Saturday, October 27, 2007

Selectors' impulsive moves taking Indian Cricket backward



Indian Cricket team selectors, they do surprise us at times with some rare inclusion or exclusion, but they are mostly known to be predictable. But this time, they gave a real shocker!

Rahul Dravid's exclusion sure came as a shock. Although some sections of the media had been debating on it, no one really thought it would happen, because this is not how good players have been dropped. They did drop Ganguly, they did drop Sehwag. But they persisted with them long enough and dropped them only after they were consistently inconsistent!
But Rahul Dravid! That too after a form slump in just one series? That was something totally unprecedented.

Agreed Dravid was looking out of sorts in the series against Australia. He seemed to be a little down on confidence too.
May be he was just finding it a little tough to come to terms as just another player in the team, considering he was captaining the team for last couple of years. And a break for a few matches may only have been good for him.
But if they are serious about bringing him back, they should have done it in consultation with him. He should at least have been informed of it beforehand. Suddenly dropping him only would dent his confidence even more.

Poor guy didn't have a form slump for ages. Now he doesn't play well in a series and he finds himself dumped so unceremoniously!
It sure was harsh on him since he has served Indian cricket so arduously for almost a decade now. Considering he has been our most consistent performer, he definitely deserved more chances.

And do we have anyone as a replacement for Dravid, since he has been our best bet in a crisis situation? 50 over matches cannot be won with plane hitting. You need players who build the innings. And if he is to be brought back, I wonder what the criteria is gonna be, since he isn’t playing any domestic cricket either.

Although Ganguly has also been 'rested' after his return, it will be interesting to see if he'll be 'dropped' too if he doesn't perform in a few innings.
And Tendulkar's is another interesting case (with all due respect to the master, he still remains my favorite). They persisted with him for over a year when he was going through a form slump.
The double standards and favoritism are difficult to comprehend.

Sehwag's inclusion was even more surprising considering we already have enough openers/hitters in the team. That apart, he has been given enough chances already and has been found grossly unsuccessful at the international level for a long time now. One good knock of 70 at the domestic level doesn’t justify his return. Agreed he is one of the most aggressive batsmen we have, but he should have at least been made to prove his consistency before recalling him back. And tomorrow if he turns out to be inconsistent again, it’ll be interesting to see how they justify this move of theirs.

And one wonders what happened to Bhadrinath? He seems to have been included in the previous series just to fill an empty slot. If they really thought he had the capability, they should have persisted with him instead of bringing back Sehwag.

It's tough to understand how the selectors take their decisions and whether they follow any process at all. I hope sanity prevails again and they understand they are selecting a team which represents the whole nation, and will do their job by keeping favoritism aside and by selecting the most deserving candidates. Else Indian Cricket will only go a step backward with such impulsive moves which can only be termed as irrational.