There was a time when I used to reflect on the composition of the Indian test team. There used to some basis for team selection then. The test squad chosen to face England is the latest in a series of many whimsical selections.

Picture some recent inconsistencies in selection -

Famously choosing Ganguly to play as an all rounder in the team.
Dropping/choosing him regardless of match performances.
The treatment of Yuvraj, Kaif. (In and out of the XI, team)
Choosing Parthiv Patel above Dinesh Karthik as reserve wicket keeper for tour of Pakistan. This despite Karthik not doing much wrong.

And we haven’t even gone to the bowlers yet.. The first two tests in Pakistan were on flat tracks. No bowler should be judged based on that. The third test at Karachi was a failure for Zaheer Khan. Ajit Agarkar wasn’t even included in the first XI for that test. Without given a proper run, the two players were dumped.

I am finally immune to the selection of the test team it seems, at least for the time being. The last straw was the exclusion of Gautam Gambhir. Gautam Gambhir hasn’t had an impressive test career so far if we exclude stats versus Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Despite this the selectors decided to back him for the tour of Pakistan. He didn’t get the opportunity to play even 1 test in Pakistan. So why should he have been unceremoniously dumped? Why should a player loose his test place because of failures in limited overs cricket in between two test series?

Also, why announce teams on Day 1 of tour games. Gambhir is batting at 33. Imagine how devastated he must be feeling at this juncture. This is a repeat of what happened recently. Ganguly was batting in the deciding third test versus Pakistan. The one day team was announced while the test was proceding and Ganguly was left out. Why not wait for a day so that the match at hand is over until absolutely unavoidable.

The issue is not about a specific player being included or excluded. It is the larger issue of inconstencies in selection which are being displayed.

Want to bring in young players? I am all for it. But chopping and changing with no method, no meaning is not the way to go about things. It is still highly unlikely that India will loose to England but it wouldn’t take away from the poor methods applied to achieve end results.

With India’s population, it surprises many that India is not a force at the Olympics. R.J.Elliott wonders the same in a comment in Aaman’s recent article:

I’ve always found it a bit baffling that India, with over one billion citizens, doesn’t seem to have much success in either the Winter OR the Summer Olympics…and that they don’t seem to have many (any?) nationals playing at the professional level in the US in any of the four major American sports. Surely there is a 7-foot 6-inch Indian fellow out there who would like to make millions playing in the NBA. Or a 35-pound Indian who would make a good offensive lineman in the NFL. But where are they?

Winter Olympics

Most commonwealth nations have performed poorly at the Winter Olympics. Apart from Canada who had won 31golds and was at number 10 in the all time Winter Olympic medal table before the games started, Commonwealth nations have had little to show. Poor performances at the Winter Olympics is not an India specific or South Asia specific phenomena.

Great Britain have won 8 golds in all, and among them are medals from an era when not many nations competed in the Olympics. Australia hadn’t won a medal before 1994. Australia loves its sport passionately and evidence of that is its improvement in the Winter Olympics. 40 athletes are competing for Australia at the Torino games, almost double the size in recent times. However, I might add that the latest gold medal winner for Australia, Dale Begg-Smith, is Canadian born.

What about the other nations? New Zealand is at number 36 with a solo silver in a tally of 38 nations which had won medals before the current Olympics started. Countries like Norway, Austria, Finland and Sweden have extreme cold conditions unlike a Great Britain or Australia which explains the vast difference in medal counts in winter sports.

The fact that India has sent out 4 participants for the Torino Games is a big enough achievement considering the bare facts. India does have the Himalayas, but how many skiing resorts exist?

Summer Olympics

The wonder cannot be put to rest with the Winter Olympics, however. With a population of 1.1 billion, India still has not managed to win a single individual gold at the Summer Olympics.The reason which is usually given? India is a one sport nation.

Is India really a one sport(cricket) nation?

Cricket is played on every street in India. Go to the cities,villages, sea beaches, deserts or mountains - everywhere you will find children playing cricket. Why then can India not produce cricketers who are better than cricketers of the rest of the world combined, if all its sporting resources are going to cricket?

To begin with, there is hardly any infrastructure, and talent is not tapped. If it is tapped, it is not groomed well enough. This has changed recently with cricketers coming from outside the major cities like Sehwag, R.P.Singh and Suresh Raina. The fact remains though, that for every Sehwag there are countless kids playing with rubber balls whose talent is not tapped and do not know what playing with a proper cricket ball is.

At the first class level in India, there is no support system for the players. A former India player told me once when I went to meet him that his biggest mistake was that he did not finish education before going on to pursue cricket. Obviously, if he had the qualifications, he would have retired much earlier than he did, trying to earn a proper living.

Hardly 5-6 players can command a place in the national team for a span of 10 years. There is money in the game yes, but is there really money then to support the careers of at least the state level cricketers? The way the money is currently distributed, the answer is no.

The plight of other sports in India

Rajyawardhan Rathore, silver medalist at Athens, 2004, in the Men’s double trap event did it with an attitude few people have or are expected to have. He did not receive much support. Despite that he did not criticize the authorities and made the best of what he got, staying undeterred. When people see a Sania Mirza in India sport today, they do not realize the expenses players have to deal with when they are not ‘stars’.

To gain points a player has to travel far and wide and for it the player requires money. Add to that the money required to be paid to the best coaches from the world for proper grooming. Sponsors are necessary. The tragedy is, sponsors only come in once the player has become a star or is on the verge of becoming a star. Even after some one has achieved success, a sponsor can back out as was the case with Konery Humpy, India’s finest young chess talent. (though chess is not an Olympic sport, this shows the difficulties players face)

Why does money and infrastructure need to come up in a country where so many people are poor?

Sport brings in joy which is priceless. The joy the Brazilian kid gets playing football or the Indian counterpart gets hitting a six is unmatched. In that moment he forgets all hardships. Another argument brought up was regarding money invested in sports. Gaurav commented in the same article:

I believe spending money to compete at top athletic events that require insane amount of money is perverted for a country coming to terms with over 300 million people living below poverty.

If India had that attitude, India would not even have had the base for winning the World Cup in 1983. That victory it propelled a cricket craziness in India and money coming in through privatization of broadcasts in the mid 90s, the Wills World Cup happening in 1996. Hosting a big sporting event means the growth of infrastructure, tie ups with companies and jobs to many people. Sport is an industry in itself, even if you leave aside that it also brings joy to many people in the process.

The England under-19 team got thrashed by India under-19 in the semi-finals of the under-19 world cup. Abu Nechim Ahmed was the wrecker-in-chief. At one stage England were 17/5. England ended up with 58 in all and a massive 234 run defeat.

The match was all evens-stevens, any one’s game. Then Dhoni, no stranger to playing match winning innings, hit four after four after four till he hit 72* off 46 balls. In total, Dhoni hit 13 fours. In the end, India coasted to victory. Not that the Pakistani bowling or captaincy was great. Zainub elaborates on Rana’s waywardness and Inzy’s errors. But that is no discredit to Dhoni who came in with the game nicely poised and took the game away from Pakistan.

Dhoni now has 1054 one day runs at an average of 50.19. Yes, we still have to see how Dhoni fares outside the sub-continent. But that is for another day, another time. In the sub-continent at least, Dhoni’s bat speaks strong.

On another note, the Indian one day batting line up is looking stronger after every match. The class at the top of the order is there. The depth lower down with Dhoni, Pathan makes it a very potent combination. And we haven’t seen a lot of Raina till now, have we.

I have maintained for over one and half years that Tendulkar is not past his best. I wrote a small article in December 2004(which I didn’t put on the blog simply because it didn’t exist then) -

It has been a shame people have expressed doubts over the great modern batsman Sachin Tendulkar. There have been news paper articles, television shows, common people on the street and even ardent cricket fans who have asked this question in the last year or so. Tendulkar has had a very strange 2004. It has been a year in which more questions have been asked of his batting than in any year since he made his international debut in 1989.

He hoped this is a new beginning for him. Knowing the fighter that Tendulkar is, he will achieve what he is destined for. People ask if Tendulkar is past his best. But is the best scoring fast centuries or the big centuries and yet remain consistent? That is what should be the question to be pondered over really. As time goes by, the people who question greatness will shut up for good. And Tendulkar will remain as one of the greats to grace the game along with Grace, Hobbs, Bradman, Sobers, the two Richards, Lara and the many other hallowed batsmen to have strode on the twenty two yards we call the cricket pitch.

The last 14 months or so have been worse for Tendulkar as far as media and fan reactions go. The nadir were statements like Endulkar made in leading newspapers in India.

Well hopefully the Tendulkar bashers can stand up now and admit they were wrong regarding Tendulkar. Still believe he is past his best? All I can say is that a lot more people will look silly in the coming few months.

Update - Outside Edge brings to focus some recent performances and a wonderful poem on Tendulkar.

Nimbus has bagged a 4 year year deal which includes broadcast of domestic cricket. I will be very interested to see how much domestic cricket is broad cast in the future and the plans regarding the same.

The win in the series versus India after the series win versus England means Pakistan is on course to be the undisputed number 2 team in the world. They have the challenge in England later this year which I await eagerly.

What if India defeat England in India and then England beat Pakistan in England? We do not have a clear number 2 then.

Meanwhile Uttar Pradesh with solid performances from Piyush Chawla, Kaif and Raina in the match and a crucial first inning lead means that we will, barring some miracle, see Kaif hold aloft Uttar Pradesh’s first Ranji title. Another likely feather in the cap for the guy who held aloft the under-19 world cup trophy what now seems ages ago.

W.G.Grace brushed aside the umpire telling him the people had come to see him bat and not him umpire, allegedly among many other legendary tales. It was the Yadav show in Lalu’s attempt to quote-unquote - popularise the game with even his son making over 100 runs in a Lalu XI vs Media XI. We used to joke that Lalu had so many children that he could form his own cricket team. He has formed a Lalu XI at least with a son of his playing in it. A start for sure.

Reports The Times of India:

An exhibition cricket match played between Lalu XI and Media XI at Moinul Haque Stadium here on Saturday saw not only the Union minister bowling a 50-ball over but also the umpire’s reluctance to rule any of his deliveries as ‘wide,’ ‘no-ball’ or even declare him out. What’s ore, the team strength numbered over 25 and runs were added to the scoreboard in 20s and 30s.

I had the feeling in the first session. Thoughts came back of this match. Jagdish seems to agree.

At National Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan has suffered just one loss. In the last 10 tests here, 8 matches have provided results. India has never won here (losing twice and drawing thrice). Inzamam averages above 70 here. A lot more facets here. Inzamam and Akhtar face injury worries and there are soft mumblings that they may not be as effective even if they play.

The grass is unlikely to be shaved off the wicket as it would mean backlash. There has already been a lot of frustration among fans and media after the first two tests. In these circumstances Pakistan has a slight advantage. A combined effort from India though could see a memorable win. It can be safely said that most people are praying that this match does produce a result. I am hoping that we see some brilliant cricket in the match and a superb inning from Tendulkar, at a ground he returns 16 years since he made his debut, which shuts a portion of the people who feel he is past his best for good.

It is game on!