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India's dismal show against South Africa in the second ODI at Durban on Wednesday has evoked sharp reactions from the country's politicians with some terming the loss as heartbreaking and others going even to the extent of seeking coach Greg Chappell's ouster. While it is not uncommon for poor performances by the Indian cricket team to attract criticism from the fans and the local media, for once these were joined in their criticism of the team by some of the country's elected representatives as well.

According to Ambika Soni the loss was indeed heartbreaking for every Indian cricket fan even though wins and losses were a part of every sport while Samajwadi Party MP Mohan Singh was less forgiving and demanded that the Indian cricket team coach be sacked as according to him Chappell was deliberately trying to weaken the Indian team.

Incidentally, most of the MPs seemed to have more complaints against Greg Chappell than the Indian cricket team with several of them demanding that action be taken against Chappell. Things inevitably took a political hue with a lot of the criticism also being targeted at Maharashtra strongman Sharad Pawar who also happens to be the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India with the Samajwadi Party General Secretary, Amar Singh, advising Sharad Pawar to concentrate on his role as the Minister for agriculture and not interfere in cricketing matters.. Some politicians, like Ramdas Athawale from the Republican Party of India, even went so far as to suggest that reservations should be extended to the Indian cricket team as well.

However, there were some voices that came to the rescue of coach Greg Chappel like that of Rajiv Shukla, MP and VP, BCCI who opined that making the team victorious was not just the responsibility of Greg Chappel but rather it was the entire team that had to shoulder this responsibility and take the blame for their failures collectively.

While it may sound unusual for cricket to hold centrestage inside the Parliament, it is not that unusual given the number of parliamentarians who are involved with the administration of cricket in India. Some prominent names include:

* Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar who is the BCCI President
* Congress Party's Rajiv Shukla who is the BCCIs Vice President
* BJP's Arun Jaitely who holds the reins of the Delhi District Cricket Association
* Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav who is the President of the Bihar Cricket Association
* Minister of State for Petroleum, Dinshaw Patel, who runs a cricket academy