Indian Team for Malaysia and Champions Trophy….

The Indian squad for the Malaysian TriSeries and the Champions Trophy was announced by the BCCI today. RP Singh replaced Santhakumaran Sreesanth for the Champions trophy, however, Sreesanth continues in the Malaysian triseries. One would question the wisdom of selecting both squads together. However, i suspect there was an ICC deadline to be met for the Champions Trophy, while the Malaysian tournament is just around the corner. The selectors were also deprived of the Sri Lankan games to make their judgements about form.

The selection of RP ahead of Sreesanth is an interesting one. The only reason which seems to support this selection is the fact that so far, out of Sreesanth, RP or VRV, no one has really convinced the selectors that hes a cut above the rest. Sreesanth has been expensive in ODI’s. RP Singh played a series of high scoring ODI’s in Pakistan and was subsequently left out of the squad. Over his career, RP has a superior ODI record to that of Sreesanth. Thats actually an interesting stat:

Looking at the graphs above the Sreesanth and RP Singh (18 and 15 ODI’s for India respectively), it is possible to categorize Sreesanth as some one who struggled in ODI cricket his is first few games before slowly improving, without ever becoming a real mainstream contributor to the bowling attack. RP Singh on the other hand has had a lot of early success before tapering off in his last 4 games, after which he was dropped and Sreesanth preferred ahead of him.

Now, the selectors have chosen to bring back RP for the Champions Trophy.

I think there are two targets that the selectors are aiming at. One is to find the best possible fast bowling squad for the South African test tour, and the other of course is to find out who they will send to the World Cup.

One word on Zonal quotas… (which is bound to come up).

The selection stacks up as follows

(Malaysia tri-series, 15 member squad):
South Zone(2): Rahul Dravid, Sreesanth
West Zone(5): Sachin Tendulkar, Ramesh Powar, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel
North Zone(5): Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh
Central Zone(2): Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina
East Zone(1): MS Dhoni

(For Champions trophy, 14 member squad) :
South Zone(1): Rahul Dravid,
West Zone(5): Sachin Tendulkar, Ramesh Powar, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel
North Zone(5): Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh
Central Zone(2): Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina
East Zone(1): MS Dhoni

Once again, there is no evidence what so ever of Zonal “quotas” being applied to selection.

The batting line up shows very few changes.

All in all, this is the sort of selection one would expect in a successful period for Indias ODI side, the 1-4 defeat in the West Indies notwithstanding.

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Rang de Basanti…..

Warning to the Readers: If you have not watched Rang de Basanti, then you may want to think twice about reading this post. If you read it anyways, i hope it will tell you which film to watch and which one to avoid.

I saw Rang de Basanti about 10 days ago, and have been meaning to write about it for a while. Believe it or not, the inspiration for this post came from this delightfully earnest bit of rambling about that disgusting, patronising commentary about relationships by the perennially single Karan Johar.

There was something about Rang de Basanti which struck me, apart from it being the best Hindi film ive ever seen. It was for me a film which made some pertinent comments about being grown up. The most telling events in the story came from grown ups. Every Peter Keatingesque character in the film – from the politician Mishra, to the defense minister (Mohan Agashe), to the new defense minister (who orders that none of the “terrorists” should be kept alive) was a grown up. Even DJ and his friends, even though of varying vintage, were students a long time ago. The only grown up character who was not Keatingesque was DJ’s mother, who played no significant part in the story.

It was not then the story of an exasperated youth – young revolutionaries in the image of Bhagat Singh, Ashfaqullah Khan, Ramprasad Bismil, Chandrashekhar Azad, but of the defeat of the spirit that is passed off for being grown up.

Roark after all, was Roark all his life…..

Life must lie somewhere in between the Roarkness of DJ and the Keatingness of Defense.

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Test Rankings – August 31st 2006

Australia 0.634 (47)
England 0.531 (54)
South Africa 0.512 (42)
Pakistan 0.499 (34)
India 0.493 (42)
Sri Lanka 0.481 (22)
New Zealand 0.456 (32)
West Indies 0.370 (42)

South Africa being ranked as high as number 3 and still having a Test Rating 0.512 has been a point of disagreement for many readers about these ratings.

In these ratings, the Oval Test Match has been measured as having been won by England (i. e. England have been awarded the win bonus here). This will be reviewed should the ICC decide to overturn Darrell Hairs ruling with regard to Pakistan’s forfeiture.

The Chart above shows the progression of Test ratings from 2003 to 2006. They show South Africa to be in consistent decline. Most of the debate about the position of South Africa in the rankings is due to the fact that “they are not as good as they once were”. The progression shows this. However, the actual position of the South African Test team, in comparison to other sides, is still a strong third.

England have jumped to clear second for now. However their real test will come in the Ashes. The Pakistan home series helped England escape from the 2nd placed group also including South Africa and Pakistan (South Africa losing in Sri Lanka helped). However, a strong Ashes series in Australia, will help England establish a clear second position, and also possibly challenge Australia for number 1. In the coming 12 months, India have a great opportunity to make some real gains with series in South Africa and England.

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BCCI gets it wrong

BCCI has got it wrong in the Oval Walk Out issue as far as i can see. Their decision to back a cutting back of the Umpires authority is misguided and potentially damaging. I also do not understand why BCCI has found it necessary to express an opinion on the issue. No other cricket board in the world (except Pakistan) has expressed an opinion on this issue.

The BCCI should support strengthening the Umpires position. Darrell Hair was absolutely right to award the game to England. Why should the umpires have to put up with tantrums from Test teams.

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