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Why
can't we find 11 match winners in a big nation
like ours ?
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- B.V.Swagath
Why can't we find 11 match winners in a big nation like ours? Is this because of dearth of such talented men? Not quite. I would strongly disagree. Or is it because of rigid-minded selectors and the team management ? This seems more likely, at least to me . Take an instance of the India-Australia match at Mumbai on Nov 1st 2003 , even the most optimistic of all Indian fans would have given up thoughts of an Indian win once Md. Kaif and Dravid departed .There was no interest left in the match after Kaif and Dravid got out , it was like a final ritual to be completed and the match would get over pretty soon . India may have done consistently well in the recent past, but they were never consistent in winning matches convincingly, even against less resourceful teams like Zimbawe, Kenya. What a pathetic sight it is for the players to find the crowd leaving the stadium even before the match is finished .
Can't we avoid these in the near future ? I think we can, provided the selectors and the team management, come out with an open mind and pick the best players for representing our Nation. New selectors come replacing the old ones, we have more of former cricketers now in the selection panel headed by Kirmani and the likes of Kiran More, and the common man thinks, brighter days for Indian Cricket are ahead, but did the new selectors do anything different from their predecessors ? We had a Challenger Trophy prior to the Test Series against New Zealand - which was an eye opener for the Selectors to really know which players can win a match under trying circumstances. Speaking about the present wicket keeper of our team, 'little hearts'-Parthiv Patel, I sincerely feel he should have been in Pakistan now representing the Under 19 side rather than donning the national colours for the Senior team. Given an opportunity to pose a question to Kirmani, I would ask him is Parthiv an out of the world talent (like what Sachin was when he was picked in 1989/90 to tour Pakistan) to be in the team ahead of much deserving Vijay Dahiya (wicket keeper, Delhi), Nayan Mongia (who is definitely the best Keeper, but seems to have retired from cricket in the minds of the BCCI, our team management and of course the selection committee). In a short time of one week, Parthiv has committed two major blunders- number one taking his eyes off the ball-which resulted in not gathering a throw and thus messing up the golden opportunity of running out Mark Richardson , number two - the match against Aussies at Gwalior, messing up a simple stumping chance of Mathew Hayden. This certainly is not acceptable, even if someone says 'it is natural for a human to err' . The first blunder of Parthiv, I thought was the difference between an Indian win and a draw . The second mistake, I was referring to, may not have cost us the match but certainly doesn't augur well for an International match. Everybody agrees that Parthiv has enormous talent. But the thing is that he needs to be groomed at the first class , 'A' tours and the Under 19s level and it is just not fair to keep backing him up and his immature mistakes at the International level, where the Nation's pride is at stake.
Why can't the selectors open their eyes, in fact it is the team management - the captain Saurav Ganguly, coach John Wright who have a major hand in picking the squad. So why don't we have Vijay Dahiya ?-a seasoned campaigner for Delhi and who has won many matches with his batting and trust me he is a good enough keeper . Lots of people in India yell we don't have a keeper like Gilchrist, Boucher, Moin Khan, Rashid Latif, Kaluwitharna who can win matches on their own with the bat .When the selectors, the team management (I keep mentioning them, as I feel these men are the most influential in picking the squads) do not have an open mind to discuss more options like Vijay Dahiya, Nayan Mongia, then certainly they are toying with the Nation's interests . It's not that we don't have resources, it is like we have rich natural resources but there is no proper channel for extracting them out and using them to our advantage !!!
Coming back to the team selection, another match winner who is missing out from the 14 men squad itself is Sanjay Bangar. If people doubt his match winning abilities, then let them watch the Challenger Trophy not once but twice and thrice !!! Sanjay Bangar is very slow in scoring runs in Tests but he is a total contrast in his approach to batting in one dayers. He has won us a match against West Indies out of a tight position, even the greatest finishers of one day matches like Bevan, Jadeja and others would have been proud of that innings. Another question that comes to my mind is why don't we have multi-dimensional players like Reetinder Sodhi (superb fielder, good striker of the ball, decent enough bowler), Hemang Badani (who has come out as a winner in trying circumstances in not one but two Challenger Trophies), Hrishikesh Kanitkar (good batsman in the death overs, very useful off spinner), Vijay Bharadwaj (another consistent match winner in difficult circumstances, does bowl useful off breaks) and many others. It is high time that people realize that in modern cricket (sticking to only one dayers) we cannot afford to have the luxury of having a one-dimensional player - I mean who is only a batsman or is only a bowler in the playing 11 .
Ideally if I had to pick a 11 with the resources available (Ganguly not available currently), my playing 11 according to batting order would be - Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar followed by Md.Kaif (for his running between the wickets, he can still keep the tempo going without having to play the big shots), Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Sanjay Bangar, Vijay Dahiya (w.k), Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajjan Singh, Anil kumble and Zaheer Khan .
As most of you may be shocked at not finding the name of Mr.281-V.V.S.Laxman in my 11, I got reasons to substantiate his omission . With due respect to Laxman's batting and especially his stroke-making abilities, I feel he is a match winner only when chasing targets of 225-250 range , where he gets ample time to get set, acclimatize to the pitch and other factors. Given a target of anything above 250, he is not the man who can deliver most often .Laxman is not the kind of batsman who can step up the run rate with big sixes, we have seen his batting a lot to say that he is not a six-hitter . I understand how Laxman is picked in the One dayers, which many of you may disagree with me. Mostly we have a Test Series prior to any one day series or tournament in India, and Laxman with his tremendous batting abilities gets lots of runs in the Test Series and the selectors just cannot avoid omitting him from the one dayers . But doesn't Justin Langer or even Michael Slater of Australia score lots of runs in a test series and still find themselves out of reckoning in the one day side ? And mind you Slater was a dashing batsman in tests, I remember him scoring 18 runs of Darren Gough's first over -first over of the first day's play - amazing !!! Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan I feel can win matches as well as loose matches with their inconsistent brilliance .Anil Kumble and Harbhajjan Singh are the best and we cannot leave them away . I don't have Ashish Nehra in my side , because of the efforts, the lack of enthusiasm he shows on the field even though he has tremendous skills as a bowler . But let Zaheer be axed for a few matches as he hasn't done anything of late except the 3 wickets haul in one spell at Motera . After we saw his bowling in the Mumbai match , it is fair enough to crack that 'he is having an overdose of 'Chawanpraash' (as shown in his advertisement) - he is never tired of bowling those extra deliveries in one over !!! ' Md.Kaif may not have done anything of late with the bat, but let me tell you batting at no.6 and no.7, it is not an easy situation for even the best of the best batsmen in the world . So having seen Kaif win a few matches in that position, one should not look at his failures as a dearth in his ability, may be promoting him at no.3 once in a while may keep his confidence intact . Finally , I wonder what John Wright does to the team of late. Yesterday's match at Mumbai , we had one of the best offies in the world, Harbhajan look ordinary , Harbhajan should have come round the sticks and should have attacked Bevan with a slip and a silly point .Instead he kept on bowling and bowling over the wicket and bowling more of a leg-stump line . Now what our imported coach was doing , I keep wondering , may be he was preparing notes so that these things do not repeat in the coming up matches, but he should have straight away sent any message to the players during drinks interval at least . And Sachin Tendulkar, he doesn't look like the free flowing batsman we have been knowing over the past few years . For a batsman of Sachin Tendulkar's caliber, the cricket crazy people expect him to spoil the bowlers figures and score something like a 100 of 70 balls, but not a scratchy 68 and getting out softly to a part time bowler like Michael Clarke .
Before I end this long article (sorry for making it long and also if I have criticized your favourite players), don't you people think Sachin whenever he comes to bat has his mind on scoring a 100 and seeing the side through to victory with many former cricketers accusing him of not 'seeing things through' and is this making Sachin that overcautious in his batting ????
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