Bold, but inconsistent decisions

Around this time a year ago, India were looking at a little ray of light in Nairobi. It didn’t quite turn out to be the dawn some people had hoped it would but I remember sitting with Arun Lal in a studio in Singapore and feeling quite enthusiastic about the future.

In particular there were two players who had caught our collective fancy. Behind the stumps, and in front of them, MSK Prasad looked a real livewire. And with ball and bat, and indeed through a few nervously spoken words, Vijay Bharadwaj had shown that he had the ability and the attitude to spend some time in the Indian team.

Twelve months, and one bad tour later, Prasad finds that he isn’t among the top six wicketkeepers in the country. And in a squad that has, effectively, twelve batsmen, there is no mention of Bharadwaj.

What does it tell us? That the selectors were wrong in picking those two in the first place? Unlikely, because there were some spirited performances in Nairobi against a very good South African side. Does it mean that we are overflowing with talent…..that a good player needs to be on his toes to beat back the challenge of hordes of outstanding players? Scarcely, for the cupboard is more empty than full.

Surely in the answer to that problem also lies the solution to a revolving door policy in our cricket. It is not a bad idea to give cricketers an opportunity but you sometimes get the feeling that providing the opportunity rather than investing in the result is sometimes the priority. Prasad and Bharadwaj had a very poor tour to Australia where they were caught off-guard by the conditions and by their inability to adapt. But I don’t think they were bad cricketers; certainly not bad enough to be consigned like sweaters in summer.

That is why, to my mind, this is an exercise in optimism. Throw as many people in and hope that from the heap something emerges. Otherwise, create another bunch. We simply do not have so many good cricketers and that is why we would like to see some faith kept with those that have shown some promise.

Hopefully, the new batch of inductees will get a longer play-in period. They deserve to, because there are some very young players there and even if there is a two-year investment period, we will still have the core of a fairly young team.

Typically, a selection process should answer questions, not raise new ones. Selection has to be a decisive process and so, if you have to pick 20 players, you don’t pick 23. By the same token, where hope rather than a discriminant quality seems to be the criterion, you could have picked 25, or 28 or 30. If you cannot pick the best 20, and have to go in for progressively larger numbers, it means you do not have the ability to discriminate (and I use that expression in a mathematical, rather than a populist political sense) and that is not very good news.

The other reason of course for electing to pick 23 instead of 20 is that it allows everyone another candidate. Was that the real story? I hope not !

Having said that, there are some bold decisions and some inconsistent ones. Most of the bold ones concern the newcomers from the Under 19 squad and if some long-term choices have been identified, that is a very good move. If you pick a player when he is 19 or 20,when you couldn’t have seen enough, it is because what you have seen convinces you that there is real quality. In such a situation, you wait for it to mature, you don’t dump it at the first sign of inadequacy. That is why I hope the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Reetinder Sodhi, Mohd. Kaif and Ajay Ratra are treated sensitively; that is why I hope the selectors do not do a Prasad or a Bharadwaj on them.

Zahir Khan gets in and that is a good sign. India have been very poor against left arm over quick bowling and if not anything else, his presence in the camp will serve a purpose. He must fancy his chances after seeing the performances of Bhandari and Kumaran in Dhaka. Their presence, and that of Jacob Martin and Sriram, represents the inconsistency I was talking about.

Martin is a gritty cricketer but, like everyone else in Australia, he didn’t look world class. He gets another chance though. Sriram got a game, looked all right and was dumped again. You could turn around and say he got a mountain of runs in the Ranji Trophy but you could say that about a lot of other cricketers as well. When you have twelve batsmen in a camp, at least three are going to miss out and just hang around. Nobody is going to get a closer look at them and that is why we should have gone with the original 20.

I would have left out two batsmen and one of the wicket keepers. I can see a reason for picking Ajay Ratra. He is young, apparently did well in the Under 19 World Cup and this selection would be a huge shot in the arm for him. I can see a reason for picking Reuben Paul as well. India have long looked for a wicket keeper who can produce a quick burst of runs and that is Paul’s strength. Certainly, at the level at which one-day cricket is played in India. But why would you pick Vijay Dahiya who has been around for a long time without ever threatening selection? It pays to have 23 around rather than 20 !

I would like to see Sodhi paired with Robin who turns 37 next week and plays like he is the young Sardar’s elder brother. Clearly the selectors have identified Sodhi as the long term replacement for Robin and that position calls for a very big heart. People have nice things to say about Sodhi and he can only get better if a bit of Robin rubs off on him.

You have to raise eyebrows at the fact that only two spinners have been picked. But we must have a touch of sympathy for the selectors here because there was really no one else they could have picked. I suspect, this is also an admittance that the spin bowling cupboard is now completely bare. This is a very dangerous sign but it must come as no surprise. Infact, one look down that bowling line-up and you know why Sourav Ganguly wanted Javagal Srinath in the side. If I was captain, I would have been down on my knees. I would have also called Sachin Tendulkar and asked him to start practising his leg breaks !

There is one ray of hope for our cricket though. This must be a fantastic team if it does not need a coach. If it does indeed acquire one, the person concerned will only have enough time to learn the names of the players in his squad. It must be very easy this job ! Switch on a button and the coach starts working.

Harsha Bhogle

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