Sport Today

Now with the selections about to be done, i have decided about the 16
i would like on the tour to WI assuming only 16 are allowed.I suggest that
only "one" team be sent for the "tests" and the "one-dayers" since we are just
playing 3/4 ODIs and it would be more sensible to send out the players earlier
itself so that they can get valuable practice in the FC matches.

My 16 is as follows:

1)Vikram Rathour
Justifies himself on the basis of some mediocre performances towards the end
of the Test series and the recently played ODi against Zimbabwe.
2)Saurav Ganguly
3)Rahul Dravid
4)Sachin Tendulkar
5)Mohammad Azharuddin
6)V.V.S. Laxman/Vinod Kambli/Navjyot Sidhu
Laxman would be the first choice if he is fully fit but again he would have
lost much of match practice and i am not sure whether he is playing in domestic
cricket also at the present.
We could also try Vinod Kambli and give the poor guy his first chance in a foreign
pitch and to disprove his critics about his ability against Fast bowling.
He also seems to be in good nick now what with a century against Hyderabad.
My third preference would be Navjyot Singh Sidhu.He is also getting back his
form in the Ranjis and could very comfortably fill the vacant opening slot that
we have; it could also give Mongia the much-needed respite against having to
face the likes of Ambrose and Walsh in their opening spells.Besides, Sidhu did
well in his last tour here.
I leave it to the selectors to decide the fate of any of the above three.

7)Ajay Jadeja
Should be given a chance in the tests if he performs well in the first class
matches.As usual, will be useful in the one-dayers in his now-familiar slot.
8)Robin Singh
Qualifies himself with some good performances in the Triangular series.
Could be useful in tests as an established allrounder if he finds good form in the
First class matches.

9)Javagal Srinath
10)Venkatesh Prasad
11)Salil Ankola/D. Ganesh
Ankola should be given more chances especially at the test level, his recent
one-day performances notwithstanding.He can come good if he settles down.
Also has the ability to take important wickets.
Ganesh has really underperformed to the hype he was given;he has rarely been
bowled to say anything about his capability.Could be given one more chance though
i am not so sure about his ability to support Srinath and Prasad very comfortably.
Lack of experience(includind Domestics) goes against him.
12)Abhey Kuruvilla
Kuruvilla has been bowling admirably in the recent Ranji matches and i feel
he is a potential Strike bowler at the Test level if not one-dayers.
Has good stamina and domestic experience which could help his temperament
in the early International matches of his career.Moreover, this selection could
compensate the earlier raw deals he has been given by the selectors; a no-selection
could doom the career of one of the few true fast bowlers in India once
predicted to perform well by the great fast bowler Frank Tyson who was also
his mentor.
13)Anil Kumble
14)Sunil Joshi
I guess we have to rely on atleast one "True Spinner" who could prove
useful anytime against an always Collapse-prone Windies against the Spin.

15)Nayan Mongia
16)Saba Karim

As regards the likes of Jaffar, Pagnis et al, they need some more time to mature
and also i think the best place to give the newbies good International Cricket
practice is "At Home" or "In England" which proved successful in the case of Dravid
and Ganguly where they got to play a lot of County matches.Besides, we should go to
the Windies with a determination to win the series and testing the newbies
there could prove disastrous both to the Indian team in general and to the player's
international career itself.
Tendulkar will be the captain and Kumble the vicey.This tour should really
show whether Tendy can do anything major to reform the mediocre Indian
cricket scene.

Shridhar[Waiting for the selections to match most if not all of the above 16......]

Sridhar,

The only person I would delete from your team would be
Kambli and VVSL. Laxman was injured and Kambli is reportedly
out of form.

I would not make the "mistake" of playing Jadeja in tests.
The guy just doesn't know how to play test cricket it seems.
yet he continues to perform miracles in ODI's and that is
the dilemma Indian selectors are facing!

Rathod is looking good.

Ganguly is struggling to maintain his place in the team.

The rest of the crowd is OK. If India doesn't lose by an
inning's defeat or in 3.5 days, that will be a dramatic
improvement. Apparently against SA they couldn't last
for more than 4 days in at least 1 test.

Regards,
Gentleman

The jokers are probably discussing the quotas for the various regions
now.  Being as qualified as they are :-) I sat down to pick my team to tour
the West Indies.  However, unlike the jokers, I have given my reasons for
selecting/not selecting the players.  So here goes...

First, I would like to pick 17 players (at least) for the tour, considering
the length of the tour and the amount of cricket our players have been
playing recently.

The players who undoubtedly select themselves (for the first test) are:

Batsmen: SRT, Azhar, Dravid, Ganguly.
WK: Mongia
Bowlers: Srinath, Prasad, Kumble.

Who should the other three players be?  Should we go with 6 batsmen, 1 WK,
and 4 bowlers or 5 batsmen, 1 WK, and 5 bowlers?  Given the extent of
overwork the bowlers have been subject to, I am inclined to go with the
latter.  However, since we also do not have a recognised opening pair,
having only 5 batsmen is risking a lot. (I think Mongia and not Karim
will play as WK, and WI fast bowling will quickly expose his batting prowess
rather quickly unlike the Aussies :).  That is why I am not counting on
the batting contributions of our WK :( .)  

The way out, at least on a short term basis, is to include a player who can
bat reasonably well (~30 runs/ing) and bowl about 15-20 overs in each innings.
Unfortunately, Joshi is a player who can do exactly the reverse -- bowl 30
overs, and with luck get 15 runs/ing.  Frankly, I see no one who can perform
the role admirably well except for a certain Robin Singh.  Jadeja is about as
perfect technically as Singh is, and he certainly cannot bowl 15 overs each
inning reasonably well.  I'm not suggesting that Singh will do that, but on
current form I think he can.  So, in the interests of team balance, Singh
selects himself.   Plus, his knowledge of WI conditions will become very
handy.

Which leaves us with the selection of one more bowler and preferably, an
opening batsman.  I feel Rathour should be persisted with till he proves
to be either another Sidhu or another Raman.  The fourth bowler (Singh will
operate as the fifth) could be either Joshi or Ankola, depending on the
match conditions.

So, in addition to the eight above, we have

Ankola
Joshi
Robin Singh
Rathour

which leaves with the problem of selecting five more.

We obviously need another WK, and going by the performance in SA, Karim
selects himself.  We probably do not need any other spinner -- if Kumble
and Joshi are not able to give us breakthroughs, I doubt if the likes of
Chauhan or Kapoor will.  We also need somebody who can bowl fast at the nets
and can provide cover for Srinath and Prasad for injuries.  Ganesh lacks
stamina, while it is doubtful if Johnson can thrive on WI wickets since he
tends to sling the ball.  As a compromise, I will go with Kuruvilla and
Ganesh.  Perhaps, this will provide them with the opportunity of working on
their weaknesses.

Since Laxman has done nothing terrible (unlike Raman or Kambli) to warrant
non-selection, my vote goes to him.  Which leaves us with only one more
spot, which I am inclined to give to Jadeja.  More so for the one-days than
for anything else.

So, here's my 17 against the jokers' 16 probable selections:

My 17:                                  The Jokers' 16:

Rathour                                 Rathour
Mongia                                  Mongia
Dravid                                  Dravid
Ganguly                                 Ganguly
SRT                                     SRT
Azhar                                   Azhar
Singh                                   Singh
Joshi                                   Joshi
Kumble                                  Kumble
Srinath                                 Srinath
Prasad                                  Prasad
Laxman                                  Laxman
Karim                                   Karim                                  
Jadeja                                  Jadeja
Ganesh                                  Ganesh
Ankola                                  Kapoor
Kuruvilla

I expect the jokers' to make only one "surprise" selection, and I think
Kapoor will get the nod over both Ankola & Kuruvilla.  They are not bold
enough to try either another young fast bowler/opening batsman/all rounder.
For this tour, given the circumstances, I feel we should develop one of Ganesh
or Kuruvilla as our third seamer.  Unfortunately, given our immediate goals
in WI, we cannot develop an opening batsman in this tour.  I think we should
use the tours
by the India A team and matches against visiting teams to develop two openers
rather than use a tough tour such as this one for that purpose.  Still, the
opportunity of a life time exists for Rathour to establish himself.

[Epilogue:
A final word for the ones that lost out and those in the wings two years from  
now -- the likes of Dharmani, Johnson, Sharath, Gagan Khoda, Wasim Jaffer,
etc.  It is no good if you can just bat or just bowl.  India needs a batsman
who can bowl, an opening batsman preferably!  So, don't just try to be another
No. 4/5/6 batsman if you cannot bowl decently.  Or don't just be another
bowler who cannot help out with some batting or excellent fielding.  Be above
average in at least two of three areas --  batting, bowling or
fielding & catching.  Remember, even the great Viv Richards used to help out
with some spin.  The great Donald/Ambrose help out with the crucial 20/30
runs on occasions.  

We are not talking about all rounders like Hadlee, Imran, Botham, Dev or Akram.
If you look at some of the best test teams past and present, you will see that
there (were) are quite a few players who double up in roles.  Gomes/Richards
and sometimes Lloyd in his younger years used to bowl reasonably well.  Greg
Chappel and Allan Border did that for Australia.  Even for teams like
Pakistan that are strong in bowling, we had Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas or Wasim
Raja bowl.  Being one of the best batsman ever for Pakistan did not deter
Javed from being an outstanding fielder.

At the same time, look at the dilemma teams like the current Indian or
the English team (sometime back).  They are not able to get balance in the
team primarily because there is not a single player who can double up and help
out.  Until Stewart doubled up as a batsman and WK, England could not get
this balance.  Take their current team, and play Stewart as a batsman and
Russell as WK.  Although Russell is no slouch with the bat, England cannot
have the luxury of operating with five bowlers and still expect a consistent
winning team.  Don't be like another Sidhu/Vengsarkar/Manjrekar.  Rather be
someone like an Amarnath or a Ravi Shastri (in tests).  Your chances of
making the team would be better because you can potentially contribute more.
]

Dedicated to the analytical skills and patriotic spirits of our Fab Five.
~balu/..

Regards
Datta.

Gentleman says:

Snip.

83, 31, 12, 5   Total = 141 Average = 35.25

What exactly has made you make so drastic a revision of Ganguly's worth to
the side ?

                         Innings        No          Runs        Ave

Rathore                  4             0              66          16.50
Ganguly                  6             0            202          33.66

Wow ! Rathore is good looking alright. Very. His average is a shade less
than *** half of Ganguly's ***. Yet Rathore looks good while poor Ganguly
struggles.
 I wonder how you are going to wriggle out of this one. But do post (-:

ravi (Rathod's never looked good outside a photograph) aron.

Gentleman says:

Snip.

83, 31, 12, 5   Total = 141 Average = 35.25

What exactly has made you make so drastic a revision of Ganguly's worth to
the side ?

                         Innings        No          Runs        Ave

Rathore                  4             0              66          16.50
Ganguly                  6             0            202          33.66

Wow ! Rathore is good looking alright. Very. His average is a shade less
than *** half of Ganguly's ***. Yet Rathore looks good while poor Ganguly
struggles.
 I wonder how you are going to wriggle out of this one. But do post (-:

ravi (Rathod's never looked good outside a photograph) aron.

Gentleman says:

Snip.

83, 31, 12, 5   Total = 141 Average = 35.25

What exactly has made you make so drastic a revision of Ganguly's worth to
the side ?

                         Innings        No          Runs        Ave

Rathore                  4             0              66          16.50
Ganguly                  6             0            202          33.66

Wow ! Rathore is good looking alright. Very. His average is a shade less
than *** half of Ganguly's ***. Yet Rathore looks good while poor Ganguly
struggles.
 I wonder how you are going to wriggle out of this one. But do post (-:

ravi (Rathod's never looked good outside a photograph) aron.