List of improbables!

A selector's dream assignment would be to be pick twentyfive players, instead of fourteen or sixteen.

Given that all the controversy, which is almost part of the selectors' attire, is normally restricted to two or three places, you would imagine that every point of view could be accomodated in a list of twentyfive. Especially if you are then allowed to pick twentyseven!

A list like this carries with it one basic assumption: that players selected are either ready to play for the country, or have the potential to get there fairly quickly. So, any player who does not figure in a list of 27 might as well be checking out the price of onions.

I'd like to believe that this assumption is true. And that, by and large, these are the best twenty seven on view in the country. Sadly, though, it is not a view that, in every case, is supported by reason and by form - two factors that are pretty useful in such an exercise.

There are four names missing that most people would have in their list of 27: Dodda Ganesh, Sunil Joshi, Amol Muzumdar and Wasim Jaffer. The selectors however do not have them. In the case of Ganesh and Joshi, the same selectors thought they were good enough, less than two months ago, to be in their list of fourteen for the Independence Cup. Something very dramatic should have happened since then for them to change their mind, and to decide that the duo are not even good enough to make the list of 27.

Sunil Joshi had two poor games; poor enough to justify demotion from a playing eleven or, if you want to be harsh, from a squad of fourteen. That he should not figure in a list of 27, however, is like saying he turned into a frog overnight. Or that they picked a frog in the first place. If he didn't do well in the West Indies, which is partly true, he shouldn't have been in the team for the Independence Cup.

Ganesh, though, must be wondering if he brought out the wrong towels with the drinks. He bowled pretty well during the Barbados Test, picking up two crucial wickets, and the fact that he was selected for that tour and for the Independence Cup meant that the selectors were investing in him as the back-up bowler to Venkatesh Prasad and Abey Kuruvilla. That investment has just crashed. Ganesh didn't get a game during the Independence Cup, and the only cricket he has played since is in the Siyaram's Cup - unofficial international matches watched by two selectors, one of whom was an organiser. To be fair, he bowled very poorly - but two inconsequential matches are being used to sack someone who took more wickets on the domestic circuit than the three replacement bowlers, and who showed a fair amount of promise on the tours of South Africa and the West Indies.

Instead, the selectors have picked Harvinder Singh of Punjab, who has been spoken highly of and who took five wickets in one of the matches in the SAARC Trophy in Dhaka this February; Debashish Mohanty, who looks a decent line and length bowler, and Robin Singh of Delhi who is reported to be very quick but who is strangely in and out of the state side. One of these has to be picked in a set of fourteen for the Asia Cup - and it is difficult to see any of those being ready just yet.

Also, remember that a captain has to have faith in his bowlers - and I don't think he knows enough about any of these. From that point of view, a camp will help - and Sachin Tendulkar had in fact recommended that 25 be picked for a camp so that the fringe talent can be compared with the regular pros.

To round off the list of bowlers, Nilesh Kulkarni of Mumbai is a good choice because he is a man in form, and Rajesh Chauhan is back after taking 55 wickets last year. That means there is no place for either Aashish Kapoor or for Narendra Hirwani, both of whom played Test matches last year.

Venkatapathy Raju gets a recall too, which is logical considering that he was on the tour of South Africa and has never really failed on turning tracks in India where six out of the eight Test matches scheduled for this year will be played.

Eleven batsmen have been picked - and the first thing one notices about that list is the absence of Sanjay Manjrekar. There was a point of view that he should be considered as captain, given the impressive manner in which he led Mumbai to the Ranji Trophy but this, I am afraid, has to be the end of the road for him as an international batsman. It saddens me - but the history of sport is full of stories of wonderful players who under-performed, and Sanjay Manjrekar would have to go into that list.

Amol Muzumdar, however, needn't. Not just yet. He has just had a very good domestic season, and I think everyone agrees that he has the class to make it. Manjrekar's place meanwhile has gone to Tamil Nadu's S Sarath, a consistent player on the domestic circuit and one who, besides, did well in the SAARC Trophy.

Wasim Jaffer is the name everyone is talking about. Everyone except the selectors that is. His absence is a little more surprising than that of Muzumdar, because it is at the top that India's greatest problems lie. Navjot Singh Sidhu has been recalled, and Gagan Khoda has scored enough runs to merit a place.

But the selectors have yet again picked V V S Laxman as an opening batsman, and I think they are doing him injustice. India has lost too many good middle order players because of this insistence of trying them out as openers. As Ravi Shastri once told me, "If you have to succeed at the top, you have to open every day, you have to see the shine on the ball every morning." Laxman hasn'st, and if even if he starts now, he will never be as comfortable as he will be in the middle order. All the more reason for a closer look at a pure opening batsman; someone who hasn't batted anywhere else and who has grown up with the new ball. Which is what makes Wasim Jaffer's exclusion all the more surprising.

There is one heartening inclusion though, that of Amay Khurasia who is a wonderful striker of the ball. In domestic cricket, he has demonstrated a refreshingly uninhibited approach to batting, and I would love to see him play at a higher level. His presence also means that there are four top class left-handers in the camp (Ganguly, Kambli, Sarath and Khurasia), which is good news for the bowlers who will bowl to them.

There are two new names among the all rounders. Hrushikesh Kanitkar, whose father played two Test matches for India against the West Indies in 1974, bats left-handed and has scored more than 900 runs in Ranji Trophy for Maharashtra, apart from picking up wickets with his off spinners. From the looks of it, though, he will be a batting all-rounder rather than the off-spinning one that India would prefer to have. Ajit Agarkar attracted attention during the Under-19 tournament in India, and then had a very good tour with the national Under-19 team to Sri Lanka where he took fourteen wickets and scored a century. Though he is quite small built, he apparently bowls a very nippy bouncer and at least one selector has been talking about him as the all-rounder that India so desperately seeks but cannot seem to find.

Ajay Sharma finds a place again, and in doing so sends out hope to a lot of cricketers toiling on the domestic circuit. Robin Singh's inclusion last year was an indication that domestic performances will be considered irrespective of age, and now Ajay Sharma comes back after starting to smell of mothballs. He scored five successive centuries in the Ranji Trophy tournament last season, and had made more than a thousand runs in the end. His name though, appears in the list of all-rounders - and that is a bit disconcerting because he doesn't bowl too much these days. I would be surprised if he was considered for the one-dayers, because he isn't the quickest man in the field either - but he would make a pretty solid Test number six.

That leaves us with the two main issues. The reappointment of Sachin Tendulkar, about which a totally unnecessary farce was created, and the return of Mohammad Azharuddin, who should never have been dropped for the Independence Cup anyway.

A national selector had been quoted as saying that Sachin's performance will be put under a microscope, and Jagmohan Dalmiya had said that "the issue (the captaincy) was wide open". Admittedly, Tendulkar hasn't been the magic wand everybody wished he would be. But having given him the mandate, it didn't make sense at all to reconsider the role, especially when there wasn't another alternative in sight. What the establishment has succeeding in doing, though, is in clipping his wings; in reminding him that his destiny lies in their hands. It will help only in producing a weaker captain, one less sure of himself, and I am not sure that is the best thing to happen.

Though he wasn't invited to the selection committee meeting, Tendulkar will have a say in the final squad - and that is a way of ensuring that the captain can get the team he wants. And the ticklish issue before him - and the national selectors - is the recall of Azharuddin.

The selectors have been quite open in saying that while they wanted Azhar to be retained for the Independence Cup, the tour management (Tendulkar and Madan Lal) was adamant that they did not want him. By picking him now, even if only in a list of 27, the selectors have said clearly that they want him back because you don't pick cricketers of that stature for a camp and then leave them out of the playing eleven. And with Navjot Sidhu back too, we have two senior cricketers who wouldn't exactly kill for the chance of sharing a cup of tea with the team manager.

Clearly, the presence of Azhar and Sidhu is going to create a tense situation for Madan Lal, who hasn't quite won over the rest of the side either. But then again, his term ends on the 31st of August, and with the suggestion being increasingly made that his contract should not be renewed, he may not be too inclined to press home his point.

One final point. There are thirteen players (whose names I have listed at the bottom) who played for India, either in Tests or one-day internationals, since May 1996 who don't find a place here. Only Javagal Srinath, from among those, is genuinely unavailable. It either means that we have an amazing amount of talent, or that the wrong people had been picked, or that our selectors are very quickly dissatisfied. Either way, you would agree, it underlines a disturbing state of affairs.

The full list of players left out in the cold (not including Srinath): Vikram Rathore, Paras Mhambrey, Sunil Joshi, Dodda Ganesh, Pankaj Dharmani, Sanjay Manjrekar, Salil Ankola, David Johnson, Sujith Somasunder, Narendra Hirwani, Aashish Kapoor, and Woorkeri Raman.