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In support of Azhar

I strongly disagree with Ashwin Mahesh's comparison of Azharuddin's future with Ian Healy.

First of all, the decision taken by (probably enforced by ACB) has mixed opinions. We don't like a player of Healy's calibre to stick to the team earning the hatred of people and selectors. He might have decided to resign after a string of batting failures in the West Indies and Sri Lanka. But he is no exception to the sentiments of an international cricketer. This is one side.

The ACB selectors have never shown Healy the gratitude they have shown to Taylor. Having received his services for 14 years, what did they return to him? This is the first time he is probably fumbling in his career.

He did not get a chance to correct him or even survive for another series. This is another side.

Is the decision by Australian selectors justified? The answer is a big 'Yes'. Now there are no regrets for Ian Healy. Gilchrist has done more than just justifying Healy's absence. Now nobody can question the selectors.

Let us have a look at Azhar's case. He had a 16-year career within India. He had many ups and downs. He scored three centuries against England in three successive matches in 1984 on his historic debut. Also he scored a mere 42 runs in five innings against the same England in 1996.

But during his downs, can we remember one good player (like Gilchrist for who Ashwin regrets that he lost a good career that could have been there had he come early) who could not get into the team just because of the inefficient Azharuddin just wandering around? I could not not recall any good player who was put in the dark due to senior players sticking in the team.

This, in fact, happened to Lara when he had to wait for the retirement of Richards or Richardson to get into the team. When Richards was denied a place in 1992 WC team, his replacement, Lara, more than justified his inclusion and made people regret for his forbidden career.

To how many players this happened in India? The answer might well be zero. All the new players just survived there for a few outings. This includes Kambli, Amre and even Manjrekar. They went out of the team when nobody could really question or regret their exclusion.

First of all Azhar was not dropped. He opted out of the team for recovering from an injury. Now he is okay. I do not find reason for not even discussing his name for Australia. For New Zealand's home series, it is okay. He probably did not recover from injury and we had some youngsters from Nairobi, like Vijay Bharadwaj, playing well.

But what happened to his replacements in the home series against New Zealand? Bharadwaj scored 0 and 22. Jadeja scored 27 in the third Test. These were the scores by people who replaced Azhar. I bet Azhar would have scored at least 250 runs against one of the weakest attacks of the world today.

Now they are taking the same people to Australia. The inclusion of Jadeja is still debatable. He never justified his Test slot even after so many chances. Another surprise is that Kanitkar was chosen as a replacement for Jadeja. Very funny. He never even established him as a one-day player. He had a mere 20 average in one-dayers. I have never seen him making a string of good scores, like even Arunlal, K.P.Baskar, M.V.Sridhar did at the Ranji level.

How does he get a slot in the 16 to Australia? I am sure at least he is not the most successful domestic player waiting outside for a slot in the Indian team. He was tried, he failed and was ousted. I could not laugh at this joke of Kanitkar replacing Azhar.

Even against Queensland, the replacements failed. The Big 4 have now been reduced to the Big 3. With this Big 3, we could not win all the Tests against New Zealand. We escaped defeat in the first Test and could not force a win in another Test. In the one-dayers, against one of the weakest reams in the world, we narrowly escaped from a 2-3 defeat from New Zealand, thanks to the Ganguly/Robin Singh onslaught. It would have made much more sense had they selected Robin Singh considering his commitment to team.

Neither Bharadwaj nor Kanitkar have established themselves as Test bowlers. There is no question to say they are allrounders. Nor have they proved themselves as a pure match-winning batsmen.

The task is very simple. Find an alternative for Azharuddin. Let him justify his inclusion like Gilchrist and Lara. Then sack Azharuddin. Till then, keep him in the team. He has done his service to India. This is probably his lean period. We have to show our gratitude for those 16 years of service. If he fails to justify our gratitude, let the selectors and board talk to him about his future.

Just selecting X and Y as replacements for Azhar hurts and betrays true cricket lovers.

A time for change