From: pvr@argo.rice.edu (PVR Narasimha Rao)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: OPINION POLL: Indian Team Selection
Date: 15 Aug 1992 01:54:26 GMT
Organization: Rice University


[This is a REPOST. I haven't got any good response so far and it will
be ridiculous if give out the results with such a meagre response. It
will hardly be an indication of the opinion of an average RSCer. I hope
I will get some more entries (before the Indian team for the tour to
Zim and SA is announced). Please note that your responses will be kept
strictly confidential (even from me, provided you give the responses in
the format I suggested. If you use any other format convenient for you
I will have to convert it into my format and I will have to look into
your entry for that)]

_____________________________________________________________________


The exciting test series between the winners and the runners of the World Cup
is coming to an end. Barring Australia's tour of SL, the next major tour is
going to be India's tour of Zim and SA.

There are several issues that should concern the selectors as well as the tour
management when selecting the team (the tour team as well as the final 11). On
RSC, we get to read the opinions of a few netters, we never get to know what
an average RSCer feels about these issues. It'll be interesting to know that.
So is this opinion poll in front of you. To take part in it, you don't need to
be an Indian.

There will be a questionnaire after this introduction. All you have to do is
to mail me your answers. It doesn't take much time. I hope you will show
enthusiasm and make it successful. Not that BCCI will give some weightage to
what the netters feel, but it'll be interesting to know. Moreover, it'll be
fun for you too.

Now, on how to give your answers:

All these are objective type questions. You have to select an answer from the
alternatives given [a,b; a,b,c,d; a,b,c,d,e].

However, if you prefer, you can "fuzzify" your answers. I'll explain what I
mean. Suppose I ask you to select either `yes' or `no'. Instead of selecting
one, you can say, your answer is 60% yes and 40% no (or, 20% yes and 80% no). 
In other words, you will distribute 100% among all the possible alternatives. 
That means you don't have a fixed opinion and it is sort of fuzzy. This makes
more sense because most of the brain processes are supposed to be based on
this sort of a logic rather than a digital logic (i.e. 100% or 0%).

In case you are not comfortable with this fuzzification, you can just give one
alternative as well. It means you are giving 100% to that alternative and 0%
to all others. You can also give fuzzy ansers to some questions and fixed (or
digital) answers to some. You will see what I mean in the sample answer sheet.

You don't need to waste too much of your time thinking of whether to give 64%
or 62%, say. Just put the numbers that come to your mind. Don't be too fussy
about them. Any approximation is better than a digital approximation (i.e.
approximating to either 100% or 0%)! Also, don't bother too much about whether
you know much about the question or not and whether you are qualified to
judge. Just have some fun answering the questions.

Please try to send in your answers (to pvr@rice.edu or pvr@argo.rice.edu or
reply to this post) as early as possible. I am not sure when the team is to
be selected. I guess it'll be around the end of this month (or early Sept?).
I'll try to post a summary of the responses shortly before the selection.
I'll give equal weightages to the responses of all netters. If you have
accounts on more machines, please send only one mail.

BTW, all these responses will be, no need to say, kept confidential. So, don't
bother about it and give your frank opinions [for example, may be you want to
vote Ravi Shastri as the captain and don't want others to know it :-)].

If you don't have any opinion at all about certain question, you can choose to
leave it blank. But please try to minimize the number of blank entries.

The questionnaire and a sample of how to give your answers will follow. After
that, to refresh your memory on these issues, there will be a very brief
summary of sample arguments (which are not necessarily my views) in favor of
each alternative in each question.


Questionnaire:
~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) Who should be the captain of the Indian team?

                (a) Mohd Azharuddin
                (b) Kapil Dev
                (c) Ravi Shastri
                (d) Sanjay Manjrekar
                (e) None of these

(2) Who should be the vice captain?

                (a) Mohd Azharuddin
                (b) Ravi Shastri
                (c) Sanjay Manjrekar
                (d) Sachin Tendulkar
                (e) None of these

(3) Should Manjrekar be retained in the playing eleven for tests?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(4) Should Amre be selected in the playing eleven for tests (i.e. should
    he make his test debut)?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(5) Should Maninder be selected for the test team?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(6) Should Hirwani be tried in the test team for some more time?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(7) Should Kumble be given another chance in ODIs?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(8) Should Kambli be given some more chances in ODIs?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(9) Should Kambli make his test debut?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(10) Should Srikkanth be retained in the ODI team?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(11) Should Srikkanth be retained in the test team?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(12) Should Ajay Jadeja be given a chance in the test team?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(13) Should Jadeja be retained in the ODI team?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(14) Should Shastri be retained in the test team?


                (a) yes         (b) no

(15) Should Shastri be recalled for the ODIs?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(16) Should Kumble be given another chance in the test team?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(17) Should Raju be retained in the ODI team?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(18) Should Bannerjee be given some more chances?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(19) Should Abey Kuruvilla be selected for this tour?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(20) Should Atul Wasson be recalled?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(21) Should Vivek Razdan be recalled for the test team?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(22) Should Sidhu be selected for the tour?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(23) Does Mujibur Rehman deserve a chance in ODIs?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(24) Should K.P. Bhaskar be selected for the tour?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(25) Should Amarjeet Kaypee be selected for the tour?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(26) Should Surendra Bhave be selected for the tour?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(27) Should Kiramani be tried again?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(28) Who should be the reserve wicket keeper?

                (a) Chandrakant Pandit
                (b) Syed Saba Karim
                (c) Nayen Mongia
                (d) Raju Vinayak
                (e) None of these

(29) Should Tendulkar remain at #4 (in the batting order)
     in tests (as was the case on the Aussie tour)?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(30) Same question (as above) for ODIs ...

                (a) yes         (b) no

(31) Should Azhar bat at #3 in ODIs as he did in the World Cup?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(32) Should Amre be, if selected for the playing eleven for ODIs,
     asked to continue to bat #6 or #7 as he did in Aus?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(33) Does Chetan Sharma deserve another chance?

                (a) yes         (b) no

(34) Which off-spinner is to be preferred for ODIs?

                (a) Arshad Ayub
                (b) Saradindu Mukherjee
                (c) Aashish Kapoor
                (d) None of these


To give your answers, cut the following and fill it up with numbers:

--------------------Cut here-----------------

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 
33 
34 

--------------------Cut here-----------------


A sample answer:     (not _my_ response)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 35 45 15 5 0     [i.e., Kapil 45%, Azhar 35%, Shastri 15%, Manj 5%]
2 45 40 15 0 0     [i.e., Azhar 45%, Shastri 40%, Manj 15%]
3 a                [i.e., yes]  [it is equivalent to '100 0']
4                  [i.e., no opinion]
5 67 33            [i.e., not sure. 67% yes and 33% no]
6 40 60            [i.e., not sure. 40% yes and 60% no]
7                  [i.e., no opinion]
8 a                [i.e., yes]  [it is equivalent to '100 0']
9 b                [i.e., no]   [it is equivalent to '0 100']

 :
 :
 :


Sample arguments (very brief):  (to refresh your memory on these issues)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) Who should be the captain of the Indian team?

        (a) Deserves another chance. Very positive approach. Refreshing
attitude towards the game. If we remove him, we may be making the same mistake
we made earlier - dropping a captain because of the collective loss. Azhar is
slowly becoming more and more assertive. He is learning and bettering.

        (b) India's performance in the world cup was disastrous. In fact,
there is a clear difference in India's performance in the 2 world cups with
Kaps as the cap and the remaining world cups. Kaps has matured with time. He
is a motivating leader. A talented team with a low morale like the present
Indian team needs someone like him. He led India to victory in 1983 and his
Haryana team, which is not a great team, won the Ranji trophy in 1991.

        (c) Shastri is a shrewd captain as he proved earlier. He is a thinking
type and his success at Chepauk makes one think he deserves a chance atleast
in the present situation when there seems to be a dearth of captaincy
material. He established himself in the test team and the bad performance of
India in his absence in the world cup makes one think his solidity is a must
even in ODIs. So, he is one of those who are assured of a place in the team.

        (d) Though he didn't captain even Bombay for a long time, he seems to
be a shrewd cricketer. Since there is no automatic choice, he can be tried
just as Azhar was tried sometime back.

(2) Who should be the vice captain?

        (a) He showed that he could learn with time. So, keeping him under
Kapil and giving him captaincy after Kaps retires after, say, 3-4 years will
be good long term plan. Remember that Azhar was asked to captain India without
much prior experience.

        (b) The eternal choice for VC. He is only 29. If he keeps up his good
performances in the recent past, he can be the next captain and serve for a
reasonably long time.

        (c) He is a good candidate for captaincy in future. Making him VC now
instead of making some old player who has little chance of leading India in
future is not a good long-term strategy. If you make Manjrekar cap, it'll
prove to be good in the long run as it will prepare for the task in the
future.

        (d) Manjrekar and 10dulkar are more or less contemporaries. So, we
have to select one of them for captaincy right now. If we make Manjrekar VC
now and, after Kapil retires (say), decide that Tend will be a better cap than
Manj, we will have to make him captain without much practice. So, the choice
has to be made now. Tend loks like a better prospect than Manj.

(3) Should Manjrekar be retained in the playing eleven for tests?

        (a) He is extremely talented cricketer. He was in bad form for such a
long time that it makes sense to think he will recover it on this tour.

        (b) He didn't play well in any series after his success in Pak (he did
reasonably well in Eng in one match though). Dropping him from the team in the
World cup for a match did good to him in the next match. Dropping himn for a
series may help him focus better (like in the case of Shastri who did well on
the Eng tour after being dropped for the NZ tour).

(4) Should Amre be selected in the playing eleven for tests (i.e. should
    he make his test debut)?

        (a) He is a talented bat. He did very well in domestic matches. On his
ODI debut, he played a nice knock in a low-scoring match going in to bat in a
bad situation. He has the ideal temperament for tests as evidenced in his ODI
innings. Moreover, he will be a good replacement for Vengy. He is a very god
fielder.

        (b) There are other worthy candidates.

(5) Should Maninder be selected for the test team?

        (a) He did well in domestic matches. Also, there wasn't any good
reason for dropping him. He was dropped probably because of the physical brawl
he had with Prabhakar during some league (?) match.

        (b) Raju is also a left-arm spinner. He has already establishe himself
in the team. We don't need two of them.

(6) Should Hirwani be tried in the test team for some more time?

        (a) He had a fantastic debut. If he manages to get back that touch, he
can be a match-winner for India.

        (b) He has been doing badly for a very long time. He is another Siva.

(7) Should Kumble be given another chance in ODIs?

        (a) He was extremely economical in the ODI played in (Eng, Sharjah).
As the pitches in SA are likely to have a lot of bounce, his fastish
leg-breaks with a lot of top-spin will be tough to handle. His batting also
improved a lot in the last year. He is very young. He will ad variety to the
attack.

        (b) He is a very poor fielder. In ODIs, that can matter a lot. Raju
did well in Aus and, so, it will be tough to remove him to get Kumble into the
ODI team (we don't need 2 spinners in most matches).

(8) Should Kambli be given some more chances in ODIs?

        (a) He is a talented batsman. India needs someone who can play
dazzling innigs now and then. We lost most matches in the last 10 overs in
recent past (after a good start). Our middle order and lower middle order are
not strong enough. Kambli is likely to stabilize it in the long run. He can
open if necessary.

        (b) He did badly in the wolrd cup.

(9) Should Kambli make his test debut?

        (a) We need a replacement for Vengy. He is a talented batsman and will
prove to be a good replacement in long run. He is a leftie.

        (b) His temperament is not suited for tests. He needs to prove a lot
before he can make it to the test team. Amre is a better choice.

(10) Should Srikkanth be retained in the ODI team?

        (a) He did well in WSC. He was next only to SRT in the aggregate and
the average. Almost whenever he batted well, India won the match. He won the
highest number of MoM's (among Indians) since his recall. After scoring the
second highest number of runs (and he was a _clear_ second, with no one near
him) in WSC, he doesn't deserve to be dropped.

        (b) He is getting old and his reflexes are getting weaker (he bases
his play on them more than any other player). Almost all the bowlers in the
world know his weaknesses as demonstrated in the world cup. Other aggressive
openers like VB, Mujibur Rehman deserve a chance at his cost. Moreover we have
solid and semi-aggressive openers like Jadeja, aggressive openers like Sidhu,
solid openers like Shastri as the alternatives.

(11) Should Srikkanth be retained in the test team?

        (a) No better alternative. Sidhu is injury-prone.

        (b) He didn't do well at all on the Aussie tour. He is finished.
Jadeja is a good alternative (Sidhu and Shastri are there of course).

(12) Should Ajay Jadeja be given a chance in the test team?

        (a) He has a good temperament for an opener ("... he is as good as
anyone else is ..." - Kapil). With Srikkanth struggling, Sidhu being
injury-prone, he deserves a chance. He proved his temperament in the match
against Pak in the world cup.

        (b) Srikkanth deserves another chance. So does Sidhu. We may consider
taking MV Sridhar (Hyderabad, Ranji king) into the team. Shastri is a
certainty.

(13) Should Jadeja be retained in the ODI team?

        (a) He did well in the world cup match v Pak. We need someone like him
who is solid, but can play semi-aggressively. He is a good fielder and a
decent bowler.

        (b) He didn't do well in the other matchesin the world cup. Moreover,
we want Shastri to return to the team. We can't afford to have two slow
openers in ODIs. We need someone who is aggressive, like Srikkanth, Sidhu etc.
We have other aggressive openers to choose from.

(14) Should Shastri be retained in the test team?

        (a) He was second only to Azhar (at his best) in England. He did well
v SL. He did well in the third test against Aus also. There is reason to drop
him.

        (b) His bowling is suspect (though he grabbed 4 wickets inb the second
innings of the third test in Aus) these days. He bats very slowly.

(15) Should Shastri be recalled for the ODIs?

        (a) He scored 2 centuries (one of them was a win) in the last 2 years
in ODIs! He didn't do very badly in WSC though he played very slowly in the
first few matches. He had had scores. In his absense, India did badly in WC.

        (b) He is too slow and selfish. India lost the first match (v Eng) in
WC only because of his half-century. Even in the second match, he was very
slow. He is not a great fielder and his bowling is also getting worse.

(16) Should Kumble be given another chance in the test team?

        (a) He is a long-term prospect. He deserves ro be promoted in the
place of Horwani. His style is very similar to Chandra's. He did well in
domestic cricket and rose from the club level to the zonal level rather
quickly. He's young. He will add variety to the attack.

        (b) Raju is doing well. We may not be playing 2 spinners in most
matches (Shastri will be there anyway). Even when we play, Hirwani is a worthy
contender. Maninder too.

(17) Should Raju be retained in the ODI team?

        (a) He did well (conceded around 3.4 runs on average per over) in the
onedayers he played on the tour of Aus. He is a shrewd bowler. He can bat.

        (b) He is not a very good fielder. Kumble conceded around 1.8-2.6 runs
per over in the onedayers he played in (which were few in number).

(18) Should Bannerjee be given some more chances?

        (a) He could swing the ball a lot in some matches. With some more
control, he can be devastating. (BTW, he made his first-class debut with a
hat-trick.)

        (b) Erratic. Injury-prone. Kuruvilla, Wasson, Razdan, Vaidya, Zaidi etc
are good alternatives (apart from Srinath, of course).

(19) Should Abey Kuruvilla be selected for this tour?

        (a) Tipped to have a great future. Great control. Good swing. Fast.
Already he is 25. It may not be too early, if he makes debut now.

        (b) Little first class experience (made debut in May 1991 in Ranji
final).

(20) Should Atul Wasson be recalled?

        (a) Bowled well in NZ. Struggled to get back his rhythm in Eng and was
dropped. Now he has his rhythm back (he did well in the first class matches).
He is young and deserves a chance.

        (b) We have other alternatives (Srinath, Bannerjee, Kuruvilla etc). He
is somewhat erratic.

(21) Should Vivek Razdan be recalled for the test team?

        (a) Bowled well on debut without first class experience. Tipped by
coach Lillee to become a great bowler. Of all the young bowlers, possibly has
the best bowling action (very similar to Lillee's). Competent batsman. Scored
2 centuries and took 28 wickets this season. Has the spark. It just has to be
used. Young.

        (b) We have enough contenders even without considering him.  Delhi
team-mate Wasson is more consistent in first class matches than Razdan. His
5-wkts (in the first innings of his last test match) at Sialkot were on a
green wicket.

(22) Should Sidhu be selected for the playing eleven in tests?

        (a) He is a talented opener. He can win matches on his own when he
gets going. With Srikkanth struggling and Jadeja being inexperienced Sidhu
should have edge over them for becoming Shastri's opening partner.

        (b) He is injury-prone. He hasn't done well for a long time. Jadeja
may do well, if given a chance.

(23) Does Mujibur Rehman deserve a chance in ODIs?

        (a) With Srikkanth failing (three ducks in WC), we need a replacement.
Mujibur is somewhat like Srikkanth. He has the same spark. He is a natural
stroke-player. He is young.

        (b) Srikkanth deserves chance for some more time. Moreover, MR needs
some more experience.

(24) Should K.P. Bhaskar be selected for the tour?
 (25) Should Amarjeet Kaypee be selected for the tour?
  (26) Should Surendra Bhave be selected for the tour?

        (a) They are all getting old and, if they have to be selected
sometime, it has to be now. A choice has to be made on them now. All of them
have prolific performances in first class matches. Bhaskar has even been
successful against touring teams.

        (b) They are too old to be considered. Even if they come good, they
can't serve the country for a long time. There are several other young batsmen
who deserve a chance.

(27) Should Kiramani be tried again?

        (a) More is not doing well. He is taking his position in the team for
granted. Kirmani did well in first class matches in the last 1-2 years. Though
old, he still has those reflexes. Atleast, he is not worse than More.

        (b) Too old. Not really as good (today) as the propaganda suggests.

(28) Who should be the reserve wicket keeper?

        Not much to say here. Pandit (a) and Karim (b) are good bats.

(29) Should Tendulkar be remain at #4 (in the batting order)
     in tests (as was the case on the Aussie tour)?

        (a) That position suits him well as his scores in Aus suggest. He will
have an opportunity to build good scores, which he seems to be capable of. At
#5 or #6, he will not have this much chance to do that.

        (b) It is better for Manjrekar and Amre (if selected, for both) to bat
higher the order. Also, Azhar was a grand-success at first-down in the world
cup. Dropping him to #5 or #6 hasn't done god to Azhar. So, even in tests, he
may consider batting at #4 (or #3).

(30) Same question (as above) for ODIs ...

        More or less same logic.

(31) Should Azhar bat at #3 in ODIs as he did in the World Cup?

        (a) He was a huge success there. He gave great starts in quite a few
matches in the wolrd cup. At #4 or #5, Azhar's talent is being wasted.

        (b) We have other capable bats like Manjrekar and Amre who can bat at
#3. They need sometime to build their innings unlike Azhar who can get into
the act rather quickly.

(32) Should Amre be, if selected for the playing eleven for ODIs,
     asked to continue to bat #6 or #7 as he did in Aus?

        (a) Manjrekar (or Kambli), Azhar, SRT etc occupy all other spots.

        (b) He needs some time to settle down. But, once he settles down, he
can play sweet knocks. He has the strokes for that. For such a player, #6 is
definitely not a right position. He can't play his natural game if he comes in
with 10 overs to go with some slogging to do. India lost quite a few matches
in the last 10 overs in the last season.

(33) Does Chetan Sharma deserve another chance?

        (a) In his last ODI, he scored an unbeaten century. He bowled well in
first class matches in the last 2 years. He was exposed to international
cricket when too young and inexperienced. Now, he is much more mature. If
Kapil is the cap, he can get the best out of him.

        (b) There are simply to many other alternatives, which seem to be more
promising. BTW, have you forgot that Sharjah match? :-)

(34) Which off-spinner is to be preferred for ODIs?

        (a) Did well till the Pak tour. Was dropped just because of that
failure. Did well in first class matches after that. Not very old.

        (b) Did reasonably well against SL and Bangladesh on debut.

        (c) Did well for TN. A good bat. Young. Deserves to be tried.


--------
PVR Narasimha [SRT is simply the best
               Whether it's an ODI or a test] Rao

_____________________________________________________________________


--------
PVR Narasimha [SRT is simply the best
               Whether it's an ODI or a test] Rao