The former chairman of the national selectors refuses, despite the two stunning defeats in the first two Tests, to write off this side, remarking rather that ``The side now touring South Africa is a good team, and I am hopeful they will do well in the next match.''
In Calcutta to participate in the RPG Corporate Golf meet, Vishwanath said, ``When a team goes on tour, it always takes time to adjust to local conditions. It is unfortunate that the schedule for this Indian team has been such that there has been little practise ahead of the first two Tests, and thus the players have not been able to get used to the conditions.''
Vishwanath, who relinquished his post as chairman of the national selectors in mid-1996, said that the number of one dayers India had played lately also had something to do with the temperament of the players.
Regarding the first Test at Durban, Vishwanath said, ``The wicket had too much of uneven bounce, and the need of the hour was to hang on. However, the Indian players tried too many shots and paid the price.''
Asked about Indian skipper Sachin Tendulkar, Vishwanath felt that he was merely passing through a rough patch. ``Sachin is a great player, he will come out of this patch he is passing through.''
Asked about the difficulties the team appeared to have with its opening partnership, Vishwanath said, ``We need to stick to one pair, instead of changing them in every Test. Too many changes can never help. Vikram Rathore, I think, should continue to open with W V Raman, and Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Mohammad Azharuddin should follow in that order.''
Another former Test star in Calcutta for the meet was M L Jaisimha, and he too felt that the team would settle down in time. ``I do believe that this side lacks an all rounder, and that there was no need to take three wicketkeepers as part of the tour party,'' Jaisimha said. ``As for openers, that is nothing new. In our time as well, we had the same problem, we never had a regular, steady pair, even I have opened for India at times. The same thing even happened when we had Sunil Gavaskar, he never had a steady partner. This problem is not something that is new.''
Jai feels that the main problem is the lack of an anchor. ``I guess too much one day cricket has done the damage. In modern times, though, players should adapt to the demands of these two forms of cricket, and I am waiting for the likes of Azhar and Sachin to start clicking in both versions of the game.''
Echoing Vishwanath's views on Sachin, Jai said, ``Tendulkar has enough talent to come out of this patch, we should give him, and his team, some time to grow together and get their act together.''
Another former star who appeared to have similar views was Faroukh Engineer, the dynamic wicket-keeper batsman. In Calcutta with the Lancashire county team, of which he was a member for many years, Engineer said that India should continue to use Mongia as one of the openers. ``There is nothing wrong in using a keeper to open the innings, I have done it so many times, and even got a lot of runs in that role,'' said Engineer, whose swashbuckling strokeplay was as admired as his flamboyant keeping style.
Regarding the Indian side's ongoing debacles in South Africa, Engineer said, ``It takes a bit of time getting used to different conditions, and all teams go through this sort of situation when they are on tour. Conditions in South Africa are quite different, the ball moves in the air and batsmen have to re-orient themselves,'' said Engineer, adding however that ``I am not offering this as an excuse, in international cricket you are expected to perform, no matter what the conditions are.''
Engineer's reading was that the present team lacked specialist spinners. ``In our time we had Bedi, Chandrasekhar, Prasanna and Venkatraghavan, who could be a handful no matter what kind of wicket we played on. Kumble is not much of a turner, he is good for one dayers but in Tests, he will tend to get explosed.''
Engineer, surprisingly, believes that though Sachin Tendulkar has been such a success as an opener in one dayers, it is time he reverted to the middle order. ``For one thing, luck plays an important part in the role of opener, one mistake and you are gone. And when someone of Tendulkar's stature gets out early, it puts pressure on the rest of the players, even as it gives a tremendous boost to the fielding side.''
Had the captaincy affected Tendulkar's game? ``Sure, captaincy would entail additional responsibilty but Sachin should be able to cope it with, I don't see a problem there.''