Monday, April 22, 2002 It is a small miracle when Sunil Gavaskar and Bishan Singh Bedi are able to agree on matters concerning cricket. Sourav Ganguly must have done something exceptional to get them on the same side of the fence, passionately championing the cause of Anil Kumble.

Bowlers, it is said, always get a raw deal. Batsmen are rarely measured by the same yardsticks of form, playing conditions and team balance. The top six invariably make it into the team irrespective of their relative strengths and weaknesses on a particular pitch or against a particular kind of bowling. So why must Kumble, arguably India's greatest matchwinner ever and their second most successful bowler, sit out a Test just because of one bad game and a pitch that held more promise for swing bowlers?

Gavaskar was indignant: "Would the same principle apply to a batsman who isn't at ease against short-pitched bowling in the next Test where the pitch is supposed to be pacy?" Bedi called the dropping of Kumble "preposterous". "You don't treat such a fine specimen of sportsmanship so shabbily," he thundered.

Television cameras did not miss any opportunity to pinpoint Kumble in the players' enclosure. There was one haunting image of him sprawled out in the gallery at the Queen's Park Oval while India were bowling. He sat reclining, his feet stretched out and resting on the seat in front, his head tilted back, his eyes vacant: it was a picture of utter resignation and pathos; you couldn't help but feel sorry for him. His omission was a damning vote of no-confidence from the team management, and the pronouncement was loud and clear: he was no longer considered the number one spinner in the side.

The outrage over Kumble's dropping is rooted in two factors. One, he is India's most prolific bowler ever after Kapil Dev. He has contributed to more Indian Test wins than any other bowler. Two, a number of people feel that Sourav Ganguly, who ultimately took the decision to drop Kumble, is the least deserving of a place in the Indian Test team. Of course, these are separate issues and need to be dealt with in isolation.

But Indian cricket has forever been blighted by silly sentimentality and an unhealthy obsession with individual performers. We endured the sight of Kapil Dev limping on past his prime - and at Javagal Srinath's expense - to beat Richard Hadlee's record of 431 Test wickets. Sunil Gavaskar became a much better one-day player in the last three years of his career, but he would never have played as many limited-overs matches as he did in the early 80s had somebody possessed the guts to do a reality check.

While a team must always play their best players irrespective of the conditions, it has to be admitted that Kumble, with due respect to his formidable home record, isn't half the bowler abroad. A bowling average of over 40 and a strike-rate of over 95 point to some serious shortcomings of both skill and adaptability.

Ironically, his record in West Indies, though nowhere near as devastating as his home performance of 21.29, is relatively better than that in other countries, at 34.33, and he was India's most successful bowler on the last tour there with 19 wickets. But he was thoroughly ineffective at Guyana, and international batsmen are now playing him with a comfort approaching disdain outside India. He might still play a part in this series, but it must be recognised that Harbhajan Singh is a spinner with more guile, variety and potency. He can be trusted, more than Kumble, to transcend the pitch. Ganguly and the team management were right to pick the team they considered best suited to do the job for them at Port-of-Spain. It is a bold departure from a conservative mindset and it must be welcomed.

As for Ganguly, he still has an innings to prove why he shouldn't be the next on the chopping block.

Sambit Bal is editor of Wisden.com India and Wisden Asia Cricket magazine.

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