Oh no! I would not want to believe so in such a meaningless system. I was deeply disappointed to know about the selection of Kohli and Ojha into the national team for the Sri Lankan series. It is not that I have something against them… these two are fine players who should in some time given their talent hopefully make it into the team. However where in this world today are their places being earned. A U19 player with a few fine performances under his belt automatically means a direct fast-track passport to the national team. That’s the Indian selection policy for you, grinning to the brim on the queries of their western counterparts on how can they unearth such young talent! The problem with this is that these talents are half-done cookies no way ready to do the full-monty, last the long mile.

Taking some examples of a few players who have surfaced for India under this policy, isn’t it obvious to look and see where this system stands today.

Mohammed Kaif came, dazzled, prodded for long and got dropped… no where in the scene today.

Raina, Pathan, Parthiv all came under the bandwagon… all initially dazzled and fell flat. Raina took the grind of the domestic circuit, excelled and was rightfully rewarded for a comeback. Pathan looks pale for quite sometime and Parthiv is still terrible with his glove work. Yuvraj Singh may be the biggest glimmer of that policy and yet after so many years, he is not an established player… in comparison look at Sangakarra. Gautam Gambhir went through the grind and established his supremacy in the domestic system followed by Badrinath. It took Gautam years to get back in and the other still the third choice bench warmer watching some u19 guy get a fast track ticket. The point is some of the ones who have made a better comeback distinctly are the ones who have gone through the grind and improved their game and temperament.

These fast-tracked guys may do well but recent history has shown them to get blunt quickly due to their lack of roundness and finesse in every aspect of the game and mental ability. More than this, the important question is why then have a system at all! Why have a domestic circuit… a larger and more competitive pool of cricketers battling it out! To start with, first of all, the domestic circuit has to be considerably trimmed down, with far lesser teams involved, rather than being politically correct and offer a zillion teams of states, smaller than the colonies I have lived in. The second aspect is if the domestic circuit be defined as the next level of the system, ensure the policy is in line with no by-pass surgeries unless a talent really oozes to the likes of being a sheer genius.

Surely, the reports on some members of the recent u19 world cup winning team, forging their age, don’t look false to me. Looking at the system offering them a fair better chance, it looks believable! And that would be sad for all parties involved in the game especially some deserving hard working cricketers.

At end of the day, after so many years, the selection committee has to introspect on this policy and see how well it has worked, as it stands today. And for importantly, what we are loosing in the process, a breakdown of a system, which is never being given a chance to show us what it has got.