertainty
for the people who live in Ukraine, with world leaders trying to ensure the safety of the country
and its citizens. Ukraine isn't known as a cricketing hotbed, but the game has been growing
there in recent years and the chief executive of the Ukraine Cricket Federation Kobus Olivier
has been spearheading Ukraine's drive to become an associate member
of the International Cricket Council, which provides funding for the development of the game,
and we can speak to Kobus from Kyiv. Kobus, welcome to stumped. I mean I'm sure Cricket
is further away from your mind at the moment than many more immediate matters. Firstly, tell us
where you are and what's happening where you are? Hi Alison, good morning. Thank you very much for
this opportunity. Yes, I'm in Kyiv in one of the suburbs. Yeah. The big main road going straight
into Kyiv as I say about fifteen minutes in the car it's just outside my window and I'm about
fifteen minutes out of the city center, the main road and Maidan square. So it's been very real
here. So I'm in a bolding complex on the seventh floor with my four dogs in the apartment. So it
all started this morning at about four o'clock. The reality. It is really. It's really happening.
Well, what did you experience at that time?
We were walking outside and I heard about eighteen huge explosions like like it was right next to me.
So I knew immediately what it was happening. I rushed into the apartment brought my dogs in.
I heard they bombed apparently military bases just around Kiev and also Boryspil airport, so that was
the blast we heard. And as I'm sitting here, they say the tanks are coming in this video footage
from Belarus, which is only two hours away from Kyiv, the ground troops are coming in with their
tanks. So it's quite real. It's for real, the past week or so the Ukrainians, nobody believed
it was going to happen. They thought it can never really happen, maybe Donbas and Crimea, so I mean,
it just quite funny last night I was on the tube, people were running, walking around with coffees,
sitting at street cafes and this morning you just see chaos. The street outside the
lane going outside of Kyiv has been absolutely jammed. Cars are not moving people are trying
to get out of Kyiv now in their cars because the airports obviously have all been bombed.
I can hear from your accent, obviously Kobus that you're not a Ukrainian
native. Tell us first of all how you have become involved in Ukraine cricket and obviously,
you're able to, you're talking to us at the moment, communications
seem OK. Have you been in touch with others from the cricket fraternity this morning?
Ah, yes. I spoke to our President Mr. Hardeep Singh. He is, unfortunately,
in one of the hotbeds. There's a lot of military basis, that has been apparently under heavy fire.
He's got about ten thousand Indian students in hostels and has been assisting them. They were
supposed to fly out this morning to be evacuated. Unfortunately, you know, that's not happening,
so he is helping them to stay in hostels and not go out, but he phoned me to check if I'm OK,
so, yes. We are in contact with each other, I've heard from them, yes. And then
to answer your question about South Africa, yes, I arrived here by accident by default I was in about
eight years ago, nineteen, in 2014, I became CEO of cricket Kenya. So, I was in Nairobi for a year.
I've been with real problems with Kenyan cricket. That's another story with the board
it's still ongoing. I've then moved down to Dubai, where I started to cricket academies.
My own academies. One with Ashwin the cricketer and I started one originally with Gary Kirsten.
I ended up focusing on the one with Ashwin. I was there for about four years and then
I came to Kyiv on holiday and I thought, I've done, cricket since... you know my whole life,
I was director for UCT, University of Cape Town, I played professional cricket for fifteen years.
I thought I need a break and it was quite refreshing that there's no cricket in Kyiv,
that I knew of, at the time. And I thought let me try something different. I came here four
times in one year on a holiday, fell in love with Kyiv and I thought, I'm going to take a
break from cricket. I came here. I've kept my four dogs, yeah, my father came with me. So
I then settle down here and I started teaching English and through teaching English,
my classes, we're getting a bit boring and you sit and talk about topics like travel,
so I got a set of cricket equipment from the Shyam Bhatia, he's my friend in Dubai is very
well-known in cricket circles. He owns the biggest private Cricket Museum in the world in Dubai
and Mr Bhatia, has a cricket Charity Organisation, cricket for care...So he sent me three
sets of plastic, the mini cricket, quick cricket equipment. He said Kobus play some cricket with
the guys. We thought it was sort of joking. And I started out of desperation with these kids.
It's nice weather it's beautiful and I took them outside and I started playing cricket
and they just absolutely loved it. They just stuck to it. Ukrainian kids, absolutely, it's something
completely new they all play basketball, football, tennis and they've they fell in love with this
game. And I thought, Wow this is amazing. So asked Mr. Bhatia to send me seven more sets,
which he did, and I started a cricket programme for the Ukrainian kids in Ukrainian schools here.
You've got a serious distraction going on at the moment, but is it cricket,
that keeps you in Ukraine. Is there any, any other reason than cricket for you be there now?
I just feel I'm doing something in Ukraine that I probably couldn't do it anywhere else. These kids
have never seen a cricket bat. So, it's a unique something that I'm giving to them and I feel I've
worked tirelessly for three years on this. I've started something so good that I feel to walk out
of this now, I've got so many people backing me, good well wishes and Mr. Singh in the Ukrainian
Cricket Board. These people are passionate. So, for me to leave Kyiv now, I I just can't do it.
I'm stuck. Cricket is keeping me here and I can't turn my back on this. I can't walk away from this.
You're the Pied Piper of cricket there. There's no doubt about that from what you've been telling us,
so internationally where can you take the game for Ukraine, you think?
The Cricket Federation Mr. Hardeep Singh and his board
has been trying since 2001. They've been playing cricket, at start, they've tried very hard
since 2008 they've been working closely with the regional office of size. You see Andy Right in
London. The European office to become an associate member. The Senior Cricket tick all the boxes.
The criteria. They fit. Fantastic leagues going. They played matches, tournaments. This shortcoming
was they had no junior cricket development. There is no. There was no junior coaching. So,
I came in and I started the junior programme with Ukrainian kids which now tick the box for
junior cricket development having programmes in schools, developing cricket at grassroots
level for Ukrainians, so what are we hoping for to answer your question is if everything goes well,
that we become an Associate Member of the ICC in July and then we have international T20 status.
It will help us a lot in Ukraine. We then sort of official member of the world governing body.
We will go into schools. We'll be working very closely with the Ukrainian Department of Sport.
Kobus, hi, this is Charu Sharma. From Bangalore. I'm surprised that the ICC hasn't appointed you as
their ambassador at large, global ambassador for the sport, they should. Right now with
what is going on between Russia and Ukraine. How concerned are you that all this progress
that you and others have made over the last two decades might just be sent back to a large degree?
I followed the Afghanistan story very
closely and I'm not saying we're in Afghanistan, here in Kyiv. We're probably a lot better off,
but it is scary and a lot can change, but I think it's going to be impossible to
stop Ukrainian kids now from playing cricket. They absolutely love the game. So, I believe,
eventually, when this is over. We don't know how long it's going to take. But life will carry on.
You're doing fantastic work Kobus, and the most important thing for us to say to finish with
is to stay safe and hope that this can pass for you and those who you're close to
in Ukraine and , certainly hearing your testimony at the start. It is very scary times,
but we really appreciate you coming on Stumped, amidst everything going on,
to tell us about cricket in Ukraine, so good luck going forwards and thanks for sharing.
Thank you very much Alison, an absolute pleasure to meet all of you. And thank
you for this opportunity to showcase Ukrainian Cricket. Is fantastic for
us to let people understand we actually play cricket in Ukraine.
Next on stumped, India have a new test cricket captain. Rohit Sharma is the man
who has been given the task of taking over from India's most successful test captain
Virat Kohli. He's already their ODI and T20 captain with Chairman of selectors
Chetan Sharma, describing him as the number one cricketer of our country.
Charu, first of all, how did that comment go down and is he the right appointment in your opinion?
Well, looks like there are only Sharmas in India from Chetan, to Rohit, to Charu.
There have been no adverse comments for Sharma, because he has been there for a very long time
he has played plenty of starring roles in white-ball cricket for sure. And of course,
for me, I've always maintained this, he is the finest cricketer in India in terms of
classic style as well. It's just that at times because of white-ball cricket you
have to play across the line and he too fell into that trap for a while and was
inconsistent in this test match performances but nobody will object to the fact that he is
probably the most consistent starter at this point of time, he has the experience. There has been
no objection to the appointment as well. That's just some thought to the future. And obviously,
Rohit being 34 as a batsman who doesn't feel in the outfield or slip and slide and tumble,
very often maybe last another three or four years at his level, which is a very high level
or at times, of course, you start losing the hand coordination and sometimes careers end earlier. Of
course, I don't wish that for him, but I think he is a very popular, very acceptable captain
and not the least because he has led the IPL team to so much success, the Mumbai Indians, so that
is also a factor where people believe that he does have some kind of a Midas touch. He's coming from
extremely pressure laden situations and taken the team to victory and individually, his form
is still very good. If not terrific because you're still full of runs at the top, when it's usually
very difficult, particularly in India, of course, where he knows the pitches so well so all around
this is a very acceptable happy situation for India and the transition from Virat Kholi and all
his global stardom to Rohit Sharma who's a little more subdued and certainly, a different character
might even do Indian cricket, some good, although that depends
on the team from day to day and against who their playing and whether they are playing at home.
Yeah, he seems to have the package doesn't he? And Jim, how
highly do you rate ability when it comes to being a test captain in terms of being the best player
in the side. How does that way - I mean you've obviously got to hold your place in the team and
be guaranteed your spot. But How do you weigh that up versus the leadership capabilities?
Yes well, historically, traditionally, most teams would appoint their best player
or one of their best players and then send him in a case in Australia. You pick
your team and you pick the captain, whereas in England we've had a slightly different experience,
if we go back to Mike Brearley, who clearly was not the best player, but he had
the brain to guide and he'd be like the game like few others. So, historically,
yes. You have to be a very, very good player, otherwise, you're not going to have the respect
of the other players, nor hold a place in the team and I don't think there's any doubt that
Rohi Sharma can do that whether he's their number one cricketer and whether Cowley's
ego's taken a bit of a hit over there. Or maybe he doesn't take any notice, does he?
There has been some pretty big calls Charu, hasn't there? Ahead of the test series with Sri Lanka
and one of them is the absence of the backup wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha. He is not in the
squad claims that he has been told that he won't be considered for selection again and reckons
he's indirect, been told to consider retirement. But this wasn't where the story ended, though,
because of a really strange circumstance, we saw Sohar post screenshots on twitter
of a whatsapp conversation with someone who he described as a so-called respected journalist.
And that journalist apparently asked Saha for an interview, but when he didn't respond
the journalist, replied with pretty unsavoury and threatening language and Saha then sort of outed,
this journalist on social media as a very sort of odd exchange. What did you make of it all?
Certainly very odd and I don't think this so called respected the senior journalist,
expected to be outed by Saha, because that's just how it's been so far, but the relationship between
journalists, sports journalists, cricket journalists and players does go through the cycle
where a lot of the senior journalists feel that they are partially responsible for the making
of a cricketer or a star, by saying that you know at that stage when you were young
we were the ones who promoted you and gave you plenty of column centimetres in the old days,
these days whatever they call it and digital space and then, of course, the player develops and later
becomes a star. Now, as a star is usually, there is so much pressure, media pressure and otherwise.
And this relationship suffers a bit because they can't spend the same amount of time to senior
journalists to feel they've been responsible for helping someone's career. So, this seems quite
in the same pattern the cycle that I just talked about whether senior journalist miffed saying that
if I w as partially responsible for ensuring that you play for India for quite a while,
why is it that you cannot respond to me now. So, it is unsavoury, yes but I must quickly utilise
this opportunity Alison to complement Rahul Dravid because if you remember he kept talking about
communication, conversation within players and coaches and of course the board as well and the
selectors. Whether prepare people for an exit or not being considered rather than just saying well,
you're not in there and you read about it in newspapers. So, to that extent I'm glad roll
started off conversing, talking to people, communicating about the fact that they may
not be available for or they may not be considered for selection in the future because of one reason
or the other. It's never easy for a player and Wriddhiman Saha, is obviously upset,
miffed and then this journalist thing was just a sort of the last nail in the coffin.
Who would have thought journalists might have egos hey? Never happens.
Never happens. The players are the stars, we are merely the conduits of the information.
Well, that's all we've got time for on this week's Stumped. So, my thanks to Jim Maxwell and
Charu Sharma and you for listening. Make sure you join us again next week, we'll see you then. Bye