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WTF!

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So it is in the news now. Laxman will not go to South Africa. And here is what the chairman of the selectors had to say -

VVS Laxman is a class player but he has a fitness problem,” said Vengsarkar when asked about his case, “and we thought his fitness wasn’t good enough for one-day cricket. Raina has the potential but he needs to perform now. I think we need to groom him.

Let me say it again. WTF!! I think we shall hear from Laxman within the next 24 hours and I have a faint idea that it might not be what Vengsarkar would want to hear!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 11:10 am and is filed under Cricket.

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15 Responses to “WTF!”

  1. d.n.a. http://boomboommadu.blogspot.com

    October 30th, 2006 at 3:36 pm

    I’m surprised how ardent cricket fans all get surprised after every team selection. Since when playing cricket was BCCI’s priority?

  2. I http://derisivehatred.blogspot.com

    October 31st, 2006 at 6:02 pm

    It’s all vada naatu sadhi.

  3. Dr.Katte http://sskatte.blogspot.com

    October 31st, 2006 at 11:39 pm

    I lost my interest in cricket since the match against WI (during ICC champs trophy). The team selectiion itself was not proper.

  4. superstarksa http://superstarksa.com

    November 1st, 2006 at 12:42 am

    Dr. Katte: I think we have become obsessed with experimentation to such an extent that we have forgotten the basics of team selection!

    I: Actually idly naatu sadhi :P

    D.N.A: It was not so much about the selection. It was about the reasoning. Tell me that we are persisting with Raina, because he is 20 and he has the techinique that will serve India in the long run. But don’t tell me that we are taking Raina solely because he is the better fielder. We did not lose because our fielding was not upto scratch, but rather our batting lineup did not put runs up on the board. Let’s just face it that our bowling attack is rather inexperienced, even with “veterans” like Agarkar. If there is something I feel good about, its the fact that mah man Kumble is back!

  5. I http://derisivehatred.blogspot.com

    November 2nd, 2006 at 6:46 pm

    innaba krish unna kid nu soltan… adada..

  6. superstarksa http://superstarksa.com

    November 2nd, 2006 at 11:45 pm

    I: Inniki I am so happy. Periavanga enna thittitaanga! :D
    But the comment that made me laugh the maximum was the comment that warned me to stay off the “political blogs” and stick to my disney blogs and Rajinikant blogs ;)

  7. Arunn http://www.arunn.net/scienceblog

    November 3rd, 2006 at 5:39 pm

    Yes, what surprises one is that a young and upcoming fumbler like Raina needs “grooming”, while the already “groomed” steady-heads like VVSL are allowed to waste their potential years of contribution in “waiting”.

    You may want to include a link to the response by VVSL, for completion.

    In fact, if you think of it, instead of giving “long-runs” for anymore young-turks before the world cup, there is no harm in calling back the experienced Dada in the limited over form of the game, where in fact he has scored his “10000 and odd” runs. He can as well swing his bat somewhere near the opening or first down slot (first 20 overs) and also can get away with his “bowling” with a few stop-gap overs, in that form of the game and can be the “all-rounder” the team is looking for…

  8. superstarksa http://superstarksa.com

    November 3rd, 2006 at 6:36 pm

    Arunn: I am waiting for his response actually (do you know of one?). But I think Laxman is gotten used to things like this that he is no longer reacting. Mebbe people haven’t asked for a response yet or we are still waiting for someone to actually publish what he said. But having said all that, I think no one will ask him about it, since we already know what his reaction is going to be. For a long time we had older players taking space keeping younger players out on the basis of past form, but this is quite the opposite.
    As for Dada, I would normally have no qualms, but it appears that his presence seems to bring with it a Indian media juggernaut whose presence (already substantial without him) could pose an headache. And I am not sure if Dada will score more points than VVS in the agile category. IMO, we need batting and we have the best sitting outside and if batting was the key sporting variable, I’d rather go for VVS than Dada, particularly because it looks to me that we are going to see a slew of sporting pitches (read 250 run tracks) in the next few months.
    Apart from troubles of his own making, opponents have still not sorted VVS out, unlike Dada, where a short leg, three slips, wide gully and point is a perfect field placement to probe him to frustration. And yes, of course a decent bowling spearhead bowling varying his length between just more than half track to good length in the span of an over is key too.

  9. I http://derisivehatred.blogspot.com

    November 4th, 2006 at 2:52 am

    Very strictly speaking, no Indian batsman really has the technique to play on bouncy wickets except Dravid, IMO. So Laxman, Ganguly whatever will not seriously impact the end result of the Test series. However Laxman did deserve a place in the team is an entirely different issue.

  10. Arunn http://www.arunn.net/scienceblog

    November 4th, 2006 at 3:27 am

    Anantha: Here is VVSL’s response.

    I wrote a long comment on the other issues (Dada and pace attack). It became so long that I decided to post it at my other blog. Not to waste your bandwidth. Take a look later and comment there or here… ;)

  11. superstarksa http://superstarksa.com

    November 4th, 2006 at 3:58 am

    I: I thought we are talking only about a ODI series now. Btw, what prompted you to say that Dravid is the only one? Why not Laxman and certainly why not Sachin? Pray elaborate!

    Arunn: Thanks.. Will update post and will hop over to your blog…

  12. Raj

    November 4th, 2006 at 4:22 am

    Anantha, VVs didnt help himself by poting out of challengers - it was like “Come mr Bull Vengsarkar, kill me”. Our Man Venki took the opportunity to slip through a houdini trick by pushing in Wasim Jaffer - you know, becase Wasim is an “Excellent fielder” :-)

  13. Babblogue XL :: Entries :: Bring Dada Back http://www.arunn.net/personalblog/2006/11/04/bring-dada-back/

    November 4th, 2006 at 7:57 am

    [...] This is one of those public domains topics where all Indians, born as a male and living and dying as a grandfather, father, son and the holy male ghost, have an opinion by which they swear. Of course, it is the birthright of every human, Indian or not, to make a fool of themselves. The recent events of continued omission of VVSL from the Indian One-day Team, his response, and the blog discussions made me write this post. I believe this post will be covered by the likes of NDTV and Rediff because of the sensational title and will receive more galis than Bengalis. Now for the post. The title makes my opinion clear. You can add to Dada, VVS Laxman and Kumble as well. If you already have enough reasons to agree or totally disagree with me on that opinion, don’t bother to read this any further. The rest of the self-doubters and compulsive blog readers can continue. I am not going to talk about statistics much, but can do later depending on the comments and discussions. The recent form slump of the Indian team has made those butterflies take flight in our collective Indian fans stomach about our team’s fortune with the World Cup 2007. In this light, one may remember an year back, around this time, India experimented with another “foreign” coach in Greg Chappell (over Mohinder) and Greg in turn experimented with “foreign” players (read young and untested) upsetting the then existing old-is-gold-past-performance-is-all-that-matters native rule. [...]

  14. I http://derisivehatred.blogspot.com

    November 4th, 2006 at 3:15 pm

    One-day series only, typo. Therla ba, it’s my own prejudiced opinion. I am not sure if I can make a reasonable argument out of it.

  15. superstarksa http://superstarksa.com

    November 5th, 2006 at 8:41 pm

    Raj: I can see you are being sarcastic, but VVS was nursing a minor injury. I have no comments about who they chose. I only have a gripe about the person they omitted!

    I: Actually I’d love to see you try to prove that only Dravid has the technique to play on bouncy tracks. Tell me the others are not in form, but for the love of God, let us not forget Perth in 1991-92, Wanderers in 1992, Cape Town in 1996, Leeds 2002, Sydney 1999 etc. All bouncy pitches and all bore the hallmark of supreme genius! Current form however, I am not going to comment about!