Sport Today

Following is the Rest of India team to face Baroda in the
Irani Trophy:

VVS Laxman (Captain-Hyderabad),
Akash Chopra and Rahul Sanghvi (both from Delhi),
Dinesh Mongia and Sarandeep Singh (both from Punjab),
Vinayak Mane (Mumbai),
Yere Goud (Railways),
Hrishikesh Kanitkar (Maharashtra),
R Parida and D Mohanty (both from Orissa),
Ajay Ratra (Haryana),
S Srivastava (Uttar Pradesh),
T Yohannan (Kerala), Surender Singh (Jammu and Kashmir)

As always, I have some gripes with this team!  (-:
First, I do not see how only 1 player from the Railway
team makes it!  They should definitely have included
Bangar; especially when they were actually speaking
of him as a contender.

And where is Khoda?  He had a phenominal season!

Also, why is Pawar of Bombay not included and what is
Sanghvi doing in this team?

I'm happy for Goud and Parida though; it is good to see
these solid but unglamorous players getting their due.

Suresh Abraham

We all have gripes, and theyre all usual - so usual, that we dont even
bother to type them up anymore :-)

Of course. And Id have included Murali Karthik as well - he is the
most talented left-arm-spinner in the country, even if he has gone
through a rough period in the past year. Why not give him a game like
this to see if he is indeed on his way back? His upside-potential is
very high, and if a gamble is to be taken, that would surely have been
the gamble to take IMHO.

They dont like Khoda - I think they see technical issues, and have for
a long time. Also, *did* he have that phenomenal a season? He had one
mind-boggling innings (300) against an almost-Indian attack, but did he
actually do much apart from that? His Duleeps, IIRC, were quite ordinary
until that knock (Iam going from memory here, and am too lazy to check
at the moment :-)

Pawar of Bombay is not really in the picture at the moment, IMHO - I
think he has the talent to be, but isnt. He is being coached by Bedi
at the moment, BTW - he wanted to, and Sachin apparently thinks quite
highly of Pawar, that he might be possible future-India material, so
Sachin called up Bedi for him and asked if he minded coaching Pawar, and
Bedi agreed. So for the past couple weeks, Pawar has been training with
Bedi in Delhi, I hear.

I agree about Sanghvi though - which is why I would have had Murali
Karthik myself, of course :-) OTOH, if there is to be a spinner, maybe
a case could have been made for someone like Bahutule? After all, he
had a terrific domestic season last year, and played a test-match as late
as a month or so ago. And at least some guys Ive talked to who saw the
game (Delhi-ites, BTW, not even Bombayites :-) thought he looked the
most threatening Indian spinner, even more than Harby, in that match! They
all said he looked very very good early in that test especially, and
had 2 chances missed very early of his bowling - and, as they said, with
a leggie, who knows? The confidence thing is usually big with them.

Of course, Bahutule has no chance of playing right now - Harby and Kumble
and both superior choices. But then shouldnt we always keep some sort of
a backup depth in mind? If we do need 3 spinners in India, Iam not sure
a leggie like Bahutule couldnt bowl in tandem with Kumble - they are not
really similar bowlers and thus one can only replace the other, surely?
If I was picking spinners, I'd have had Sharandeep, Bahutule and Karthik
myself, and only then Sanghvi. IMHO, anyway.

Yeah, they both had good seasons and deserve to be picked - but Iam not
sure I'd agree that Parida is unglamorous :-) He's been pushed hard by
his association from a young age, and is always around.

BTW, my biggest gripes are with the pace bowlers, which you didnt mention.
The team is to be selected to RSA in a week's time. Surely, if people are
going to be a fit in a week, they pretty much are fit now, or should be?
Do we really want to throw Zaheer and Nehra into RSA with *no* matchplay
of any kind?

Both Zaheer and Nehra are certainties for RSA, of course. But even so,
match-play is always important IMHO. Ngam and Hayward etc are playing
domestic games right now, even though they arent quite fit enough to play
for RSA after all - theyre working there way there.

Me, I would have had Yohannan - he is a prospect, and he showed signs last
year in the domestics as well. But I wouldnt have had Shalabh or Surinder
Singh - Shalabh is not ready yet IMHO, u19s dont cut it to me, you have to
show it at the domestics first. And Surinder, while he had a good Duleeps,
I personally wasnt all that e***d watching him bowl against Australia
in the BPXI. I would have had Nehra play for ROI, and would have liked to
have them advise Zaheer to play for Baroda as well.

And, of course, I'd have picked Jaffer over Mane or Chopra, but then
thats just me :-) I still think Jaffer is a better bat at the moment
than Mane, and I think most of us Bombay guys who see both on a regular
basis think that, but Mane is clearly the one chosen to be next in line
at the moment - his age and his amazing run in the u19s last year have
done that. A nice enough 48 yesterday too - but I would still like to see
him wrack up some really big scores at the Ranji level before he is
elevated in that way. Just talent and u19 performances arent sufficient,
and shouldnt be.

Sadiq [ IK Pathan 2-fer yesterday - not bad ] Yusuf

Hey -- aren't you supposed to have completely dissed me on this
MK issue?  I thought we were in total disagreement here:-):-)

Bharat
--
R. Bharat Rao

"To play the game is great...
 To win the game is greater...
 But to love the game is the greatest of all..."
Plaque at the Palestra (Author unknown)

And for those concerned, it is Irfan Pathan Jr :-). Reports say that
he bowled with lot of pace and enthusiasm. BTW, how about Youhanan?
Apparently, he had 2 chances or so dropped off him on Connor Williams
shots but finally got him.
Does he have pace? Reports say he bowled with decent pace. But decent
means
how decent? :-). If he is indeed a fast bowler, being from Kerala he
should
be a good prospect considering he will be naturally agrressive and a
meat-eater too :-).

Shridhar

You mean, 2nd most talented; after Valmik Buch!  (-:

Honestly, I never had any hopes for Buch until this year;
never thought he will amount to anything greater than a
Ranji level player.  However, after the kind of season he
has last year, and the awesome performance last night,
he will be hard to ignore.  A pure gujju coming out of
Baroda team?  Sacrilege!  (-:

Good for him; they do have similar styles.  Bedi was master of
flighting the ball, something Pawar seems to relish!

Neither of those 2 made the final XI, much to my disappointment.

I don't think you want to play Zaheer and Nehra in this kind of
a highly competitive and taxing game just before the SA tour.
I'm sure they will get some match practice before the 1st test.

I agree with you on Shalabh.  But, he was a U-19 star, along with
Ratra.  I don't understand why he does not use his height to
generate some speed.  I have always believed in the Agassi theory:
go for speed first; accuracy will follow.  (-:  I'd definately
would have liked to see Saxena and/or Bangar to open the bowling.

The young Pathan finished with 3 wickets; to go with Buch's 5-fer.
I really hope he stays put in his home-town; Railways can have
the Snr for all I care.

Suresh Abraham

Well, partial disagreement :-) There is no way I'd pick Karthik for an
India side at the moment, because he has been very poor for a while - yes,
he was ill-treated by Ganguly etc, but whats done is done, you have to pick
someone on what he is at the moment only.

Even ROI, I guess Iam not sure if he can be picked - not on performance,
certainly. But then I might pick him as a gamble, just to see if he might
respond to it and come through. Its not a great way to pick a side, since
I think usually these teams shouldnt have too many gambles - but one gamble
a team is ok, really :-) The problem is that our selectors will use this
"gamble" idea to pick all 16, all players of their choice from their
particular zone :-)

I do recall the selectors once picked Siva for an Irani Trophy game, this
was like 5 years ago I think? It was a pure gamble - but they had heard he
was bowling very well in some office and club matches (this was several years
after his international play), and they wondered if he had suddenly "gotten
it back". If he had, they thought he might come thru in the Iranis, and then
they could just toss him into international cricket. It didnt work - he only
proved in the Iranis that he hadnt gotten it back after all.

Anyway. Its a tough decision, but I wouldnt have minded seeing him picked
for the Iranis on a "gamble" basis. He isnt yet back to himself, really,
from what little we can see - against a very weak Bombay side in the Atray
trophy a week ago, he had 2/48 (this was in the same innings where Kulamani
Parida had 4/40 or some such I think). But it would be *really* nice to
see him get back to his best - in terms of pure talent, I think Harby
and Karthik are our best hopes in the spinning department in the long-term
future (well, them and Pawar maybe :-)

As of now, I presume Sharandeep has moved into the first-back-up-spinner
role for the Indian side.

Sadiq [ who wonders if Pawar will play much this year ] Yusuf

Yes, thats IK Pathan - Pathan Jr. Pathan Sr is IS Pathan, and he has
apparently decided to stay with Baroda rather than go to Railways (since
Railways already has Harvinder, Zakir Hussain, and has now stolen
Mussavir Khote and Santosh Saxena from Bombay as well).

Well, everyone had 2 catches from Connor Williams dropped off them, so
I dont know how much that means :-) Williams was dropped *six* times
before he finally got out! Two off Williams, two off Mohanty, and I
think one each of Sharandeep and Sanghvi? Something like that. And this,
of course, is the fielding of effectively "India-A", the "Rest of India"
team in the Irani Trophy! Pathetic.

Theyve always said that Yohannan has some pace - at least compared to
other Indians he does. He is one of the few Kerala guys who is actually
doing well - they had picked 3 of them for the NCA's, and Yohannan was
the only one who was actually known a little bit, and he is (by total
coincidence, no doubt) also the only one who has come thru since. He had
a pretty decent Ranji campaign last year, even if nothing spectacular -
he should have played the Duleeps, but the stars (Srinath and Prasad both)
played, so he didnt get a shot.

He has athletic genes, at any rate - his father was the Long Jump champion
of Asia, IIRC, as well as the Asian record-holder for the long-jump for
quite a long time.

He is one of the ones who is definitely a prospect for the future, I'd
think. Bowled well in the first inings apparently, even if he seemed to
be bowling very ordinarily yesterday (his 2nd spell to Mongia and Williams,
he bowled 4 overs, 0/22 or some such - kept bowling short and wide, and
getting smacked for boundaries by Williams in particular). But regardless,
he should get to play Duleeps at the very least, and we'll get to see
more of him. Yohannan, Gagandeep, Rakesh Patel, maybe Saxena etc, theyre
probably the next wave of prospects to watch for. Also Irfan Pathan, maybe,
but he's only 17 and will need more Ranji performances before he even moves
up to that tier of prospects, I think.

Sadiq [ who hopes a few more names will emerge this year ] Yusuf

Well, he had it dropped earlier than others so deserves more merit
:-).

Finally saw him bowl. IMHO, he has quiet a lot of pace and was making
Mongia dance on the break-foot even on a dead-as-a-dodo track. He was
making the ball come in to the batsman with a lot of pace. What
impressed me also was his gigantic figure, he could easily be 6ft4" or
so. He also has a good
body. If he can add an extra couple of yards of pace, probably could
be India's
first express quick fast bowler? :-)

Shridhar [happy to see someone from Kerala making it at the national
level]

Wow -- how old is this prospect?  Has he spent any time at the Academy
(or MRF or any of those other schools)?

Has anyone from Kerala represented India?  I know Anantapadmanabham
was on the fringe a few years ago...  but before then?

Bharat
--
R. Bharat Rao

"To play the game is great...
 To win the game is greater...
 But to love the game is the greatest of all..."
Plaque at the Palestra (Author unknown)

Are the Pathans related?

Theist

He's 22. Has spent time at the NCA's - when India played an ODI at Chochin
I think it was, Kapil was coach and SRT captain (this was vs NZ IIRC).
There were 3 net bowlers that Kapil said had potential, and Yohannan was
one of them. All 3 were promptly put into the NCA squads, in the very
first year itself. He also has spent time at MRF.

He made his Ranji debut 2 years ago IIRC - some of us had been waiting for
him to get a break, and couldnt understand why Kerala wouldnt pick him (they
had totally ***pacemen anyway, and he was already near 20 I think). They
finally did, and he played 1 game without a wicket and ended his season
IIRC.

He got a full season last year, and did quite decently - had a couple of
five-fers, but I seem to recall him doing well more against Goa than
the better batting sides in SZ (ie TN). He was in the squad for SZ, but
I dont believe he got to play - there was one instance when they were going
to pick him (with Dravid captain, after Dravid played him in the nets), but
the selectors decided on the morning of the match to not pick him after
all (I think that was for Balaji Rao, who they wanted to look at for the
tests against Australia, but I wouldnt swear to it).

He finally got his big national-level break this match in the Iranis, and
has done ok - only 2 wickets in each innings, and for 80 odd each time,
but he has shown some pace at least. He didnt seem to be bowling well at
all in the 2nd innings though - the batsmen were scoring quite quickly off
him. Its early, but he is clearly someone that ought to be watched closely
this season, and hopefully he will get to play the entire Duleep schedule
as well, and develop further.

I dont think so, but wouldnt swear to it. Jadeja and Kuruvilla both
had Kerala connections, but thats about as far as it has gone I think.
Theyve had a few India Under 19 players though (Suresh Kumar was one,
at any rate - left arm orthodox).

Sadiq [ they have some relatively better young bats now too ] Yusuf

Heh. Actually, I did - I used to think many years ago that he might be
a future star (this was when he was very young, and had an excellent early
season - he must have been 21 or so?). And then he just faded away, even
slipped out of the Baroda team for stretches, until he suddenly came back
and then had his best season last year. Saw him in the finals, and he looked
ok - but he is stout, and that will definitely go against him :-)

I dunno. Why not play now? Surely theyre pretty fit, if theyre going to be
fit less than one week from now? Donald, Hayward, Ngam etc are all playing
fc cricket in RSA right now, coming back from injury and trying to work
themselves into match-fitness to play India full-time. We never seem to do
things like that - we just think that, if youre "fit", even without
matchplay of any kind you can play international cricket and do well. I
dont think it ever works out right, that way.

Yes, this is partially my problem, though :-) I think U-19 performances
should *not* count for being picked towards international cricket, really.
We have a full domestic schedule, Ranjis, Duleeps, Iranis etc. We are not
***y Pakistan :-)

What U19s should do is give you an idea who is really talented, and should
be watched closely in the future - and then you should watch them closely.
But they need to step up a level to do well in domestics itself! And if
they dont do that, how do you expect them to suddenly excel at international
level? We *have* to look at performances more, consistent performances,
before we will get better players IMHO.

Look at it this way. Kaif and Badani were too awesomely talented players,
who had not really done great at the first-class level - they were great
at U19s, and then hadnt been consistent at fc (Badani had one great match
against Bombay though - one of only 2 tons IIRC?) And they were immediately
pushed into the national side, for tests! It didnt turn out great for us,
did it? And its not the players fault either - they would have been better
seasoned if they had played more and excelled at the domestics first IMHO.
If they had come in next year, for instance, they would have had a much
better chance of succeeding.

Of course, this "forget fc performance" idea is getting worse and worse, with
Dalmiya back in charge - and its going to get worse still. Now they are going
to pick people directly from Academies! One thing nobody has remarked on
in the press (because nobody cares, obviously) - did you know that the
Cooch Behar Under 19 national tournament has been *cancelled* for this
year? And why? Because there is an Under 19 world cup next year, and India
wants to prepare for that and do well! How important is a ***y u19 world
cup, anyway? Enough so that youre going to pick the "best players" from
academies for it, mostly, and the rest of the players (all U19 players in
the country bar 16) will not even get to play a national level tournament
for exposure and development?? To me the U19 WC is totally unimportant by
itself - it merely salves national ego, which is what the administrators
want. What you need to do is develop *lots* of good players for the future,
not just 16 guys good at OD games. Most of the current Indian team didnt
even play international u19 cricket in their lives, but they played u19
for their state teams and developed thru that. A lot of players will be
denied that opportunity this year, because Dalmiya's folks want to
win the U19 World Cup so that they can boast about it.

 I don't understand why he does not use his height to

No way for Saxena - he has no performances to speak of. I think his
talent and speed might be good, but he will still need to actually
perform this season if he wants a break.

I dont think Railways wants the senior either - youre going to have to
keep him :-) I dont think youre allowed to play Iranis for one team if you
are going to play domestics for another, are you? Which is why Pagnis
dropped out before the Iranis for Bombay a year ago. I think Railways
might well have decided that they have enough pacers for the moment
and dont need to bring Irfan Senior in and sit on the bench - they will
have Harvinder, Zakir (is he still there?), Saxena, Khote, and Bangar.
Thats quite enough depth, really. Plus Obaidullah from Hyderabad if they
need further depth I suppose. Khote only played a couple of games for
Railways in the Moin-ud-Dowla, but he did decently enough for them to
think he's worth a spot (5 wickets in 2 OD games IIRC).

Sadiq [ is this a record year for migrants? ] Yusuf

He says that MRF helped him with technique to avoid injuries. Thats
about it, thankfully :-).

No, it was against Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh. And afaik, Hyderabad
is a
pretty decent team and had made it to the Ranji finals 2 years back.
He also
took a good 3-fer against Karnataka.

He has shown lot of pace in fact. And taking 4 wickets on a dead track
is not a bad thing at all.

I don't think performing in the Domestics is any indicator to
performance at the international level considering the kind of pitches
prepared in the Domestics. Domestics will help him fine-tune his
bowling, thats all. I think he should be ***ed for the away tour of
West Indies next year on the hard tracks there. Since he is already
22, it is better to *** him soon considering he has shown the
ability to trouble batsman with pace and that should be enough
indication of his potential IMHO as he will definitely get better
tracks to bowl on in international level.

But their domicility was with Delhi-Haryana and Mumbai respectively(if
i am not wrong, Jacob Martin from Baroda is a Malayalee too). We are
talking about Keralites from Kerala and Yohannan will be a good first
addition from that state to the national side just like the blokes
from Orissa.

Shridhar