Over the last year and a half a fairly jovial man and an utterly serious character have come together in positions of power in Indian cricket, leading to some unfortunate insinuations. Krishnamachari Srikkanth, dasher extraordinaire, king of absentmindedness and darling of the media for his forthright, humourous and freeflowing soundbytes took up the unlikely role of chairman of the national selection committee. He did so at a time when N Srinivasan, businessman, power broker and all-round sourpuss (when did anyone last see him smile?) was the secretary of the board.

Even before a major decision could be made, the conspiracy theorists were hard at work, in typical Indian fashion. They’re both from the South, and both Madrasis at that, surely they’d favour one of their own over someone from anywhere else in the country, the whispers went.

Just look at the central contracts handed out – S Badrinath, M Vijay, R Ashwin – and you’d see what was going on. Forget the fact that Badrinath has scored more runs more consistently than anyone in domestic cricket in the past, or that Vijay subsequently played one Test in place of an injured Gautam Gambhir and acquitted himself tidily, or that Ashwin is the most improved offie doing the rounds.

And did you see how they recalled Dravid, asked the gossips. It’s got to be because of his connection to India Cements, which is Srinivasan’s company and owns the IPL team that Srikkanth is brand ambassador of. Well naturally, it could have nothing to do with the 10,000-odd ODI runs Dravid had made or the fact that the inexperienced middle-order batsmen were being dismissed repeatedly in similar fashion, and often failing to bat out 50 overs.

Well, the gossips must have been terribly disappointed on Thursday. Not only did the selectors – convened by Srinivasan and led by Srikkanth – pick a 15-man team that did not include any player from Tamil Nadu, they went one better and included no-one from South India at all. Read more…

Administrator Indian Cricket Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Dinesh Karthik, Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, M Vijay, Madrasis, N. Srinivasan, ODI, R Ashwin, Robin Singh, S Badrinath, Venkatesh Prasad