News just released on Cricket.IndiaTimes confirms that Pathan has been dropped from the Indian XI.

This is a young talent, that has fallen victim to his coach’s whimsical experimentation and the lethargic indifference of Indian cricket management.

In May 2004, Cricinfo was writing “Every now and then there emerges a performer who draws to himself a unique kind of common gaze. He evokes the fascination of watching an advanced person at work. He inspires in youth a sense of possibility and in greybeards a sense of youth… People have had this feeling this past season watching Irfan Khan Pathan play cricket”.

Where did it all go wrong.

Well, he had a great weakness. He was capable of batting harder and better than some regular batsmen in the team. To the point he was being pushed higher and higher up the batting order when it was necessary to up the runrate (to cover the failures of some regular batsmens’ inadequacies to do so).

That he did, with great success. To the point that the coach started to believe he could turn him into an all-rounder.

A player who considered himself a bowler first and believed he needed atleast another three years of consistent performance to be an allrounder. In Cricinfo – Dec:2005 he himself said, “It’s not that I didn’t have confidence in my batting before today, but I don’t want to think of myself as an allrounder yet. If the people and the media want to call me that, that’s their choice. I know my limitations, and I play within them. It will take time for me to become an allrounder, I will need to perform consistently for two-three years. When I feel confident that I am an allrounder, I will then tell the world myself that I am now an allrounder”.

But he was necessary to the team for the coach and management for a ‘quick fix and brushing under the carpet’ strategy for success. Only if he could produce the same standards till the WCC2007.

Experiments followed experiments, Some were failures, some were spectacularly successful. Except human mind are not like the burettes and pippettes of a chemistry lab. And some experiments has some form of side effects.

Pathan was being coached to become an all-rounder by the best batting coach ever. It was such a successful experiment that it completely changed the original ingredients. Pathan forgot the very skill that brought him into limelight.

Today he is out of the team. Tomorrow, who knows?

I hope somebody, somewhere has the good sense of taking him out from Chappell’s clutches and return him to the cricket he was good at and loved. Have a good bowling coach to get him back into his rhythm.

By, god. I would like to see this youngster back in the team, and playing to his full potentials.

WANTED:

A sensible person in Team India management to help this fantastic talent return to his original self.

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