Dream XI

People are talking about India's chances in the World Cup. A TV channel called me to ask me about my dream eleven for the World Cup. I asked my questioner, 'Do you mean my dream Indian XI?' He said, 'Yes, of course.' I told him I didn't dream about Indian cricket, but if he wanted my opinion on the probable team, I could try to make a list. I got stuck midway, as my eleven had too many fast bowlers and too many batsmen in it. I said Sehwag would probably be back and the silence at the other end was deafening. In an anxious voice, my friend asked me whether I would include Munaf Patel in the side. I said why not, if he can prove his fitness, as he did so well in the West Indies? I didn't realise it was a trick question. There was a flurry of queries about why was so and so missing in my list while such and such found a place in it. I decided to have a coughing fit and terminate the interview.

It set me thinking. These are the same people who called for heads to roll barely a month ago. People who wanted variable pay to be introduced for our pampered cricketers, based on performance. 'Tendulkar has proved his critics wrong,' blared the headlines, as soon as he completed a hundred against West Indies. The same column had called for his exclusion just days earlier.In the case of Dada, everybody who had rejoiced in his axing last year, now joined his diehard fans--mainly Brinda Karat and Sharmila Tagore (or was it Nafisa Ali and Aparna Sen, I forget)--in telling the whole world, ' I told you so.'

The worst amnesia seems to have afflicted the selectors who have made Tendulkar vice captain clean forgetting how long ago and why he relinquished the captaincy.