Jokers in the BCCI

Here is a rib-tickling interview given by BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah about the selection of the one day team. Have a good laugh.....

'We cannot be run by public opinion'

BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah responds to MIHIR SRIVASTAVA's questions about the ouster of Saurav Ganguly and the Board's changing policies.

Photo:Pradeep Mandhani

Why was Ganguly not selected for the one-day team?
I was not part of the selection committee so I cannot say anything about it. The selection committee has gone for youngsters and they have emphasised on fielding. They are looking at the future.

Do you not think the team selection should reflect top 16 available players?
No. We have a lot of cricket to be played. Many players feel that there is too much of cricket. We have to go for rotation (policy). And must (have) a bigger pool of players.

The buzz is that Dhoni insisted for youngsters that the lead selection committee should drop Ganguly.
It was a collective decision. The captain can only give his opinion. He has no vote. It is not this fellow or that fellow. It is totally a collective decision.

What is the idea of this rotation policy?
To give players rest. They play so much cricket these days, they may need rest.

So will this rotation policy apply to players like Tendulkar or will it be used selectively?
See, when there is so much of international cricket lined up for future there are all the chances that players might get injured or something like this. And we should be able to replace them. Immediately after this there is a three match series against South Africa. After that there is a full series against Sri Lanka. There's lots of cricket to be played.

My question is whether the rotation policy be applied to Tendulkar? Doesn't he also run the risk of getting injured?
If he wants rest, why not?

Ganguly did not want to rest. He is very disappointed.
There is a certain combination you require in the team. Suppose there are five one day series. He will play three. We will actually help him.

As you just said, players can rest even when they are in the team, if they want. But not selecting a good performer, doesn't it send the wrong message?
How senior players feel about the workload, they can always go and ask for a rest.

There were a lot of protests on Ganguly’s ouster because people felt it was unjustified.
It is happening only in Bengal. There are protests in Bangalore for Rahul. There is no end to this. We have a selection committee that is technically very sound. They are yesteryear’s players. They know what the combination should be. We cannot be run on public opinion. There is a need for a bigger pool (of players). There is no doubt about it.

Why only certain players are seen to be targeted?
Suppose we are basically using only three fast bowlers…then we will soon be without bowlers.

We are discussing batsman here..
The selectors were looking for a young team.

Isn't the Australia tour too important to be experimenting with players?
The youngsters who will play well in Australia will emerge as the best players for the future.

For the sake of argument, what is the more important criterion for selection: performance or rotation policy? Would you drop the best performing players for rotation policy?
Rahul's performance is not there. Lakshman's performance is not there.

I am talking about Ganguly. He has done well.
Lakshman has done well too.

We are talking about ODI.
Selection was made for ODIs.

Why are you looking at ODI?
Actually, it is a selection committee matter. We do not get into it.

Putting new blood to test, why only for ODIs, why not for test cricket?
Test cricket is very important for any (one playing) world cricket. Many people do not see it but for us it is very important. All these one-day players like to be test players.

But why is this rotation policy is not applicable to test cricket?
Why look at tests, there are domestic tournaments like Ranji Trophy. One day cricket requires a lot of energy, so fielding capability has to be seen, everything has to be seen. But the tests are a real test for cricket players. The tests are very important for every country. We like to be a test winning country and not a one-day winning country. Youngsters need lot of cricketing abilities to stay there for five days. In ODI you may just go in and slog couple of overs, here you have to play for five days. After all, they get to play the long form of cricket in domestic cricket.

Does Dhoni deserve to be in the Test Team?

Mahendra Singh Dhoni fell to Brett Lee for 20, Australia v India, 4th Test, Adelaide, 5th day, January 28, 2008

Before the ODI series begins and MS Dhoni once again impresses one and all with his captaincy and batting, there is one question that needs to be asked - Does Dhoni really deserve to play in the Indian test team or is he in the team because he has been made the ODI captain?

Forget his captaincy and his ODI performances. Just look at him as a test-match wicket-keeper who bats at No.7. He averaged a mere 17 in this series against Australia while both Harbhajan and Kumble who bat below him managed better averages. Infact even India's No.11 Ishant Sharma averaged 21.50 in the series. So the fact is that India needs more runs from its No.7 batsman. Dhoni's failures have been covered up by the performance of the tail in this series. But it is something which needs to be addressed.


What is most astonishing is the bench strength that India has on the wicket keeping front. Ofcourse there is Dinesh Karthick who was opening the innings until sometime back. But the more interesting option is Parthiv Patel. He burst on to the International scene as a kid and was hailed as a wonderful talent. His batting was solid but his keeping which was brilliant at the start went bad and he was dropped. Now Parthiv is playing at No.3 for Gujarat and the India A teams and has made heaps of runs last season. His keeping is back to what it was at the beginning of his career and everybody is gushing about how his batting has come of age. How much longer are the selectors going to ignore him? It is only fair that he is given a chance when Dhoni is failing in the test arena.

India's next test series is against the proteas at home. So Dhoni might well play and make some runs on home pitches. It is on away pitches and against quality bowling that the question arises. India might well have to consider having two different keepers and two different captains for the two forms of the game.

The Maverick-Gentleman calls it a day...

Adam Gilchrist, souvenir stump in hand, leaves Test cricket behind

There is only one person in world cricket who can be a called a Maverick as well as a Gentleman. It is none other than Adam Gilchrist who has announced his retirement from International cricket. Though I do not like the Australian team in general, the only exception had to be Gilly. There cannot be anybody who does not like this champion cricketer. There are few cricketers for whom people go miles to watch and Gilly is definitely one of those.




Wicketkeepers were never thought of as matchwinners. They used to be just somebody who caught everything behind the wicket and held their end up with the bat. But the emergence of Gilly changed all that. The world of wicketkeeping was revolutionized. Here was a guy who not only caught everything behind the wicket but came in at no.7 and won matches single handedly with the bat. His batting won Australia many a test match and was feared by most opponents. Though he began his career in the ODIs it was in test matches that his brilliance came to the fore. Just when teams took 5 australian wickets and thought they could run through the side, Gilly would bound to the crease and counter-attack in a way that only he could and the match would be changed in a matter of minutes.


The grip that he used was not a very common one, he held the bat at the very top and was able to produce crisp shots with awesome timing. He was particularly good square of the wicket and the most important thing was that he never ever looked ugly while batting. Steve Waugh gave him the opportunity to open the innings in the ODIs and he did not look back. When Gilly got going at the top of the order it was mostly curtains for the other side. He made 17 test centuries and Australia invariably won most of those matches.Such was the impact that Gilly had on the game.


Though his batting stole the limelight his keeping was not far behind. He rarely dropped any catches but for the last few months and was extremely acrobatic behind the stumps. One often got to see him flying down the leg side to pouch a one-handed stunner. His keeping to Warne on the 4th and 5th days of test-matches deserves special mention. But then his batting was so out of the world that nobody really talked about his keeping.

Another important reason why this cricketer was loved by one and all is the way he played the game. Playing in an Australian team which plays hard and aggressive cricket, with the 'any means to win' attitude, Gilly walked when he nicked a ball without ever waiting for the umpire's decision. His way of coming out to bat and going back after being dismissed were very interesting too. He would definitely be the quickest to reach the middle and the same was true for the walk back too!! His conduct on and off the field made him a wonderful ambassador of cricket around the world.

His retirement is a big blow to Australia who will find that he cannot really be replaced. The world of cricket will miss one of its finest entertainers of all time.

Thanks Gilly!!!

A sample of Gilly's best:

A Tribute to a true Legend

I had briefly touched upon the achievement of Anil Kumble in my last post but Harsha's tribute to this wonderful cricketer really showcases the man that 'Jumbo' is.

This is Harsha Bhogle's article from espnstar.com:

And still the Quiet Titan

By: Harsha Bhogle

India's Captain Anil Kumble shows the ball after taking his 600th wicket. (Getty Images)

Many years ago, when the nineties had just come upon us, a young man with an unusual bowling action but no passport was picked for India. But selection can have side-effects and a passport was hastily organized and a vegetarian leg spinner landed in Sharjah.

Three months later he made his test debut and could scarcely have imagined that one day the figure 601 would stand alongside his name. Being the engineering student he then was he might well have thought it was, like the Avogadro number, one of those strange numbers that appear only in text books. It was far too many wickets to contemplate.

But he has soared since then. For in his corner stood perseverance, aggression and dignity, great human qualities if you are searching for a role model, terrible friends, it seems, if you have to become an advertising personality. There has to be something wrong there. Every time a challenge presented itself, Kumble bit his lip, locked those piercing eyes on his target and returned to the top of his run-up.

Every time the captain looked at him he wanted the ball, every time people said he didn’t turn the ball he took more wickets. That is how six hundred came about.

With grit and toil and a spirit that said it could be done. You can tell I’m a fan. And I’m proud to be one.

I looked at a star, not a meteor.

Many years ago, I was asked to do a piece on him and we called it the quiet titan. He worked for the watch company then and so the match seemed right. It still is. Without doubt he is the best slow bowler India has produced; home and away, on a good pitch and bad. Even the best spinners normally start tailing off, their wiles recognized, their guile no longer as enticing, their tricks a bit tired. Kumble, at 37, is amazingly picking up wickets with the same frequency. He is adding new deliveries to his repertoire and is disturbingly ahead of anyone in India as a bowler at the moment. He is a titan and he is still quiet and thank god for that. And he is a substantial man. If he doesn’t feature very prominently in the Republic Day Honours List, he may not feel bad but India should.

And yet he has been the forgotten spinner. While Warne and Murali fought epic duels in print and in words, sparked debates across continents, he did what he knows best. He kept picking wickets. Unlike Murali, there is no sleight of hand, not a murmur about an action. Unlike Warne, there is no scandal and he certainly won’t be signing up to play poker. Each of the three enriched the sport they played and you might say Kumble was the most prosaic of all. You might say he is the bricklayer and that will do him no discredit for this is a mighty fine structure he has built.

And as he basks in the evening of his career, not a short winter evening but a splendid, long summer evening he finds himself captain of India. Various people who marveled at his insights and determination wondered why he wasn’t captain earlier. That too has now come about through a strange, unpredictable configuration of events. But it hasn’t taken him by surprise for he brings to his role the same dignity and perseverance that he brought, and still does, to his bowling. Or, for that matter, to his batting. As fires raged around our game in Sydney last week, I felt comforted to know that Indian cricket was in safe hands.

I don’t know how far he will go. I don’t think he does either. Sometime ago he told me that six hundred would be nice but knowing him, even his targets would be dynamic, changing to accommodate changing situations.

He says he is taking life match by match and certainly no further than a series at a time but he won’t be surprised if six hundred and fifty comes about. For he has got a second wind and it is blowing him towards greater success. His desire hasn’t dulled, his will remains strong, the fingers are doing fine, the mind is ready for battle and there is even need to put in an extra bat into the kit bag.

Six hundred is special and it is a special man who holds that honour.

Dada deserves Better

The team for the ODI tri-series against Australia and Srilanka was announced today. The major talking point is the omission of Sourav Ganguly, arguably the one Indian batsman in the best of form. The selectors have as usual cited 'fielding' and 'future' as the reasons for the axing. A third f which was 'form' was also used when Dravid was axed but that was not applicable in this case.

The selection exhibited a complete lack of brains in the selection committee. Some articles are suggesting rumours that the selections were forced by the Indian ODI captain. The Indian selectors always seem to go from total lack of support to too much support for the captain. The selections also showcased a lack of understanding of the process of transition. Just throwing inexperienced players into the middle might work in T20 but is really not going to be effective in longer forms of the game. A young player has to be slowly eased into International cricket and there is no better way of doing that than by having experienced pros around the dressing room who can help the young kid.

This series was a wonderful opportunity for the selectors to do just that. This is possibly the longest ODI tri-series with lots of matches in the group stages. The best thing for the selectors to do would have been to rotate both the seniors and the young players so that all of them got the opportunity to play and more importantly win some matches during this time. The selectors always seem to be going from the past to the future without ever thinking about the present.

This is how the Indian batting card is going to read: Sachin Gambhir Sehwag Yuvraj Raina Robin Dhoni. There is no sense of stability in that middle order. Each of these players with the exception of Sachin are highly inconsistent. Yuvraj might have been pretty consistent in the last year but the form that he is in right now and his 'mental disintegration' that the Aussies have managed suggested that a solid batting option was required. You look at the options available on the bench and you see Rohit and DK, hardly people who inspire confidence. So folks, here is a batting disaster waiting to happen!!

Sourav Ganguly is definitely in the form of his life, batting better than he has ever done. Besides his bowling might have also proved helpful on the Aussie wickets. To drop a player like that is totally unjustified and if the selectors want Dravid and Ganguly to retire from ODI cricket then they must be given the choice of going out on their own terms. They have certainly served Indian cricket enough to be given a grand stage to end their glittering ODI careers.

The Perth Conquest

A great day in the history of Indian cricket. Even if you isolate the events leading up to this test and see, you will still understand the enormity of this achievement. A victory over the worlds best team in the world's fastest pitch is no mean feat. And when you take everything thats been happening off the field it just makes it all the more brilliant. Kudos to team India and to their lion-hearted captain Anil Kumble.

India's bowling on this tour has been a revelation. This attack was considered as the third string attack with Zaheer and Sreesanth out injured. But RP,Irfan, and the young Ishant bowled as well as any seasoned attack could have. While RP and Irfan got the wickets with swing, Ishant combined swing with spiteful seam off the pitch to torment Ponting over a 8 over spell. That particular spell was a joy to watch. Ishant reminds me a lot of the young Javagal Srinath and if he can stay fit he can well emulate the glorious deeds of his predecessor.


Anil Kumble has been a great leader and a wonderful statesman. To keep the team focussed amidst all the chaos was some achievement. At the same time he handled all the media and other commitments off the field brilliantly and performed on the field as well. To reach the 600 wicket milestone was a simply outstanding effort and I dont think any Indian is going to beat his tally, atleast for some time to come.

Australia are not a side to be feared. In Melbourne India made the mistake of letting theirs bowlers dictate the terms. But that can be attributed to the lack of match practice on the Aussie wickets. Since then they have managed to throw punches back at the Aussie bowlers and achieved good totals. Sydney was a match where India dominated a majority of the time and the result would have been in India's favor had the umpiring been slightly better. The umpiring in this match was not the best either but an equal number of bad decisions were shared between the two teams and hence evened out. But to bounce back like they did at Perth shows the teams character and if they can continue the good cricket in Adelaide a draw in this series would taste much sweeter than a win!!