Difference between Srikanth and Aravind DeSilva as selectors

Asia Cup should be rechristened to Dambulla Cup as all games would be held in the single venue. More to do with the reconstruction of typical Colombo grounds for the WC’11. 

Who is going to watch this miniscule tournament when World  Cup fooshball is on in South Africa. 

I liked Aravinda DeSilva’s first press conference on reasons behind every player selection and exclusion. Though his tactical reasons to exclude Ajantha Mendis were a googly, but the logic behind dropping Jayasuraiya, picking up Maharoof and sending centurion Dinesh Chandimal to Australia was awesome.

He also said he would talk to every player to explain the reason behind inclusion / exclusion and what plans selectors have for him in long run.

Thats contrasting with our joker chief — Mr Srikanth. He chose Asia cup team and did not bother to inform why Yuvraj was dropped or  why M Vijay was dropped despite hailing from Chennai and doing good in EyePeeYelllll.

Mr Srikanth has just one vision — have guys from Chennai da to crowd in the national team and try to win Borld Cuppa for Tamil Nadu. Not India mind you.

Thats the reason why Dinesh Karthik keeps coming in after sitting out one tour and failing with bat / ball / gloves in domestic cricket or even EyePeeEllll.

R Ashvin goes to Sri Lanka, Naman Ojha is dropped.  Ashok Dinda stays on while Pankaj Singh, other one match bonder is dropped.  Dinesh Karthik is out for Asia Cup but would return for SL tri-series with New Zealand.

Subbu Dabrinath is kept on stand by should one of Rohit / Kohli get injured or be out of form.  Makes sense. Chennai is nearest Indian city to fly in Dambulla rather than flying anybody from say Mumbai or calling top performer from England to SL.   Or who knows Dinesh Karthik would fly in.

He made a blanket statement on Zimbabwe fiasco. He says he now knows who played and who did not. Unfortunately he refuses to see DK and MV in that list.  He refuses to give chances to out of favor seamers like Ishant Sharma or Irfan Pathan to go and play in A team in England and prove something to earn a  recall in national team. 

He got A Mithun travel to Zimbabwe when R Vinay Kumar was injured in Zim. Who was replacement to A team ? Some Ganpathy. Another lad from Tamil Nadu, supposedly an allrounder.

Guys like Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Manish Pandey have been amongst runs in domestic circuit and in A series too, but they aint given any chance. And who are given ? Yusuf, jinxed Jadeja and DKMV.

Where are other players who play in Plate league but fail to make it to the team cos Chief joker refuses to look upwards beyond Sahyadris.

This all examples show how good vision Kris Srikanth has. Something he should learn from Aravinda DeSilva.

SST should not have been sent to Zim tour

Its being argued that Saurabh Tiwary should have been sent to Zimbabwe tour. I dont think so that was a wise move.  Naman Ojha was sent to that tour too and he did not play until the last game of the series which was anyway inconsequential for India’s fortunes. He made just 1 and was removed from the team to Asia Cup. He did not get his chances. M Vijay played 3 of 4 games and he would still play the T20Is to follow.

If SST was sent to Zimbabwe he would not have got a chance ahead of greats Dinesh Karthik and MVijay and he would have been dumped just the way Naman Ojha is dumped without adequate opportunities to prove himself.

Its a strange irony if you dont hail from chief chef’s state then you get dropped for one failure and if you do then you keep coming in every time like Dinesh Karthik does. And if captain believes in you more than required then too you are untouchable (as in from being dropped). Jadeja is an epitome to that.

Hypocrite Mr Srikanth and his bunch of jokers.  Have same yardstick for everyone to judge the performance even if the player is not from the high profile cricketing states of MP or Jharkhand or from states which does not send temparamental selection heads to the top. 

Yuvraj Singh given a wakeup call

Few years back the selectors chef had a practice to address media explaining reason behind every selection and every drop.

And this practice was now stopped as BCCI secretary now  releases a media statement on the team giving no details on exclusions and inclusions leaving door ajar open on assumptions and cooked stories. 

Ditto is the case for Yuvraj Singh. 

He was rested / dropped / axed / warned. 

Stats prove 2010 is not his strongest year in ODIs. He’s played just 5 ODIs and made 96 runs with an highest of 74. He did not play SA series owing to injury he had. IPL and World T20 were disastrous for him. He was not part of Zim tri series. He was given a chance to rediscover his fitness and form. For a day he came to Chandigarh for some func which media snapped and aired. Making a view that the dance with the Hard Kaur was reason behind his axe.

Yuvraj Singh is a vital cog in Indian ODI plans and he cannot be left out in the vicinity of the World Cup. This may be a right time to give him a nudge to mend his ways right and have a relook at his priorities, commitment and ambitions. 

If he returns rejuvenated hungry and fitter, he would make a great favor for himself and to the team which now needs a winning boost urgently. 

The time for experimentation in batting is almost over and we got to finalise the main batsmen which could be

Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Raina, Kohli, Rohit Sharma and include a few more.

What needs to look into right now is the bowling departmnet but Mr Srikanth is neglecting the fact.  Somebody needs to give him a waking call too.

Jadeja stays on, Yuvraj left to dance with Hard Kaur

So the Asia cup squad is selected and as expected the 3 out of 4 culprits have been dropped. Vijay, Karthik and Pathan are axed from the disastrous Zim tour plus Yuvraj Singh is omitted. Sachin would spend time with his kids, perhaps go and watch Wimbeldon rather than playing for India. Why did not he opt for rest during IPL ? Did he seek rest from the final when he had injured hand?

Poor decision from Tendulkar. Setting a wrong precedent. He is picking up tournaments where he wants to play for India. Not acceptable.

Meanwhile the selection of this team is baffling too. 

Dinda and Jadeja, 2 IPL rockstars are persisted with. R Ashvin is persisted. Poor Naman Ojha is dropped on account of just one game where he made just one run. 

Narendra Hirwani was dozing when the team was being selected. Or may be he was answering call from cashier of his sports shop in Aru Plaza, MG Road, Indore.  Pity he could not make a strong case for Ojha to be retained in the team. R Ashvin got one game, he made 38 and took 2/50. Good enough, he stayed on in the team. Poor Ojha with no backing was axed. Lets not forget that R Ashvin plays for CSK captained by MSD himself and Srikanth is brand ambassador of the team. So someone from the Tamil Nadu had to be in the team. 

Naman Ojha plays for lowly MP and even poorer Rajasthan Royals. Shane Warne does not have a say in the selection of Indian team, so poor Ojha was axed. 

Wait. Ravinder Jadeja was in. Despite his selfish poor showing in the Zim series and World T20, the idiot from Saurashtra stays on.  He is useless guy who in all probability would play at # 7 and would bowl more overs than Pragyan Ojha (if selected) or 2nd / 3rd seamer. 

He made a slow 50 in the lost cause against Zimbabwe last week and got 2 wkts. That got him selected for the Asia Cup. What he did in the next game ? Just 18 runs and no wkts. Place achieved, so high performance gets to hell in the next game which was a do or die game. Jadeja opted to go easy. He knows Srikanth has fetish to make him next Indian Gary Sobers, so he can play the way he wants and get away with anything.

Ashok Dinda. He is persisted. Bengal quota. Why ? What he did in Zim series ? Was Srikanth appeasing Did i ? Lol.

Even if we have 3 spinners in Ojha P, Bhajan and R Ashvin, Jadeja would bowl full 10 overs and bat at 7 with strike rate of 60s and 70s ensuring India gets as low as possible runs in the final 5-6 overs in first innings. Now if there are needs for part time spinners we have :

• Sehwag
• Raina
• Sharma
• Tiwary

Sharmaji has an IPL hattrick. Tiwary is new addition in the team, so bada and chota Dhoni would play together in the team. 

So when we have 3 spinners and 4 part time spinners what is the need for Jadeja in the team? He would probably axe out Rohit Sharma from the team and would ensure India loses even to Bangladesh.

Have expectations from this team @ ur own peril. I dont have any. As long as Srikanth is around, i feel India has very little or no chances to win the World Cup 2011. By the time World Cup arrives Srikanth would flood the Indian team with so called youth and fringe players good for nothing. In Hindi its being called “gadhe ko ghoda banana”. So Srikanth would have 10 asses like Jadeja and beat them hard to make a horse like Gary Sobers, which is a wishful thinking. 

Asia Cup selections

I think this should be the XI India should target to play for the Asia Cup opener:

·         Virender Sehwag

·         Sachin Tendulkar

·         Gautam Gambhir

·         MS Dhoni

·         Suresh Raina

·         Virat Kohli

·         Rohit Sharma

·         Harbhajan Singh

·         Zaheer Khan

·         Pragyan Ojha

·         Ashish Nehra

The 4 other guys should be:

·         Ishant Sharma

·         Robin Uthappa

·         Yuvraj Singh

·         Praveen Kumar / Ashok DInda / Ashwin

I believe Srikanth would have a strong temptation to retain one of Karthik or Vijay in team or draft in Badrinath as replacement for one to one TN batsman, but that move needs to be countered and opposed. But that’s wishful thinking. Nothing of that sort would happen.

Actually in all recent selection committees, the current panel is most regional biased and more of rag headed.   I thought DBV was one of the selection chiefs who got more Mumbai lads (not deserving) in the team, but given Srikanth ’s track record DBV looked sane enough.

DBV sacked Ganguly and Dravid from the ODI team, removed Virender Sehwag from Tests and installed Gautam Gambhir at the top of Tests in 2008 SL series which reunited the Delhi dashing duo at the top and that move was the master stroke from the DBV panel after promoting MSD to captaincy in 2007 after RSD resigned post England tour.

He got in Rohit Sharma on 2007 tour to England and installed Wasim Jaffer at the top in 2006. He had brief spells of success (super series in India vs Pak and reasonably good one in England), but his Aussie failings saw him axed. Besides DBV also axed Ajit Agarkar(another Mumbai player who seems lot better even today than the current crop of fast bowlers) from the team in 2007 (post T20 WC victory).  DBV wanted to make Sachin captain after Rahul resigned, but later on settled for Anil Kumble which was good move too. He led the team to first victory in Perth (something only WI did in entire 1990s and 2000s) and during the Sydney gate.

Now if you compare KS track record to DBV, KS fails badly.  He not only selected a pathetic team in SA tests just after we went # 1 in Tests but also selected dud teams for both 2009 and 2010 editions of T20 World cups.  He blindly promoted TN players at cost of results in the national team. Nobody resents a player selection as long as its on merit, but if 3-4 players make in the XI just cos the selection chief is from a particular state and the selection moves backfires, then the selections are going to be questioned.

In 2008 Murali Vijay was drafted in as replacement opener in 3^rd Test vs Australia when GG was fined and missed out the Test, but Vijay went on to have a gutsy debut and played couple of more solid knocks to earn praise and even raise hopes of being next Dravid. He was fast tracked to ODIs in 2010 SA series and later on based of a decent iPL run he was moved into the World T20 squad which had no Sehwag.  As a result his confidence vanished and the results in Zimbabwe show a very poor record for Vijay, who still should be a good Test player.   His ODIs average and T20I average read poor readings (below 20s) and the failure in the Ahmedabad Test in SA series dropped his Test average to low 30s.  He has not got consistent run in Tests (and won’t get too since he is an opener and there is no vacancy in the middle order for now).

Badrinath was other player who popped in every time when anybody was injured. He has had decent run in domestic cricket but when played at the top he has found himself in failures.  He might be in the contention for the next Test India plays for # 6 spot. 

Dinesh Karthik, well a lot has been said on him at this blog, but he is just everywhere. He keeps and fails, he bats and fails, he runs and fails. Yet he keeps coming back. Nobody needs him. Go please. Srikanth.

He has made the other committee members irrelevant.  When 2 members of 1980s team took over it was believed that they would think in terms of larger interests of the team than the regional interests as during their playing days a lot of players made into the team on regional basis. Srikanth failed that thinking and it’s the root cause for the T20 disasters and the mauling in 1^st SA test in 2010 and the failures in CT 2009 with the latest debacle in Zimbabwe.

Few hours later he is going to unveil another team for Asia Cup which media reports suggest would mark Dravid comeback and Sachin resting owing to the IPL injury.   KS has always been temperamental in his cricket. Be it during his batting in Tests or ODIs (he at one time was highest run getter for India in ODIs).  And ditto for selection decisions. Some things never change.

Ijaz Butt and Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik pisses me. 

Ijaz Butt cracks me up.

Younis Khan ban lifted after being imposed a month and half back. Weird and comical reasons given for upliftment or overturn of the ban or the uturn of the ban.

Wont say more.Just have a hearty laugh at Pakistan cricket and its karnhaars. They are laughing stock. Easily. 

By the way Mr Karthik failed yet again today.  27 off 34 with 5 fours and SR of 80 almost. Good progress. Poor Naman Ojha got out for just 1.

So if India does not make up to the finals, which it wont, so should Mr Karthik has played his last game for the country in years to come. 

We dont know. Not even 4 other selectors know. Its just fickle mind of Srikanth that knows. Lest he finds some other TN player to draft in (most prolly another loser called Dabri), Mr Karthik would continue to play. 

Aftermath

India’s fourth or fifth string team lost to the enthusiastic and committed Zimbabwe second time in a week. How pathetic it is. Who owns up this defeat ? Skipper Raina, coach Kirsten or selector head clown Srikanth?  It was pathetic to see that there was no intent or will to score runs from the openers. What was Murali Vijay thinking ? He is a star ? IPL is long time over kid. If you cant play against Zimbabwe, there is a little chance you could play against anybody else.  56 ball 21 in PowerPlay overs with no boundaries whatsoever. Ditto for his Tamil Nadu skipper Dinesh Karthik, who by far should have been dumped in the dustbin of Marina Beach or Golden Beach in Chennai for his hyped talent, zero on delivery.

What happened to Amit Mishra who got a 5-for on his Test debut substituting for Anil Kumble and fast tracking his retirement?  Why do our spinners fail to take wickets in ODIs and T20s whereas little known spinners of lesser countries are rich in wickets. Pragyan Ojha, another big IPL name, purple cap holder of IPL-3. He ended up with one wicket. Why ? Did he forget spinning the ball ? Or did he think playing a game or 2 for India is good enough ?

Ashok Dinda, poor fiery chap from Bengal, wrote highly by Sourav was other failure. His off cutters and Yorkers were safely negotiated, half volleys were spanked to boundaries by young Zimbabwe kids.  Umesh Yadav bowled only 4 overs.  Yusuf Pathan was never in sight bowling with his fire in his eyes.  He had chance to score runs on a flat track, which he always does in IPL, he gave away the chance.  Rohit, Raina fell to sharp fielding from Zimbabwean kids.  Jadeja was selfish enough to complete a 50 and fall.

Did not he think to accelerate or at least try for it? He was contend taking singles and rotating strike in 45-50 overs when India scored just 18 runs.

This team is pathetic. If they are called future stars, then lets stop watching cricket for good. Once the greats are retired from Tests and this lesser souls take over, we would be soon languishing in the lower bottom half of the Test rankings. But wait are they even good to play for India again ?

Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay,  Yusuf Pathan, Ravinder Jadeja should never play for India again unless they prove hard in the domestic cricket that they belong and not just IPL.  

The flat track bullies of Chepauk, Mr Vijay forgot that he is playing ODI and not a first class game.  He plays  faster than this in 4 tests that he has played for India and he had given impression that he is gutsy enough to play for India long time in Tests. Now that impression stands dusted. Not so long ago he was thought of future # 3 in Tests, a big spot held for 14 years by Rahul Dravid.

Unfortunately this kids don’t have work ethic, their seniors have.  Easy money from IPL, fast tracked selection by ex cricketers from their zone makes them believe that they have arrived on the international scene and hence they fail to do whatever it takes to succeed on the highest level.

Just need to illustrate the case of 3 Best ODI players India ever produced.

Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly.

Success did not come to this lads instantly. Sachin took 78 games and 6 years for his first ODI 100 and thereafter no looking back. 45 hundreds more he scored in 16 years.  He had the promise, he showed it, he delivered it in his younger days. Remember the tour of 1991 to Australia, when bigger Test players (then) than him flopped, the guy scored 2 sublime 100s in Perth and Sydney.

Rahul Dravid, considered by many a misfit ODI batsman (even today) got off to a disastrous start to his ODI career in Singapore and Sharjah tournaments just after 1996 world cup, till 1999 world cup when he emerged as top run getter, his place was never fixed.

When Yuvraj Singh and Mohd Kaif along side Virender Sehwag arrived in early 2000s, Dravid was once again questioned if he belonged to the ODI arena. He remodeled his game from a # 3 to a # 5 or # 6 player as finisher and scored countless innings to win games for India. His partnerships with Yuvraj and Kaif are epitome to the fact.

Ganguly had a disastrous ODI debut in 1991 down under and for 5 years he did not play another game until one day he was selected in Test team to England post 1996 World Cup. The success story thereafter is known to everybody, how he evolved from a “quota selection” to become India’s best captain ever in the formats that matter.

Story of Virender Sehwag could be inspirational too. Dropped after disastrous ODI debut in 1999 and back in the team for Tests in 2001 and then dropped again in 2006-07 and bouncing back in 2008 Adelaide Test could be benchmark for this so called young kids of the Indian cricket team.  They ought to remember that T20s and IPL is not the only thing they need to play well in. Who remembers Swapnil Asnodkar and Kamran Khan now who shone in 2008 and 2009 editions? Do they even play first class cricket and get noticed? Nope, not at all.

Anil Kumble was mocked by Kapil Dev in 1990 England tour when he debuted. For next 2 years he did not play a Test until 1992 when he made a comeback to grab 6/59 in Wanderers Test in SA. And post 1993 he changed the story of Indian spin.

Can Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra, known for aggressive send-offs and fire in the bellies learn from the senior pro on how to take wickets and then show the aggression? Take wickets and then do whatever, all is forgiven and forgotten.

Heads would need to roll for this pathetic show.  Its not a show, the team just did not turn up. They just ran through the motions. They pretended that they are playing. The hearts were just not there, that were somewhere else.

Pitiful and shameful performance this.  That’s the least 2 cussing words I can use right now.

Try Irfan over Jadeja

Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni;s fascination on Ravinder Jadeja being used as regular spinner bowling 10 or 4 overs in ODIs and T20s is dangerous. I believe MS and SR dont take Jadeja to be Gary Sobers who can bat and bowl with equal talent and skill.

I dont know what Jadeja brings in the table on both counts (bat and ball) in ODIs and T20s. He is not a big hitter, he is no more than a stock bowler in ODIs and he often slips the balls through his hands.

Irfan Pathan is more of a batting allrounder whose bowling might be doubtful, but he is certainly better batsman than his brother and Ravinder Jadeja.

So why not bring him in the side and have him bat at 7 or 8. He could do the same role as Mathews does for Sri Lanka.  But will MSD and Srikanth listen.

Indian Pakistani jokers

Who is a big joker ?

Krishnamachari Srikanth from India

Or

Ijaz Butt from Pakistan

One of them selects unfit, unqualified players to the Indian squad as if his anna owns the Indian team (as in Hindi its said kya team uske baap ki hai)

The other puts ban and revokes it. Dumps a player, then picks him up, cleans his shit and calls him patriot.

Due to KS of India, the team is in retro mode since Feb 2010 when he decided to rest seniors and draft in MV to join Dines as he complained that he needed somebody whom he could rant how good Simbu is. So Srikanth asked Dines to have MV and sing how good Sri anna is.

A CSK’er is India’s stand in captain just weeks after he led CSK in 3 games , 1 won amd 2 lost.  The CSK’er does not even captain UP. He could have actually made Dines captain of this team, but then that would have been two much. 

So Srikanth qualifies good enough to be best joker. As good as Ijaz Butt

Fire Srikanth

If Srikanth and his bunch of jokers are planning to fire Dhoni for T20 exit then they would be the men in the  country with no brains and no logic.  They would further harm the cricket in the country. Srikanth has his own agenda to see his limited talented players to be planted in the team and if for one / two exits he replaces MS, then he is going to be forever remembered as temperamental mad man. He had same approach to his batting, he is showing the same for the Indian team selection. He needs to go. If anybody needs to go then he is the one who needs to go.

His follies are just getting bigger and bigger.

First Test selection for SA test involved 3 TN players out of nowhere.  T20 World Cup saw DK and MV in the team at the expense of more successful batsmen in IPL but for other franchisees. They were ignored.

Who are the replacements over past one year in each of the formats whenever any batter has got injured – Dinesh Karthik, Dabrinath and M Vijay. I have never seen a Uthappa being brought back in ODIs or even Mohd Kaif in Tests at cost of struggling Yuvraj Singh or injured Yuvraj Singh or Laxman or Dravid. He comfortably fit Dabrinath in the team and in 2008 asked Ganguly to quit to have his cronies established.

Why is Dhoni being blamed for the debacle? Why doesn’t the BCCI hold Kris Srikanth accountable ? He is being paid 40 lacs for selecting duds and implanting his state players ? If they are talented and successful who cares where they come from. But are they worthy of the position in the team? Perhaps Srikanth thinks yes its advisable to have DKs, MVs and DBs in the team when the BCCI has its secretary from his state and his state franchisee is IPL champion. By that logic Dhoni should be safe, he is Chennai captain. Lol.

Dhoni has had imperious success as ODI captain. He won in every country and except series loss to Aussies and CT exit his record in ODIs as captain is impeccable.  He might not hit his helicopter and dhobi pachad shots any more, but he is one of the best finishers in the ODI cricket and the one role he plays, was played superbly in the mid 2000s by Rahul Dravid alongside Kaif and Yuvraj. So if Srikanth is unable to see this, we doubt his capability to be the chief of selection committee. Probably he should head TN selection committee not Indian.