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"Pleasant surprise", says Azhar; 'Not', say experts

Mohammad Azharuddin on Friday said his re-appointment as captain of the Iindian cricket team was a pleasant surprise.

Azharuddin, who flew to Bombay from Goa last night after confirming Hyderabad's place in the Ranji Trophy's second phase of the competition said that the appointment had come as a New Year gift from the selectors who had reimposed their faith in him to lead the country, despite the media blacklash.

Asked about the composition of the team he would like to have for the Dhaka triangular series, Azhar said that he had a chat with the national selectors, and only after a meeting with them he would be able to decide on it.

Azhar had said, when he was sacked as India's captain 18 months ago, that he would bounce back. For a god-fearing man, it would have been even more apt that the wish comes true at the start of the holy month of Ramzan.

Meanwhile, three former chairmen of the selection committee, and two former captains, have expressed strong disapproval of the removal of SachinTendulkar from captaincy. And the reactions are continuing to pour in.

Polly Umrigar, Bapu Nadkarni and Naren Tamhane, who chaired the most prestigious sports committee in the country from 1980 to the early ninties, were unanimous in their opinion that Tendulkar should have been retained.

Former captains Ajit Wadekar and Gulabrai Ramchand echoed the same feeling, and ridiculed the latest rabbit-from-the-hat policy of the selectors.

Wadekar said the selectors have become bankrupt, and returning to Azharuddin showed that they are jittery. Wadekar, who had a long association with Azharuddin -- the two were, in fact, hailed as the dream team when, with Wadekar as manager and Azhar as captain, India pulled off a string of wins at home in the 1993-1994 period -- saw no logic in terminating Tendulkar's tenure after a brief spell.

All the above were forceful in their view of the selectors unusual order to Tendulkar to bat lower in the order and not as an opener. They argued that such autocratic methods must have confused Tendulkar further.

Ramchand said that Tendulkar was being made a scapegoat. The selectors are trying to cover up their mistakes and bias, he said, adding, "The selectors crossed their limits by forcing changes in the batting order. I would have never tolerated such nonsense, and I blame Tendulkar for being in such predicament, and permitting the selectors to control him in this manner."

"Imagine, the person they discipline before the Independence Cup and want to discipline again after Sharjah has been made the captain," laughed Ramchand.

''A team loses when the overall effort is missing, and it cannot be put on the head of a single person," said Umrigar. "The insistence of him batting at a lower order perhapes affected Tendulkar'', he surmised.

Tamhane was surprised that poor batting was given as the main criteria for replacing Tendulkar. "Azhar had run into a bad patch when I was chairman of the selection committee, we didn't sack him then," Tamhane pointed out.

Tamhane felt the flaw was that the opening pair was not allowed to settle, and that disturbed the team's batting and put Tendulkar under enormous stress.

Mantri said, "I have seen, and played under, many captains, I have also selected national teams, I have never ever heard of this responsibility affecting the batting of a captain. Tendulkar was in the learning stages, and would have been a good investment to be continued with."

Nadkarni argued against giving a person the captaincy for short terms, for one series at a time. "When I was chairman of the selection committee, I had always accepted the need to give a long duration for any captain, and even for specific players in the team. In Tendulkar's case, this business of appointing him captain for so many days at a time was never going to be confidence-inspiring. Also, I believe the present selectors interfere too much -- in our time, we did suggest some tactics and strategies, but we always left the final decision to the captain."