'Badrinath has not really set the Yamuna on fire'

Readers' responses to the Mission Tomorrow feature:

Subramaniam Badrinath is 26 years and he should have been playing for India for at least three years. Not selecting people when on song will only demoralise them and weaken our bench strength.

Dilip Vengsarkar was completely off target when he made that statement: Venugopal Rao, Robin Uthappa along with Badrinath have enormous talent, but sadly lack clout with the selectors.

The present set of superstars cannot go on forever and if we are to hold our position as a top team we should provide chances to aspirants not keep playing the same old players just on reputation alone.

Umesh Srinivasan
Colombo, Sri Lanka

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My name is Dilip Mistry, an NRI based in London and a fanatical Indian Cricket Supporter.

I am very interested regarding your new section called Mission Tommorrow, which will look at future stars in domestic who will make it to the National Team.

I was wondering if you had a list of names of players you will be looking at?

Some domestic players who I personally would recall and get fast tracked into the Indian Team would be the following: - Robin Utthapa not given enough chances especially with Sehwag flopping so much would be ideal as a opener in the OD team.

- Shikhar Dhawan, the golden boy of the U-19 Team who was highest run getter, and following season for Delhi also impressed yet missed out on Challenger Series and Training Camp. Left-handed batsmen is what India really need at the top of the order!!!!

- Young Virat Kohli, captain of the U-19 team which lost in the last U-19 World Cup but seems a solid middle-order batsman who should be groomed now and on the India 'A' team.

- Badrinath. You have highlighted him already but this guy really impressed me with bat and his fielding.

- REETINDER SINGH SODHI...India needs all-rounders and he may have had a few chances but if Dinesh Mongia can get another chance I am sure this young man who matured into a good all-rounder for Punjab and did okay on the India 'A' tour to Australia should certainly be considered.

- Joginder Sharma, another all-rounder who has been doing the business for Haryana, but one chance against Bangladesh and was never tried again. For the World Cup 2007 we need more all-rounders in the team, accuracy with the ball rather than pace will be the key and this guy this season has done tremendously well and is very handy with the bat, I believe in the Challenger Series he scored 2 centuries!!!

- Abid Nabi, the Whirlwind from Kashmir, I feel deserves to be taken under the wing of Team India and given the extra tutorage regarding technique, fitness and all-round ability.

A few others would be Rohit Sharma, Yo Mahesh, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Rawat. Yes he was the young man who hit a 6 off the last ball for the U-19 team which was travelling to UK, under the leadership of A Rayudu while Parthiv Patel and Irfan Pathan were part of this team. The year was when Team India beat England in that classic Lord's Natwest Final.

I hope I havent bored you too much.

Yours sincerely

Dilip Mistry
Loughborough, UK

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I liked your profile of Badrinath.

I am also interested in Joginder Sharma as an all-rounder who operates as a strike bowler and also bowls at the death. I know that with Munaf, Sreesanth, Zaheer and Pathan, the Indian team is full of talented pacemen, but Joginder can also bat in the slog overs and will complement Dhoni. Also if Pathan is dropped, Joginder in an all-rounder role will work. Hence please profile Joginder Sharma next.

Regards,
Happy Holidays
Srini

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Badrinath is a good hope but does not stand out that much from his peers.

2007: Duleep: 13th in averages, 17th in aggregate

2006: Ranji: 6th in averages and 3rd in aggregate (Kaif, Jaffer, Mullick and Raina among younger peers were similar)

2005: 67th in averages and 75th in aggregate (Gambhir scored more runs in one-third of the innings, Akash Chopra and Rajat Bhatia for example (scorers of tons in this recent match) scored more runs at higher averages and were considered to have had very bad seasons)

Ok, the kid has one good season.

Two years ago, Jhadav had one good season and was the flavour du jour.

Badrinath is a good batsman but he has not really set Yamuna on fire, well not even dried Kauvery yet. Let us wait and watch.

Time is not on his side though, he is 26 and almost past his try-for-test by date. Dinesh Mongia has consistently scored more in domestics and has not found a Test place.

Badrinath does not have chance for ODIs yet. Furthermore, I hate Indian policy of only blooding youngsters unlike Aussies who churn out mature world beaters but realisticly Indian selection policies will not change and if Tamil Nadu has to look for a great hope for future, current U-19 squad is in Cooch Behar finals (Abhinav Mukund, Srivatsan look like better hopes than Badrinath) and unfortunately if Badrinath falters, even a little, they will replace him before you say train ticket to Assam or Goa where Badrinath will end up displaying his talents.

Regards,
Pranshu B Saxena Sr. BSA

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Thanks for focusing on new talents. I am away from India but am still keeping an eye on new talents. Also I am not related to any new talent. My request is to keep an eye on Haryana skipper Jogendra Sharma.

Thanks,
Trilok Hansoty

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One of the most talented players, at a very young age, who, when on his best form, selected for the Indian squad, but POLITICALLY dropped again with a NEW RULE introduced by BCCI, just to remove him from the list, needs to get a chance. He is young, talented (everyone has highs and lows, moreover, at that young age, anyone can get dejected when is selected and dropped off for political reasons) and has bright future and can get laurels to Indian Cricket. He is none other then Ambati Tirupati Rayudu.

I'm not a relative of his, nor a close associate (not even an associate for that matter) but I'm strongly recommending him as I have seen him playing since childhood. I was doing my graduation and he was in his 3rd standard in the adjoining school to my college (sister concern academy). I saw his talent (starting in his 3rd standard) and the play not only me, everyone used to come (sometimes bunking classes too) to watch him batting.

He must be brought back with good motivation. BCCI must not have put the 19 year rule in place. Atleast now, try and bring him into the squad.

Hope you'll put him in the Mission Tomorrow (Infact it should've been Mission Today) and promote the star to overcome the POLITICS in BCCI (I know it's difficult), but Rediff is known to fight and win right things.

Best Regards,
Pavan K Chakravarthi M

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We intend to look at players who have the cricketing skill-sets required for the highest level.

We think it will be the face of Indian cricket in three, four, five years time.

My suggestion Subramaniam Badrinath, surely one of the best batsmen India has today please give a chance to him..

Asif Iqbal,
Saudi Arabia

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Very good idea and execution in terms of layout etc. Idea is good because:

1) In the light of present times for cricket at large and India in particular, the next crop of youngsters are very, very important and the way they are managed; thus this aptly named effort by you is showcasing them in advance which is very good as the necessary media attention will now make the public at large, draw attention towards them and highlight them. So in the future we know who it is being shown on the T.V. screen.

2) The pen is mightier than the sword and by illustrating these youngsters you are showing the people what we have; whether what the 'colonel' says is accurate or not, can also be seen in the future.

Suggestions:
1) When showcasing an individual please show his First Class/ International career record/ relevant stats and highlight any spectacular effort.

2) The next mission should be to showcase the standard of Domestic cricket and how good or bad it is right from the pitches, training standards and facilities, incentives to players, stadium condition, media coverage, sponsorships and an investigative look as to whether they are up to scratch vis a vis the international standards of the game.

By doing this we the laymen will have an insight and indeed an idea of where Indian Cricket is heading and how good a job all concerned with the game are doing in India!

Good idea and implementation once again. So congratulations and keep it up!

Regards,
Nirbhay Singh,
Tanzania.