Do we really need them?

Just to re-emphasis his ‘‘experienced motto’’, Brijesh Patel also hinted at selecting Venkatesh Prasad. ‘‘For World Cup we need experienced back-up too in case one of our bowlers break down,’’ he said. In fact, Prasad suddenly seems to have found the confidence of the selectors, including the former chairman of the panel, Chandu Borde in whose tenure the bowler was actually shunted out. Borde feels that for the mega event, ‘‘Prasad with his experience may prove useful’’. So now what does it mean? Maybe, it’s goodbye to Tinu Yohanan or even Ashish Nehra as Prasad obviously has more ODI matches than the two. So in case even if two and not three of the Karnataka players, all on the wrong side of 30, make it to the World Cup what exactly are India’s chances? Not good if one takes in account some disturbing facts and figures.

Take Kumble first: His last five wicket haul came at least a decade back, in the last 10 games he has claimed 10 wickets and for every wicket he has conceded more than 40 runs. If that takes care of his recent form or lack of it now for his record in World Cup and South Africa.

The last World Cup in England saw Kumble bag eight wickets from seven matches conceding 35 runs per wicket. And last year during India’s tour to South Africa, in the four ODI games against the hosts, Kumble could take just two wickets in four games while conceding 174 runs.

If these figures aren’t horrific enough, consider Srinath’s form. The paceman’s last five-wicket haul was in 1998 and in the last 10 games, the ageing pacer has conceded more than five runs per over. In fact on the previous tour to South Africa, Srinath had a poor strike rate of 40 per piece.

How is it that nobody among the five ‘men of wisdom’ came across this glaring data? One reason could be the ‘‘bat-dominated dead track 300-plus’’ games, where the bowlers just make the numbers. But what is surprising is the fact that even their eye-sore lack of athleticism has gone unnoticed by the selectors. But former national coach Ajit Wadekar is among the many who noticed it, ‘‘I don’t agree that Srinath, Kumble or Prasad should go to the World Cup. Srinath at times bowls well. But who is going to field for him.’’

So how come they are the front runners for the World Cup? The selectors point to the bench which is full of green horns. North Zone selector Kirti Azad says, ‘‘One cannot try out youngsters just for the sake of grooming them. In crunch situations, experience will always count.’’ While Borde agrees that young bowlers like Irfan Pathan and Aavishkar Salvi are promising but he adds, ‘‘it is too early to throw them in the deep end’’.

For the likes of Pathan and Salvi it’s a Catch-22 situation. Lack of opportunities don’t get them experience and lack of experience don’t get opportunities. In recent times except for Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and T Kumaran, no young bowler was given enough time prove their calibre. Of the pacers making ODI debut after the ’99 World Cup, only these three have got more than five games.

Of this lucky triplet, Zaheer and Nehra are regulars today. But there is a long list of victims who have suffered due to the selectors’ whims or lack of support from team management. Tinu Yohanan has played just three ODIs despite being part of the squad for both legs of the England and West Indies series besides playing the Champions Trophy. L Balaji had a miserable ODI debut and is a no hopper now while Rakesh Patel, if he is lucky, might just about manage one international game before the selectors sit to finalise the SA tour party.

In the spin department, Murali Kartik’s limited exposure could work out well for Kumble. As former selector Madan Lal points out: ‘‘Kumble will be retained for the simple reason that the team management had not given enough opportunities to Kartik.’’

The logic of youngsters not achieving well in pressure games too is a myth. Remember the three ODI-old Inzamam-ul-Haq in the 1992 World Cup, leg-spinner L Sivaramakrishnan who made such a brilliant debut at the World Championship in Australia (1985) or say the full of beans youngster Viv Richards in the 1975 World Cup. But back home, it seems, we believe in experience and sadly don’t learn from it.

(With inputs from S Santhanam and Chandresh Narayanan)

The 90s stars still in vogue

AS the only survivors of the ‘Team of the 90s’, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath and Sachin Tendulkar have a lot to answer. They have seen a decade go by without India progressing much.

Yes, records have been broken, new ones set, but Team India have lagged behind. The poor away Test record that the whole of India is whining about was still in its infancy when the three came in. But little progress has been made.

Tendulkar may have bailed India out abroad once or twice, but it is the bowlers who win matches. And this is where Kumble and Srinath come under the scanner. Right through the last decade of the 20th century, the two engineers failed to plot an Indian win abroad. On each tour, it was the same story — batsmen struggling to lose first Test and then slowly coming to terms and salvaging a draw. But the bowlers would continue to toil albeit without success.

The kingpins or rather the mainstays, Anil Kumble and Srinath would ‘balance’ their poor show abroad with magic spells in India. Kumble especially played a pivotal role in the early ’90s in the designer wins scripted by coach Ajit Wadekar and scorelines of 3-0 were quite common. Touring teams would be gobbled up quite easily and a false sense of security was ushered in. But Wadekar does not agree with this theory and says he backed his strength — spin. ‘‘Spin is our strong point and so I asked for those tracks. Also remember that those matches got over on the fifth day and not in two days like at Hamilton or Wellington,’’ he points out.
The Wadekar era ended, Madan Lal and Anshuman Gaekwad came in, but the story remained the same.

If only the bond between the Karanataka duo grew stronger, but there was still no away win. Wickets continued to come but at quite a heavy price and their averages kept swelling. Later joined by Venkatesh Prasad, the Karnataka brigade raised hopes in the same fashion at home but only to squash them in a hurry.

— Chandresh Narayanan