South Africa’s Test victory at Centurion cannot disguise the team’s problems but it gives them a basis from which to start the rebuilding process

Firdose Moonda in Centurion26-Jan-2016In the same way that we wonder whether a tree that falls in a forest devoid of people makes a sound, we question whether a match won in a series already lost really counts a victory. South Africa will tell you that it does.Centurion was a catharsis for them because it showed that, contrary to AB de Villiers’ thoughts after the Wanderers Test, all hope is not gone. That is not to be confused with the opposite: all hope has not been regained.South Africa won the match against a team who had already secured the only tangible thing there was to play for and at times lacked intensity as a result. Who knows how differently England’s attack would have approached their task on the first day. Who knows how much more value England would have placed on their wickets if there had been two more Tests, or how much care they would have taken with their catching.Because we don’t know, we have to credit South Africa for picking themselves off the floor and putting on a performance they can be proud of. If nothing else, that says they have made some progress.Van Zyl keeps up the pressure despite Cook success

Stephen Cook has secured his spot in South Africa’s Test side for the foreseeable future after he “played fantastic cricket, looked at home from the word go,” as AB de Villiers put it.

However, Stiaan van Zyl, the man he replaced, will continue to push for a place at the top of the order despite being given the option of moving down to No.3 at domestic level.

“Speaking to Stiaan van Zyl, he wants to continue opening the batting in franchise level. He loves it and he thinks he can do it,” Russell Domingo, South Africa’s coach said.

“There were phases were he looked really good. The middle order seems to be pretty jam-packed and there are also guys who are not playing like Faf du Plessis and Rilee Rossouw. Stiaan has to work out where he feels he can fit best. You don’t just give a player one or two opportunities. Chopping and changing breeds nothing but insecurity and adds more pressure.”

While South Africa consider the make-up of their team, de Villiers feels they have made some strides in this match. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” he said. “We didn’t play good cricket at the Wanderers but now there is something brewing. There’s a bit of confidence. a bit of experience, mixed with good youth.”

Two of those younger members are Temba Bavuma and Kagiso Rabada, who are changing opinions about transformation in South Africa. The importance of their development has not been lost on de Villiers

“For Temba and KG to come through – we know how South African’s history has gone – to see two guys step up is fantastic. It’s one of the highlights of my career.”

In the personnel department, they have certainly made progress, after a merry-go-round series in which their squad swelled to 17. In that mix were six fast bowlers, three wicketkeepers, two captains, a bowler who bats, a batsman who bowls and, only for the last match, a second specialist opening batsman.The addition of Stephen Cook brought immediate stability not just because South Africa’s top two had struggled up until then. Cook added experience – he has played 15 years in the first-class set-up – and assurance. Every shot Cook played was the stroke of a man in form. As a result, he has, in the words of Russell Domingo “secured the opening berth” for the immediate future.South Africa’s next Tests don’t come for six months but keeping Cook around beyond that will ensure South Africa have a solid top two for tours to Australia and England. It will also give Stiaan van Zyl the chance to develop into an opening batsman, assuming that is what he wants.At one-drop, South Africa have their No.3 back. Hashim Amla’s stepping-down as captain freed him up to be a batsman and it showed. With the decision made at Newlands, he scored a match-saving double-hundred. His innings at Centurion showed the Amla of old – the smooth drives, the wristy flicks, the mind that will not be hurt by a sore thumb – all that was there.But then we get to de Villiers and that’s where the problems start. South Africa’s new Test captain could be a former Test captain come August, by which time the selectors will have decided on a permanent skipper. No-one really knows if de Villiers wants the job, not even de Villiers himself.His series started with a story that he was considering early retirement, which he denied by saying all he wanted was a lighter workload. That came in the same match in which he was asked to keep wicket. So, for the next Test, de Villiers handed the gloves over but by the third one, he accepted the leadership. In essence, de Villiers wants to captain, but not keep, but he does not know how long he wants to do that for.His indecision will become South Africa’s irritation, as it did when Jacques Kallis neared the end and veered between being unavailable for bilateral ODIs to quitting Test cricket to focus on ODIs ahead of the 2015 World Cup, but he retired before the tournament. De Villiers is facing similar conundrums. His mixed messages are creating confusion and until South Africa obtain clarity on his situation, they will continue to face a conundrum.One of the reasons they’re allowing him this yo-yo period is because he is the best batsman in the world. Another is that he is one of very few senior players left and will be one of even fewer judging by how Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy are performing. They were both dropped in this series after lean patches that could no longer be tolerated. “No-one is sure of a place in the side,” de Villiers said afterwards. Now, du Plessis and Duminy know.They also know they are replaceable. Temba Bavuma has shown promise that has given South Africa a reason to look forward to the future. His groundbreaking century at Newlands and his gutsy innings at Centurion are the foundations of a career. Now he has to go and build the house.Like Kagiso Rabada, every brick Bavuma lays down is not just for himself. As the first black African batsman to play for the country, he is representing a huge majority and he knows it. “I know when I walk onto the field, it’s not just me walking onto the field,” he said. On the day of his century, the KFC kids from the township he was born in, Langa, were chanting his name and telling journalists how they wanted to be batsmen. Bavuma will inspire many more.Rabada will inspire them differently. At 20 years old, he is already a record-breaker. He has taken the most number of wickets by a South African in a Test, a figure he holds jointly with Makhaya Ntini and Hugh Tayfield. When Rabada took the 13th, Ntini was on his feet, passing on his baton.Kagiso Rabada is all smiles after dismissing Jonny Bairstow cheaply•Getty ImagesDale Steyn was in his lounge, passing on another baton. Rabada will become the new spearhead of the South African attack which may allow Steyn, when he regains fitness, to take on more of a Shaun Pollock-like role. Cut down on the extremes, focus on the accuracies and maybe South Africa will still get more of Steyn too.They need to, because the rest of the attack is as unsettled as the batting line-up. Morne Morkel has proved himself a workhorse and the best supporting actor South Africa could ask for. He has remained more injury-free than Steyn but it may not be that way forever. He is 31, which means in the next few years, South Africa will need someone to take over his role.At the moment none of Kyle Abbott, Chris Morris or Hardus Viljoen inspire that confidence. Abbott has not been the same since the World Cup, when he was left out of the semi-final XI in favour of Vernon Philander, Morris looked a better batsman than a bowler and, after Viljoen’s wicket off the first ball, he faded. South Africa still have to look for others.The search has not been made easy by the growing gap between franchise cricket and the international stage. Its causes have been put down to everything from the increased quotas which have affected franchise squads’ balances to the search for coaching expertise in an era of the declining Rand. Those complications will eventually flow upstream and affect the national side.The Centurion win cannot change any of that. It has given South Africa some reassurance, some reasons to smile, some relief. It has given the team its tree that fell in the forest, but it cannot guarantee how many people heard the noise.

Bereft of confidence, R Ashwin continues to be used sparingly by MS Dhoni as Saturday’s loss marked the tenth time in his last 19 T20s that the offspinner didn’t bowl his full quota

Nikhil Kalro in Bangalore08-May-2016R Ashwin finished 2015 as the No. 1 ranked Test bowler and the top-ranked Test allrounder. His carrom ball, among other variations, befuddled the best. Many considered him the best spinner in the world and his numbers backed their claim. In February 2016, his 4 for 8 against Sri Lanka became the best bowling figures for India in T20s. Ashwin was indispensable – to state and country.Why then has Ashwin taken just 11 wickets in 19 games since? He has bowled 59 overs in his last 19 T20s and has completed his four-over quota on just nine occasions. Should one of the world’s best spinners have been used more? A common denominator in Ashwin’s previous 19 games has been MS Dhoni, his captain for India and Rising Pune Supergiants.A reluctance to use an offspinner with two right-handers at the crease seems the most plausible reason. Ashwin was not brought on till the 17th over in Supergiants’ seven-wicket loss to Royal Challengers. Left-handed Travis Head came out to bat in the 16th. He bowled the solitary over and conceded seven – the second time this season. Before this, with 89 required off seven overs, the game had been blown open in overs 14 and 15, where 39 runs were plundered off Thisara Perera and Rajat Bhatia.”I’m guessing it’s because two right-handers mostly in the whole time, spinning in. He got the opportunity with the left-hander in, but they didn’t have too many left-handers. Limited opportunity for him,” legspinner Adam Zampa said of Ashwin’s under-utilisation after Supergiants’ loss to Royal Challengers.Against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Ashwin returned figures of 1 for 14 from four overs – his most economical returns since February. He was introduced in the 8th over with Sunrisers tottering at 29 for 3 – with Shikhar Dhawan and Naman Ojha at the crease – and bowled in a spell through the middle.A right-handed batting order is not atypical to Royal Challengers. Most teams – domestic and international – are dominated by right handers.However, Dhoni has used Ashwin even in the end-overs if a left-handed batsman is at the crease. Shouldn’t one of the world’s best bowlers, equipped with variations to straighten or take a ball away from a right hander, bowl without condition? Ashwin has been used extensively in T20 powerplays, but has bowled one over in that period this season.The boundary-hitting ability of batsmen has increased multi-fold over the past few years. Yet, there is a precedent of teams confronting an opposition’s best bowler with caution, irrespective of the type. Dhoni has primarily used M Ashwin and Bhatia through the middle period of a T20 innings. Would using India’s leading bowler during that stage, if not crunch moments, make more sense than not bowling him at all? In a team plagued by injuries and lacking potent end-overs specialists with the ball, R Ashwin has not been utilised to the extent that he could have.”It’s a subject, like revealing strategy. Ashwin is a mature bowler. He can bowl at any point of time,” Dhoni had said at a promotional event earlier this year. Why not, then, when Supergiants are defending 191 against one of the best batting line-ups in the tournament at a favourable chasing ground?Against Royal Challengers, Ashwin came out to bat at No. 8 and struck a five-ball 10 to help Supergiants to 191, but hasn’t batted at a position higher this season. If Ashwin, bereft of confidence, is continued to be used sparingly and to take the ball away from left-handers’ hitting arc, he may not have much to do this season.

Always in the background in a team of rockstars, Samuel Badree has got a solid case for being West Indies’ player of the tournament

Swaroop Mamidipudi02-Apr-2016When one of Jasprit Bumrah’s trademark missiles homed in on Chris Gayle’s offstump on Thursday night, I could almost hear the roar in my neighbourhood. My phone – with ESPNcricinfo alerts and various cricket-mad WhatsApp groups – beeped non-stop. It was like India had averted a disaster. But this game was not about Gayle. In fact, the West Indies T20 team has never really been just about Gayle. Look down that team sheet, and you’ll find the names of Samuels, Simmons, Russell, Bravo and Sammy. Gayle is only the frontman of a band of rockstars all capable of devastating one-man shows.There’s one player, though, who goes unnoticed in this line-up of behemoths. He’s of average height and average build, bordering on rotund. He cannot take gymnast-catches on the boundary-line, he cannot clear the ropes with a bat in his hand (in fact, he has never done so in international T20s). You can never find joy, hope, sadness, anger or frustration on his face, whatever may be his team’s fortunes. In this respect, he out-Dhonis Dhoni.In a team of dreadlocks and mohawks, he sports a haircut straight out of a strict boarding school. He does not have a stripper pole in his house – even if he does, he doesn’t post about it on Instagram. His Twitter photo has him in a white formal shirt and trousers. Looking at it, you might think he’s the team’s accountant. Still, he has been, ahead of all of those big names, Windies’ best player this World Cup.Samuel Badree is the anti-West Indian. He’s not a one-man show; why, he’s not a show at all. He thrives on the fact that no one notices him and no one plans for him. He bowls in the first quarter of an innings, does an efficient job and hides in the field for the rest of the time. His bowling revels in being completely ordinary. He doesn’t turn the ball much, but finds a length and line hard to hit and mixes it with changes in pace and flight. He bowls the occasional googly, but you won’t find him ever advertising any of those novel deliveries that Warne or Saqlain announced every once in a while. Still, his career economy rate is 5.44 and he has an average of 15.05. (Yes, better than Sunil Narine.) He is a mystery bowler only in the sense that no one realises he is effective and even the ones who do, don’t get why.Badree didn’t play either of the warm-up games. A surprising fact considering he last turned out for West Indies in 2014. He does not have much experience in India either – he has never played a T20 international here, and he has only bowled a handful of overs in the IPL. It showed in the first game against England. He bowled three bad balls in his second over – that’s usually his quota for three games – and Alex Hales duly despatched them to the boundary.But in the next game, he sank Sri Lanka with three top-order wickets for 12 runs in four overs. Of course, Fletcher won the Man of the Match for his one-man show with the bat and Badree’s performance, as always, merged into the scenery. He had a quiet game against South Africa where his three overs went for 22, but even in that disastrous outing against Afghanistan, he removed both Shahzad and Stanikzai and ended up with 3 for just 14 off four overs.Against India, his four overs for 26, when every other bowler went for over 9 an over, kept the score from ballooning beyond 200. He got the wicket of Rohit Sharma just when he was teeing off. He bowled only one bad ball – that was duly sent to the boundary – and conceded just one more boundary, off an outside edge. On a flat pitch on a small ground, this was an extraordinary performance. At the end of the day, Simmons, Russell and Charles took the honours for a thrilling chase, but Badree, as ever, quietly did his part with the ball.There is a video of Bravo and Sammy doing the “Champion” dance after yesterday’s game. They get down from the team bus at their hotel, Sammy has a Bose docking station in his hand, “Champion” is playing on it, and they are putting on a spectacular song-and-dance routine for the crowd waiting at the hotel. Gayle, to the delight of the audience, joins in. This is a bunch of loveable bros telling the world that “hey, it’s a game, you’re supposed to have fun”.Somewhere in that video, there is Samuel Badree, uninterested in the whole thing, peering into his cell phone, probably asking his family what they had for breakfast. That’s Samuel Badree, the man who never fails, indispensable to the team (and so he had to be in that video), but the man who forever remains anonymous.

Having come close to an international debut once before only for rain to thwart it, Jon Holland is ready to make the most of his second chance after earning an unexpected call-up

Daniel Brettig02-Aug-2016An expired passport, replaced in a hurried 24 hours before flying to Sri Lanka, says a lot about how much Jon Holland has thought about playing for Australia in a Test match lately. But canny displays in training for the tourists, ahead of a game they must win, spoke equally loudly for a level of ability the selectors have always rated.The call from chairman of selectors Rod Marsh to tell Holland he needed to travel to Galle to replace Steve O’Keefe and partner Nathan Lyon in the second Test necessitated a journey from Brisbane back to Melbourne for a hurried renewal of documents. It is seven years since Holland last made an Australian tour, an ODI sojourn to India in 2009.”Rod rang me when I was up in Brisbane, getting ready for Australia A, and told me that SOK was not good and I had to get over here,” Holland said. “It was a bit of a surprise, so much of a surprise that I didn’t have a passport ready, so I was a bit nervous.”I went back to Melbourne, I had to renew it, it had expired. Getting over here, just being around the group it hits home a bit more.”I will be a little bit nervous if I do get a chance to play, I have worked hard on my bowling the last couple of years. I am pretty comfortable with where my bowling’s at. Hopefully, if I do get a chance, I can get myself into the game and get a couple of results.”On that previous tour, Holland was so close to a debut that he had “the chat” with then captain Ricky Ponting informing him he would play in the final match of the series in Mumbai. But rain began to fall almost as soon as Ponting spoke those words, and so, Holland returned home without playing.”It was the last game, we’d already won the series,” Holland said. “Ricky told me on the bus after training which was the next day, and as soon as he told me, it started raining and it didn’t stop until we got on the plane to come home, so unfortunately I missed out, but that’s the way it goes.”I guess it was in the back of my mind that time was getting away from me, but I really enjoy playing cricket for Victoria. They’ve stuck with me through three shoulder injuries and supported me and given me the chance to play cricket, I have to thank them. It’s here now, it’s all a bit surreal still and I will just have to wait and see if I do get the chance to play.”Usefully, Holland is dropping into the Australian side in a manner he has become familiar with for Victoria. The selectors’ preference for Fawad Ahmed as the No. 1 spinner has meant Holland only plays on spinning pitches, and has harvested 22 wickets at 16.41 from his past three Shield games, spread over two seasons. Eight wickets in the Shield final piqued the selectors’ interest ahead of this tour.”I would like to play every game for Victoria but that hasn’t been the case,” he said. “Fawad has bowled extremely well for Victoria and it’s been hard to get in there, and especially in Australia – playing two spinners doesn’t happen too often, but my opportunities for Victoria have come and I enjoy playing for Victoria.”The Shield final was a big game for me. I’d missed out on a couple, one through injury and one not being selected the year before. It was a big dream of mine to play in a winning Shield for Victoria, and to get the opportunity and do well was a really great week for me.”In watching the first Test of the series on television, Holland was reminded of the left-arm spinner’s art by the clever variations of Rangana Herath. There has been evidence of similar skill from Holland in training, varying his pace and degree of spin to beat Australian bats on numerous occasions. Cricketers rather than athletes, Herath and Holland share an instinctive understanding of deceit.”He knows the conditions extremely well here,” Holland said of Herath. “He just bowls on the spot and knows how to subtly change his spin and variations and pace and that sort of thing. I think just about every time he bowls the ball it’s hitting the stumps, which is a big positive. I try to take a bit of that on board and try to do the same as that.”If Holland’s passport was unready, he has at least got in his kitbag a handful of good relationships with Australian team-mates from days gone by, whether it be Under-19 tours or his Academy intake.Most critical of all, he shares a good rapport with Steven Smith. Captain and spinner must stay close this week. “I’ve known Smithy since he was pretty young,” Holland said. “I guess we have got a pretty good relationship, so, hopefully, he backs me in and looks after me.”

In a race against time to bowl out West Indies on day five, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma probed away with ruthless efficiency to help secure victory with a session to spare

Karthik Krishnaswamy in St Lucia 13-Aug-20162:36

Manjrekar: Young WI batsmen are not trained to be Test players

Batting is simple. If it’s full, you go on the front foot. If it’s short, you go back.Batting becomes increasingly difficult as you move up the quality ladder and come up against bowlers who test your judgment by hitting an in-between length with increasing frequency. At Test level, bowlers do this more often than anywhere else. Batsmen who get that far are the ones most adept at dealing with this challenge. They judge length better, and are better able to identify which balls pitching in that great grey area known as a good length need to be negotiated on the front foot and which ones by staying back.On Saturday, faced with the task of surviving 87 overs to save the third Test against India, West Indies kept failing this test.India bowled well to bowl them out, but at times it felt like they only had to keep hitting a good length to induce errors from the batsmen. It is exactly how a team must bowl on a pitch such as this one, with true pace and bounce and offering no extravagant seam movement or turn. Yet, even bowling at their best, India must have expected to fight for their wickets, expected the fight to last at least halfway into the final session. Instead, they bowled West Indies out in 47.3 overs and won a match that lost an entire day to rain, by 237 runs.West Indies’ troubles started right at the top. Kraigg Brathwaite is among the more solid batsmen in West Indies’ line-up: patient outside off stump, willing to wait for balls in his strong areas, and can bat long periods. But his technique isn’t without its faults. Bhuvneshwar Kumar exposed two of them with a full ball angling into the stumps and straightening just a touch. The ball was certainly full enough to play on the front foot. Brathwaite did not make any kind of stride towards the ball and remained camped in his crease.To add to his problems, Brathwaite plays with open shoulders, and is nearly chest-on to the bowler at times. This leaves him at risk of playing across the line even when he is notionally trying to present the full face of the bat. He certainly attempted to do this against Bhuvneshwar. But instead of starting roughly over off stump, or even from the direction of first slip, and finishing pointing down the V, Brathwaite’s bat came down from third slip and finished pointing wide of mid-on. A bit of movement and the ball missed his outside edge and would have the stumps. End result: out lbw.The lack of footwork compounded the skewed alignment. Had Brathwaite been closer to the pitch of the ball, he would have been at less risk of missing it, or even edging it, even if he had played slightly across the line.Marlon Samuels is another batsman who camps in his crease. On Saturday he camped in the crease and made life more dangerous for himself by attempting limited-overs shots. Against Bhuvneshwar, he tried a shot straight out of the T20 manual: clear front leg, ignore the length of the ball, and biff it over the top. He was lucky to miss, and lucky the ball was wide of the stumps.Then, having somehow survived 26 balls, he tried to cut Ishant Sharma off his stumps. The ball was at that in-between length, seaming in towards off stump, and Samuels has often had trouble playing those kinds of balls even with a straight bat. He tried to cut it, with his back foot staying stuck on leg stump, and did this with his team trying to save a Test match. Samuels missed, Ishant hit.Ishant does not hit the stumps anywhere near as much as he should, and has often been criticised for it, even in the days leading up to this Test match. It is only appropriate to praise him, then, on a day when he bowled a length and line that allowed him to threaten the stumps far more often.Ishant Sharma’s improved accuracy in the second innings made him a handful to West Indies’ right-hand batsmen•ESPNcricinfo LtdIn the first innings of this Test, Ishant’s pitch map against right-hand batsmen showed most of his deliveries distributed along a line parallel to the pitch, outside off stump. In the second, his deliveries were distributed along a line slanting into the stumps, suggesting he was frequently bowling from wider on the crease. By doing so, he created an angle that exaggerated the movement of his incoming delivery, and heightened the effect of the odd ball he could straighten. He was, quite simply, the batsman.In the second Test in Jamaica, Roston Chase had been able to leave 17 of the 38 balls he faced from Ishant during the course of his unbeaten, match-saving second-innings 137. Here, all but one of the eight balls he faced from the same bowler were on course to hit the stumps, or threatening to hit them. The eighth ball actually hit them, after seaming in and finding the gap between bat and pad.Ishant attacked Roston Chase’s stumps far more in the second innings at St Lucia (right) compared to Jamaica (left)•ESPNcricinfo LtdOnce again for a West Indies batsman, Chase’s footwork was at fault. Pause the replay of his dismissal at the point where the ball goes past his inside edge and note the position of his front foot. It is coming forward, but the stride is short, and it has only just landed, on its heel. Chase was a split-second slow with his footwork. Other batsmen may have transferred their weight fully on to the front foot by that point, and narrowed the angle of the seam movement enough to be able to negotiate it.It was perhaps the least worst of the errors West Indies’ batsmen committed on Saturday. But in conjunction with the rest, it painted a troubling picture.

After several years of relative scarcity of international fixtures in India, the BCCI is attempting to forge a definite home season and has begun on a grand scale

Sharda Ugra09-Jun-20161:26

India set for bumper home season in 2016-17

Maybe this is what hyperventilating commentators mean when they say, “It doesn’t get any bigger than this!”The BCCI has unveiled the opposition and venues for its 2016-17 home season more than three months in advance. And told us India are to play 13 home Tests over seven months, the most crowded season in 37 years. With it came the news that there is to be a five-Test series at home for the first time in two decades. The last time those two happenings happened, I was in middle school and then in junior college. Eons ago.These are landmark announcements by the BCCI: a calendar filled with so much Test-match love, it could be considered antiquarian, and the announcement made so far in advance of the season that the work of good-natured impostors could be suspected. Usually India’s fixtures are capsules of mystery and suspense, released not long before the visitors pass through immigration at an unspecified Indian airport.Yes, but what are the specific dates of the series? Where do fans buy tickets? Does the BCCI care about the fans? Patience, people.It is being said that the complete itineraries will be released within two weeks. In the face of such abundant pre-season information, let’s be charitable and give the BCCI four. It will still leave well over a month to spare before the first match against New Zealand. It may be too much to hope that the eternal shenanigans to do with ticketing will also be sorted out by then, but there is already much to look forward to.The country that gave cricket its ultimate T20 pyjama party in the IPL is going to stage the biggest home season in 37 years. The mind boggles.The 13 Tests against New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia are also meant to be the first step in the entrenchment of a clear, regular Indian home season – with Test cricket at its core. Until now, India’s home Test calendar has been, at best, capricious. It has oscillated between a moderate diet and scarcity.Since September 2005, India have had 46 home Tests; the 2012-13 season had eight home Tests, the next one had two, and 2014-15 had none. The 13 scheduled for 2016-17 is only one fewer than the total of the previous four home seasons put together. This lopsidedness has led to colourful diversionary stats: India have played only four Tests at home since the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar. (Yes, the nation wept, but still…)The BCCI’s home season has, for the second time, been named ‘India Cricket’, a branding exercise first undertaken in October 2015. “Every country has focused on its domestic season,” Anurag Thakur, then the BCCI secretary, said to . “We all get to know when England and Australia play the Ashes or New Zealand travel to Australia. India is the powerhouse of world cricket, but our season does not have such status. The ‘India Cricket’ campaign is to promote the start of the season, both domestic and international, in India.” The first sighting of this new brand was when the words ‘India Cricket’, all in capitals, and not the BCCI logo, were spotted on commentators’ shirts. The 2015-16 season of India Cricket offered only four Tests, though.It is reasonable to assume that this 13-Test season is not expected to be a rigid template for the future but a rough guide. It indicates that the BCCI is going to hunker down on a certain number of months for cricket at home. Maybe around the Diwali festival, much like South Africa’s and Australia’s home seasons are centred around Christmas and the New Year. Every summer, England unfailingly play seven home Tests and Australia around six. For India, eight home Tests a season seems a manageable number.This does not mean that India will never play a Boxing Day Test in Melbourne or a New Year’s Test in Cape Town. They often return from their southern hemisphere tours in January and can host home series in February and March. The Season of Plenty could just ensure that India’s touring itineraries will be arranged around their home season in the future, and not the other way around.The 2016-17 season – with its emphasis on Tests (13) as opposed to limited-overs fixtures (eight ODIs and three T20Is) – was arrived at by the BCCI’s tour and fixtures committee after examining operational issues at three ends: first the curators, for a best assessment of ground conditions at the many international venues; then the broadcasters, for logistical convenience of moving equipment from one venue to the next; and finally the three rotation ladders for venue allocation for Tests, ODIs and T20Is. India’s climate allows for cricket in different parts of the country between September and March – the IPL occupies the previously unused summer months – and world-class grounds at various venues have empowered the BCCI to take advantage of such a large window.How 2016-17 will tower over recent seasons in India•ESPNcricinfo LtdTwo questions remain. What of the day-night Test? And when exactly will Bangladesh finally play a Test in India, more than 15 years after their debut in the format? The Hyderabad fixture against Bangladesh is expected to take place after England leave and before Australia arrive; the BCCI’s hospitality somewhat limited despite Bangladesh’s long wait but fortunately no more delayed.The day-night Test is not a given as yet. It will depend on how the pink ball behaves during the remodelled Duleep Trophy in September, when India’s Test batsmen are expected to participate in six first-class matches under lights. They will provide feedback on the pink ball and the dew factor, and only then will a decision be taken on the possibility of a day-night Test.The coming season will be an adventure and an experiment for cricket in India. The crowd response at six new Test venues – against first-rate opposition – will tell us whether it is feasible to take the longest format of the game to new places, or whether it is best played at traditional centres. We will also know if the focus on Tests will translate into better financial remuneration for long-form players, as has been promised.This new season gives the Indian fan much to savour. And if the fans in the stands finally get their due, in terms of the ease of buying tickets and in-stadium comforts over long and warm days, the BCCI will have earned itself a mighty standing ovation.

He became the second-oldest man to reach 300 Test wickets – and possibly the least fit – but Rangana Herath’s story is the best of what sport has to offer

Andrew Fidel Fernando at Chester-le-Street28-May-2016Just after lunch, when Moeen Ali was gunning for a double-ton, he made a waddling dartboard out of Rangana Herath. Angelo Mathews, Sri Lanka’s brick wall on the last tour, had begun to captain like one. Herath was one of seven fielders on the boundary, but it was him that Moeen picked on repeatedly. Moeen thumped the ball to Herath’s left and ran an easy two. He sent it skidding to Herath’s right and took another couple. At times it felt like Herath would be quicker if he rolled horizontally towards the ball. Just after lunch, when Moeen was gunning for a double-ton, Herath was a liability.

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There was a time when cricket was a liability to Herath. In the decade since his Test debut, his nation was besotted with mystery spin. For Muttiah Muralitharan, this was island love that ran deep, long and true. For Ajantha Mendis and his delicate fingers, Sri Lanka fizzed at first, then let infatuation slowly fizzle.Through all this, Herath found himself perpetually on the fringes. He was in some ways the modern progenitor of the carrom ball, but easily the least subtle proponent of it. The extended pinky finger when he delivers it might as well have an unfurling banner attached.So he subsisted on irregular A team tours, domestic matches in one of the most archaic first-class tournaments in the world, and on payment that was more like pocket money than a living wage. There was the job at a bank that he still holds dear; the brief stint in an English league that he still fondly remembers.In the decade since his Test debut, Rangana Herath was line-and-length black-and-white in a technicolour age. He was a slow-bowling nation’s surplus spin.

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One of Herath’s great strengths has been the ignorance batsmen have shown towards his craft. He is a disciple of flight and dip, yet when the ball meets the pitch, the deviation is modest and such bite as he gets is slow, not leaping and fizzing. Murali left top orders broken, of course. But even bowlers such as Graeme Swann or Saeed Ajmal have inspired more fear and reverence from opposition, who labelled them “world-class spinners” or “genuine matchwinners”. Herath has more wickets, with less fast-bowling support than both, but is more often awarded only second-rate appreciations. He is a “tough customer” and a “wily operator” they say, and though he is “always at you”, he might not quite be “incredibly difficult to play”.And Herath guards his secrets like a magician, even if he is not everyone’s version of a spin-wizard. “Just tried to put the ball in the right spot,” is all the explanation he ever gives. But if he doesn’t get extravagant turn, it is the batsmen he manoeuvres around the crease. They draw forward to the round-arm ball that drifts. They jam bats down on the dart at off stump. They play back to the lazy slider on the pads. They dance to Herath’s beat, though mostly they don’t know it, and hypnotically they are lured into traps, over cliffs.The selectors have not always understood this either. When long, wicketless spells come, they begin to doubt. Even after he became Sri Lanka’s most-consistent matchwinner since Murali, they have been quick drop him. In July last year, Sri Lanka left Herath out and failed to defend 377 in the fourth innings, against Pakistan. Upon his return in the next Test, he claimed 7 for 48 in an unbroken spell, and defended 176 from India.In a 17-year career in which only 68 Tests have been played, Herath has had several downfalls. Among them has been his own selectors’ seeming ignorance of his craft.

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Like his action, Herath’s appeals are generally gentle. He turns on his heels, holds out his arms like wings on a biplane, and backpedals towards the batsman. Other spinners have demanded wickets of umpires. On the hunt, Murali’s eyes used to implore. Herath has rarely yelled at teammates, and perhaps has never asked the question when he has felt it shouldn’t be out.When batting, he has been no different. In 2014 at Lord’s, he even famously walked when the match was there to save, and he wasn’t even out. Team-mates will say that though he is quiet, he is among the most generous in the dressing room. When he speaks about them in public, Herath bears this out. Like his action, so the man is gentle, keen and honest. Such virtues don’t always help sportsmen out.

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Rangana Herath finally notched his 300th Test wicket•Getty ImagesWhen the ball took the top edge of Steven Finn’s bat and Herath took the catch, he became the 30th man to 300 wickets. He became the second-oldest to the milestone, and possibly the least fit to it as well. But why mire ourselves in such pathetic details?If on some level sport is about the triumph of spirit over odds, if it is at all about life’s trials playing out in microcosm, then who better than this kegful of a Kurunegala man to lavish with admiration? His are 300 wickets are wrung from dry circumstances, and wrenched from a mean-spirited system. They are prised from cricket’s closed fist.Let Herath waddle in the outfield as long as he likes, I say. Let batsmen take the twos. To watch him bowl is to see the best of what sport has to offer. And who knows when we will see his like again?

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Oct-2016PAKISTAN’S DECADE-WISE RESULTS128 Tests won by Pakistan, out of 399. At the same stage in their Test history, four teams had more wins – Australia (176), England (160), West Indies (146), and South Africa (144). India had 87 and New Zealand 80.57 Away Tests won by Pakistan. In terms of win-loss ratio, Pakistan’s 0.678 (57W, 84L) is fourth, after those of Australia (1.203), England (0.877) and South Africa (0.825). (Away Tests excludes those played in neutral venues.) However, their ratio is by far the best among Asian teams.AWAY RECORDS OF TOP THREE ASIAN TEAMS——PAKISTAN CAPTAINS WITH MOST WINS2.33 The win-loss ratio for Javed Miandad, the best among Pakistan captains who have led in 15 or more Tests. The next best is Mushtaq Mohammad, with an 8-4 record in 19 Tests.13 Pakistan captains, out of 14 who led in at least 10 Tests, with at least as many Test wins as losses. The only exception was Intikhab Alam – one win, five losses in 17 Tests.11 Away Test wins under Misbah-ul-Haq’s captaincy, the most for any Pakistan captain. Saleem Malik and Wasim Akram are next with six wins each, followed by Imran Khan, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis (five each).——PAKISTAN’S RECORD BY OPPOSITIONPakistan have won more Tests than they have lost against all opposition teams except South Africa, Australia and England.——PAKISTAN’S PACE GEMS3 Pakistan fast bowlers who have taken 350-plus Test wickets at averages of less than 24. Overall, only ten fast bowlers have achieved this feat, and no other country has more than two such bowlers.60 Percentage of Pakistan’s wickets that have been taken by pace bowlers; they have averaged 30.47 runs per wicket, compared to 33.20 for the spinners.——BEST AND WORST SEQUENCES24 Most Test wins for Pakistan in any sequence of 50 successive Tests; their best win-loss record in this sequence was 24-12, in the period between 1990 and 1998. Their most defeats in a 50-Test sequence is 23, in the 2004-2010 period.6 Pakistan’s longest sequence of successive Test wins, between May 2001 and February 2002; they won against England (1), Bangladesh (3) and West Indies (2). Their longest sequence of defeats is 5, between November 1999 and March 2000.16 Pakistan’s longest sequence of consecutive Tests without defeat, between November 1986 and April 1988. They won 4 and drew 12 during this period.——MOST MAN-OF-THE-MATCH AWARDSOnly two players have won more Man-of-the-Match awards than Akram – Jacques Kallis (23) and Muttiah Muralitharan (19). Shane Warne has also won 17.In away Tests for Pakistan, Akram has won 12, while the next best is 6, by Imran and Younis Khan.MOST MAN-OF-THE-SERIES AWARDSOnly two players have won more Man-of-the-Series awards than Imran – Muralitharan (11) and Kallis (9). Hadlee and Warne also have 8 each.

In every decade since the 1970s, teams have set new records for ODI totals, breaching the 300-run and then the 400-run mark.

Andrew McGlashan01-Sep-2016England’s latest brutal display at Trent Bridge extended their record for the highest-ever ODI total. In the first ODI, staged after the 1971 Melbourne Test was washed out, Australia chased down 191 in 34.6 eight-ball overs and there was a slow, steady progression of scores rising into the 200s until, in 1975, during the 19th ODI, England broke through the 300 barrier. ESPNcricinfo traces the rise of the highest ODI total.1:22

The journey from 334 to 444 in 41 years

England 334 for 4 (60 overs) v India, Lord’s, 1975The first day of the first World Cup – men’s that is, the women were two years ahead of things. Dennis Amiss made 137 and England’s innings was rounded off by Chris Old’s Buttler-esque 30-ball 51. The final total of 334 was a big leap on the previous best of 266. Controversy then ensued as Sunil Gavaskar batted through India’s 60 overs for 36 off 174 balls. “Dejected Indians were pathetically pleading with him to die fighting,” reported the . “Their flags hung limp in their hands. It was a perverse moment of self-inflicted shame.”Pakistan 338 for 5 (60 overs) v Sri Lanka, Swansea, 1983Two World Cups later, the record was broken as Pakistan enjoyed the Welsh air against a Sri Lanka side still young in their full international days. After Mohsin Khan and Zaheer Abbas – with 82 apiece – had laid the platform, the acceleration came from Javed Miandad (72 off 52) and Imran Khan (56 off 33) with what termed a “violent assault”. Sri Lanka were never in touch, but weren’t embarrassed as they made 288. Arjuna Ranatunga was part of the middle order: his, and Sri Lanka’s, time would come.West Indies 360 for 4 (50 overs) v Sri Lanka, Karachi, 1987What would Viv Richards have done in the current era? It doesn’t really matter, because he was immense when he did play. He had already produced an innings, his unbeaten 189 against England, at Old Trafford in 1984, that remains one of the greatest in ODI history but, in terms of runs, nearly surpassed it in this match as his 181 off 125 balls carried West Indies to dizzy heights. Richards’ innings began on a hat-trick ball; by the time he departed he had the highest score in a World Cup at the time. His last 81 runs came from 33 balls.England 363 for 7 (55 overs) v Pakistan, Trent Bridge, 1992A quirk of fate meant that the record England set in 2016 was a carbon copy of how they held it 24 years ago. Before the the team built under Eoin Morgan, this was their finest one-day side having reached the World Cup final a few months previously only to be toppled by Imran Khan’s team. It was little consolation, but back on home soil they comfortably beat Pakistan in the one-day series. In this contest runs came throughout the order. Of the top six, only Allan Lamb did not contribute significantly. Robin Smith led the way with 77 off 72 balls but the real flourish was left for Graeme Hick who clubbed 63 off 42 deliveries, his fifty coming off 34. Pakistan’s frontline attack was formidable – Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed – but the fifth-bowler combination went for 106 in 11 overs.Sri Lanka 398 for 5 (50 overs) v Kenya, Kandy, 1996The record wasn’t edged past, it was smashed, and not surprisingly by the Sri Lankans who were in the course of reinventing the one-day game. Aravinda de Silva got a huge personal score of 145 as it quickly became clear there would be no repeat of Kenya’s historic victory over West Indies a week earlier. Ranatunga added the finishing touches with a 29-ball fifty although Kenya’s left-arm spinner Asif Karim ended with the highly respectable 1 for 50 in his 10 overs. 400 was close, who would be the first there?Australia 434 for 4 (50 overs) v South Africa, Johannesburg, 2006It would take another 10 years for the milestone to be crossed, and it came on the most remarkable of days at the Wanderers. Ricky Ponting slayed 164 off 105 balls, on the ground where he had dispatched India during the 2003 World Cup final, and Michael Hussey scored 81 off 51, as Australia marmalised South Africa’s attack on the Highveld. Ponting’s hundred came from 71 balls and the last 20 overs of the innings brought 225 runs early in the T20 era. Astonishingly, though, a few hours later the record-books were being re-written again…Herschelle Gibbs’ astounding 175 set up one of ODI cricket’s most memorable matches and wiped out a record total that was set mere hours earlier•Getty ImagesSouth Africa 438 for 9 (49.5 overs) v Australia, Johannesburg, 2006“They are 15 short, lads,” is the apocryphal line attributed to Jacques Kallis as the shell-shocked South Africans made there way into the dressing room at the interval. Yet the miracle happened. Herschelle Gibbs responded to Ponting’s epic with 175 off 111 balls and Graeme Smith plundered 90 off 55. Such was the early onslaught that South Africa were on track from a long way out, it was a question of the wickets they were shipping. In the end it came down to the final over from Brett Lee and with two needed Andrew Hall picked out mid-on. But Makhaya Ntini managed to squeeze a single, levelling the score amid delirious scenes in the crowd, before Mark Boucher thumped the winning boundary.Sri Lanka 443 for 9 (50 overs) v Netherlands, Amstelveen, 2006There must have been something in the water during 2006 because South Africa’s record lasted barely three months, although this record wasn’t exactly in a fair contest as Sri Lanka overwhelmed Netherlands. Neither were there any TV cameras present to record the moment. Sanath Jayasuriya butchered 157 off 104 balls and Tillakaratne Dilshan 117 off 78. The only danger that could stop Sri Lanka from setting a record was being bowled out. They were still 31 short when the eighth wicket fell, but Dilshan was still there.Need a last-ball boundary for a record total? Call Jos Buttler•Getty ImagesEngland 444 for 3 (50 overs) v Pakistan, Trent Bridge, 2016Another 10-year gap, another record. After Alex Hales’ England-record 171, the side appeared to be cantering towards a record total when the 48th over – bowled by Wahab Riaz – went for 24. But Mohammad Amir and Hasan Ali belatedly made life tougher. After Jos Buttler swung and missed twice at Hasan, four runs were still needed off the last ball. If there’s a man who can find the boundary when needed it’s Buttler and he duly drilled the final delivery over the off side. So, where next? As Australia went ballistic in their chase against Sri Lanka in Dambulla – 68 after five overs, 100 in 8.1 – the thought of 500 did not seem quite so outlandish.England 481 for 6 (50 overs) v Australia, Trent Bridge, 2018Two years later, on the very same ground, England didn’t just break their world record, they utterly marmalised it. Hales was once again England’s top-scorer on his Nottinghamshire home ground, but his 147 from 92 balls shared top billing Jonny Bairstow’s 139 from 92 – his fourth ODI hundred in the space of six innings. Bairstow had added 159 for the first wicket with Jason Roy, who ran himself out for 82 from 61 balls, but the coup de grace was applied by the skipper Eoin Morgan, who slammed an England record 21-ball fifty to turn on the afterburners for an already turbo-charged innings. Australia actually did well to deny England that elusive 500 total, but it was scant consolation, particularly for the hapless Andrew Tye, whose nine overs went for an even 100.

MSK Prasad, India’s chairman of selectors, talks about keeping track of upcoming talent, and being clear with players about what’s expected from them

Interview by Arun Venugopal20-Dec-2016A number of youngsters have made a mark in the Ranji Trophy this season. Did you expect them to do as well as they have?
This season has thrown up some fantastic talent. The fundamental thing this selection committee is looking at is to develop good bench strength, considering the number of injuries happening right now. If our supremacy in different formats of the game has to last long, we need to have good bench strength.What are the selectors doing to ensure domestic performances aren’t missed?
We have always had two selectors travelling for the international games while the other three [remain here]. Now, during the Ranji Trophy season this year, we decided that only one selector will travel for international games. The other four will be watching domestic cricket.The BCCI has also been kind enough to accept and support our cause by saying that the match referee could play an important role in the matches we are not watching. They [match referees] are playing the role of the TRDO [Talent Research Development Officer] now. The BCCI gets their reports by the end of the game and forwards those to us.There was a discussion and we have to come to a conclusion that this is the right way to go. That is why we are not worried that we will miss out on anyone. There is a back-up ready.

“I take the responsibility to talk to the senior cricketers and tell them the reasons why they have been picked or why they have not been picked and what the committee is expecting of them”

Can you recall an instance of the match referee alerting you about an important contribution this season?
There are quite a few instances. Priyank Panchal and Rishabh Pant; one of the knocks Ishan Kishan played – our selectors missed that game, but we got a detailed report about the match from the match referee.Players like Jayant Yadav and Hardik Pandya seem to have been picked on the back of good performances on India A’s recent tour of Australia. Did you make your picks based on the fact that it was a difficult tour and that whoever did well would obviously be good enough, or were your selections guided by how some players came to the fore in crunch situations?
It’s a mix of both. That’s why you should prefer India A tours to countries like Australia, South Africa, England and to an extent even New Zealand, where the conditions are really tough. That’s where you are really tested. Otherwise, when it comes to playing in the subcontinent and against subcontinent countries for an A tour, I don’t see much difference between them and our domestic cricket.The best part about these A tours is, more than half the players in the opposition would have represented their countries already. If you look at our own team, we had guys who had represented the country. South Africa had David Miller and Dane Vilas. Australia had Peter Handscomb, who got a hundred against Pakistan in this Test [in Brisbane], James Pattinson and Kane Richardson. That’s the beauty of these tours. I think it adds a lot of value.Will there be more A tours this season?
The BCCI is working towards having two or three India A tours, not just one per year. If somebody is injured, we have ready-made products with a bit of quality international experience. The issue is the itinerary. You have the domestic season, too, for six months, so where do you slot the A tours? The BCCI is still working out the details.What is your committee’s approach to selection?
When we select somebody, we think four to five times. We give him enough experience in the domestic circuit and get him into the team. I don’t know how it was earlier but our selection philosophy is simple. We have to look at a player who performs well in domestic cricket, select him, groom him and see to it that he goes on to become a match-winner, which will eventually help Indian cricket. Our philosophy is not to select a player, get a back-up ready and chop that fellow and get another back-up. This way neither the players nor the team will get confidence.”Picking Parthiv or Jayant, and giving Karun Nair an extended run, are debatable issues, but we stuck to them. Hence the selection committee should be appreciated for their strong views on grooming and nurturing talent”•Associated PressWhen we pick them, we should give them sufficient chances. We never know which Marvan Atapattu [who started his Test career with scores of 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0 and went on to score more than 5000 runs] is around in Indian cricket. In smaller countries like Sri Lanka, with fewer first-class teams, you still get a chance to make a comeback. But in a country like India, to make a comeback is very tough. You’ll suddenly be left in oblivion and you don’t know where you stand.Tell us about the kind of communication you have with some of the younger players, like Rishabh Pant, who are on the verge of selection?
We are very clear in our thought process and communication. We took permission from the board and now we walk onto the pitch and talk to the players. The committee has taken responsibility to go and speak to youngsters like Rishabh Pant and Ishan Kishan. We tell them what we expect of them and ask them not to get carried away by the media hype they are getting. They need to come through the ranks. Suddenly someone asks why is Rishabh Pant not in the Test team yet, and there is a lot of hype around him. The player might have a false opinion: “I deserved a chance and never got it.”We are trying to identify a person’s talent, which is suited to a particular format. Rishabh is an attacking cricketer. We should know how to bring him into the team – from the shorter format to the longer format. When we need somebody like Abhinav Mukund or Priyank Panchal, they have to come from the longer format to the shorter format. We feel this is the right way to groom and nurture talent.How do you approach the selection of players who you think have extraordinary talent but not the weight of runs or wickets behind them?
Anybody who comes through the ranks has a better scope of settling down in the team and eventually developing into a match-winner. But in odd cases, where you find an exceptional talent, it can be considered. But it is always good to come through the ranks, so that the player has better sustainability.What’s the nature of information flow between the selection panel and the coaches of the senior and junior teams – Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid?
This selection committee is quite approachable and adaptable. We take suggestions from Dravid, Kumble, Virat [Kohli] and [MS] Dhoni, but we take the final decision on the players to be picked in the squad. The playing XI, of course, is decided by the team management, along with the selector at the venue.Does it make things easier that members of the selection committee have played in more or less the same era as Kumble and Dravid?
That’s one of the best things that has happened. The five members in the selection committee have all played together along with the team management, so the levels of understanding are very, very good. More or less, we are always on the same page.

“All the members of our committee make extensive notes of the matches we watch. When we sit at the selection meeting, everything is tabulated and each of us has the same data. We discuss at length and leave no stone unturned”

Talk us through some of the slightly left-field selections, like Jayant Yadav for the England Tests.
We have seen quite a bit of Jayant Yadav in Australia because Gagan [Khoda] and me were there. This selection committee has an international spinner [Sarandeep Singh], a middle-order batsman [Jatin Paranjpe], two openers [Khoda and Devang Gandhi] and a wicketkeeper [Prasad]. We cover all the disciplines of the game. When we pick a keeper, maybe I have greater input. When it’s a spinner, there may be more inputs from Sarandeep.Was bringing back Parthiv Patel difficult to explain to the team management?
The team management and the selection committee have a fantastic rapport, so if we raise something, they immediately accept it. If they have a requirement, like an opener or a middle-order batsman, we give them a ready-made solution. This is the understanding. Picking Parthiv is what the selection committee did, but if the requirement comes from the team management, say, if [Wriddhiman] Saha is not fit, they will ask for a keeper. We discuss among ourselves, pick that name and forward it to the BCCI.The more difficult aspect of your job probably is to tell a senior player that he is not good enough to be a part of the squad. How do you handle a situation like Gautam Gambhir being picked following some good performances in the Duleep Trophy and then being dropped after four innings?
Senior players, like Gautam or Yuvraj [Singh] or Shikhar [Dhawan], have all done exceptionally well and they are the country’s legendary cricketers. So, on behalf of the selection committee, I take the responsibility to talk to the senior cricketers and tell them the truth about what exactly is the mindset of the committee, and place the reasons and facts about why they have been picked or why they have not been picked and what the committee is expecting of them, and that if they match up to these standards, they will obviously be looked into.I spoke to Yuvraj, Shikhar and Gautam. I think I have spent 30 to 40 minutes with all of them. They were extremely happy and receptive and said: “This is the highest honour your committee has given to us. You were very clear in your thought process at a time we were in a dilemma about whether you guys are looking at us or not.”We made it clear that these are the parameters, these are the changes that have come into the game, and to be picked you need to match these standards. They are very clear now about what they need to do to come back into the team.It’s a universally accepted fact that senior players are expected to deliver immediately when they come back into the team. They might not get the same number of opportunities a youngster will be getting. Youngsters get a long rope because they deserve it and they are the future.Is that something you have told the players as well – that you are not going to be ignored because you are 34 or 35?
We have never ignored an Ashish Nehra or anybody else. The selection committee has no right to say to any player that enough is enough, because every cricketer has a right to play. Nobody has forced them to come into the game and now nobody can ask them to retire. Every cricketer has the right to play. This is their profession and this is what they live for. Retirement is purely the personal choice of the player.”The five members in the selection committee have all played together along with the team management, so the levels of understanding are very, very good”•AFPHow do you deal with the criticism that this selection committee comprises men with limited international experience?
I am very happy that everybody has come out with that because everyone is concerned about Indian cricket. I agree that we have played less international cricket, but we are working hard day in and day out to select players, groom them and make them match-winners and see that they have very good international careers, which we missed in our life.There are no egos, no airs among our colleagues. If they are asked to go to any place in the country, they are there the next morning irrespective of wherever they are. They talk to the players and understand their mindset. There is a lot of discussion that keeps going on between us on a daily basis.Picking Parthiv or Jayant, and giving Karun Nair an extended run, are debatable issues, but we stuck to them. Hence the selection committee should be appreciated for their strong views on grooming and nurturing talent.What has the experience of being a member of the previous selection committee, led by Sandeep Patil, taught you?
The best part about the last committee and this one is that they are impartial. We don’t talk about players from our own state or zone. That’s why there is something called a “neutral policy” that we have adopted. We don’t watch the matches of our states – for example, I don’t watch an Andhra game and Jatin [Paranjpe] won’t watch a Mumbai game. When we pick players, Sarandeep, for instance, won’t ask for a player from Delhi. But I would have seen those matches and I might raise the issue of selecting that player. The neutral policy is a very good one and it worked well with the previous committee. We are continuing that and I am sure in the coming days, with the kind of openness we have, things will only get better.How have your interactions with the two captains – Dhoni and Kohli – been so far?
Fantastic. The three qualities we associate with both Virat and Dhoni are integrity, passion and patriotism. It is very easy to communicate with them because our thought processes are along the same lines.Believe it or not, both of them keep track of all the youngsters in domestic circuit. When we talk about some domestic players in the selection committee meeting, they even know the current stats of these players.How much say does the selection committee have when it comes to workload management and determining how much rest a player needs, especially given the number of injuries recently?
All of us are equally concerned and worried about the number of injuries among the players. As of now, we don’t really have a concrete policy, but we will definitely sit with the team management and the BCCI and design a policy for workload management.With so many overseas tours coming up in the next two seasons, are there certain plans you want to put in place?
That’s the reason I am saying we are working on bench strength and on slot-wise selections, so whenever there is a requirement, we know what fallback options are available. All the members of our committee make extensive notes of the matches we watch, and in the evening we exchange notes. When we sit at the selection meeting, everything is tabulated and each of us has the same data. The meetings are no longer five- or ten-minute affairs. We discuss at length and leave no stone unturned.We have players in our radar according to the slots available. That’s how we depute selectors to a certain match. If we are looking at a spinner, Sarandeep is already there. If we are looking at an opener, Devang [Gandhi] and Gagan go there. That is how we determine which selector goes to which matches.This current Indian team is more or less settled and we are eagerly waiting for our overseas tours. Our boys have done really well in Sri Lanka and West Indies, and all of us are waiting to do well in South Africa, England and New Zealand. This team has all the flavours to do well – good spinners, medium-pacers and good batting strength.What, according to you, have been the most satisfying decisions made by your committee so far?
We can say that this committee has done a good job by picking Parthiv, Jayant and sticking with Karun Nair – and giving them a good run.
We are early into our term. We can’t really take the credit for whatever this team is doing right now, because the previous selection committee has really done a good job by investing in these youngsters. Our real challenge will be about developing good bench strength, picking the guys who are really doing well at domestic cricket right now, inducting them into the national team, and seeing that they grow into top-class international cricketers. Maybe three or four years down the line, when those boys keep doing well and win matches, that will be the best indicator of what we have done.