Borde up to old tricks, creating a stumper out of thin air

Fast bowlers are born, not made said Dennis Lillee, arguably one of the greatest fast bowlers the world has seen. Every pundit will tell you that you cannot teach someone to play the cut shot over point like Sanath Jayasuriya does, or the flick through midwicket like Mohammed Azharuddin did. Strangely enough though, almost everyone believes that wicketkeepers can be manufactured overnight. Wicketkeepers who can bat a bit, batsmen who can keep wickets a bit. There are so many ways to put gloves on someone and make him stand behind the stumps.

Some of these ways work rather well, and some explode in peoples' faces. Adam Gilchrist is a classic example of a stumper successfully taking on a bigger role and executing it with panache. The New South Wales southpaw has been a big hit with the bat in both forms of the game, scoring at will in most situations. What's more, the fact that he has been so successful has given the Australians more flexibility in team selection. For India however, these experiments have met with success only rarely.

In the recent past, India have tampered with many players in an attempt to solve the stumper poser. Rahul Dravid has donned the gloves on more than one occasion, reluctantly and found that it did his cricket no good. From Nayan Mongia we moved to MSK Prasad, then discovered Vijay Dahiya. Now we are drifting back to the trusted solution of putting Mongia behind the stumps. In the middle of all this we had a bleary eyed Saba Karim returning to Test cricket from the commentary box. Even the captain admits what a big blunder that was. So, it is safe to assume we in Indian cricket know nothing about producing wicketkeepers?

Chandu Borde, chairman of the selection committee will never agree with you on that one. Not because of the expertise we possess. But because he knows all too well how easy it is to pull the wool over peoples' eyes. Borde goes back a long way in this method. Wind the clock back to the 1970-71 season. It's the eve of the Irani Trophy at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta. MAK Patudi's Rest of India are all set to take on Ajit Wadekar's Mumbai. At the last moment, Pataudi withdraws and Borde is named captain. In a flash, Borde decides that Pune boy Hemant Kanitkar will keep wickets for Rest of India. Borde's explanation? Simple, Kanitkar kept wickets as a youngster in school. Today, 30 years later, Borde is whipping up the same formula. In the Challenger Trophy being played at Chennai, Punjab's Vikram Rathour suddenly finds himself donning the gloves. Borde's explanation? You guessed it.

Rathour may have kept wickets at school, but he certainly hasn't gone on to keep wickets at any level higher than that. Any of you youngsters want to play cricket for India? Forget about being the next Sachin Tendulkar. Keep wickets for your school. Borde is sure to take notice.