Sadagoppan Ramesh - The Indian "Afghan"?
Ananthanarayanan K Subramanian - 26 March 2002

One more home series is past, and we have seen several new players rise to the occasion. But, given the fickle minds of our selectors, how many of these players will go on to play even 20 Tests remains to be seen. Sanjay Bangar seemed to have filled - albeit incompletely - the void left by Kapil Dev, but as we have seen so many times in the past, it is always prudent to not count our all-rounders before they are here to stay. Even Harbhajan Singh has shown glimpses of a batting ability, but someone like Sachin Tendulkar should take him aside to tell him that his carefree (careless?) batting will not help the team every time. With some practice, he could even be a useful bat, a la Shane Warne, although I may be asking too much.

But why have most of us chosen to turn a blind eye towards a player with all the prerequisite skills and caliber required of him? Just because he seems laid back, or is this another case of the "regional bias" that has plagued Indian cricket over the ages? The second excuse seems a bit far-fetched, considering that many players from the same zone have won places in the team in the last few years; I must stress, incidentally, that the quality of such players is never in doubt.

Although I do not know the reason, Sadagoppan Ramesh seems to the black sheep that nobody wants in the team. Is his footwork, or rather the absence of it, the cause? Admitted that this aspect is quite alarming, but his flowing strokes and awesome timing still catch the eye.

A online survey to pick the 16-member squad for the West Indies reveals the flawed and perhaps mistaken opinions largely prevalent in the minds of the average Indian cricket fan. At the time of penning this piece, Ramesh's replacement Deep Dasgupta gets twice as many votes as Ramesh (913), while Shiv Sunder Das gets more than four times as many. I attribute this more to ignorance than to clarity of thought. Ramesh's career stats should be a eye-opener to anyone who thinks that he does not merit a place in the team.

In 19 matches and 37 innings, Ramesh averages 37.97, having scored 1367 runs with two centuries and eight fifties. The statistics of Das, the other automatic choice for oener, are comparable to Ramesh's. Das averages 40.06 in 18 Tests and 32 innings, having made 1202 runs with two centuries and nine fifties.

So Ramesh's exclusion defies logic, as does Dasgupta's elevation to the opener's slot. This scenario would sound even more strange if one considers Ramesh's scores in the last series he played - the away series against Sri Lanka in 2001.

In the tour match against the Sri Lankan Board President's XI, Ramesh scored 63 out of a total of 285/5, when Das scored 72. In the first Test, Ramesh made 42 and 2 out of totals of 187 and 180 respectively; Das made 40 and 23. At Kandy, Ramesh scored 47 and 31 out of 232 and 264/3; Das made 8 and 19. At Colombo, Ramesh hit 46 and 68 out of 234 and 239; Das made 59 and 55.

Respected columnists like Erapalli Prasanna felt at the time that the openers, Das and Ramesh, were up to the task, providing good starts in the Tests. But after the Sri Lankan tour, Das got to play on while Ramesh was left on the sidelines. This after coach John Wright commented that Ramesh's (and Das') performances were the only stand-out ones of the tour. Is the sole single-digit score responsible? Perhaps a couple of injuries were the reasons behind his immediate exclusion, but now that he is fit and ready to ago, he finds himself in the cold for no plausible reason. The situation sounds even more bizarre since his "replacement" does not seem to justify his place in the team, with a better wicket- keeper (or even two of them) waiting on the sidelines to take his spot at the bidding of the men at the helm of Indian cricket.

So is it time for Ramesh to come back? That time has long come. Dasgupta's antics behind the stumps, regardless of the cultured and diplomatic words of Kumble and Co., should sound the final warning for the selectors. However, after going through 23 years of life as exasperated Indian cricket fan, if there is one thing I have learnt, it is the futility of expecting things to happen. But I am open to and still hope for any change in this aspect.

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