Firstly in spite of the known Indian strength in batting first and the sentiments prevailing in the current tournament, Azar chose to bat on winning the toss. Gavaskar had once said that winning toss would be crucial in this world cup and he supported Azar as captain because of his luck with the toss. But Gavaskar should be reminded that for captains like Azar who consistently make wrong decisions, losing the toss would be better.

The second cardinal mistake of the team was to play into the hands of the Australians in opening with Sachin. To some extent this was forced because the asking rate was huge (just as the decision to field was influenced by the overcast conditions). But this is where the experience of the think tank should help in arriving at the most optimum decision.

In Chess, we often say that many a time a threat is more effective when it is not executed. Similarly while the opposition expected Sachin to open and was mentally ready for the battle, holding back Sachin would have upset the plans of the Australian think tank. It would have given Sachin more overs against Reiffel and Warne. Mongia who cannot contribute in the slog overs could have opened with Ganguly and even if he had been consumed by Mc Grath,it would have been a useful sacrifice.

It must be mentioned however that if the Indian think tank had the vision they would have found out that the weakest link in the team is Azar himself who does not find a place as a batsmen or as a Captain.

If they could drop him they could have either retained Ramesh or included a fifth bowler such as Chopra.

While Bedi has been the only vocal critic of Azar, I was surprised that even the normally straight forward Boycott has been very reluctant to pass any adverse comment on Azar. During his analysis of the England match on ESPN, Boycott remained silent of Azar's indiscrete shot which was a swing to the leg with head held high and looking nowhere, while the ball which was outside the off stump took the edge of his bat and ballooned on the offside. This was a "shocker" of a "shocker". Similarly in the Australian match Azar was unable to defend a fast ball raising at his ribs and was caught like a novice. Surprisingly,there was not a word of criticism from Geoffrey. Even Srikkant in his column in "Hindu" failed to comment on Azar's dismissal though he commented on Dravid's dismissal. I wonder whether it is such blind support that is the cause for Azar continuing to lead our country to the Worldcup doom?. is it because Azar is too powerful and has the support of BCCI that no body wants to raise a voice of protest against Azar.

It is clear match after match that Jadeja is ideally suited to take over the responsibility as Captain of India. To avoid any discussion on this subject the selectors played a clever game in appointing Azar as Captain of the wordldcup team in advance even before the Sharjah matches.

Even now many of Azar's supporters are hoping that Sachin would play a magical innings and resurrect Azar while he can continue to slash and get out as often as he wants.

If public opinion has any value,a probe is required on "Captain Fixing" more than on "Match Fixing". It is quite possible that vested interests even from the sponsoring companies may be trying to shield Azar and might have drafted the support of the selectors.

Now that India is more or less out of worldcup campaign (barring a miracle which we all hope), Azar,Gaekwad and Rajsingh should quit from their respective posts and save further damage to the Indian Cricketing sentiments.

naavi

5th June 1999