Looking ahead with hope

One sincerely hopes the new millennium will see a change in India's cricketing fortunes, with the national side playing much better cricket. The fans, for sure, are anxiously awaiting such a turnaround.

The pitch in Sydney, one had mentioned this earlier, should assist the spinners as it tends to crack up. The spin bowlers should relish bowling on the track, especially on the last two days.

During the Sydney Test of the 1985-86 series, the wicket played well till the third day, and India piled up a huge score. Later on it began to deteriorate and our spinners had the Aussie batsmen struggling.

Allan Border's team was dismissed early on the fifth morning and the follow-on was immediately enforced. The Australians collapsed again, with the spin bowlers calling the shots. Finally, the home team just managed to save the Test, but it could have been a different story, had a couple of umpiring decisions not gone against us. We had missed it by a whisker, but then, a miss is a miss.

Had we managed to triumph, we would have become the first Indian side to achieve a series victory in Australia. The present coach of the Indian team, Kapil Dev, was the captain then, and one hopes memories of that match will be in his mind, when the Team Management sits down to pick the eleven.

Much has been written and said about India's below par batting and bowling performances in the series, and I will refrain from saying anything more on the subject. One only hopes India can at least salvage some pride in the last Test. It does call for a spirited effort from every member of the team.

In Sydney, India should play two spinners, with Harbhajan Singh coming in for Venkatesh Prasad. The latter's bowling in the first two Tests has left much to be desired.

And a much younger paceman must be wondering what he has done wrong. Well, the news of T. Kumaran's omission from the one-day squad was indeed shocking. Not too long ago, the coach and the captain of the Indian team had words of praise for this promising paceman.

In the two one-day Internationals that Kumaran played against New Zealand, he impressed one and all with his pace and movement. He would certainly have been very handy on the Australian wickets (he did have a five-wicket innings haul in a tour game). The treatment meted out to Kumaran is certain to send the wrong message to aspiring youngsters.

On the other hand, the decision to retain Devang Gandhi, someone who was written off by everyone, including the Team Management, is perplexing to say the least. The Chairman of the Selection Committee, Mr. Chandu Borde, defended the decision, saying Gandhi was a good striker of the ball, but it certainly did not sound convincing.

Instead, Vijay Bharadwaj, the Man of the Series in Kenya, would have been a better choice, for he provides more options in a one- day game. In any case, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly should open the innings, and one wonders how Gandhi would fit into the scheme of things.

Also surprising was the decision to drop M.S.K. Prasad, for only 10 days earlier, even as Nayan Mongia was being sent home, he was described as `good.' Do the selectors and the Team Management mean to say that Prasad's form has slumped all of a sudden.

One can understand if the selectors want to pick youth over experience, instead, they have given a break to players in their early 30s.

The truth is, the Selection Committee and the Team Management have been grossly unfair to certain players and the fans are unable to see any sound reasoning behind these decisions. There are far too many unanswered questions.

Finally, I take this opportunity to wish Sachin and his men the very best of luck in 2000. I would also like to wish the readers of The Hindu a very happy and prosperous New Year.

By K. SRIKKANTH

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