Published: Jul 06, 2011, 11:25 AM (IST)
Edited: Aug 21, 2014, 07:45 PM (IST)
By Nishad Pai Vaidya
When the national selectors gather to pick the Indian cricket team they judge the players on parameters such as runs scored, wickets taken, big match temperament etc. They say that the job of the selectors is a thankless job and whatever the composition, it cannot please everybody. But what the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) can certainly do to please one and all is to get the timing of the selection right.
The team for the tour of England was announced just before the final day of the second Test between India and the West Indies at Bridgetown, Barbados. The announcement came as India looked to push for victory on the final day. Three of India’s eleven for the Test match – Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli and Abhimanyu Mithun – were not chosen for the England tour. Where was the need for such a hurry? It does no good to the players’ morale – and as a result to the team – if they are axed in the middle of a Test match. Maybe the selectors could have picked the team and not made the selection public till an opportune time. This would have allowed the players in question focus on the current assignment.
The India’s team selection’s timing was wrong on many counts. At the end of the fourth day’s play Virat Kohli was batting on 26. The team was announced before the start of the final day’s play. Kohli had not performed well in the Test matches and would have spent a sleepless night ahead of the selection. He could have been spared of this pressure. What if he had played a cracker of an innings the next day? It would have been a huge embarrassment for the selectors.
The same would have been the case with Abhimanyu Mithun. Both Mithun and Kohli would have known that their overall performances in the series wouldn’t get them on the flight to England, but had the announcement been delayed they would have had the opportunity to give better performances on the final day’s play.
It has been known in the past as to how team announcements in between a series have caused ripples in the dressing rooms. But in this case, there was a danger of demoralizing players.
If logistics demanded the team to be picked before the final day’s play, then the board could have kept its cards close to its chest that is they shouldn’t have made the team public.
A day’s play can make a lot of difference to a player’s career. The board needs to be sensitive to the fact that one ill-timed selection could negate the lifetime efforts of a player by bringing about a premature end to his playing career.
(Nishad Pai Vaidya, a 20-year-old law student, is a club and college-level cricketer. His teachers always complain, “He knows the stats and facts of cricket more than the subjects we teach him.”)
