I think foggy days in north India have coincided just in time with foggy ways in which Indian cricket team gets selected. Every Indian cricket team selection invites plenty of opinions. This time it was specially so given the fact that so much drama had been created before selection over Ganguly's career. Drama and episodes were so interesting that it looked straight out of Ekta Kapoor 's production house. The bandhs, the effigies, Rajsingh Dungarpur's comments and late night parlays between the BCCI president and Ganguly generated so much media heat that it became bigger than return of Mihir in Tulsi or who got crowned for which idol title.
It is really sad that Ganguly had been picked up in the Indian team under these circumstances and his meetings with Sharad Pawar and results thereafter don't leave a good taste in mouth. The way meeting was being described by BCCI spokesperson and the timing of it just didn't gel. Just imagine at 10 in the night or so, ex Indian captain and BCCI president would sit together to discuss health of Indian Cricket or dire straits of individual's cricketing career.
There can never be a perfect selection criteria in cricket unless there are right selection parameters. In athletics normally best top performances at a selection trial decide as to who makes the cut. But team sports sometimes don't have the luxury of such clear yardsticks.
Cricket being game of uncertainties, doesn't lend itself so well to be measured by pure statistics but I think normally current form of the players has always been a good yardstick. And I think BCCI should really evolve a good system of individual player's performance points and ranking system to aid the selection committee. This will help make things transparent enough and make players hit the grounds more often than the BCCI officials' doorsteps to get selected. Hope that will stop Mr. Sidhu from raving and ranting about puppet shows.
