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Azhar back in Indian team for ODI triangular

Prem Panicker

Another day, another tournament, another exercise for the Indian selectors.

Come June 12, India, Pakistan and New Zealand meet in a triangular tournament at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, in Hyderabad, for the Siyaram Cup.

First up, I owe you folks an apology for unintentionally misleading you. About a week ago, we got a press release relating to this tournament. Thanks to an ambiguity in the wording of that release, I mentioned in an earlier piece that this tournament was to be played between June 12 to 16 in Sharjah.

I was right about the dates, but without meaning to, I got the venue wrong. The clarification, from Hyderabad Cricket Association secretary M Ranga Reddy, says this will be a "Sharjah-type" tournament -- in the sense that the proceeds will go towards benefit purses for a roster of former Hyderabad Ranji players.

Here are the details: the tournament is to be played on a round robin format, the schedule being thus:

June 12: India versus New Zealand.

June 13: New Zealand versus Pakistan

June 14: India versus Pakistan.

June 16: Finals.

The three league games will be played between 0930 hours to 1800 hours IST, while the final alone will be a day-night affair, between 1300 hours and 2100 hours IST.

The 16-member Indian team is as follows: Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammad Azharuddin, Saurav Ganguly, V V S Laxman, Vinod Kambli, Anil Kumble, Noel David, Robin Singh, Ajay Jadeja, Sunil Joshi, Nayan Mongia, Rahul Dravid, Venkatesh Prasad, D Ganesh, Abey Kuruvilla and Venkatapathy Raju.

New Zealand and Pakistan are yet to announce their sides.

Given that this is just another one day tournament in a season that has already seen a surfeit of them, there really is no need for an indepth analysis here. However, a couple of points need making.

The first relates to the reinstatement of Mohammad Azharuddin.

Let me get one thing very clear at the outset: this is neither a hatchet job on the former captain, nor a brief in his defence. Merely, an attempt to raise some questions that intrigue me.

At the end of the Caribbean tour, Azharuddin was dropped from the Indian team for the Independence Cup quadrangular. Why?

Is it, as Jagmohan Dalmiya hinted, because of his form -- or rather, lack of it? In that case, on what basis has he now been taken back into the side? What yardstick have the selectors used to judge that he is now back in form? And come to think of it, what methods, what sort of training regimen, did Azhar employ to recover his form in the space of just over a fortnight? I mean, if there really is some magic formula that helps you do that, then it is worth its weight in gold!

Or is it that form had nothing to do with Azhar's axing? Is it true that it all goes back to the St Vincent's debacle when India, faced with the easiest of tasks in the final overs, went totally haywire? Is it true that Azhar, who was then batting, over-ruled Sachin Tendulkar's instructions and asked Ajay Jadeja, Robin Singh and Saba Karim to hit out -- and, having watched them perish to indiscretion, himself got out to a rank bad shot?

Is it this act that got the captain's goat, and prompted his recommendation to the selection committee that Azhar be dropped? In other words, was Azhar's axing a matter of enforcing internal discipline?

Carrying the argument further, if Azhar really was guilty of indiscipline, then is this slap on the wrist all the punishment he has to accept? Sit out one lousy tournament, and let bygones be bygones?

I've made this point before. It is time to make it again. The whole problem here is that there is absolutely no transparency in the workings of the team, the management or indeed the selection committee and the BCCI.

And that is why all concerned today find themselves in a situation where there are lots of questions -- to none of which they can come up with a single answer. I mean, what can Dalmiya, who insisted in interview after interview that Azhar was dropped for loss of form, say now? The former captain has certainly not played any competitive cricket since his return from the West Indies -- so how does Dalmiya, as convenor of the selection committee, now hope to justify his reinduction?

This is the problem when you lie -- in time, you find yourself having to lie again to cover up the first lie... and pretty soon, you've let loose an avalanche of mendacity that overwhelms you.

Besides this, the other questions raised by the team selection pale into insignificance -- but deserve to be asked anyway.

What on earth, for instance, are we doing with a 16-member team for just two league games and, if India gets that far, a final? Are we expected to believe that Dodda Ganesh will get to play in this tournament? That Noel David will get a look in? That Venkatapathy Raju's sudden recall is based on cricketing considerations?

I mean, Raju is undoubtedly a good bowler -- but I still fail to understand the logic of this selection process that picks players for no apparent reason, drops them on a whim, picks them again... it's more like a child deciding what toy to play with next, than the workings of a supposedly responsible bunch of adults.

By the way, whatever happened to Gagan Khoda? Picked for the Independence Cup for no apparent reason. Dropped, now, for no visible reason -- I mean, cricketing reasons couldn't have entered into it because Khoda hasn't played any cricket since his inclusion into the side. Or is it simply that the selectors didn't quite care for his technique with the drinks trolley?

Why is this an issue? Simple -- every member of the Indian team gets Rs 90,000 for every ODI match for which he is picked. Thus, Khoda and Ganesh earned Rs 270,000 thanks to their presence in the Independence Cup squad -- tax free, mind you -- without ever having to break into a sweat to earn it.

And now we have a squad of sixteen picked for two games -- and of that squad, I can give you any odds you like that four players -- Laxman, Raju, Ganesh and David or Joshi -- will not play a single game.

All four of them, however, will pocket a cool Rs 180,000 apiece.

Question is, are we running a pension club here?

At least some of you are going to go 'eyebrows up' as you read this. Can't this guy make up his mind, you will ask yourself -- one day he is talking of an 18-member squad - now he is cribbing that there are 16 players named and that this figure is too high.

Hang on -- when I spoke of the desirability of an 18-member team, it was for an away series lasting through five Tests and four ODIs besides a quote of tour games. But for the Caribbean tour, featuring that many games, the national selectors pick 16! And for the upcoming Siyaram's Cup - just three games max, and that too played at home, where it is easy to call up a player as and when needed - also, they pick 16!

My point is this. If it is this easy to call yourself an Indian player, if it is this easy to make money out of the game, then how can we expect the players to be motivated when they go out there to play?

Time was when even playing for your team in the first division league was an honour you won by dint of hard work. Today, it is easier to get into the national side than it is to represent your own state.

Doesn't say much for the state of Indian cricket, does it?

Tailpiece: I was wondering just when, and from where, the axe would descend on Manoj Prabhakar's neck. Well, now I know -- it is no less than Ajit Wadekar who, with one little piece of reasoning, has just made a mockery of Prabhakar's fulminations.

Wadekar's response to Prabhakar's allegation runs thus: 'Prabhakar says that an Indian player attempted to bribe him to play badly against Pakistan in the 1994 Singer Cup in Sri Lanka. Aamir Sohail says that an Indian player attempted to bribe him to play badly against India in the same tournament. It is a pity that rain washed out that match -- otherwise it would have been most interesting to watch these two players, both vying with each other in their bid to play badly and let down their respective sides!'

Exactly! I mean, this 'Indian player' who both Sohail and Prabhakar have been harping about -- is it that he has more money than sense? If you want to fix a game, you could conceivably try to bribe a key player of one side to bowl, or bat, badly. But to what end would you bribe players from opposing sides to play badly in the selfsame game?

The logic of this defeats me.

One thing though is clear -- Prabhakar now has to name names - or be laughed out of court!