The idea of making two equally strong teams could provide many answers, opines Sai R. Vaidyanathan

IT was an experiment that had gone sour; when the selectors split the winning Indian team into ‘two equally strong’ teams, one heading for the Commonwealth Games in Kaula Lumpur and the other for the Sahara Cup in Toronto, Canada.

It was a brilliant idea which was not properly executed. The selectors put Sachin, Robin, Kumble and Jadeja on the flight to Kaula Lumpur, and the rest of the senior squad to Toronto. The selectors didn't realise that these four players have a very important place in any winning Indian line-up. They are 'fighters' and could change the course of a game. Sachin at the opening slot could make a mockery of any bowling attack. As shown on many previous occasions, Robin and Jadeja have the ability to change gears and lift the run rate considerably. Kumble is a bowler who is not easy to get away, and the Indian skipper Azharuddin has shown tremendous belief in his ability by giving him the ball before the end of 15 overs, or in the last 10.

Even Sachin, Robin and Jadeja have contributed with the ball when India decides to go in with an extra batsman.

Its well known that 'bowlers hunt in pairs', but surprisingly, so do batsmen. Breaking up the successful opening pair of Ganguly and Sachin was as bad as committing murder. Bringing in Sidhu, for whom to find any other place in the line-up where Sachin and Ganguly open is virtually impossible, was a catastrophe. Both Sidhu and Ganguly are great batsmen but they had difficulty in piercing the field for singles in the first 15 overs. Add to that, the reputation of Ganguly being a bad runner between the wickets and Sidhu being a bad judge of sneaky singles. It was difficult to keep the Toronto scoreboard ticking. At one and two down were Azhar and Dravid, and out of these four batsmen, only Azhar is capable of steering the ball away for singles. To compound problems, two good runners between the wickets, Robin and Jadeja, were almost half the globe away !

It was just as pathetic in Malaysia. Four experienced players in a group of youngsters. Sachin couldn't find an opening partner so soon, and the pressure to perform affected his prowess. The importance of the batting line-up showed itself in Toronto when Sachin, in fever and suffering from jet-lag, had a good knock in the fifth encounter.

For about a year or so, the players all over the world have been complaining about too much cricket. It has resulted in injuries to many fast bowlers like Srinath, Prasad, Akram, Waqar Younis and even spinners like Shane Warne. This has resulted in either the shortening of their bowling run-up, or their careers.

After the 4-1 debacle in Toronto, the Indian team flew back to India and again flew off to Zimbabwe. Nobody had the time to access what went wrong or what happened right. Even when Pakistan and Australia were playing a series in Pakistan, they had in its midst a competition called the Wills International Cup in Dhaka. That was not a small affair as all Test playing nations were competing.

Consider the contrast. A bowler like Prasad is not able to get the place he deserves in the Indian squad as he is not playing in the middle. And there is no substitute of spending time there, at the top most level of the game. Whenever he gets a chance, he, under the pressure to perform well, performs the very opposite.

Players like Kambli, Sidhu, Dravid, Mohanty, Harvinder, Sanghvi and Raju all have performed occasionally for India but they will have to perform continuously at that level. Only then will they improve.

There is no point in splitting the opening pair of Sachin and Ganguly, but what about Sidhu ? Sidhu is an excellent player with an average of 40 runs per innings in one-dayers

Batsmen like Dravid, Kambli, Kanitkar and Amre don't have a chance in a line-up having Azhar, Robin and Jadeja.

Mongia is an excellent wicket-keeper batsman and only Saba Karim was able to replace him for a small period of time. Many wicket-keeper batsmen like P. Dharmani must be waiting in the wings for their chance of wearing the shirt with India written over it.

Similarly, Srinath is India's main strike bowler, and Agarkar has the distinction of getting the highest number of wickets this year in one-dayers. But where to place Prasad ? Prasad is placed second on that same list with 25 wickets compared to Agarkar's 36, and both are ahead of South African speedster, Allan Donald's 23 (India Today, Aug 10, 1998). Prasad topped the international cricketer ratings for 1996-97. And who better than Abey Kuruvila to bowl wicket-to-wicket in a one-day game. Then there is a new crop of pace bowlers like Mohanty and Harvinder Singh.

Kumble has an almost permanent place in the Indian squad. Raju, Chauhan, Joshi, Harbhajan and Sanghvi are other spinners one could choose from. But all of them together can't make it to the playing 11.

Considering the enormous amount of cricketing talent in the country, another team of experienced and talented players could be assembled.

This team could have Sidhu and VVS Laxman as the opening pair. Talented players like Dravid, Kambli, Kanitkar and Amre in the middle order, Saba Karim as wicketkeeper, Prasad, Kuruvila heading the pace attack, and Sanghvi and Chauhan spinning the ball. This could be a possible 11, and there are still some talented players mentioned above left out of this 11 !

It is imperative that pairs who perform well together and line-ups where players complement each other should not be ripped apart even after a few failures. The selectors should persevere with them, and senior players could help them get over their problems.

The two teams thus prepared would play India's fixtures alternatingly. One team would go for one series and the other would go for the next.

How would this help ? Firstly, for 2the players who play so much, they would have time to rest between two series. It is specially useful to pace bowlers who would be able to give some rest to their aching muscles.

There is no dearth of cricketing talent in the country and more players would be able to put their talent to use.

One would have a lot of players performing at the top most level to choose from when it comes to an important tournament like the World Cup.

It should not be a water-tight compartmentalisation of players in any team. Players can be transferred to any team, depending on the conditions under which a series is being played.

New players should be inducted into the side according to their performance in the domestic scene. Players who just recovered from injury like Srinath or Prasad or who were dropped for technical reasons like Chauhan and Harbhajan for their bowling actions, could even get to play in consecutive series just to get their rhythm back.

Any considerations that a team without star-players like Sachin, Azhar, Jadeja, Srinath etc would be a class II team are uncalled for. With experienced players like Sidhu, Kambli, Dravid, Prasad, Laxman and Chauhan, they have talent to beat any team. And, if they do, imagine how their confidence would peak. They would have done so without the services of their star-comrades !

Let's try and experiment with this idea. If handled well, this may turn out to be our panacea for the World Cup '99 and beyond !.