UMPIRING CANNOT BE THE EXCUSE

India's One Day team has put up another horrible performance in Dambulla. There are cries that I hear about poor umpiring. Granted, the umpiring was poor... but the only ones who lost out due to that kind of umpiring were Sehwag and Yuvraj.


Sehwag is in top form and will feel genuinely disappointed at being given out on a ball where most Elite Panel umpires would kept have fingers to themselves. Yuvraj, on the other hand, was getting some very valuable practice in match conditions in a lost cause... but considering that he has been in a very bad form and really needed that practice, he will feel wronged on being cut short by an Asad-Rauf-howler.


Well, as for Dinesh Karthik... the decision may have been wrong, but the umpire just reduced the suffering for Dinesh Karthik and the Indian fans. That guy has now had more than enough opportunities. How he manages to maintain his place as the first replacement to a top-order batsmen with just 20s and rare 30s is beyond my understanding (actually not, it's obviously the Cheeka factor)! And Suresh Raina just had to shrug off his piece of bad luck after having encountered good luck just a few moments before.


And there is no excuse for Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni. Rohit Sharma frustrates an Indian fan like very few others can... he is so obviously full of unconverted talent! I now fully appreciate the angst of a Bangladesh cricketer over the case of Mohammed Ashraful. In fact, I have a feeling that even I can get Sharma's wicket on my bowling. The only thing I do well is bowl those gentle dibbly-dobbly off-cutters... but then, that is how Rohit Sharma gets out! I can keep bowling those in the knowledge that very soon Sharma will get his front leg across and I will catch him plumb in front!


And MS Dhoni... the skipper! I have always been of the opinion that he is a master of mediocre attacks and mediocre conditions. Once in a while he may come up with a truly astounding performance in a pressure situation... but those occasions are very rare now... and have happened more often for Chennai Super Kings than Team India in 2010. If Dhoni really wanted to play a captain's knock today, he'd play himself higher and not wait till 4 wickets are down to finally show his presence.


But I am still not worried about India's batting scene... because with the entry of Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir, not only will a lot of stability be instilled in the team... but also the frustrating figures of Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik will vanish! And considering that the World Cup is in the sub-continent, Dhoni will not be very troubled either...

INDIA'S ALL-TIME XI - MIDDLE ORDER

Cricinfo is doing the selection of India's All-Time XI Team. I had been waiting for this for a long time. Last week, it was the question of openers... it was not too difficult a choice for me. This time, it is difficult. Very very difficult. This time, it is the selection of the middle order.

Over the past decade, India has had the most celebrated middle order in Test cricket... No. 3 Rahul Dravid, No. 4 Sachin Tendulkar, No. 5 Sourav Ganguly and No. 6 VVS Laxman. It just couldn't get bigger! The middle order was so firmly established that many other talented batsmen like Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif had to wait long for their chances. Some others tried a hand at opening the innings in order to fit it... most forget here that Sehwag was originally a middle order batsman before he was nominated as an opener in India's All-Time XI!

But this represents India only over the past decade (two, in SRT's case). One look at the other nominees in the list and the fact that Cricinfo has allowed a choice of only three middle-order batsmen compounds this selection dilemma even more. Here are all the nominees and their numbers in Test Cricket:

In my opinion, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid sealed their places in the Indian All-Time XI lineup quite some years back. As for the third slot, it was a very difficult wrestle in my head. It was a tough fight between VVS Laxman (for his ability to bail the team out from tight spots time and again), Sourav Ganguly (for his ability to make strong statements like at the Gabba... plus the fact that you do need a leftie to create balance in the team... and yes, he was India's best captain EVER), Mohammed Azharuddin (he was class... his 50 to 100 conversion rate in the figures above is mind-blowing) and Dilip Vengsarkar (I never saw him bat... but I do know that Sunil Gavaskar remarked in the late 1980s that the two best batsmen in Mumbai are SRT and Dilip Vengsarkar).

In the end, I went for Sourav Ganguly... for all the reasons as stated above. The team does need a left-hander... and if that left-hander is India's best captain ever with a decent batting average and a useful seam bowling option... then he must be drafted in immediately. And well, no one can deny that Dada was an enigma!

Lets wait and see whom does Cricinfo pick in its selection... though if either one of Dravid or Tendulkar is missing (not that I see them missing out... I'd be ready to bet my Firebolt on it), then I would rate this selection committee lower than the one headed currently by Mr. Cheeka!

THE FUTURE OF MENDIS

I must say I was impressed with the way Aravinda De Silva handled his first assignment as the Chairman of Selectors of the Sri Lankan cricket team. Makes for a good viewing... especially for those who are sick and tired of the antics of a certain Mr. Krishnamachari Srikkanth.


De Silva gave some very sound explanations for all the major decisions taken during the selection of the team for the Asia Cup to be held at Dambulla, Sri Lanka. The axe for Jaisuriya was coming... the entire world could see it. But I was most impressed with the decision to send the young wicket keeper Dinesh Chandimal on a tour to Australia with the Sri Lankan 'A' team.

"Chandimal and Jeevan have got great potential. It was very heartening to see them perform the way they did. We are playing three games initially in the Asia Cup and when you look at the team for the first two games they might not get the opportunity to play. If that happens we are depriving them of the opportunity to go and get some exposure in Australia. We thought the best idea would be to allow them to go to Australia with the Sri Lanka A team and play there. That's one tour I will follow very closely which I think will be competitive. It will really separate the men from the boys, a tour of Australia."

Now that is one really intelligent bit of selection... something that should also have been done with Yusuf Pathan. But sadly, our Chief of Selectors does not have enough logic to think so deeply.


However, I am disappointed in Aravinda De Silva with the dropping of Ajantha Mendis. Of late, Sri Lanka have been employing this strategy of dropping Mendis in matches against Asian opponents, who have pretty much figured out his 'mystery'. They play him against non - Asian opponents, who apart from being not too good against quality spin, also find this unconventional spinner far too difficult to read.


Mendis rose to fame with a spectacular Asia Cup in Pakistan a couple of years ago. His 6 - 13 against India followed by a phenomenal Test debut series against the same opponents at home made him the new mystery star of cricket. However, since then, India and Pakistan have played him quite comfortably. But does that mean he should be dropped in matches against these teams?


What will happen when the English, Australians and South Africans also figure him out? Will he be dropped forever then? Or selected for matches against the Associate and Affiliate teams only? I really do not get this logic. How will this help his development as a cricketer? Playing more against the Asian teams will keep him on his toes... and that will automatically help his performance against the non - Asian teams.


I may be completely wrong... and the tactical reasons of Aravinda De Silva may be completely different. But this is what meets the eye! And what meets the eye is what I blog on!

A GEM

I was getting a little bored, so I dived into the Cricinfo archives... something that I like to do often. I came across this article... this piece of beauty that was written a year back by Suresh Menon about a certain event that occured a couple of decades ago. The link to the original page is here (if you really want it)... and the article is quoted below:

Tendulkar serves notice

The crowd was huge, and some of them even had tickets. Many took advantage of the general spirit of friendliness and sat anywhere they could. It is easy to see why the forefathers of the security men at Peshawar could not control the Khyber Pass. Amid the confusion, a legend was born there 20 years ago.

He was 16, had almost curly hair, curiosity in his eyes, and steel in his wrists. His treatment of Abdul Qadir is part of folklore now. Sachin Tendulkar played only because it was not an official one-day match, and Kapil Dev was nursing a stiff neck. At that stage there was no plan to play Tendulkar in the one-day tournament at all. But after that he couldn't be denied.

Eighteen deliveries changed everything. In that time he made 53 (unbeaten), hitting Mushtaq Ahmed for two huge sixes, and then Abdul Qadir for 27 runs in a single over, with three sixes in a row. There was no wild slogging. When Qadir dropped one short as Tendulkar stepped out, the batsman had the arrogance to go through with his shot anyway. The bat made a lovely arc, and for all we know the ball is still travelling - no one could find it.

At the other end was the captain, Kris Srikkanth, no slouch himself. Later that evening he said, referring to the one-day series, "The little bugger must play now." The little bugger has been playing ever since.