The 100 Club

2006 will see the entry of quite a few members into the '100 tests' club.

Anil Kumble recently played his 100th test match at the Kotla, but here is a list of players who will play their 100th test in 2006 (barring injury) :

(Name of player, country, number of tests as of dec 31, 2005)

Ricky Ponting Australia 99
Muttiah Muralitharan Sri Lanka 99
Shaun Pollock South Africa 96
Justin Langer Australia 96
Stephen Fleming New Zealand 96
Jacques Kallis South Africa 95
Rahul Dravid India 94
Shivnarine Chanderpaul Wes Indies 91

Given that there are only 35 players who've reached the elite list so far, it is quite significant and an indicator of the amount of cricket played these days that 8 more players will ,in all probability, join the list this year, a 22.8% increase.

Trivia: Mohammad Azharuddin of India is the only player to be stranded on 99 test matches. Azhar had played 98 tests before South Africa toured India in 1999. He missed the first test due to injury and made a 100 in his 99th test match. Hansie-gate was exposed and Azhar got a life ban, thus leaving him one short of a 100 tests. However, in the process he achieved the feat of scoring a 100 in his first and last test match.

The hardest task of all

"ONE of the most difficult aspects of being Australia's cricket captain is having to tell players when they have missed out on a game or, worse, been dropped from the team. There is simply no easy way to tackle it." - Ricky Ponting, Captain, Australia

Rahul Dravid and India's selectors would do well to take a leaf out of his book in this regard. I repeat something that I've mentioned on numerous occasions: Indian cricket does not respect its heroes in the true sense.

Saurav Ganguly may not be amongst India's top six batsman at the moment. That being the case, if Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell felt the same, there was simply no way he should have been included in the eleven. The team management have the final decision when it comes to the playing XI- home or abroad. Once Saurav was selected for the first test, the selectors should have been gracious enough to give him an extended run with the bat. Forget Saurav Ganguly here. Let us consider a scenario where you have any batsman X . If Yuvraj Singh came into the team as a replacement for Sehwag, then when Sehwag returns it is only fair that Yuvraj makes room for Sehwag to come back. Batsman X, who was in team ahead of Yuvraj, and made two vital contributions of 40 & 39 in the test match, cannnot be dropped in favour of Yuvraj. The unbeaten innings Yuvraj played was definitely a good one, but it was by no means a 'once in a life time innings' nor was it a big hundred- if it is one of these two cases then perhaps the selectors could justify their decision. If they felt that Yuvraj has to be given a proper chance then why did he not get selected in the eleven right at the beginning?

When a player is dropped, all he can do is go back to domestic cricket, make runs and hope to be picked again. Saurav Ganguly did that and got picked in the team. He did not set the Kotla on fire with his performance but it was a good one all the same. Dropping him, was definitely not the right thing to do, as it the selectors have not followed a logical process here. If Saurav Ganguly was good enough to find a place ahead of Yuvraj for the first two tests, then surely he must be good enough for the third. Rahul Dravid praised Saurav's performance in the press conference. A few minutes later the selectors announced the dropping of Ganguly from the team! As always, I am sure that Saurav heard the news from the press rather than from a selector or the captain. Cricket is a great game and needs to have a sense of dignity to it. If Saurav is going to be dropped, Rahul Dravid and the chairman of selectors need to give him a call and explain their actions to him. Saurav Ganguly is no angel, he did have his flaws- but at the end of the day his contribution to Indian cricket is unmatched by any captain so far- and that is something we have to respect- whether one likes it or not.