Perfect irrationality

The Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI has excelled itself in its selections for the Sri Lanka one-day series. At the end of one ...

The Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI has excelled itself in its selections for the Sri Lanka one-day series. At the end of one of the gloomiest runs of all time, with the win at Toronto as the only bright spark, it has taken what must qualify as the most irrational decision in the history of Indian cricket. Ostensibly to encourage younger talent, the Selection Committee has dropped Prasad, Dravid and Kambli, all of whom are in their twenties. It is incomprehensible why Dravid, who has maintained a perfectly decent strike rate of 70 throughout the season, has to be replaced in the third slot by Sidhu, who has been on the sidelines for months.

Behind the wicket Saba Karim, who was earmarked for one-dayers, has been replaced by Mongia, who is a Test specialist. At the same time Azharuddin, who has not been able to convert his years of experience on the pitch into valuable inputs for the team, has been let off with a mere slap on the wrist for harbouring an attitude problem. If someone had to be dropped, it should logically have been a player who finds it impossible to get on with his team, not an integral factor like Dravid or Kambli.

But team-building seems to be the least important issue on the Selection Committee8217;s collective mind 8212; or what passes for it. It has kept Sachin Tendulkar perpetually on probation as captain, extending his term by niggardly months, robbing him of the motivation to forge an effective team.

It has consistently selected teams right on the eve of the matches they were to play. It now intends to announce the team that will play in Bangladesh in January on the last possible date 8212; December 28. As things stand now, no player on the Indian side knows whether he will be on the field in the next fixture. It makes a stark contrast on the English side, which knows it will be in the game right up to the World Cup in 1999. This is hardly the sort of strategy that builds commitment or motivation. In fact, the only committed, motivated body in Indian cricket today is probably the Selection Committee. At least, it is the only body whose members have been able to hold on to their seats right through this dismal patch.

The overlords of Indian cricket also seem to have done nothing to prevent the game from being perverted by money. Justice Y.V. Chandrachud8217;s investigation into the role of hard cash in deciding match outcomes turned out to be a damp squib. Now, there is an unholy situation in which two of the leading Indian players, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly, are endorsed by marketplace enemies Pepsi and Coke. The possibility of a conflict of interest on the field obviously cannot be ruled out. Nor can the possibility of corporate muscle being used to lean on selectors, to ensure that more Pepsi logos 8212; or more Coke logos 8212; are visible on the field.

The whisper is already doing the rounds that Dravid was dropped because he got the endorsement which was originally intended for Tendulkar. Controversy is not exactly the ideal cement for team-building. The BCCI should realise that the sabbatical is over. It now needs to get back on the job and put together a team that will last till the next World Cup.