India ‘A’ selection or fraud on the country

India ‘A’ team selections do not stir up public debate, but everyone connected with cricket waits for such tours with bated breath. This is always an important event for showcasing the upcoming talent, a reward for those toiling in the unforgiving lands of our domestic programme. Toil it surely is, given the kind of pitches our domestic circuit provides, especially in the lower groups.

After toiling hard for seven months, they look up to being rewarded. Lo and behold! When it finally comes, it sends shockwaves through everyone having a little knowledge of cricket.

Just consider this. RP Singh, certainly not an India prospect any more, gets to lead the fast bowling attack. Incidentally, he was not picked to represent even his zone in Duleep Trophy. Is this the Dhoni connection?

Consider now the curious case of Jalaj Saxena. He was opening the innings for MP and occasionally bowling off-spin. Now we have Abhinav Mukund, Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan in the line-up already. Jalaj was selected for the Irani Trophy earlier in the year, having played most of his cricket in the Plate league the previous year. This season, he had scored 162 runs and taken 11 wickets in the 7 matches he played for MP. For this superlative performance, he was picked for the zonal team for the Duleep Trophy. The Zonal selection committee was chaired by none other than the redoubtable Narendra Hirwani, who happens to a national selector. In Duleep Trophy, he added another 86 runs in four innings, thus totaling 248 runs for the season! For this princely performance, he has now been picked for India ‘A’.

Contrast this with the other Saxena — Vineet — from Rajasthan who had 257 runs from just one innings, the marathon performance which shut out Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy final. Incidentally, Ramesh Powar scored 167 runs in Ranji Trophy, five more than Jalaj and is without a shadow of doubt one of the finest off spinners still playing, and took 27 wickets for Mumbai. I think he definitely has better claim for an off-spin all-rounder even if he is not a livewire in the field. If RP can be considered, then why not Powar?

Now the curious case of RP Singh. His stellar performance in Ranji Trophy got him 14 wickets @ 51.42. Yes, I am talking about the bowling average, i.e. runs per wickets, and not batting average. It was quite natural that he did not get selected for the Central Zone team for the Duleep Trophy. So I had to rub my eyes in disbelief a number of times before it sank in that RP Singh had indeed become the next big future prospect among medium pacers.

Bhuvneshwar had a decent 23 wickets, but what about Pankaj Singh, who has been consistently taking 35-plus wickets over the last four years, or Rituraj Singh, who took 26 wickets in just four outings, including the final at 15.03, three five-fors and one ten-for, and Man of the Match in three matches out of these four.

There is also the case of Harshal Patel, who impressed one and all in his two successive eight-fors in the quarterfinals against Karnataka and the semifinals against Rajasthan. However, the selectors have other ideas. Their eye for talent is so sharp that performances do not matter at all. They can spot talent among complete non-performers. Speed guns are dictating more medium pacer selections these days than wicket taking skills.

What about Parvinder Awana. He has done enough both on the speed gun and wicket taking ability. Far better than Varun Aaron, who got picked with just 14 wickets only because he could bowl some balls at 145-plus. Well, Glenn McGrath never bowled 145-plus, yet he is the most successful medium-pacer in history.

Shaun Pollock was just about 130-135. Our selectors have got it all wrong.

What would you say for Rahul Sharma? Even Punjab do not play him regularly. This year he had just two outings for Punjab in the Ranji Trophy. His 12 Ranji games have got him 25 wickets at 44.64 — so much for the next big hope. Why has Piyush Chawla been discarded? If Rahul has been included for his T20 performances, he has the unique distinction of going wicketless for the longest length of time! So obviously performance cannot be the criterion.

Now for Shami Ahmed. He has played all of six matches in two seasons. Bengal do not play him regularly, so it is a definite mystery how he got picked for the East Zone. One four-wicket haul in a Duleep Trophy game and lo and behold, he gets selected for India ‘A’.

Public has to ask these gentlemen as to what the criterion was. Was there a roadmap? Was there a method in this madness? They have retained practically the same batting line-up as the previous ‘A’ tour. Except for Robin Bisht, who comes in for Manish Pandey, and Rohit Sharma, who has come in for Saurabh Tiwary, it remains the same. Why, one may ask. Is there any doubt about the calibre of Ajinkya, Rohit, Cheteshwar, or Mukund? Why Shikhar Dhawan? Why not Mandeep Singh, Ashok Menaria, Surya Yadav or Stuart Binny, or for that matter, Vineet Saxena and Dhiraj Jadhav?

In the last ‘A’ tour, they picked two rookies who had not even played first-class cricket. Jaydev Unadkat clicked, Jaskaran Singh completely flopped. Bipul Sharma and Ganapthy were included in the bowling attack. What a shame that these gentlemen who draw a fat cheque of 25 lakh per annum are so utterly incompetent or worse still, biased. Every selector has got at least one boy from his quota. Hirwani has included Jalaj. RP and Bhuvneswar have probably come from some other quota. Shami Ahmed is Raja Venkat’s contribution. Darekar is from Pune, so Bhave has obliged his benefactors. Amarnath has contributed Shikhar Dhawan over Rajat Bhatia’s far superior all-round performance.
What’s going on here?

If someone files a public interest petition and asks for a logic behind these selections, I wonder what will come out of these gentlemen. It is a scandal, no less.

—The writer is a principal secretary in the Rajasthan Government and a former president of Rajasthan Cricket Association.
Follow him on Twitter: @Sanjay_Dixit
(The views expressed are personal)