Author: Pran Kurup

There is nothing more blatant than the BCCI chief, a sitting MP and Minister meeting the selectors on the eve of the team selection. There is plenty of reaction and discussion in the parliament. The CPI(M) party whose support is critical to the ruling Congress party has obviously made a case for their “Prince” Saurav Ganguly. In anticipation of his selection, he has already relinquished his W.Bengal captaincy!

There is no question that the team performance stinks. But this does not mean that all and sundry tamper with the selection process. Maybe its time the selection committee is scrapped and a parliamentary committee (of sitting MPs) is setup instead to select the national team?

The India cricket “circus” is in full cry. On the field the team is being routed without mercy by the South Africans. Off the field, the politicians back in India have stepped firmly into the ring to join the discussion. The most recent entrant being Jaggu (Dalmiya) himself. Sensing that his nemesis Sharad Pawar was on the backfoot (given India’s performance, the recent ruckus in Parliament both prior and after Chappell’s comments etc.), Dalmiya has demanded the return of Ganguly. Its interesting to note that Dada himself had fallen out with Dalmiya earlier and had openly campaigned for Dalmiya’s openent in the CAB elections.

The bad news for Team India of course is that its mainstay Dravid is ruled out of the next two ODIs and the out of form Viru has been asked to lead. VVS , meanwhile, gets a last chance to stake his for a World Cup slot.

Its an understatement to say that India is struggling. The first ODI was a complete disaster. The second ODI was a shade better but a disaster nevertheless. After having reduced SA to 6 down for under 80 runs, SA recovered to 274. Despite this failure to restrict SA to a low score India’s bigger issue at present appears to be its batting. Barring Dravid and a struggling Tendulkar and to some extent Dhoni the rest of the batting appears to be in shambles. Sreesanth’s absence from the 11 is debatable. Otherwise, the team for the second ODI was perhaps the best possible from the 14 on the tour.

Viru’s woeful performance continues. If he fails this series the selectors will do well to send him packing for good. He has been around for too long and done too little to justify his presence in the team.There has been a lot of criticism from the likes of Shastri for not opening the innings with Viru on a permanent basis. But, the dire state of affairs calls for some desperate measures. Viru’s continued failure might leave the captain with no alternative but to shunt him down the order. An out of form Viru in the middle order is still a safer option than Raina or Mongia!

A strategy of saving Viru for the last 15-20 overs might not be a bad experiment. In other words, Viru and Dhoni could swap places in the batting order. i.e., Sachin, Dhoni, Dravid, Kaif, Viru, Karthik, Pathan, Bhajji, Kumble, Zaheer, Sreesanth. Bhajji appears to be struggling and considering India’s continued batting failure it might be worthwhile bringing in Mongia in place of Bhajji. Between Sachin, Viru and Mongia, India should be able to cover for Bhajji’s absence.

Ricky Ponting’s decision to bat again was highly questionable. The only possible reason might be that the ageing Glenn McGrath needed a rest before having another go at the English. Even if this were true it made little sense since the rest of the bowling attack was well eqipped to attack the deeply demoralized england batsmen. Besides a 400+ runs lead is not sufficient for the world’s strongest team?

If the match is drawn for some reason (weather intervening or a superlative show by Eng on the last day), Ponting is bound to draw some serious fire.