Let's have two groups

Shiv Sundar Das provided yet another glimpse of his potential with a fine century in the Nagpur Test and India seems to have found an opener with a definite future.

More than the runs he makes, what one likes about Das is the way in which he compiles them. The lad is a neat player, and deserves credit for seizing an opportunity in only his third Test.

Unfortunately, Sadagopan Ramesh failed to cash in on a fine start. On a flat pitch, and against a friendly attack, Ramesh should have got to the three-figure mark, and he would surely be ruing the missed opportunity.

This is where someone like Vinod Kambli made a big impression in the early 90s, running up double hundreds against the weak English and Zimbababwen attacks, efforts that stayed in the minds of the selectors, enabling the left-hander to make one comeback after another when he was short of runs. That Kambli has not yet cemented his place is another story altogether.

Rahul Dravid is in fine form these days and the Zimbabwe bowling holds no threat to this stylish player. On Sunday, Dravid should go on to bigger things. This Zimbabwean attack is among the weakest one has seen in a long time. The bowlers just seem to be running out of ideas, and unless a batsman does something silly he is bound to be among the runs.

This brings us to the bigger question. On one side we have the super strong sides like Australia and South Africa and then there are also teams that are so obviously lacking in depth and talent.

Bangladesh and Zimbabwe may have scored over 400 runs in the first innings against India in the recent Test matches, but their capitulation in the second undid all the earlier good work. The point is, weak outfits cannot sustain their performances. Let's come to the bowling now. Just imagine an attack comprising Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Shane Warne on one side and then look at the Bangladesh bowling. What happens is that the performances against these weak teams do not count for much. And such disparity in strength does not reflect well on the health of world cricket too.

The answer probably lies in inducting more countries into the international fold and having two grades in cricket with the powerful teams in top group and the lesser ones in the lower section, just as we have in the Davis Cup. This way we would not be compromising on quality.

K. SRIKKANTH

www.krishsrikkanth.com

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