Weight of the buck

 

 

India is a cricket worshipping country, where cricketers are worshipped like  idols and adored like heroes. Every man and woman in the crowd have their heartthrobs. To become a selector in this country and fulfill the expectations of millions of fans is  really a thankless job. In the course of performing his duty, a selector drops a player or sometimes appears not to have pushed a claim for a place – a cardinal sin for fans. We have quite a healthy structure for a player to showcase his talent. There is a zonal selection committee who selects the zonal side on the basis of performance. There are TRDO’s to help them shortlist players. A selector can always consult Under 19 coaches and selectors for names. 

  Selectors are sometimes under pressure to include players from their associations. I suppose this is a professional hazard. But a selector must understand the interests of the nation and the importance of his duties before bowing to such pressures. The media plays a strong role as a deterrent for a selector deviating from his task. These days, quite a few domestic games are telecast live. The performances are recorded, displayed and accessible through the Net. Memory and impression based selection has no place in the modern era.

The pattern of national tournaments has been instrumental in doing away with zonal and regional interests as well. Now, you have Vadodara playing Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra playing Kerala. A selector watching these matches may be from the East Zone, so he has to have national interest in mind. National selectors watch greater number of games in the Ranji Trophy plate and elite divisions before they sit to freeze the names for the national side. Overall, I suppose the selection process is very fair in our country.

Evidence of the fairness of the selection process is available from the fact that many players come from small towns. They do not have godfathers to pull their weight. A Srinath from Mysore, a Dhoni from Jamshedpur, a V.R.V. Singh from Ludhiana, an Irfan from Vadodara, a Munaf from Ikhar which is not even a town, a Suresh Raina from Ghaziabad, have all made it to the national side. Barring Vadodara, the other places barely have a record of producing national players. Compared to this, the teams of the 70s and 80s were full of players from bigger and more developed  places like Mumbai, Bengalooru and Delhi. There are plenty of misconceptions about selection meetings and voting. I can confirm that decisions are well deliberated among the members. The captain and the coach give their opinion and it is well respected by the selection panel. The teams are decided and everybody signs on the paper. There is no ambiguity. But many times, information is distorted by the time it reaches the media. A mountain is created out of a molehill. Words are twisted and a news story is made out. It is sad.

Talking about the team for World Cup 2007, I am sure it is a result of a well thought out and executed process. There are always opinions and counter opinions. For the previous World Cup of 2003 at South Africa, many doubted the wisdom of the selectors and the team management in selecting Rahul Dravid as a batsman-wicketkeeper. It turned out to be a master stroke, and it gave the team the right balance that it needed. India played the finals of that tournament.

The players making headlines today are products of this system. We have Dhoni, Sreesanth, Munaf, R.P. Singh, Irfan, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik, Raina, Piyush Chawla, V.R.V., Ramesh Powar. We have taken some tough decision to make places for them at the highest level. That has pushed the experienced players into giving their best to hold onto their places.

Sourav Ganguly has come back so strongly, Anil Kumble is resolute to make his place count, Sachin wants to extend his home series success to the Caribbean, Virender Sehwag, I am sure, is going to click at the right time, Zaheer, after the break, has come back in a new avatar, Yuvraj is raring to go. After all, you need cool heads along with the young legs to take the pressure of the big games. The churning has resulted in providing India the best mix of young and experienced players to form the World Cup 2007 team. In my opinion this is the best 15 that we can think of for the World Cup. Best of luck guys and bring the glory back to this wonderful nation.