India won't miss Kumble much in the one-day series
By Omar Kureishi
INDIA has announced its one-day squad and it is a formidable batting line-up and the conventional wisdom is that batting wins the one-day games and bowlers the Test matches.
Anil Kumble and Ajit Agarkar have missed out because they are not fit but will be considered for the Test squad.
Ashish Nehra has been included but will have to prove his fitness by playing in a domestic tournament. It shows the importance that the selectors give to fitness. If a player gets injured during a tour it goes with the territory but players are not picked if they are carrying injuries.
I don't think India will miss Kumble all that much in the ODIs. It has Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh, bits and pieces spinners, but who can prove useful.
The good news for India is that Zaheer Khan is back in the team as is Mohammad Kaif. Both were badly missed for the VB series in Australia and Kaif, of course, will bring his brand of magic to the fielding and as a batsman, he is as good a 'finisher' as is Michael Bevan in the one-day game.
Rohan Gavaskar didn't make it and he will be disappointed as will his father, Sunil. But Rohan did not do enough in Australia to warrant selection ahead of Mohammad Kaif. India has selected a 15-man squad and I hope that our own selectors have taken the point. There is no excess baggage.
It is not often that I find myself disagreeing with Imran Khan and Javed Miandad. As players, there were role-models and what made them special was that they placed the interests of the team ahead of their own interests.
In this column, I have frequently stressed the need for a qualified trainer to be a part of the squad. Miandad has not agreed. In fact he does not even need an analyst or a psychologist or a fielding coach. As far as fitness is concerned, he believes that physical fitness is the responsibility of the players themselves. Imran concurs.
I would have too had I been certain that players had the same work ethic and the same high standards Imran had set for himself. Imran was a pupil who did not need a tutor.
Some pupils need to be egged on to study and a little more supervision with their homework. Left to themselves, they are inclined to let their minds wander.
Training requires more blood, sweat, tears and toil. It is not meant to be fun. It must be a part of discipline. I am convinced that players have the will to self-discipline themselves when it comes to batting and bowling but not when it comes to fielding.
Fielding requires practice and more practice and only a full-time trainer can provide it, not the coach who has or should have plenty on his plate to be lumbered with this painstaking job. There is also the technical consideration of the sort of training cricketers need as opposed to say, football players.
Fast bowlers need to do weight-lifting or 'pump iron' as they say in the jargon. What about batsmen? Do they need to 'pump iron'? Are the players expected to know this of their own? There has to be some guidance even if fitness is the responsibility of the players. I don't think a trainer will cost that much either. Much less than those who accompany teams as joy-riders.
But in the final analysis, the captain and the coach must decide for the ultimate responsibility is theirs, they get the credit when a team wins, they should also get the blame if it does not. In our cricket culture, the head of our cricket board generally gets the sack.
One final point: all the other Test playing cricket teams have full-time trainers. Have they all got it wrong? The Sri Lankan trainer did such a good job that the Sri Lankans named their gymnasium after him.
Indeed he did such good job that the Australians 'pinched' him and now he is with the Australian squad in Sri Lanka! Even the mighty Australians have a trainer and they don't leave it to the players.
The PCB is planning to invite some distinguished guests to watch the series against India. I hope they will also invite all those who have played Test cricket for Pakistan.
Many of the former greats are unfortunately not with us. A.H. Kardar, Maqsood Ahmed, Mahmood Hussain, M.E.Z. Ghazali, Wallis Mathias, Amir Elahi, Nazar Mohammad, Gul Mohammad to name those that immediately come to mind and if I have forgotten any others, please blame it on my memory rather than a lack of respect.
I think we need to honour the old-timers. There wasn't much money in the game when they played and they had to play for national pride but managed to do so with considerable passion.
There will be a long list of Indian cricketers who played against Pakistan. They too should be invited though missing will be such stalwarts as Lala Amarnath, Vinoo Mankad, 'Dattu' Phadkar, Gulabrai Ramchamd, Ghulam Ahmed, Subhash Gupte, all of whom were members of the first ever Indian team to tour Pakistan with Lala Amarnath as manager. They were the ones who broke the ground, as it were, they were pioneers.
The tour by India provides us with an opportunity to change the image of Pakistan cricket. We should not only be immaculate hosts, which we are because we are hospitable by nature, but we should play the matches in the true spirit of the game.
The sportsmanship shown on the field will influence crowd behaviour. The tour by India should leave the Indian players wanting more, wanting to visit Pakistan again. That will be a test of its success.
