30 October, 2000

Good day all, and welcome to another Monday. Here's hoping you have a lovely working week ahead of you.

Here, it is business as usual. As I write this, Faisal Shariff is off to attend yet another media briefing that follows yet another selection exercise -- this time, it is the Test team to Bangladesh that is being picked.

I hope -- and even as I hope, I know that this one belongs in the ever-increasing column of hopes that have been mercilessly dashed -- that the selectors will do the right thing, and use this one off Test as a means of blooding, and testing, the young talent waiting in the wings for their moment in the sun. The players we need to see are the likes of SS Das and Mohammad Kaif and Reetinder Sodhi -- this Test is NOT an excuse for the likes of Sachin and Saurav to inflate their career averages. I don't mean to knock those two players, what I am saying here is, if players of that calibre go there and score runs, nothing is gained. Whereas if the young ones are sent out there, we can watch them play in a competitive environment, and get a better idea of their ability, temperament, and all those other imponderables that will help us better evaluate their suitability for the big time.

Meanwhile, this morning, still suffering from the hangover of yesterday's disaster, I came in here to find a full mailbox. And somewhat predictable contents.

With one exception -- a reader from Pune took me to task, in blistering language, for failing to give credit where it is due. You have, he says, been quick to criticise various players for various failings. And yet, you have never, in the last two years, had a good word to say for the one player in this team who has always given his one hundred per cent, who has played his heart out in game after game, and who continues to set an example to the younger ones with his commitment.....

And so on -- the above is a precis, shorn of some of the more objectionable language.

The reference is to Robin Singh. And the reader is at least partly correct. I have, in the past, written panegyrics to Robin, but not in the last couple of years. And that is perhaps because there is, mixed in with the emotionalism that is my main characteristic, a strong streak of the practical.

Yes, I know the partyline -- in fact, it has been expressed, with supreme eloquence, by both Harsha Bhogle and Avinash Subramaniam, my fellow columnists, in the Rediff cricket section.

From reading Harsha and Avi, I know that Robin Singh has a heart larger than that of a hippopotamus. That he is the only one who consistently gives his 100 per cent. That he is the ultimate team man. That he is such an unparalleled asset to the side, that it might even be an idea to bring him into the Test team.

And yet, even as I read all those words of praise, something didn't sit right. Somehow, I couldn't reconcile what I was seeing, through long days and nights of ball by ball commentary, with what I have been hearing from the analysts.

While I will agree that Robin is all heart, what I couldn't quite digest is the unquestioning acceptance of the corollary, that he is of immense utility value to the side.

Let me see, now -- what do we want from a number six?

Ideally, he should be an all rounder. Capable of bowling five good overs minimum, and more often than not pitching in with the full ten overs. Since I am watching Pakistan play England (make that outplay) just now, the names that readily spring to mind are those of Abdur Razzag, Azhar Mahmood, and possibly even Shahid Afridi, as players who fit that bill.

Further, I would require batting ability of a very versatile sort. If wickets fall early, the number six has to be capable of consolidating, of batting out the remaining overs with the lower middle order, and the tail, for company. If on the other hand, the team gets off to a good start and number six comes in anytime after 38 overs have gone by, he needs to be capable of instant acceleration, at over a run a ball, to provide the late surge.

And yes, he needs to be a very good fielder -- but then, does that last not apply to all 11 members of the side? I have never yet heard of a player who didn't need to be a good fielder, have you?

With this basic premise, I went looking through the records. This is what I found:

Robin Singh's career stats: 135 matches, 2321 runs at 26.08 and 69 wickets at 42.72.

Straight up, you feel a wistful longing -- if those averages were the other way around, he would have been a fantastic all rounder, perhaps one of the greatest ever. But never mind that.

I then checked his statistics for a two year period from October 1998 to October 2000. The result: 75 matches, 1322 runs at 25.42 runs and 28 wickets at 48.71.

In other words, in the two year period under review, he has played more than half his total matches. His batting average has deteriorated by one point, his bowling average by six points.

I did some more digging, to find the stats for the last 12 months (October 1999 to the just completed Sharjah outing). The stats: 36 matches, 644 runs, 23.85 and 7 wickets at 78.86. (An immediate reaction would be to say that Robin hasn't bowled much lately -- which, however, is not quite true, since in the period in question, he has bowled over 100 overs, 706 balls being the actual figure).

Check those three sets of statistics in sequence. Does it present a picture of steadily diminishing returns with both bat and ball?

Alternately, does it justify a permanent place for Robin Singh in the side at the expense of so many young lads wearing out their knuckles knocking on the doors of Indian cricket?

There was a time when Laxmi Ratan Shukla was being looked at as the brightest talent on the horizon. Today, he languishes for want of a berth. Reetinder Sodhi is, according to all the pundits, one of the young men on whom the future of Indian cricket will depend. But he will have to wait, won't he, while we continue to sacrifice reason on the altar of emotion?

We talk of the hype that surrounds cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble.

How about this?

Is it time, do you think, to get ruthlessly practical?

Prem

Mail Cricket Editor