Pitch dark as leading lights fail to deliver

Longtime observers of the Indian cricket scene see too much protectionism for the superstars. Consequently obvious points are ignored and decisions made which have proved costly.

No sooner had captain Saurav Ganguly arrived in New Zealand, he let it be known it was his primary concern to beat New Zealand in their own backyard for the first time in 26 years.

But the team was too much caught up in the old boys’ club routine to face the exacting standards in not-so-friendly weather and pitch conditions and the battery of hosts’ seamers.

Young Parthiv Patel’s promotion as an opener in the second innings of the Hamilton Test came after several of the seniors reportedly declined to take up the challenge.

The Gujarat youngster had done well to hang on for about 45 minutes in the first innings even though he managed only eight runs.

Within a few balls in the first Test it was obvious Virender Sehwag would be completely out of place in these conditions. If India were to make history, they needed a technically better player – Shiv Sunder Das or Mohammad Kaif with Sanjay Bangar – than Sehwag at the start of the innings.

So was the case with V V S Laxman who bagged a pair in the first Test. Yet the Hyderabad cricketer was persisted with in the second Test at Hamilton and a thrashing was invited.

Sehwag and Laxman are fine players but they are unconvincing in certain conditions and there is no insult if the team follows “horses for courses” policy. Again figures were thrown at the media to justify Sehwag and Laxman’s position in the team.

India may have been undone by batting first on juicy pitches but their collapse in the second innings of both the Tests showed they were stricken by fear to bat on the green wickets.

Any respectable batting line-up, leave alone arguably the best in the world, would not have collapsed before the likes of Jacob Oram and Daryl Tuffey in improved batting conditions in the second turns the way Indians did.

“The wicket wasn’t good for batting but I would have expected the top batsmen of the world to stand a few inches outside the crease to counter the swing and movement of Oram and Tuffey — surely these batsmen should have been prepared to take a few on their chest and ribs.

After all this is what Test cricket is,” said Simon Doul, the New Zealand fast bowler who four years ago had destroyed the Indians in Wellington with a seven-wicket haul in the first innings.

Match referee Mike Procter was sympathetic and said perhaps in these conditions coming behind the line of a delivery is not such a sound thing after all.

“Sometimes in these conditions it’s not advisable to come too much behind the line of a delivery because it is moving all the time,” said Procter.

There was an appeal from the team management to chairman of selectors Brijesh Patel to include Javagal Srinath, Anil Kumble and Yuvraj Singh for the forthcoming one-day series against New Zealand. But not all are convinced about Srinath’s and Kumble’s viability in one-day cricket.

Srinath and Kumble are no longer good performers in one-day cricket. Their figures tell their own tale: Srinath has an economy rate of 6.87 and 5.49 in the last two one-day series he has been involved in this year.

Kumble’s economy rate in the last two series isn’t good either – 5.13 in the ICC Champions Trophy and 6.23 against the West Indies.

Such protectionism is the reason why men like L Balaji and J P Yadav are dropped after just one game in the middle and cricketers like Murali Kartik and Tinu Yohannan, who appear fine one-day prospects to everyone, do not find themselves a part of this series.

“Is it the seniors who are deciding who should play or is it the job of the selection committee to decide so?” a senior selector had wondered.