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Journalism of Courage
Bangalore, July 7: Vinod Kambli’s exit from the Indian team was as swift as his comeback. The Indian selectors, who met under the chairmanship of Ramakant Desai, sprang a surprise by first omitting Kambli and then going in for left-arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni of Mumbai and Orissa’s Debashish Mohanty in the 14-member team for the forthcoming Asia Cup tournament in Sri Lanka.
Predictably, Mohammed Azharuddin made a comeback into the side.
The selectors dropped a further bombshell when they discarded regular wicket-keeper Nayan Mongia and instead made Syed Saba Karim the first and only choice for the tour.
There was well found speculation that Kulkarni and Mohanty would get the nod from the selectors. But what was intriguing was that it took the selectors more than two hours to arrive at a consensus. None of the selectors who emerged out of the meeting looked too pleased and it was evident from the manner in which the Chairman of the selectors Desai reacted with a limp “I think so” when asked whether he was happy with the composition of the team.Desai said he could not divulge what went on during deliberations. “If I were to do so, then we might as well invite everybody, including the Press, for the meeting. The reason why we have close-door meeting is because the deliberations are not supposed to be divulged or known.”
Skipper Tendulkar too seemed unhappy, though he did not say as much. His expression did. Desai evaded the answer when asked whether the captain got the team he wanted. Was there any player whom Tendulkar particularly wanted to be in the team. Desai said “just one” and walked off.
BCCI Secretary JY Lele said that the selectors would meet again on July 24 to decide on the team for the remaining part of the Sri Lanka tour which consists of two Tests matches as well. Two more players are to be selected. “We have not nominated the two players because we wanted to keep the options open. We would like to have a re-look at the players selected. As far as possible, the changes and the two additions would be from within the 27 probables selected,” Lele elaborated.
Desai said Delhi’s Robin Singh Jr’s name was discussed and it was decided that the time was not ripe to blood him. “He is still raw and I expect him to be a force to reckon with in another six months,” he said.
“Kambli, who scored 65 against Pakistan at Chennai in the Independence Cup, could not be accommodated as we felt Sidhu would be a useful player as he could open the innings, besides being a capable middle-order batsmen,” Desai said.
Saba Karim was preferred in place of Nayan Mongia for the wicket-keeper’s slot as the former was a better batsman and would be useful in one-dayers than the latter, he added.
About Rajesh Chauhan, Desai said: “Chauhan has been out of international action for a considerable period of time and as such his claims were not considered. Moreover, I consider him to be a more suitable bowler for the Test matches. This was the only reason why he was not chosen and his bowling action no longer comes under scrutiny.” When pointed out that Chauhan had decent bowling figures in one-dayers, Desai said that it had to be borne in mind that Noel David had been doing well and as such his claims could not be ignored.
Mohanty and Kulkarni were picked purely on the basis of their performance in domestic cricket, Desai said. For Mohanty, it has been a meteoric rise as he made his Ranji debut only last year, claiming 24 wickets during the season, besides doing well in the SAARC tournament at Bangladesh.
Will the selectors consider any player from outside the 27 probables when they meet to finalise the team for the later half of the Sri Lanka tour? “I don’t think we will look beyond the present list of probables. The 27 we selected is the best talent we have and since the Ranji matches start only after October, there will be no fresh data available to look at,” he said.
Desai said that the selectors believed in giving the players reasonable chance to establish their credentials. `We cannot endlessly go on giving chances,” emphasised Desai, justifying the frequent chopping of the players from the side.
INDIAN TEAM FOR THE ASIA CUP
Sachin Tendulkar (captain), Anil Kumble (vice-captain), Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Mohammed Azharuddin, Venkatesh Prasad, Abey Kuruvilla, Noel David,
Ajay Jadeja, Navjot Sidhu, Saba Karim, Nilesh Kulkarni, Robin Singh (Sr) and Debashish Mohanty
