The selection of the Indian cricket team is invariably accompanied by critical comment; the latest exercise, ahead of the tour of Australia, raised the bar with selectors accusing a player of attempting to bribe them in exchange for a slot.
In the aftermath of that allegation, players at various levels, and even some administrators, have suggested that considerations other than cricketing talent motivated certain selections in the past.
True or false? You call it.
It cannot, though, be denied that team selections have thrown up some oddities. Typically, each team seems burdened with at least one, if not more, passenger who is in the lineup to make up the numbers; they are usually picked for just one tour, never get to play a single game, and are never again considered for future tours.
Raises the question -- why were they selected in the first place? What did the selectors consider?
It also raises an important issue: how is a team expected to do well when, of the 14 players picked, one or two are clearly not of international standard? Without adequate bench strength, how does a team on tour fine-tune its strategies?
In an interview to Wisden recently, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi gave a revealing answer when asked if he always got the team he wanted. I always got the eleven I wanted, 'Tiger' Pat said; but not the 14.
To underline this endemic problem, we present a list of India's tours, beginning with the 1999-2000 tour of Australia. The list is self-explanatory.
India in Australia, November 1999-February 2000:
The squad of 16 for that tour featured three passengers -- off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who never got to play a single game; and seam bowlers Thiru Kumaran and Debashis Mohanty.
This was one of the early instances of packing a touring side with seam bowlers while knowing full well that at least two of them would never get to play.
India in Bangladesh 2000-01:
India went to neighbouring Bangladesh to play one solitary Test; it picked 14 players; V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh and Venkatesh Prasad never got to play.
India in Zimbabwe, June-July 2001:
India played a two-Test series in Zimbabwe; it won the first Test and, presented with a chance to win its first overseas tour in more than a decade, ended up gifting the second to the home team, thus squaring the series.
The players to miss out were Debashis Mohanty, on the bench for the second time in three tours, and leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule.
India in Sri Lanka, July-September 2001:
India, sans Sachin Tendulkar, lost the three Test series 2-1.
On the bench, throughout, were middle order batsmen Jacob Martin and Dinesh Mongia, and left-arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi.
Note that Bahutule and Mohanty, picked for the Zimbabwe tour in June, managed to find themselves out in the cold a month later, without ever playing a game.
India in South Africa, October-November 2001:
India's controversy-ridden tour of South Africa, where the Mike Denness imbroglio led to the third Test losing its official status, saw Sameer Dighe, the second wicket-keeper, benched throughout its duration.
Opener Connor Williams and Venkatesh Prasad did play in the third Test, but since it was not officially on record, they qualified as passengers.
India in West Indies April-June 2002:
India travelled to the Caribbean for a five-Test series played between April and May 2002; it had no less than 17 players in the squad. Fifteen of them did duty; Dinesh Mongia and fast-medium bowler Tinu Yohannan sat out the duration.
India in England, June-September 2002:
India played a four-Test series against England; it picked 16 players, but tried out only 14. Opener Shiv Sunder Das and Tinu Yohannan were the players to miss out. The latter, with this, had the distinction of spending two tours and a total of nine Tests on the bench.
India in New Zealand, 2002-03:
Sixteen players were chosen for the team; only 12 managed to play.
Shiv Sunder Das, middle-order batsman Mohammad Kaif, left-arm spinner Murali Karthik and wicket-keeper Ajay Ratra cooled their heels in the pavilion.
Ratra's case was particularly startling; since it seemed obvious that first 'keeper Parthiv Patel would play, the wisdom of picking two wicket-keepers for a two-Test series was open to question.
And so on to today. The tour of Australia just begun. To while away the time, try picking the passengers in the latest squad. It might be instructive, at the end of the series, to revisit this list.