cricket

Mohinder Amarnath uttered one of those timeless quotes many years ago when he called the Indian selectors a bunch of jokers. He would have been just as right had he uttered the same words today. In case you haven't cottoned on to what I'm talking about, the topic under discussion is the Indian team selected for the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka.

Consider the following:

• Azharuddin is dropped for the Independence Cup; his skipper says he would be considered for selection again when he has made his presence felt in domestic cricket. There are no matches played in the domestic leagues between the Independence Cup and now. But lo and behold, I bring to you glad tidings of great joy --- Azhar is back in the team. When did he prove that he had got his touch back?

• Kambli is brought back for the Independence Cup. He fares well, especially against Pakistan. The left-hander was one of the certainties for the Lanka one-day tournament. You perform and you are dropped; you don't play a single match and you are considered to have regained your form. This is logic, a mite perverted maybe, but logic in the Indian context.

• Mongia is dropped on the grounds that Karim is a better one-day batsman! Sure -- and I am Hitler's Aunty Nelly. Karim got one half-century in the tri-nation tournament in South Africa. Period. His wicket-keeping skills are inferior to those of Mongia. He is definitely not as good a batsman; witness the hundred which Mongia made against Australia last year and the 70-odd he made against the West Indies, both innings which rescued India. What has Karim to show besides this? Yet he is picked and Mongia kept out.

• Where are the bowlers for this tournament? India is again depending on Prasad and Kumble as strike bowlers. Noel David was not even heard of before Srinath left the team in the West Indies. Robin Singh's 15 wickets in one-day cricket have cost him 38.60 runs apiece. Kuruvilla has had to mould himself into a defensive bowler. Nilesh Kulkarni and Mohanty are raw and untested. These bowling resources would inspire anything but confidence in a captain.

• Raman Lamba (1,034 runs in the 1996-97 National Championship) was not considered good enough to be among the probables. Neither was Shantanu Sugwekar (928 runs in 14 Ranji innings). Add to this list Sanjay Manjrekar (familiar name, what? he got 616 runs at 88.00), Wasim Jaffer (692 runs, and also one who, with an average of 115.33, topped the national averages on his debut), Amol Mazumdar (868 runs at 86.80) and Syed Abbas Ali (761 runs).

• Hold on, I ain't finished. Atul Wassan (41 wickets at 25.59) did not merit a place. His pickings were by far the highest by any new ball bowler in the country of 984 million people. It didn't count for much; it certainly wasn't good enough to get him a place among that hallowed crop of 27.

• Rajesh Chauhan's action was certified as being above board in such a hurry that it seemed the Indian selectors had already decided he was the off-spinner of choice. He was rushed in to the camp but was not picked. What was the need to put two of the country's best known cricketers on the job of clearing his action in such a mighty hurry?

• If all-round merit had been a consideration, how come Ajit Agarkar did not figure on anybody's list? Mohanty has done nothing outstanding to merit a place in the national squad; but he does come from the East Zone. Why did nobody think of Hrishikesh Kantikar who got 993 runs at 82.75 and took 21 wickets at 28.66 in the last Ranji season?

• One last point. No player from outside this 27 will be considered when the additional two players are nominated to join the team for the remainder of the Lanka tour. There is a reason -- there is no cricket between now and then and therefore no criteria to pick a new person. Agreed. But where did the fresh data come from in Azharuddin's case? There was no cricket between the Independence Cup and picking the squad, was there?

• A lot of the answers to these questions are known. One only has to wait for a person from one's state or zone to become a national selector and then the chances will come; the only exception to this rule seems to be the East Zone. But then the reason for that is too well-known to bear repeating.