Sourav for MP !!

With Kolkattans burning effigies, performing Shrardh of More & Chappell and every one – who is 'whose who' in Bengal protesting, there is no shortage of sympathy for Sourav. There was even a suggestion by some Kerala association to make him an MP. I think that all this only reflects the emotionalism and regionalism that gets attached with the crazy cricket following in India. The reason for all this sympathy is perhaps in the manner in which the exclusion was carried out, with half baked expressions from More.

Let me look at the lighter side of things. This is not the first time Kiran More is getting into the skin of others. Remember the famous Miandad 'Frog Jump'. For those who have forgotten that or do not belong to that generation, here it is again - in good video.(copy and paste the link in IE)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2882550246281540624&q=miandad+frog+jump

It has to be said that several great cricketers including the likes of Kapil Dev and Steve Waugh had difficult last phases and did not get the Gavaskar’s exit plan with ‘You must go when people are asking why rather than why not’. I am not saying that Sourav should quit but he can easily make life for More & co. difficult by scoring in the domestic matches, which itself for Sourav supporters a different yardstick as opposed to given to say Sachin, who just had to play the challenger before coming back into the team.

I can see also scores of articles about the stoic silence of Dravid on the issue – Frankly speaking, what can he do? He knows pretty well that he has to take Yuvi at number 6 and hence he kept quite, in my opinion. Dravid was afterall trying to rectify the 1^st wrong, which was allowing Sourav back into the team in tests. I can see also waves and waves of columns attributing all this to Chappell. He might have been the initiator but remember no one else had the power to articulate the obvious. Sourav was way beyond his 'sell by date' and no one had the courage to say that in public, until Chappell brought it to the light. Anyway, all this is a moot point since I feel that a compromise is on the way and for all you know a plan has already been hatched to get him for the Pak tour.

Let me revisit the choice of batsman who replaced Sourav – Jaffer. Granted, he has been scoring heavily in domestic circuit but the million dollar question is - can he live up to it, especially with all the media pressure of he being the man, who got in place of Gangu.?. There were other choices for the selectors – Shikar Dhiwan and Ricky but Bhupender Singh is just ‘in’ the committee and would have been timid to oppose More’s backing of Jaffer. Dhiraj Jadav has had a horrible Ranji season and was out of contention and the dare devil methods of Uthappa is not going to win him friends in Test selection. Given all that, Jaffer is not a bad choice but he has to rise upto the occasion; that is assuming he is in the XI.

Motera seems to have planned another Dhiraj Parsanna dust bowl, where the tweakers will be itching to turn their arms around. I guess, it is going to be tall scoring 1^st innings for both sides and whoever backs themselves up to perform to potential can produce the result.