Haste makes waste

Written by Sreeram Ramachandran

Saturday, 27 October 2007

The Indian Cricket administration took an major step forward earlier this month by (finally) professionalizing the selection committee, and paying the selectors fixed salaries for their services. The selectors, in turn, chose to herald the (at last count, millionth) 'new era' in Indian cricket with one of their more dramatic flourishes of power, and with what is, beyond all reasonable doubt, an ill-advised decision by giving Dravid the grand heave-ho out of the Indian squad for the first two ODI's against Pakistan.

A month and a half back, Dravid gave up the captaincy of the Indian team, to some extent because of the mechanics and politics involved, but more importantly with the plan of concentrating on his game. Time for Plan B, then.

Cricket, by itself, is a great leveler but every now and then, the selectors (and coaches and administrators in general) decide that the game is not doing this job with complete efficiency and take it upon themselves to do the leveling. The axe in Indian cricket is not only a loose canon, but it is also drunk and liable to operate guided more by the dramatic than by what is rational. The fall of Dravid from captain and the one Mr. Dependable in a team of oscillators to being left out of the team, ironically, in favour of the oscillator-in-chief, is strongly rooted in the tradition of Indian and sub-continental sport.

As for the decision, there is little new to add to why it qualifies as being quite ridiculous and hasty beyond what should be obvious to anyone following the game. It is quite needless to mention the disrespect involved in booting out one of the country's best ever batsmen. It is, well, rude. You don't call your employee of the decade and tell him that he has become a bit of a fuddy duddy and ask him to kind of buzz off for a bit and not get in the way of the new kids on the block. Not unless you are an Indian sports administrator, anyway. Such acts are quite fashionable in their circles.

Leaving the relatively less-important etiquettes apart and looking at only the cricketing implications of it, the decision still stands on a dodgy wicket. Looking behind all the Twenty20 razzmatazz and cartwheeling reveals an Indian batting line-up that is quite unproven when it comes to the (suddenly) uncool basics such as getting in, building an innings, sustaining performance over 50 overs. Perhaps Uthappa and co. will grow and mature into players who can turn their 30-ball-40's into 100 ball 100's, but that will be then, this is now. Aside of Ganguly, Tendulkar and Dravid, there really isn't a single proven anchor-man; there isn't anyone who is a proven and consistent bat on sticky wickets and difficult conditions.

There is also the small matter of the Test series against Pakistan and the inevitably grueling tour to Australia that looms in the months to come. Surely, the team management isn't planning on taking those on without Dravid? Going into battle with two swords rather than a sword and a shield is very dramatic and will lead to glory, but of the kind reserved for martyrs rather than those for winners. Dravid is, no doubt, going through the worst patch of his cricketing career batting wise (which, by the way, has been only five innings so far), and that is all the more reason to give him as much playing opportunity as possible to work himself into form.

Taking a rather optimistic and charitable view, perhaps, some good will come out of this. Perhaps the young Indian batting line up will forge nerves of steel playing by themselves without the safety net of Dravid's experience, perhaps a little break from the game (though not from the limelight) will help Dravid find form again. But that would still amount to flogging and caning a kid to get him to top the class. Common sense is quite clear on the point that the odds are against such a gamble paying off.

The Indian squad for first two one-dayers against Pakistan: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Wkt Keeper, Capt.), Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Murali Kartik.

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