Experience counts; or does it?

It's September, and what do you think Mohammad Kaif and Vinayak Mane will be doing? I can't be certain, but my crystal ball suggests that the one thing they won't be doing is playing Test matches in South Africa. If Zaheer Khan's wretched luck keeps up then he might be bringing the drinks. The silver lining, at least, he will be in South Africa.

Sachin will be back. So will Laxman, the guy who single-handedly won us the series against Australia (don't take this single handedly stuff too seriously... Bhajji and Dravid helped a lot, not to mention that plucky 'oldie' Dighe). In the bowling department, Kumble will be back in action. Can any of you seriously see these players not getting selected or warming the bench? Who knows, that famed all-rounder of ours, Ajit Agarkar (yeah, the one who reminds everyone of the Rolls Royce) might be back too. RIP - Kaif, S Sriram, Vinayak Mane, Dinesh Mongia, Ajay Ratra (the young 'keeper from Haryana), Harvinder, Mohanty etc. Know what? You guys don't have a chance in hell.

Laxman has done precious little in International cricket except for those occasions when he made the world gasp with his brilliance. Problem is that brilliance shades over his more frequent mediocre efforts and that is a pity. I have rarely seen Laxman having problems with the bowling or having the bowler beating him all ends up. He still gets out for low scores and no one minds because he made 281 against Australia.

Kumble is no longer a force. He wasn't even before his shoulder got damaged (he was some years back, I agree) and he had to miss the better part of this year. His potency is gone and all that can be said in his favour is that he is much better than the other spinners in the land barring Bhajji on current form and those nameless others who never get proper chances to show their wares. For example: Sharandeep Singh. Know something funny, if Kumble had played against Australia then Bhajji today might have been "Bhajji who? That spoilt brat who got kicked out of the NCA?". We would have lost the series and Kumble still would have been the "Smiling Assassin".

Know how Zaheer Khan goes out of the playing eleven? With Kumble back, can you see India going into the match with either him or Bhajji carrying the drinks, even if Kumble is far from his best (he will be rusty, will he not)?

If Srinath's hand heals by then (here is a prayer it won't ... no offence to him, I just don't want him to be bowling like he did in the first Test against Sri Lanka, never mind the five wickets crap), then he along with Nehra, the new golden boy in the team, would be playing as the fast men, which leaves Zaheer to carry Coca Cola or Pepsi for the batsmen during breaks. In South Africa, with their pacers breathing fire on bouncy tracks, one thing you could bet on, if betting wasn't illegal, is that there won't be five bowlers playing in the eleven. Goodbye Zaheer, Mohanty, Harvinder and any one of you who thinks he has a chance. You guys might join me in praying Srinath's hand takes just a teeny-weeny little bit more time to heal. The benefits might be a victory for India and a look in for one of you.

Spearhead Srinath will bowl his spell of utter rot, something we are used to nowadays, and will mix in a few overs of lethal inswingers that will get him three or four wickets at the fag end of the innings. The commentators would have multiple orgasms about Srinath being the spearhead of the Indian attack and we will look at a huge total to chase. Kumble will bowl his style of spin whether the pitch supports spin or not, since we cannot bench him and benching Bhajji is unimaginable today. The guy is simply too good.

Among the batsmen, Kaif might have played but when along with Laxman, the guy who scored 281 runs in an innings against Australia and might score them again against West Indies whenever we tour that place, there is a God on the off side to take that Number 5 slot. Ganguly might be a superb one-day player but he is highly limited as a Test player and it takes no great brilliance to guess that he won't be taking any man of the match awards for his batting in South Africa. He will be lucky, looking at the way he is going on, to take any in the current series against Sri Lanka.

Know what brings out this frustrated outburst? After watching Prasad bowl 30 overs of utter rot against Australia in the Bombay Test, I again watched him in the first Test against Sri Lanka. It made me wince to think that Harvinder Singh and Mohanty were reduced to nothing more than bottle openers and glove carriers. Tell me, why should Kaif worry about scoring a lot of runs and taking the "chance" that has come into his hands by the injuries to the regulars. It doesn't matter if Kaif scores a zero or a fifty. A big hundred might give him a glimmer but it would have to be a really big one to redirect the selectors minds from the Big 3 or Big 4, whatever we call them.

Counting Kumble and Srinath, we really ought to call them the Big 6; who cares if they never translate those reputations into wins.

We will not improve till the time we let the "juniors" play when the "seniors" look like old men. Harvinder might not run through the top order but one thing is certain - He won't have that hang dog, depressed and defeatist look on his face that we are used to seeing on Srinath's face even at the beginning of every match. Unlike Prasad, who seems to be more worried about not hurting himself while bowling, we will see some heart along with the shoulder being put into the bowling. Today Prasad's weapon is not the slower ball. The slower ball is all he can bowl. Sadly, no one seems to see that as a fault. The term "experience" is with Prasad and the term "spearhead" with Srinath. These will get them a place in the team ahead of Mohanty, Harvinder and anyone else who thinks he has it in him to play for India. Heck, even Zaheer, that incredibly aggressive (for an Indian) bundle of energy, the guy who actually bowls like a fast bowler, had to sit out in Zimbabwe simply because good old "Rolls" was more experienced and decided to take time off from his various injuries to actually take the field.

I remember a guy named T Kumaran. He went to Australia (yeah, the Lele series) and bowled the best among all the bowlers in the practice matches. Rolls, Srinath and Prasad were the others in contention and the script was familiar. Kumaran came back to India without playing a Test, went to Sharjah and a couple of other one-day jaunts, got carted to all parts of the ground and there you are. RIP - Kumaran.

Experience ruins a lot. Of course experience is important. Current form is more important. It is hard to imagine how that can be so strikingly un-obvious to the think-tank, whether of that Australia trip or the current Sri Lanka trip. If we want to have success then we have to understand one thing. It is okay to drop Ganguly when he is not scoring runs. It is not necessary to play Laxman in one-dayers just because he is a brilliant batsman and scored 281 against Australia. Today Dravid is easily enjoying the best cricket of his career but it still is okay to drop him if he bats the way he batted against Australia in Bombay in the first Test. Ironical is cricket that in the next Test, the same Dravid hit one of the best knocks of his career to help Laxman save India.

How long can or should one wait? How long can one support the non-performers just because they have class and "Form is temporary but Class is permanent", something Sunny Gavaskar is so fond of reminding us. We moan about not having a pool of talent and yet we never try to fill that pool.

To think that Ramesh or Ganguly might hit a century in the next match and get a lease of life for the next 10 matches. Strange, isn't it?

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Mail: Ranganathan Sriram