A Lacklustre Duleep Trophy competition

There was a time when a sterling performance in the Duleep Trophy tournament was a ticket to a berth in the National squad. There was a time when the annual competition, played in the name of a famous Indian cricketing personality, even if he did not play for the country, had the words glamour and prestige written all over it. There was a time when thousands thronged the stadia to witness the matches.

Unfortunately these would seem to be a thing of the past. Over a period of time, and particularly in recent years, the Duleep Trophy has lost a lot of the glamour and prestige once attached to it. A good showing in the matches no longer guarantees a place in the Indian team and probably only a couple of hundred spectactors watch the games. The Board of Control for Cricket in India routinely conducts the tournament at various centres or zones, every year the champion side is crowned and the players give off their best. But there is no `zing' anymore in the tournament and one has the lurking feeling that even the players representing the five contesting teams are aware of it. Sure, the selectors witness the proceedings as part of their duty, but are they able to learn anything profound? With the stars regularly bypassing the tournament, thanks to the crowded international calendar, it would seem that the Duleep Trophy matches, close behind the Irani Cup in importance as far as the domestic circuit is concerned, can do much in throwing up new talent. But can their performances be taken seriously by the selectors?

A major problem is the wickets the games are played on. With the kind of flat tracks routinely provided, the dice is loaded heavily in favour of the batsmen. Take the just concluded tournament. In their three games, the ultimate champions North Zone had scores of 589, 543 and 468. West Zone topped all this by getting 600 for 8 declared in their semifinal against East Zone. And South Zone, far from being overawed by North Zone's 589, replied with 424. The sleeping nature of the pitches is also evident from the fact that even on the fourth and fifth day, scores of 222 for 4, 260 for 3 and 248 for three were registered. And the fact that none of the matches yielded a result even after five days is perhaps the most telling comment on the dead tracks.

How seriously can the selectors take the high scores made by batsmen on these pitches? Not unexpectedly, there were centuries galore during the tournament. But one suspects the batsmen did not really enjoy making these huge scores. Challenge is the very essence of the game and when this important aspect is missing, much of the joy of playing and watching will be absent. Certainly the selectors will have to take these tall scores with a pinch of salt.

Among the competing teams, there is little doubt that North Zone were deserving winners. On wickets where batting strength is paramount, North's line up was indeed formidable. Rajiv Nayyar, a batsman who loves to occupy the crease, had scores of 118, 88 and 105 not out. The in form Pankaj Dharmani who during the tournament completed 1000 runs for the season notched up scores of 59, 52, 121 not out and 93. The captain Vikram Rathour was consistency personified with scores of 93, 70, 74 and 41. RS Sodhi came up with knocks of 88, 67 and 47. Virender Sewag had a monumental 274 in the quarterfinal against South Zone. The side received a bonus of sorts when Nikhil Chopra coming in at No 8, cracked an unbeaten 132 in the semifinal against Central.

The problem with West Zone was that they had fewer players who could run up big scores. And when they failed, the side came a cropper, as they did against North Zone. However Wasim Jaffer was in superb form with scores of 69, 94 and 173 not out, carrying his bat in the final. Vinod Kambli proved his class with 154 in the semifinal against East Zone but his failure in the final was crucial to West Zone's hopes. Opener Cecil Williams with knocks of 107 and 41 and skipper Amol Mujumdar with knocks of 90 and 52 however came good, as did AV Kale with 105 in the semifinal.

The opportunities for players from the other zones were more limited as they all had just one game. But some players did take this chance to come good. The fact that Sunil Joshi is in a class of his own at this level was proved by his all round show of four for 113 and 75 against North Zone. The experienced S Sharath of Tamil Nadu scored a gallant unbeaten 149 in a losing cause while young players Tilak Naidu and JR Madanagopal shone with useful contributions.

East Zone were outplayed by West Zone and the few crumbs of comfort were provided by the batting of SS Das, Saba Karim and Nikhil Haldipur. Holders Central Zone also were no match for North Zone though Raja Ali with 123 and Jyoti Yadav with 70 came good with valuable knocks.

In such a batsman dominated competition, the bowlers deserved a lot of sympathy. Predictably enough, not many could do well on such unfriendly pitches but two bowlers overcame the hurdles to give outstanding performances. West Zone left arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni kept the strong North Zone batting line up in check in picking up five wickets for 97 runs off 64.5 overs in the final. But the bowler of the tournament was Robin Singh. The North Zone seam bowler first picked up five for 84 against Central Zone and then improved on this by taking six for 63 in the final. He struck incisive blows at the West Zone top and middle order in the final to virtually make sure that his team won the title. His bowling was perhaps the one point that the selectors would have taken note of during the entire tournament, what with the Indian medium pacers not exactly covering themselves with glory in Australia. But the fact remains that the Delhi seamer, who played in one Test against New Zealand last season turns 30 in ten days time.