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Readers sound off on: Sachin sacked, Azhar back

From: Ramkin Shetty <shettyra@pssch.ps.ge.com>

It is really a sad and utterly pathetic sight that the selectors are presenting us now. I am left wondering why someone cannot simply pull the rug from under them. Sack them all, once and for all!
The board is simply incompetent (and this adjective is used for the lack of a stronger one!), It has no clue about anything, forget cricket! I think everyone must be sacked at one go (forget democracy, its been taken for a ride!), and be replaced with a strong board composed of former players and coaches. We should seriously study the Australian cricket selection and grooming process and implement a version to suit our needs.
Amarnath once called the selectors jokers, this bunch gives jokers a bad name! I say that all of us who are concerned fans, proud Indians or simply people who care, should mount a public campaign to bring this bunch down. I am not against either of the two players here, I am a great fan of both .. this instance just happens to be one of too many to be ignored. This is a matter of pride, of being champions, of being Indian, of just loving the game .. a matter of self respect (none of which the selectors seem to posses!).

From: Prashant <pgadepalli@midcom.anza.com>

You are right -- the same reason why Azhar shouldn't have been sacked after the England tour is why Tendulkar shouldn't be sacked now. The last thing India needs is to have a disgruntled Tendulkar (who by the way could play for the next 10 years!!) in the team a la Gavaskar/Kapil Dev in the 80's.
Who is watching over the selection committee and the board and when will they be sacked?
I'm a big fan of Azhar, a bigger fan of Indian cricket and I firmly believe this move to sack Tendulkar is downright ridiculous.

From: Makhan Seru <seru@pacbell.net>

The selectors have lost their senses.
I wish Tendulkar considers taking a prolonged rest and not playing for the Indian side for a year! The selectors should know what they are doing, ruining Indian cricket.
Pity to have incompetent and petty people at the top.

From: Ven Hari <vhari@sun.science.wayne.edu>

Removing Tendulkar from the captaincy is the worst thing that the selectors have done to Indian cricket yet. In my opinion, Azhar represents the past, he is not good enough on present form to retain a place in the team.I think that Sachin would have improved his record as captain. Records show that India under Sachin lost many matches by narrow margins, and drew matches from winning positions due to weather. Personally, I believe that India would have been better served by dropping both Azhar and Sidhu from ODI side and replacing them with Dravid and Kambli -- the rest of team being same as the one that played in the 3rd ODI at Goa against Sri Lanka.Things will change only when the fans start protesting and boycotting the games -- Satyagraha, not violence.

From: Vrishab Sikand <vsikand@@BBN.COM>

Just heard the selectors making a further mockery of indian cricket and themselves. Is there no way we fans can have our voices heard?? How can we let these jokers know that we are DISGUSTED with them? Please advise.

From: S Kurada <skurada@ix.netcom.com>

Is it possible to sack the selection committee???? Who has the power to do it? We should all start a mail-in campaign to initiate this. Might work. Who knows?!

From: Sanjeevan M. Nanu <sanjeev@kuwait-fund.org>

Your reporting on giving back the captaincy to Azer (by the pack of jokers) prompted me to write these few words. The ones who have seen Azhar's run out and the incidents which took place before and after that never expected him to be back in the Indian cricket team again. By giving back the captaincy to such a person, the selectors are questioning the sincerity and seriousness of other members of the Indian team. How can the selectors expect Azhar to get the respect of other team members, when his commitment to the team is questionable? And to make things worse, they are dropping a dedicated and focussed player like Rahul Dravid without any reason.
Now I am eagerly awaiting your reporting on tomorrow's tamasha of the Indian team selection.
Anyway, keep up the good work, and I take this opportunity to convey my best wishes for the new year to the whole of the Rediff team.

From: Shashidar Rajamani <rajamani@ee.tamu.edu>

The selectors have just shown that their egos are more important than the good of the game. In spite of all public posturing, the remark that rings in the mind is the "off the record" statement by one of the selectors that "Sachin needs to be shown his place". There can be no sane justification for sacking Sachin.
Such selectors will only kill the game in India. The selectors need to be sacked. Only strong public opinion can do it.

From: Bijoy Nair <bijoy@bestnet.com>

What would it take to sack this bunch of idiots - protests, law suits.... ??? Let's do it.

From: Balraj Kunnath <kunnath@concentric.net>

We have been noticing the turbulence in the Indian cricket team for some time. Dont you think there should be a change in the Selection Committee rather than in the team?

From: Sumit Patel <sumit@enteract.com>

First of all, I would like to thank you for writing such in-depth articles on Indian cricket. Being a fan of Indian cricket, its heart breaking to see the side failing in every series without any progress being made to get on the right track.  It seems like the Selection Committee is too busy making changes to the team after every loss, to sit back and rationally think about the impact of those changes.  I mostly blame the selection committee for the downfall of Indian cricket, I can't why they are so interested in destroying great talents by sacking Tendulkar from the captaincy, and by sacking a great batsmen like Dravid altogether.  I was wondering what step a fan like myself can take to get Indian cricket on the right track.  Your input will be greatly appreciated.

From: Venkat Mylavarupu <bkwwd10@bell-atl.com>

This is in reference to your article. Let me begin by stating that I an avid reader of your columns and respect your point of view on most matters. But I think you have gone overboard in this article. I myself am not a fan of the selectors and they certainly have major flaws, but it does seem that journalists like you are on a witch hunt, to the point that they seem cynical.
It was very obvious during recent times, that Sachin Tendulkar was having problems as captain. He was clearly uncomfortable in that role (I'm not inferring that this affected his batting ) and also, he was not making the right decisions. The question of whether he should be allowed to continue to give him more time to mature is a debatable issue. I am sure there will be equal number of people with either opinion. The selectors, I feel, were left with no choices and had to take this decision. And of course, other than Tendulkar nobody else has the biodata and experience to take the post than Azhar. Please don't argue for the sake of it by bringing issues like family man etc. That sounds ridiculous. It is a fact that personal life plays a part in your job too, and if Azhar was having a bad patch in his personal life, then the selectors did the right thing by replacing him. That sort of viewpoint exists in many professional organizations. In fact even in companies here in the USA, people are asked to take a break during such times.
But in the end, what I want to summarize is that, please don't try to put too many uncomfortable questions to the selectors and expect valid answers. The selectors may not be in a position to tell everything for obvious reasons, and they have that prerogative. If someone doesn't like the selectors decision, then they can demand their sacking or gather support for live telecasts of selectors meetings!

From: Shyam Jodhawat <JODHI@compuserve.com>

The selectors are a joke and a disgrace. The less said the better.

From: Anand Ganesan <anand@phil.ae.gatech.edu >

I beg to differ from you on certain points. I feel it is totally justified to sack Tendulkar because of the following reasons:
He is not the same Tendulkar whom we used to see a year and a half ago.Though he has scored 1000+ for this calendar year, he failed to deliver when it was needed the most (Barbados Test match, 2nd innings for one, Independence Cup fiasco and so on). My intention here is not to undermine his achievements, but nowadays he gives us the feeling that when it matters the most he lets the team down.The only reason anyone can think of is the additional responsibility on his shoulder, nothing else. Since becoming captain, he has curbed his natural instincts which quite often was the major factor for his dismissal.
Second, see there has to be some accountability. Look at the results. Just a handful of victories out of 39 matches played and no Test match victories (agreed that we could have won 1 at Jo'berg, 1 at Barbados, 1 against SriLanka in the recent series). Still, our performance was way below par.
See it from the selectors point of view. When they see that the country's best batsman is not making runs (mind you, by his own high standards) what else can they do than to relieve him of the captaincy? One can get another captain, but not another Tendulkar (at least for another few years).Though I agree with you that this bunch of selectors more often than not take wrong decisions, there seems to be no way to account for the predicament in which Indian cricket is at present. Agreed that just by bringing back Azhar, there can't be a great deal of improvement, but at some point of time this decision had to be made, at least for Sachin's benefit.
Though the reasons they gave for reinstating Azza was nonsensical, there seems to be no person in the Indian team other than Azza. If selectors are for ONE captain for both one-dayers and Tests, then he is the natural choice.
And regarding selectors' suggestion (or order or whatever) about Sachin's batting position in one-dayers, I feel there is nothing wrong in that. He was getting out cheaply in the opening slot. If you are at the helm of affairs and see such a rich resource getting wasted, then the natural tendency would be to suggest something different.

From: Ramnath Anand <RAMNATA@bestwestern.com>

An extremely well written article. I could not make my mind up whether the selectors were a bunch of crooks or a group of idiots.

From: Trim Pershad <tpershad@us.oracle.com>

I think there should be a provision to sack the selectors too. This bunch of people, some of whom have never played Test cricket, are systematically destroying Indian cricket. I think no country in the world would treat the best batsman in the world so shabbily as they have treated Tendulkar. I think SRT should resign from the Indian cricket team in protest, and when there is a countrywide backlash against the selectors, they will learn a lesson. I think Ramakant Desai and his group should be sacked immediately and a more responsible group appointed. I do not know whether the Board president has such powers or not, but the selectors are behaving like autocrats. The sooner we get rid of them the better for Indian cricket.

From: Udaya Bhanu <uday@khgw.info.samsung.co.kr>

It is the selectors who need to be sacked -- at once, if we want to save the team. Forget about their ability to judge players, they do not know how to put things correctly to the press.
It is time the team selection is based on performance-related ratings devised with the help of former great players like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, Viswanath etc. The ratings should adequately reflect all the factors that influence a player's performance. A provision may also be made to enable the entry of new players.
Personally, I am sick of the selectors who behave like a bunch of fools (may be worse).

From: Narayanan Mahalingam <mnarayanan@rocketmail.com>

The whole captaincy stinks and reeks of nepotism to the core. Well, some men are more equal than others. This desperate hurry to install Azharuddin as a captain defies common sense. You have a man with hardly two years of international cricket left, and another person with more than a decade of potential international cricket left in him and whose cricketing commitment far outweighs the commitment displayed by Azharuddin in the past few series.
This must be the worst selection panel India ever had. The general feeling is that the Board should be backing the players. The sight of a selection committee hounding a rather raw captain and picking up vacuous arguments against his captaincy cannot be digested by any well wisher of Indian cricket.The way Venkatesh Prasad has been hounded by that worthy Shivlal Yadav is another sad episode.
The time is not far off when the same bunch of jokers (courtesy Amarnath) will find greatness in Sachin's captaincy. Surely, Indian cricket is in for tough times. We might get away against the Aussies in the Test matches by producing sleeping beauties but in the one dayers, Aussies should find us easy targets.
Many other countries are earnestly preparing for the next World Cup. Our Board is busily preparing for the next World Cup by indulging in useless musical chair games. May God save Indian cricket.

Editor's note: One common thread has been running through the mails we received on this, and other issues.
And that is that fans of Indian cricket, worldwide, would like some means of letting their thoughts and feelings get known to the people in authority.

As a first step towards filling this need, we give below the address of BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur. Readers are welcome to send him mail detailing their thoughts and feelings -- hopefully, public opinion, on a large scale, will succeed where even the media finds itself helpless.

Raj Singh Dungarpur 8, Vijay Marg, D Road, (Opposite Wankhede Stadium) Churchgate, Bombay - 400 020, INDIA.