Performance matters

Lets have a decent performance criterion to judge the merit of player in the team. No public sentiments, no media pressure and no age limits. Teams dont get selected in the way we want them to happen in India. A bad series and writing people off who have had successful times till one series back doesnt sound logical. To me thats whimsical.

Performance is the key. Thats it. Doesnt matter if the player is 38 or 18 or 28. Certainly not on basis of a whimsical selector who on an average in India hasnt seen the dawn of international cricket doesnt has a right to decide the future of a player who has played in hundreds of Tests.

It doesnt sound logical that Venkatpathi Raju take a call on Anil Kumble’s tenure as skipper or Ganguly’s future. For one, he played under Ganguly in 2001 Oz series and his international career never kicked off as he played second fiddle to Kumble in 90s. Or for that matter a Bhupinder Singh would decide on Rahul Dravid ? Or a Jagdale on Laxman ?

Get real guys. Aint we showin typical Indian ingratitude to the icons who have given only happiness in otherwise gloomy scenario (terror, slowdown, reducing jobs etc etc)in the country over a decade ?

Inconsistent Selections

By dropping Saurav Ganguly out of the RoI squad, the selectors have opened a pandora box. They have let the cat out of the bag. The axe is totally unfair and uncalled for. The grounds on which Ganguly has been dropped aint satisfactory. Since his comeback he has had one dull series and since he has been the one on tight rope ever since he lost his captaincy, he was dropped.

If we look at the stats since his comeback he stands tallest amongst all batsmen in 21 Tests in the duration (Dec 06 – Sep 08) with 1600+ runs @ 46. Not even Dravid, not even Tendulkar or Laxman have scored this many runs. So whats the criteria for selection committee to drop Ganguly ? Form ? Fitness ? Politics ? What ?

I still reiterate that the so called young guns aint ready for Test transit. Unfortunately the guys who were supposed to have eased out to the test mode aint confident over their ability. You can say some of them have been unfair like Kaif who got an axe following every worthy inning he played (91 against England 06, 148 vs WI 06)or you can say some of them didnt deserve to play 23 Tests who yet to date dont know their responsibilities. Yuvraj, that is.

By far Kaif and Yuvraj should have been ready to take the Test places, but they are not. Unfortunately Australia is not the team against which you can throw in young rookies citing change or transition. Success against them might boost them and the road to fame would be easier, but in case they fail then the career would be gone and finished. We certainly wont need a future prospect ruin his chances this way.

To be very honest, SL series is the only series in many years when the Fab Four have failed. Australia 07, Pakistan 07, England 07, South Africa 06, West Indies 06 — all series have had Fab four firing the guns. You got to be consistent in deciding criteria to drop or retain a player. Performance should be the single most criterion to judge a place. Doesnt matter if the player is 35 or 25. Rohit Sharma hasnt played any significant innings post CB series 2nd final. Yuvraj Singh has squandered away all starts he has got in ODIs. The 2 guys are integral part of ODI scheme of things.

And Ganguly isnt. I wont yet write off Saurav Ganguly. He is a fighter and he would claw back in the team with even greater vengenance than before. He can be down, but not out. He would fight out this crisis and trust me he would emerge victorious yet again.