Honey, just allow me one more chance

Nine years ago, as a nine-year old, I spent a week at the Chinnaswamy Stadium watching India pitifully capitulate to South Africa. It was the most depressing time in recent memory to be an Indian cricket fan- far, far more depressing than the brief post 2007 World Cup gloom. It wasn't the margin of the defeat so much as the manner that was mordant. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid scratching painfully against that glorified net bowler Nicky Boje, Nikhil Chopra bowling 24 overs without once turning a ball or beating the bat, India taking 191.4 overs to dismiss South Africa..clearly, the inequality was not one of skill, but of desire. After having been hammered 3-0 by Australia, and throwing away the previous test at Mumbai, with Tendulkar a lame-duck having resigned the captaincy weeks earlier in semi-disgrace, India evidently had no motivation or desire. Anil Kumble, as always, refused to join in his teammates' apathy and soldiered away for six wickets, including the South African top five.

Things were hardly helped by appalling and one-sided umpiring in the form of Russell Tiffin, but that is no excuse for India scoring 158 and 250 on a flat pitch. But as a matter of fact, I remember that week for more than the pervading gloom. Throughout the test match, light and hope crept up occasionally like tiny miracles. One such light was the teenaged debutant Mohammad Kaif, who fielded like a dream and played some crisp strokes before being unjustly sent on his way back by Mr. Tiffin, out LBW despite an inside-edge you could make out in the stands. Another, of course, was the glorious final test hundred of that supreme artist, Mohammad Azharuddin. Azhar, now a Congress wannabe-politico, was playing his 99th Test, attempting to stage a comeback at the age of 37. Earlier in the match, he took his 25th career catch off Kumble's bowling; in the final innings, the result long ago decided, he showed up his younger teammates with a typical display of grace and aggression. Boje, who the other Indians were making to look a cross between Bapu Nadkarni and Johnny Wardle, was made to look like the gentle trundler he is when he bowled to Azhar. One month later, the match-fixing scandal broke; Azhar ended on 99 Tests, like Greg Chappell and Reg Duff with a hundred in his first and last Test, and received a life-ban.

Kaif never delivered on his batting promise, ending up as a good player but clearly short of the highest class. But I've omitted to mention the participant in that Test match that gave me the most joy. Murali Kartik was, at 24, an experienced first-class bowler, but he was in only his second Test. A traditionalist even at the age of nine, I had to marvel at his gifts. He had every conceivable asset that a left-armer can have: an easy, classical approach, wonderful control of loop and flight, a deadly arm ball, and a stock ball that turned sharply; perhaps not quite Bedi, but surely a talent in the Dilip Doshi ilk, and Doshi was a wonderful bowler. He bowled tirelessly on the most unhelpful of pitches, had multiple good appeals turned down and was not flattered by figures of 3 for 123. In the nine years following that day, little has changed in Kartik's game. If anything, his control has gotten even better, as he has displayed his effectiveness in both limited overs formats. But as far as Indian cricket is concerned, Murali Kartik is the man of no luck. Always poorly treated by Sourav Ganguly, his nadir came in Sydney on 6 Jan 2004 when Parthiv Patel missed a regulation stumping (Ricky Ponting, no less) off Kartik's bowling that ended up costing India a series win- and Kartik his place in the team. He returned to bowl India to a test win in Mumbai, and was dropped two games later. He fought his way back into the one-day side in 2007, bamboozling Australia once again with a magical 6 for 27- only to be dropped a month later. He was in the team for the home series against South Africa this year, only to pick up a freak injury at the last minute and be ignored when fit again- for Pragyan Ojha.

I have watched Pragyan Ojha bowl on several occasions; and not only is he no Murali Kartik- if it were not for a distinctly dodgy action that helps him get some turn, he would be firmly in the Nicky Boje class of left-armer. He has no flight, no guile, a defensive instinct. When I think of the fact that Goel and Shivalkar were not taken on foreign tours, and that Pragyan Ojha is..at a time of relative poverty for Indian spin bowling, with Chawla struggling and Mishra inconsistent, you might be fooled into thinking that India has no true partner for Harbhajan Singh. But now, as ever, that is false. Murali Kartik is a world-class talent who, on current form, would walk into any test side bar Sri Lanka. He should be taking wickets for India, not Middlesex, earning in a living in Tests, not county Twenty20s. Mr. Srikkanth, it's not too late to remedy the mistakes your predecessors made. 32 is not old for a spinner- Grimmett was a Test debutant at 33, as was the aforementioned Doshi, who went on to 100 plus Test wickets for India. Kartik can be just as effective filling in for Kumble as Doshi was succeeding Bedi. Give another chance to a man whose time has come.