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The time is for Tendulkar

The Indian cricket team captaincy issue will be resolved to everyone's satisfaction tomorrow, with Sachin Tendulkar appearing to be the most fancied candidate for the job.

He is without doubt the most qualified Indian to take on the mantle, and if he was given a sabbatical in 1998 that was due more to the typical personality politics of Indian cricket, than due to cricketing logic.

Sachin will be a better captain in his second innings. A more mature cricketer with a truly national perspective, gone will be the obsession with some of his Bombay colleagues' imagined cricket skills. If he asks now for the best men in the country, he will be given them by the selectors, who must back their captain if the national team is to reconstruct itself.

A touch of ruthlessness could be seen in Sachin when he drove his best bowlers in his first term of office. In a country of "passive cricketers", as Steve Waugh, Australia's World Cup-winning captain, described them, such stern demands from the captain were held against him, and he was then blamed for the breakdown rate in his bowlers.

In the wake of its listless showing in the more important segment of the World Cup, putting the team back on the rails has become a national priority. The appointment of Sachin would be just the first step in this direction, and a just one too. There is simply no arguing that a cricketer who has been compared to Don Bradman for his legendary cricket skills is not the best equipped to lead the team while being its best performing batsman.

The selectors will have to wait for word on Mohammad Azharuddin's fitness before they pick the squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka in August. If fit, Azhar must find a batting place, especially since the tournament is in Asia where, on slow pitches, the most experienced batsman and the world's highest run-getter in one day internationals is bound to find his form and touch once again.

The vice captaincy has to be resolved, too, more so since India is to play abroad in one day events before a home series against New Zealand. Ajay Jadeja is the one best qualified at the moment. His contribution as the team's 'ginger man', who buoys everybody's spirits up with his shouts of encouragement, must be rewarded with the assurance that he continues to be a valuable part of the team's think tank.

There is, however, no contesting the fact that Karnataka's Rahul Dravid, who moved up from being a very good player to being a great batsman during the World Cup, should be considered a long term deputy to Tendulkar. With his orthodox technique, Dravid is about the only one besides Sachin who can be counted on to get behind the line of the ball on Australia's bouncy pitches.

Also, Dravid's Test place is assured, while Jadeja's is not. But in the unlikely event of Azhar not making the Australian tour because he hardly has any worthwhile scores on the sporting pitches of Australia and South Africa where his worst failures as batsman and captain have come, Jadeja can fit into the late middle order without compromising the batting in any way.

The first part of India's playing schedule in the new season will be on the slow pitches of Sri Lanka and Singapore. The selectors should follow the horses for courses policy and pack the bowling with experienced spinners than fourth and fifth seamers who made it to the World Cup squad. Toronto with its seaming pitches is one venue that will call for more seamers.

Ajit Agarkar was a curious failure during the World Cup. His confusion about whether he was a fast bowler or a medium paced seam bowler was apparent, and no one seemed to be able to sort his problems out. He bowled the wrong length in all the matches he played, and had to make way for Debashish Mohanty whose experience shone through. But Agarkar is not someone to be dumped, and needs al the expert advice he can get from people like say Roger Binny, once India's best medium paced swing and seam bowler.

While finding spinners to experiment with is never going to be a problem, to unearth fast bowlers is not going to be an easy task. And that is why Agarkar must be encouraged, with the proviso that everyone's performance is to be assessed under a microscope, but over a long term when it comes to talented young players.

Of those who went to the World Cup, the player who should not be considered is Amay Khurasia. His inclusion was a classic case of rendering personal justice to a senior player who has scored runs by the ton in domestic cricket. Selection is not about rendering individual justice as it is about picking the right combination of cricketers who will deliver the goods in a national cause in the international game. Selection has more to do with judgement than with justice.

One suggestion is running an exclusive batting camp for all those Indian cricketers who bat from number seven to number eleven. They seem to have completely forgotten their skills in this direction. The list also includes Nayan Mongia whose role as wicketkeeper-batsman has to be reviewed in the wake of his failures in the World Cup.

If only the late order knew how to put together the last few runs as in the match against Zimbabwe, India may have made it to the semifinals. But such is their carelessness that their team stands condemned. It is time they drew a leaf out of Lance Klusener's book -- it hardly matters what number you bat, it only matters how you bat.

The selectors have had a lot of time in which to assess the team's performance under the captaincy of Mohammad Azharuddin in the World Cup, and in the disastrous couple of months before the big event. They have time to sift the performers from the failures.

If only they have the wisdom to make their choice of younger replacements for the failures well in time, and to back those choices over a long term, they might do Indian cricket a big favour. Otherwise, the Indian team's continued dismal performance would do no justice to the men who laid down their lives in Kargil, and the families of those who died will get far less for their sacrifice than the lakhs of rupees that an Indian cricketer makes in one good, bad or indifferent season.