Recently a 16 member squad was announced for a home series against Sri Lanka. The normal course is to pick 14 and, if necessary, fly in replacements. So, why 16?
Let me lean on Prem Panicker to explain. There is so much more than simply naming the 16 best players in the country. No wonder Tendulkar did not want any of it when asked to be captain before Dhoni came in.
a) Panicker explains why there are 16 players in the squad, and also why Murali Vijay is the "back-up batsman" even though S. Badrinath is in the squad, too.
It took Srikkanth and his cohorts to find the perfect solution — increase the team strength to 16, simple; and in doing that, ignore the fact that historically 14 players are picked for home series because in the event of injury, it is easy enough to call up replacements.
So the committee first picked the obvious names. With two additional ‘berths’ created in a fashion that reflects the operations of our railway touts, ‘Cheeka’ managed to fill those spaces with two statemates in M Vijay and Badrinath. The curious aspect is that the announcement specified that Vijay would be the reserve batsman — which makes Badrinath the afterthought.
And that is curious in itself because when the BCCI announced its latest round of central contracts, Badri was one of the biggest gainers, moving two slots up from Category D to B, and seeing his annual guaranteed earnings go up from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 40 lakh.
Leave the question of whether Badri deserves a place in the playing eleven aside for the moment — he is probably playing to his best form just now. The fact remains that neither he, nor his fellow TN player, will ever make it to the starting eleven absent a spate of Australia-like injuries.
If you assume that selection committees have a say in who gets contracts and promotions, the piquant situation here is that a player found worthy of being promoted is an afterthought even in the minds of the same selection committee. And that player — players — will tag along with the team, sitting on the bench sharing gossip, when they would be considerably better off emphasizing their claims in the Ranji Trophy season now on.
The problem with that is, if Cheeka and company don’t pick Badri, they cannot make the case for his continuing to get a central contract. And if Vijay is not picked as the first choice batting replacement, they can’t make a case for him to be included when the next round of contracts is given out.
(...)
Oh and incidentally? The contracts were issued in October 2008. They ended September 30, 2009. The board has thus far not had the time to renew/review the contracts. Hence the imperative for the selectors to pick additional players and push into the ranks those they would like to see retain existing contracts or get fresh ones.
(Associated Press 2009)
b) After announcing the team, the media was not allowed to question the selectorial committe on this odd turn of events. Why? Well, the roots of it were laid years ago...
c) During the dark ages of Indian cricket (mercifully a time when I was unable to follow the team except through CricInfo updates) there was a lot of backroom strategizing going on, culminating in the removal of Tendulkar and the reinstatement of Azharuddin as captain. Prem Panicker reported on that in 1998. It is a fascinating account of the lengths that some folks will go to enforce their agenda. All of this is done in plain sight but without tipping their hand except to the ones closest to the action.
It is no secret that the decision to oust Sachin Tendulkar had its seeds not, as is widely propagated, in his loss of batting form or even in India's plummeting cricketing results. Rather, the seeds were sown as early as March 1997, when the then Indian captain made the unpardonable mistake of telling the press that he was dissatisfied with the way the selection committee went about its business.
He did that during the selection of the team to tour the West Indies. When he asked for an off spinner and the request was turned down, Sachin stormed: "If you are not going to listen to me, then why invite me for these meetings and make a farce of it?". Subsequently, at the end of the meeting, he let it be widely known that he disagreed with the team as selected.
From that point on, Sachin had to go -- simply because this selection committee, which operates on principles other than cricketing logic, could not afford an independent-minded captain who would question their decisions.
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