Talent needs to be backed up

A cricket crazy country having a population of over a billion has produced exceptionally gifted cricketers time and again. The youngsters in the domestic state teams have the talent to excel at the highest level and the selectors have many times given them the chances that have been rightfully theirs.

Indian selectors have experimented with young players in both versions of the game. That some of the boys have not taken advantage of the opportunity is a tragic aspect. The selectors have included new faces in the squads in almost every series that India has played. But at times, the youngsters have seldom got a chance to play a game. Sometimes, even if they get one, the expectations are so high that the young lad cracks under the pressure. What the selectors need to do is to give them a fair opportunity to prove themselves. The Sri Lankans persisted with Marvan Atapattu even after a disastrous debut. Today, Atapattu stands as the backbone of the Lankan batting. Had the selectors not backed him, the world of cricket would never have known a batsman of class and panache.

Imran Khan stuck with Inzamam-ul-haq even after consistent failures. Inzamam lived up to the expectations and delivered at the crunch time, in the semi-final and the final in the 1992 World Cup clinching victory for Pakistan. Had Imran Khan not persisted with Inzamam, he would have faded away into the wilderness like several before him.

India has given the most breaks to youngsters in recent times, even more than neighbours Pakistan. But the boys have been under tremendous pressure to perform at the international level. India has struggled to find a quality opener since the retirement of Navjot Sidhu. The selectors have experimented with several youngsters but never gave them a consistent stint. Gagan Khoda was an unlucky lad who got a break when he was going through a bad patch of his first class career.

Wasim Jaffer, probably the best prospect to play the short ball in the domestic lineup, was not given more than two Tests to perform. In his first domestic season for Mumbai, Wasim amassed an unbeaten triple century and was one of the highest run getters in the Ranji league.

Sujith Somsunder notched a century in the Wills Challenger and was picked for the national team but had a sad outing in his stint. The experiment with VVS Laxman never seemed like working till he got a big ton down under. Amol Muzumdar made a record double century on debut for Mumbai but could not never make it to the national camp. Gyanendra Pandey led Uttar Pradesh to the Ranji Trophy final a couple of seasons ago, beating giants Mumbai in the semis but never gave the same depth to the middle order when summoned for National duty. Mohd Kaif was picked for the national side and did relatively well but was not persisted upon. Kaif did reasonably well in the U-19 World Cup and was impressive against the South African pace attack. Ajay Sharma scored mammoth tons for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy but could never perform anywhere near the same level for the national team.

Vikram Rathour was given ample opportunities to perform but he failed on most occasions. When he finally got a decent score on the board, the selectors had already decided to drop him.

Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Dodda Ganesh, Debashish Mohanty, Harvinder Singh, Paras Mhambrey, Ashish Nehra, all made decent starts to their International careers but were never persisted with to be quality fast bowlers. Mohanty was the most successful of the lot but was dropped more often than he was picked for the playing eleven. He had the natural ability to swing the ball, but needed to be groomed. Nehra and Shukla have played only a handful of matches at the International level.

Harvinder was picked and dropped in more than one series. More often than not, he ended up carrying the water bottles.

Harbhajan Singh was a good off spinner and undoubtedly the best in the present domestic league. He did considerably well in his brief stint with the national team but has never really got the breaks he deserved.

Yuvraj and Zaheer for that matter got very lucky breaks. They were both going through a good patch when they got their chances and performed when nothing much was expected of them. Yuvraj had returned from the victorious U-19 team from Sri Lanka and Zaheer registered a bagful of wickets against Mumbai.

For that matter, none of the selectors nor the captain had ever imagined that Yuvraj would belt the best attack in the world in his first venture with the bat for his country or that Zaheer would be victorious in playing mind games with Steve Waugh when it mattered the most. High expectations kill the prospects of performance. Gradually as expectations begin to form, the true class of the player surfaces. Zaheer Khan no doubt is an exceptional talent but it is to be seen whether he is able to live up to the high expectations.

As I said, Indian selectors have given the opportunities but only those youngsters who made the most of the first chance have made a career in the game. Of course, given the yawning gap between domestic cricket and the international circuit, many newcomers are unable to bridge it.

What remains is still the big question. Will a second Sachin or a Sunil or a Kapil ever surface on Indian soil? We all hope this question is answered in the affirmative - and very soon.