From: pvr@argo.rice.edu (PVR Narasimha Rao)
Subject: RESULT: Opinion Poll: Indian Team Selection
Organization: Rice University
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 05:33:29 GMT



Here are the results of the opinion poll. Thanks to all those who
participated in it. There were 48 entries.

As I was in a hurry when preparing the questionnaire, I left out some
vital questions.  Thanks to the person who brought it to my attention
that I left out W.V.Raman. Someone suggested that I should've included
a question on Srinath too (just like Banerjee) as his position in the
team wasn't secure.

Also, after looking at the response for the quetsion on off-spinners,
I feel I should have included some more alternatives. For wicket
keepers, I feel I should've included Vijay Yadav. A question on
whether Shastri should open or should come late if chosen to play in
ODIs would've been interesting. I am sure I could've made the
questionnaire more comprehensive, but, as I said, I was in a hurry.

It's tough to capture the realities of real life in objective type
questions. When I ask, "should Amre be in the test XI or Kambli", it
is tough to answer it now. There are so many if's and but's. A lot
depends on their forms at that time etc. But, all that can't be
helped, if one wants an objective type questionnaire (i.e., with
quantitative answers rather than qualitative answers).

Instead of giving each question in the same order and giving the
results, let me group the questions into various parts (like questions
on openers, questions on spinners etc) (I should've probably done it
even when giving the questions) and give the results, so you can
compare the verdicts given for/against various hopefuls.

	[note: number in brackets following each question is the #
	       of netters who answered that particular question]

(1) Captaincy:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Who should be the captain of the Indian team? (48)

	Kapil Dev                      50.4167 %
	Mohd Azharuddin                39.1667 %
	Ravi Shastri                    9.58333 %
	Sanjay Manjrekar                0.833333 %
	None of these                   0. %

Who should be the vice captain? (48)

	Sanjay Manjrekar               30.4167 %
	Mohd Azharuddin                30.2083 %
	Ravi Shastri                   21.6667 %
	Sachin Tendulkar                8.95833 %
	None of these                   8.75000 %

	[though Manjrekar has more votes than Azhar, it is likely that
	those who voted him did so, as they voted Azhar as the
	captain. So, it looks like the verdict is that Azhar should be
	the deputy to Kapil]


(2) Opening batsmen:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                                         YES (%)      No (%)

(A) Tests:


Should Shastri be retained in the test team? (48)        75.4167     24.5833

Should Sidhu be selected for the tour? (47)              71.2500     28.7500

Should Ajay Jadeja be given a chance in
the test team? (47)                                      64.3750     35.6250

Should Srikkanth be retained in the test team? (46)       5.86957    94.1304

	[note: this was "the strongest" (the most unanimous) verdict
	in the poll]


(B) ODIs:


Should Jadeja be retained in the ODI team? (45)          70.2174     29.7826

Should Shastri be recalled for the ODIs? (48)            44.1667     55.8333

Does Mujibur Rehman deserve a chance in ODIs? (38)       41.8421     58.1579

	[note: understandably, this is the question most respondents
	left out without answering. MR is considered to be a young
	Srikkanth. He is not a Ranji king, he is not even a regular
	member of the TN team. But, he is very aggressive.
	Likely to replace Srikkanth in the ODIs in the long run.]

Should Srikkanth be retained in the ODI team? (47)       31.4583     68.5417

	[Srikkanth had the second highest aggregate and average in ODIs (among
	Indians) since his recall. He won the highest # of MoM's among Indians.
	However, his 3 ducks in the world cup seem to rule him out from the
	minds of many netters]


[Overall, it appears like most respondents are unhappy with the ODI
openers.  I wish I included two different questions on Sidhu, one for
tests and one for ODIs]


(3) Pace bowlers:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Should Abey Kuruvilla be selected for this tour? (43)    72.7273     27.2727

	[though Kuruvilla made his 1st class debut only in May 1991,
	there seems to be a feeling that he will be the saviour of
	Indian cricket .....]

Should Banerjee be given some more chances? (44)         59.0909     40.9091

Does Chetan Sharma deserve another chance? (47)           6.2500     53.7500

	[note: This was "the closest" verdict in the poll]

Should Vivek Razdan be recalled for the test team? (46)   5.4348     54.5652

Should Atul Wasson be recalled? (46)                      1.3043     78.6957


(4) Spinners (Leg and Left-arm):
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


(A) Tests:


Should Maninder be selected for the test team? (48)      69.5833     30.4167

Should Kumble be given another chance in
the test team? (45)                                      62.1739     37.8261

Should Hirwani be tried in the test team for
some more time? (48)                                     34.1667     65.8333

	[there seems to be a good support for the return of Maninder, who
	is doing well in the domestic matches after being sacked for no
	good reason. But the problem is Raju, another left-arm
	spinner, has already established himself in the team. Hirwani
	doesn't seem to have much support (to be fair to him, he
	wasn't given many chances after his recall, except in the tour
	matches).]


(B) ODIs:


Should Raju be retained in the ODI team? (45)            78.9130     21.0870

Should Kumble be given another chance in ODIs? (44)      70.9091     29.0909

	[Raju, who did well in ODIs on the Aussie tour, after Kumble
	was sacked followling the Sharjah cup, seems to be the
	favorite ODI spinner]


(5) Off-spinners:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Which off-spinner is to be preferred for ODIs? (46)

	None of these                 46.5217 %         "None of these" got
	Arshad Ayub                   28.2609 %         more support than Ayub
	Aashish Kapoor                16.5217 %         and Kapoor together
	Saradindu Mukherjee           7.82609 %         did!

[It is not clear whether those who selected "none of these" had
someone in mind or they thought there was no one good enough. Some
people who gave verbal answers specificaly wrote, "we have no offie
good enough. Let's choose from Raju, Kumble, Maninder, Hirwani".

Other off-spinners in India, that come to mind, are Gopal Sharma,
M.Venkataramana, Kanvaljeet Singh, Sanjay Patil, Yogendra Bhandari. MV
was given chances and failed.  He is not doing well even for TN. KS
started his career for Hyderabad rather well (after Shivlal Yadav
retired), but seems to have slowed down. GS, after his dismal show on a
spinner's pitch at Chandigarh, doesn't deserve more chances. SP and
YB bowled well for Bombay and Haryana respectively in the Ranji final
'91, with YB being more impressive. But, Vengy's sixers seem to have
killed the confidence of YB.  He didn't do very well this season.
Nor did SP.]


(6) Wicket keepers:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Should Syed Kirmani be tried again? (46)                 11.7391     88.2609

	[this is the second strongest verdict against a player in this poll]

Who should be the reserve wicket keeper? (46)

	Syed Saba Karim               28.9130 %       A very tight
	Chandrakant Pandit            27.1739 %       competition between
	Nayen Mongia                  26.5217 %       these three.
	Rajeev Vinayak                11.7391 %
	None of these                 5.65217 %

	[when the sample size is so small, these numbers should not be
	taken too seriously. It can be concluded that Karim, Pandit
	and Mongia have almost the same support]


(7) Ranji kings:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Should K.P. Bhaskar be selected for the tour? (42)       28.8095     71.1905

Should Amarjeet Kaypee be selected for the tour? (40)    20.7500     79.2500

Should Surendra Bhave be selected for the tour? (39)     15.7895     84.2105


[for them, this will be the last chance. If they don't get selected now,
they will probably never be (except, perhaps, Bhave)]


(8) Batsmen:
~~~~~~~~~~~


Should Manjrekar be retained in the playing
eleven for tests? (46)                                   93.0435      6.95652

	[this was the strongest verdict in favor of a player in this poll]

Should Kambli be given some more chances in ODIs? (48)    91.4583      8.54167

	[this was the second strongest verdict in favor of a player in
	this poll.

	India struggled in most ODIs in the slog overs. The slot
	vacated by SRT, who was promoted to #4 in the Aisa cup final,
	is still not filled. Amre proved to be a wrong person for that
	slot. There seems to be a hope that Kambli will fill up that
	slot in the long run]

Should Amre be selected in the playing eleven for
tests (i.e. should he make his test debut)? (47)          85.0000     15.0000

Should Kambli make his test debut? (45)                   65.0000     35.0000

	[Mostly, either Amre or Kambli will make their debut, as
	Vengsarkar has retired. Amre seems to have more support than
	Kambli]


(9) Batting positions:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Should Tendulkar remain at #4 (in the batting order)
in tests (as was the case on the Aussie tour)? (48)       91.6667     8.33333

Should Tendulkar remain at #4 (in the batting order)
in ODIs (as was the case on the Aussie tour)? (48)        83.5417    16.4583


Should Azhar bat at #3 in ODIs as he did
in the World Cup? (47)                                    60.4167    39.5833

Should Amre be, if selected for the playing eleven
for ODIs, asked to continue to bat #6 or #7
as he did in Aus? (48)                                    21.2500    78.7500

	[Tendulkar proved that he could play the anchor role well when
	was promoted to #4. Most voters want him to continue to bat
	there. Players like Amre and Manjrekar need some time settle
	down and play their shots, while Azhar can play his shots as
	soon as he comes in. However, some people argue that Azhar's
	talent is being wasted at #5 or #6 (SRT is #4). Also, he did
	very well at #3 in WC. But, the problem will be to decide
	where Manjrekar and Amre should bat. In Aus, Amre was asked to
	bat at #6/7, as #3,4,5 were filled up with other players,
	though he wasn't an ideal choice for #6/7.  All these complex
	problems are not as easy to solve as they may look like ......]


Once again, thanks to all those who took part in it. It was
interesting to see what people thought about various issues, though I
doubt if this is a reflection of the opinions of an average RSCer (the
# of respondents is only 48).

BTW, SRT's average in county championship in his last 9 innings (i.e.,
since his century for RoW against England in a festival match) is
around 70. His average in the Sunday league is around 55.

This is likely to be my last post to this newsgroup for a long time to
come. Good luck to you all and your favorite teams (and favorite
players)!


--------
PVR Narasimha [ Good luck SRT
                Good bye  RSC ] Rao