Papering over cracks

Another selection meeting, another utterly unimaginative result. Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman are high-profile casualties, but talk of winds of change becomes laughable when Ajit Agarkar, a consistently inconsistent performer, gets a recall. There is but one new face, Rudra Pratap Singh providing a third left-arm option in place of the out-of-favour Zaheer Khan.

Successful teams work on a blueprint, and select personnel according to that. Indian cricket, which still appears to function based on regional whims and fancies, does the opposite, and the coach and captain are expected to pick up the frayed thread and run with it. If Greg Chappell started off with a blueprint, chances are that he's already called the draughtsman in to cope with the compromises.

Some of the decisions are downright perplexing. Kumble is jettisoned once again, after having played just twice in Sri Lanka. Picking him for that tournament presumably meant that he was still considered a contender for the World Cup in two years time. But having done that, he wasn't given a look in until the games in Colombo. After a strong showing against West Indies and an admittedly poor outing in the final - apart from Ashish Nehra, every Indian bowler was below-par that day - he's out in the cold again.

Also feeling the icy touch on the shoulder is Lakshmipathy Balaji, who did little wrong in his one outing at Dambulla - 1 for 48 from 10 overs. Not long ago, Balaji was the team's go-to man in an ODI series in Pakistan. Now, he finds himself shunted aside so that Agarkar's dubious allround ability can be accommodated.

Laxman can have few complaints. But for purple patches here and there, he seldom looks the part in ODIs, and lacks the free-stroking, hustling-between-wickets attributes that make for a natural at number 3. He had his chances in Sri Lanka, and did himself no favours.

Agarkar is the tear-your-hair-out choice, an indicator of the paucity of India's pace resources. He has outbowled the others over the past 25 games while leaking in excess of five an over, but to consider him an allrounder is laughable. The man selected for that slot in Sri Lanka, Jai Prakash Yadav, didn't even get a game.

Yadav had a stellar domestic season, and offered a tidy bowling-big-hitting option that wasn't even explored. Whatever confidence he might have had on being picked for that tournament might just have evaporated by now, and a failure or two here will give the selectors a convenient excuse to shift him into Indian cricket's Bermuda Triangle. And while the rest of the world lauds the feats of Flintoff, Symonds, Kallis and company, India persist with a man who averages 17.91 with the bat and insists on bowling a four-ball every over.

The one wildcard, RP Singh, is an unknown quantity at this level, and if the experiences of Venugopal Rao and Yadav in Sri Lanka are any indicator, he won't get much of a chance to prove himself. The real story, though, is the fall of Zaheer, touted as the answer to India's pace woes when he emerged to searing-yorker effect in Nairobi half a decade ago.

His decline is symptomatic of a larger problem. Since Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad combined to devastating effect on the tours of England and South Africa nearly a decade ago, no other pace bowler has managed to impress consistently over the course of a season, leave alone two or three. While the likes of Makhaya Ntini and Steve Harmison started out as radar-less talents, and then went on to become world-class, India's pace discoveries seem to have a peculiar attraction for the down escalator. Dropping Zaheer will serve no purpose until the larger issue is addressed.

With Zimbabwe in such disarray and New Zealand the only genuine opposition, it's the perfect time to give Raina and Rao a proper run to see what they can achieve. With the exception of Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, if fit and ready, no batsman deserved to be considered a certainty. Sentiment and victory can never be allies, as Australia proved by ruthlessly purging the side before and after the last World Cup. Greg Blewett, now ensconced in the Ashes commentary box, should serve as a cautionary tale to India's young and not-so-young pretenders, none of whom has spanked a Test double-century against an awesome South African pace attack.

The Test squad, which had done far better in recent times, has a familiar look to it, though many eyes will be on Sourav Ganguly. After being embarrassed and exposed by the Pakistanis, failure against a pop-gun attack will surely be the final straw. Unless you're a Mark Taylor - tactician and slip-catcher supreme - you can't stay in the side without sheer weight of runs to back you. Then again, this is Indian cricket, where rhyme and reason are frequently hit for six.

India aren't the world's seventh-best one-day side without reason. But faced with fault lines, the selectors have chosen band-aids, and Indian fans - with the halcyon days of 2002-03 a receding memory - should be wary of the ground beneath their feet.