Cut the selectors some slack!

Its been nearly five months since Yuvraj Singh announced his retirement from international cricket but hes still clearing the pickets with disdain as it were The hurt of not being in the national selectors scheme of things seems far from healed and the southpaw has not missed many chances to have a go at the MSK Prasadled selection committeePresumably Yuvraj believed he deserved more than the three hits he got v West Indies after the 2017 Champions Trophy in which he earned the manofthematch award for his 53 off 32 balls in the first game against Pakistan at EdgbastonMore recently he pointed to the selectors bungling with the No4 spot for the World Cup and then of course came the askyourgreatselectors comment made in response to a journalists question about MS Dhonis break from the game All this seems symbolic of a player who feels hard done byPrasad and his colleagues have copped some low blows The irony of it all is palpable because rarely has a selection committee taken so much flak despite the Indian teams performance being good if I can call it soSure the semifinal loss at the World Cup was a big blow but Virat Kohlis team beat all their opponents in the tournament save eventual finalists England and New Zealand And three of the five teams they beat on the bounce were former World Cup champions Pakistan Australia and West Indies The unprecedented BorderGavaskar Trophy triumph in Australia earlier this year shouldnt be discounted which came after a creditable 12 result in South Africa in 2018 The failure to win ICC events is glaring yet it is not enough reason to ridicule the selectorsPardon the clicheacute but a selectors job is indeed a thankless one and former England pace ace and chief selector Alec Bedser was spot on when he wrote in Cricket Choice I suppose the art of selecting teams may be compared to umpiring mdash the best make the fewest mistakes A selector needs judgment and experience and that thing called luck said Bedser He mentioned experience and it is this aspect which has become a sore point for cricket pundits In his outrageous comments on the selectors recently Farokh Engineer played down the wrong line by saying he saw some selectors serving tea to Kohlis actress wife Anushka during the World Cup in England He was actually taking aim at how insignificant they wereTwo in the current selection panel Gagan Khoda and Jatin Paranjape have not played Test cricket Two Sarandeep Singh and Devang Gandhi have figured in seven Tests put together while Prasad played only six Tests all of them in the 19992000 season On paper the international inexperience shows up but that is no reason to believe they cannot do a good selectorial job Cricket is a strange game What you do in one phase of your career doesnt disallow you from being successful in another sphere so lets cut the selectors some slackClive Lloyd led a pack of fast bowlers which did not help in maintaining acceptable overrates Yet he became a match referee just like England batsman Chris Broad who smashed down the stumps after being bowled by Steve Waugh in the 1988 Bicentennial Test at Sydney A few months prior to that ugly incident Broad headed back to the pavilion in a Test against Pakistan at Lahore only after opening partner Graham Gooch got him to leaveWhat the India selectors lack in experience is made up by the amount of work and tasks they perform while travelling all over the country to watch domestic cricket That requires energetic legs apart from cricketing nous as new BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly will appreciate Ganguly may well feel that it is time to have a wellrounded internationalexperienced selection committee To form that sort of panel wont be easy since the ageold zonal system is still adhered to when it comes to picking selectorsHaving selectors who wore the India cap for only a few games is not as strange as some cases I discovered while speaking to a few former players and revisiting historic occurrences No disrespect to their firstclass exploits and ability to judge talent but some committees have had selectors with only domestic experience None from the current panel belong to the onlydomestic categoryM Dutta Ray figured in the national selection committee regularly from the 195152 season till 197172 without having any cricketing background Nari Contractor who led India from 1960 to 1962 told me yesterday that Ray used to come up with ridiculous suggestions at selection meetings I wont name any particular player but Dutta Ray used to say things like lets drop this player he has been playing for too long Of course how the player was performing did not matter to him and I could just sit there and smile because I didnt have a vote remarked ContractorVijay Merchant was astute but even he is believed to have strong likes and dislikes as chief selector While interviewing the late Dilip Sardesai long after he quit the game I asked him about the lowest point of his career Without hesitation he referred to his dropping for the 196970 home series against New Zealand Thanks to Vijay Merchant write it thundered Sardesai as we sipped coffee at the Bombay GymkhanaSardesais wife Nandini recalled on Tuesday how Merchant entered the Nehru Stadium dressing room in Pune and congratulated her husband enthusiastically for his knock of 80 against the touring Australians in 1969 A few days later Sardesai failed in both innings of the Bombay Test against the same opponents and he was promptly dropped for the series It was the same Merchant that tagged Sardesai as the Renaissance Man of Indian cricket after the Mumbai batsman scored heavily in Indias historic 1971 win in the West IndiesSelectors and players will never enjoy smooth relationships It just goes with ebb and flow of the game And who is to say Yuvraj wont have more to saymiddays group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paperCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates