Sports : life magnified

The selection panel keeps making a joke of themselves. I had spoken regarding the inconsistencies which they are displaying. It keeps getting worse.

First, Mr. More decides to state that Sourav Ganguly will not find a place in the squad in the tenure of the current selection panel:

We took a decision that we have to look ahead. We decided that so much has been said on this issue, that we wanted to send a message across that, this is what we are looking at, and as far as this committee is concerned, this is what we have decided, that we will not look back at. We are definitely looking beyond Ganguly even if he were to perform well in domestic cricket.

How can they say the selection committee has shut the door completely on any player? We do not know what a player will do in the future, what situation the team is going to be in. If Ganguly decides to carry on playing, which he has, it is his right. To rule out any player, despite his age or just because he isn’t performing to satisfactory levels of a panel speaks of autocracy. The statements made by Kiran More have been irresponsbile. They show an irrational streak and lack of judgement - lack of qualities which show a chairman of a selection panel cannot do the job at hand with discretion and maturity which is required.

Other teams have looked ahead in the past and it is not uncommon to look beyond specific players. Australia have done it with Steve Waugh Mark Waugh, Michael Bevan, Darren Lehmann and Matthew Hayden. India may well have done it with V.V.S.Laxman and Anil Kumble recently. Even during the captaincy of Ganguly, Robin Singh was discarded on the same lines.

But a player discarded can make a come back. Michael Kasporqicz and Colin Miller have done it in the recent past for Australia. A team may be going through a run of losses. It may face a severe injury crisis like England is at the moment. Which player will be needed when, no one can predict. It is this reason why a selection panel member, not least the chairman, does not make such outlandish statements. I am hearing rumours from some quarters that Ganguly might go to court over this. I do not see what other option he has.

And now the comes news that the selectors have included Munaf Patel in the squad to play England for the second test in the place of V.R.V.Singh. The tour game between England and the Board President’s XI (BP XI) was in progress. The selection panel rushed into announcing the squad for the first test in the middle of the game. They chose V.R.V.Singh over Munaf Patel. In the tour game, Munaf Patel took 10 wickets and helped BP XI to an eight wicket victory. V.R.V.Singh managed one wicket in the match.

We find that for the second test, V.R.V.Singh is out of the squad and Munaf Patel is in. Makes you wonder why they couldn’t have waited for the tour game to finish before announcing squad for the 1st test. If they did have a strong enough ground to chose V.R.V.Singh over Patel, why not stick to their decision. Inconsistency, finnicky nature and short sightedness come to the fore here.

The selection panel keeps making a mockery of itself. The absence of accountability has been a bane from time immemorial. I have never seen the randomness and lack of planning in selecting sides like I have witnessed for the past few months though. I am not highlighting a specific player being there or not. The issue is larger - that of the lack of any logic used for selecting teams.

If the BCCI was indeed a professional organisation rather than a money churning body existing in the monopoly which is Indian cricket, there is no doubting that the current Indian selectors would have been sacked. Sadly, with the demand-supply mismatch, the five wise men, commonly known as the selectors, also referred to as a bunch of jokers by Mohinder Amarnath are running amock.

I do call for the sack of the selection panel here. I doubt if any one is listening though.