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Tuesday, February 13, 2007

The cat's out of the bag, finally. The team for the forthcoming cricket World Cup has been chosen. As always, the team has evoked mixed reactions.

As expected, the erstwhile pillars of the Indian team, Tendulkar, Dravid and Kumble are in. Not to forget Ganguly who has been rightly rewarded for his successful stint in the series against South Africa. The four are established professional cricketers and have a few more years of cricket left in them that it is absurd to say that McGrath and Warne have set a fitting precedent to "ageing" cricketers like Tendulkar and Dravid.

The selection committee had second thoughts about including Sehwag but thanks to Dravid, he is in. Tendulkar was caught in a similar situation before WC 2003 when he was not at his best in the Test series against New Zealand. But did he not go out and prove his worth in the World Cup?

Dinesh Karthik, who had been sidelined on numerous occasions before, rightly deserves a place. Zaheer, Agarkar, Munaf, Harbhajan and Pathan--better equipped to handle pressures than Rudra Pratap Singh or V.R.V Singh. The case of Dhoni must also be mentioned as he has been regaining his lost form.

Now should Yuvraj Singh really be there? Chappell had been lobbying for him occasionally and therefore his inclusion comes as no surprise. Maybe Ramesh Powar would have been a better choice. Same case with Robin Uthappa. With only a few matches of experience behind him, this World Cup would be a testing track for him and it would be a surprise if he adapts himself to the conditions in West Indies.

Angry fans burnt effigies of Chappell and Vengsarkar in Uttar Pradesh because Mohammed Kaif was not included. Tough luck that the selectors chose to ignore him. Maybe he should have been sent to the domestic team to prove his worth by performing better to please the selectors.

Madan Lal and Kapil Dev suggest that Ganguly is a better captain but speculations will not work. 26 more days to go.

Property of Sheks @ 8:17 pm

1 Comments:

At 6:23 am, Aravind said…

I donno why ppl like kapil are demotivating the team and saying things like Ganguly is a better captain...
Kapil even mentioned that India is definitely not a contender for WC 2007!!
when they know that the captain is not gonna be changed on their request, they might as well stay quiet!