India Cricket Crisis Provides Opportunity
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Wednesday 7th March, 2012 15 tend that all is well and that if you throw a few million dol- lars at the problem it will go away. There is a genuine prob- lem, but India do not leave the subcontinent for a few months thus enabling players to re- establish themselves. Sometimes it takes a crisis to set things right, and the play- ers have provided just that. The emergence of Virat Kohli has been the one real gain through all this doom and gloom. By appointing him vice captain, the selectors have shown a rare spark of maturi- ty and understanding, twin qualities that Kohli himself ought to acquire quickly. That he was destined to lead India has been obvious for some time. That being the case, it would have been point- Nedra Soris less, and even counter-produc- tive to leave him dangling while other, older candidates were given their turn. Astounding athlete! Lost opportunity Gautam Gambhir, for Nedra Soris (9), of St. Bridget’s Convent, Colombo, won instance, might feel aggrieved, a prodigious amount of awards for her remarkable per- but captaincy of a cricket formance at the Inter-House Athletic Meet, which was held VIRAT KOHLI team cannot always be age- on March 2. bound or even seniority- Nedra Soris’s parents, especially her mother, was in her bound. element as she (Nedra), strode towards the podium not once, Tiger Pataudi, by common twice but four times, to accept awards. consent India’s best captain, Nedra, a Grade 4 student of Borgia House, excelled in all was 21 when he got the job. He her events, in addition to setting two new records in the 50 India cricket crisis was the most junior member metres and 75 metres. of the team he led, but Never losing her winning stride, the little lass came first although ten others might in the long jump as well. have felt aggrieved, that She was adjudged the Under-9 champion, Best Athlete, appointment served the larger the Best Performer and Overall Champion. interests of Indian cricket. Indeed, a rarely achieved feat by one so young, which provides opportunity Selectors have to use their puts her in a league above the rest. judgement in these matters; if BY SURESH MENON ing Indian batting in Test cricket. It was there was a formula, then we would not need Nedra’s achievements: believed that chief selector Krishnamachari selectors. 50 meters – 1st place (new record) ho will tell Sachin?” is the amus- Srikkanth being his first captain might just be Still, a chance to experiment was lost with 75 meters – 1st place (new record) ing new national obsession. the man to sit Tendulkar down and advise him. the decision to go with the same old faces for Long Jump – 1st place “W But it did not happen. Tendulkar has decid- the Asia Cup. Under-9 – Champion Athlete Less than a year ago, the same nation was ed to play in the Asia Cup in Dhaka where, Whether the cricket board’s hands were Best Athlete willing “Sachin plus 10,” as the Indian team was hopefully he will make his quite meaningless forced by television - which seems to call the Best Performance known in some circles, to win the World Cup. 100th international century and re-focus on the shots these days - is difficult to tell. Overall Champion Everybody from Kapil Dev’s driver to skipper present rather than on posterity. Perhaps it was simply the desire to win a Mahendra Singh Dhoni wanted India to “win Perhaps it is just as well that India did not title, even a localised one, to make up for hon- (Rochelle) for Sachin.” win the tri-series in Australia. Victory is a uni- our lost outside the subcontinent. After all, it is And when India finally won in April, versal solvent, dissipating such matters as team not just the players - even selectors rise and fall Tendulkar was carried on the broadest shoul- weaknesses, individual failures and sensible by victory and defeat. ders among the new generation, those of Virat views about rebuilding and handing out pink The tours to England and Australia will be Mortaza in, Iqbal out of Kohli who then said in effect: “For so long has slips. forgotten with amazing speed if India win the he been carrying us on his shoulders that we Thanks to the consistent defeats over the Asia Cup. Then it will be up to the next lot of Asia Cup squad wanted to return the compliment.” last few months in England and Australia, even selectors to lift the carpet and identify the stuff He might still have a role to play in rebuild- our thick-skinned cricket officials cannot pre- swept under it. That is the Indian way. DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladeshi selectors have recalled Mashrafe bin Moratza to the 14-man squad for the Asia Cup limited-overs tournament beginning Sunday in the nation’s capital, Dhaka. The selectors have dropped four of the 15 players who were part of a home one-day series against Chelsea midfielder Pakistan in December. In a statement late Monday, the Bangladesh Cricket Ramires signs new Board said the selectors dropped regular opener Tamim Iqbal while including Mortaza, who led the Dhaka 5-year deal Gladiators to victory in the inaugural T20 Bangladesh LONDON (AP) — Brazil midfielder Premier League. Ramires has signed a new five-year Iqbal played only two games for the Chittagong Kings deal with Chelsea, committing to the due to a groin injury. Premier League club until 2017. Apart from Mortaza, the selectors called in The 24-year-old Ramires is in his Nazimuddin, Jahurul Islam, Shahadat Hossain and second season at Stamford Bridge and Anamul Haque. has scored 10 goals in 71 appearances. The names of the captain or the vice-captain has not Ramires says “I am very happy with been released. the support I have playing for this club Bangladesh will face Pakistan in the opening match so I want to say thank you to Chelsea.” of the competition at Dhaka’s Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla The contract details were National Stadium on Sunday. announced Monday, the day after man- ager Andre Villas-Boas was fired. Squad: Ramires, whose full name is Imrul Kayes, Nazimuddin, Jahurul Islam, Mushfiqur Rahim, Ramires Santos Nascimento, joined Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah, Nasir Hossain, Mashrafe bin Chelsea before the 2010-11 season on a A Sri Lanka Navy player evades a tackle by an opponent during the first semi-final of the Champions of Mortaza, Abdur Razzak, Elias Sunny, Nazmul Hossain, Shafiul four-year contract from Benfica for 22 Champions Cup match between SL Army and SL Navy at the City Football Complex, Slave Island on Sunday. SL Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Anamul Haque. million (then $29 million). Navy won the match 1-0. (Pic by Kamal Wanniarachchi) Aggression, grit the hallmarks of his cricket BY TONY COZIER he sudden death of anyone in the Runako Morton (33) killed in car crash prime of life is sad and shocking, Tmore especially an international ODI cricketers, Morton’s promise was Indies Cricket Board’s Shell Academy, first-timers, he was embarrassed by the sportsman constantly in the public eye. initially recognised when picked for the the first of its kind, in 2001. A year later, mesmerising spin of Muttiah So it is with Runako Morton, a West West Indies under-19s in three matches his fictitious claim of his grandmother’s Muralitharan and the swing of Indies cricketer at various levels through against their Pakistani counterparts in death in Nevis so that he could exit the Chaminda Vaas. But his breath-taking all of his adult level, who died in a car the Caribbean in 1996. 2002 Champions Trophy early and indis- catching in the slips moved Ian Chappell, crash on Sunday night, aged 33; so it was A strong, aggressive, almost entirely cipline on an ‘A’ team tour of England, commentating on the series, to rate him when Laurie Williams, a West Indies ODI bottom-handed batsman, he proceeded to Ireland and Canada brought him a year- the best in the position at the time. player, perished in the same way in his make heaps of runs for the Leeward long ban. In 15 Tests between then and 2008, native Jamaica in 2001, also aged 33, and Islands in the annual regional tourna- There were later clashes with the law, going in mostly at No.3 or No.4, he aver- when another Jamaican, Collie Smith, ment (4,104 at an average of 44 with dou- the most recent a year ago when he and aged just 22.03. The closest he came to a an all-rounder already rated one of crick- ble hundreds in successive innings fellow Nevisian Tonito Willett were hundred was at Napier in 2006; unbeaten et’s emerging greats at the age of 26, suc- against Barbados and CCC in 2009 along charged by the police in Port of Spain 70, he was denied the chance of the extra cumbed to injuries in a car accident in with nine singles). But it was potential with possession of marijuana, an accusa- 30 runs by rain. His 67, against Australia Runako Morton England in 1959. never fully fulfilled at the highest level, a tion to which they pleaded not guilty. at Sabina Park in 2008 in a fourth wicket The gloom that descended over the failing of several others of the recent Reliable reports were that he had mel- partnership of 128 with Shivnarine with Brian Lara, surpassed them for the game, wherever it is played, was reflect- past.