In through the out door

Faisal Shariff

Harbhajan Singh has a strange relationship with doors. The moment he's shown one, he comes right back knocking on another - and knocking hard. That he took 32 wickets out of the 49 that fell to bowlers in the just-concluded Australian series is the stuff of legend. That he single-handedly turned the mental-disintegration theory back on the Aussies, is equally work noting. And the upshot has been that today, his is the first name being pencilled down by selectors - ahead, even, of Sachin Tendulkar.

And what is more, selectors and the team members alike are licking their chops at the prospect - a few months away yet, but still - of the young offie teaming up with Anil Kumble, who is at his very best when another bowler is attacking from the other end.

"He is a terrific bowler with a large heart," proclaims selection committee chairman Chandu Borde, after the series win in Madras. "We always knew that he was a long term prospect," he adds.

Today, the selectors collectively pride themselves on their astuteness in picking the young offie to spearhead a Kumble-less attack. 'See,' they say, 'we get so much of criticism for our selections, but when we get it right, no one ever acknowledges it.'

So why is no one in the media talking of the selectorial brilliance in elevating Harbhajan to the role of spin spearhead? Because unlike the selectors, the media has a good memory.

Remember the home series prior to the one just ended against the Aussies? What is not commonly known, is that during the second Test, Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly requested Harbhajan Singh to join the team, and help out by bowling in the nets.

The selectors were furious when they found Harbhajan in the team dressing room in Delhi, and this sparked a showdown between selectors and captain. "The selectors didn't want 'Bajju' in the team, or even in the nets and the dressing room," says a senior player, in disgust.

At that point in time, Sarandeep Singh was the selectors' blue-eyed boy. Informed opinion is that he is a good off spinner with tremendous potential, but that it will take a year or so of hard work for that potential to be realized. Harbhajan, meanwhile, through dint of sheer hard work - with, it needs adding, absolutely no support from the BCCI and the selectors - become the finished article, but the selectors didn't think so.

One man who did, was John Geoffrey Wright, India's coach. After watching Harbhajan in the nets for the first time, that day in Delhi, Wright exclaimed to his captain, "This guy is amazing, he is the match-winner we have been looking for. Will he be in the team for the series against Australia? We need him!"

The chances were dim. The selectors in their combined wisdom, had already decided that Sarandeep would be India's off spinner for the series against the Ashes. For his part, Wright pushed hard to get Harbhajan included in the squad for the camp in Madras, figuring that this was the first step.

And then, Sourav Ganguly walked out to bat - for his team-mate, this time. Ganguly has during the course of the ongoing series against Australia come in for more than his share of criticism. A lot of which has centered around his reported liaison with a starlet, and the consequent domestic problems he has been facing.

Ganguly being Ganguly, he took this particular bull by the horns when, at the end of the Madras Test, he deflated potential critics by saying, "Yes, I have had a bad time with the bat, and it is possible there have been other things in my mind." Having, too, copped a lot of natter at the hands of the Aussies about his 'friend', Ganguly took that too head on, by ensuring that his now-reconciled wife was right upfront in Madras.

It was Ganguly, in this trademark head-on fashion, who took up the Harbhajan Singh cause in Madras, during the camp. Single-handedly, he fought with the selectors, standing up to them and insisting that Harbhajan should be part of the Test squad. On one occasion, he even stormed out of a meeting with the selectors and threatened to pull out, or go public, or both.

It was his intransigence on the subject, with the full backing of his coach, that forced the selectors into picking Harbhajan Singh ahead of Sarandeep for the series against Australia.

"Ganguly backs his players; if he believes in you he will fight anyone for you," says a team-mate. "He will go any lengths to have the people he wants in the team, all that talk of his being an arrogant leader is pure rubbish. Now, the selectors are taking all the bouquets for Bajju's performance - no one mentions that it was all the doing of Ganguly and Wright."

While Ganguly was fighting the battle in the committee meeting room, John Wright and Anil Kumble went about the task of preparing their bowler for the coming battle. For long hours, they worked with him, and other spinners, at the MRF Pace Academy ground within the Madras Christian College School premises, well away from the eyes of the media. And Wright relentlessly drilled into the young off spinner the virtues of discipline, of line and length. "Listen young man," Wright told Harbhajan, "you have great skill and what it takes to be amongst the best in the world. For now, just stick to the basics and things will fall in place for you."

Wright drilled that message into Bajju - and Kumble, whose work during the preparation camp has sadly not got the credit that is due, ensured that the young offie spent hours perfecting his control, hitting the right length and keeping it there till his fingers tired.

That is why, today, when you hear Borde and his fellow selectors talk of their acumen in picking Harbhajan, you can't refrain from a cynical curl of the lips. Nor can you help remembering the old saying, that success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan.

And just to continue that train of thought a little bit further, anyone remembering a gent by the name of Yuvraj Singh? Just months ago, the selectors were patting their backs over him, hailing him as the find of the season, and acting as if they had drawn up the blueprint themselves, and constructed him accordingly.

Today, they say at the end of a selection meeting: "We did not consider him. He has been given enough chances. We gave him nine-ten games, and he failed, where is his performance? Yuvraj has failed us. We have our eyes fixed on everyone with talent. How long can you stop Dinesh Mongia?"

These, incidentally, are the words, quoted verbatim, of no less than Chandu Borde, chairman of the national selection committee.

Ironically, identical words had been used, earlier, to justify keeping Harbhajan Singh out in the cold. And to those words, like 'failure', were added the charge of indiscipline, specifically relating to the offie's stint at the National Cricket Academy.

What was the 'indiscipline' all about, anyway? The NCA had a code of rules stricter than the ones that Hammurabi talked about. The only leeway was that Sundays were given over to the players, to spend as they liked.

One such Sunday, Harbhajan was approached by a couple of Bangalore-based Indian players, who had organized a charity match. He was asked if he would play, and he of course said yes.

Next morning, he was hauled up by the NCA bigwigs, for not taking their permission before playing. And sacked. Which makes his case unique - a cricketer, sacked and charged with indiscipline for playing cricket! And now, it is Yuvraj's turn to get the full blast of the selectors' blow hot, blow cold policies. Dumped unceremoniously, the young and talented all rounder can now spend his mornings practicing his cricket, and his evenings going for courses in meditation and stress management - both of which he surely needs to cope with the plight he now finds himself in.

"Not one member of the selection committee has bothered to speak to him, to tell him what they think the problem is, and suggest to him which areas of his game he needs to work out," comments a member of the Indian team. "How can we kill talent, however raw, like this and still hope to do well?"

But then, why should it surprise anyone that the selectors have not talked to Yuvraj Singh? The reason is, simply, that in this age of revolutionary communications technology, they just don't know how to get in touch with the man.

Didn't you hear Jaywant Lele, yesterday? Asked who would replace the injured Virendra Sehwag for the Pune ODI on Wednesday, the secretary of the BCCI says, "We have thought about Yuvraj Singh, but can't seem to be able to contact him."

Click here for the Harbhajan Singh chat transcript

Illustration: Dominic Xavier