Dunno if this will see the light of the day

but I am so chuffed with what I have written as a response to Dileep Premachandran's response on his blog that I am reproducing it here -

Dileep,

First off, apologies for a long post.

Secondly, "The spin impasse is even more demoralising for a country that once prided itself on an endless reservoir of talent." - after implying that the spin reservoir has somehow dried up,the author then goes to name 4 possible candidates to replace our captain. Five, if you consider Ramesh Powar in that list. This is in addition to Harbhajan Singh.

So what we have is - 2 leggies, 2 offies and two left arm orthodox bowlers to fit into the one vacant slot - how then is "The spin impasse is even more demoralising" ?

Thirdly, and I take up your latest argument here - the lack of Test credentials of the above mentioned people.

Conventional wisdom in India has been to pair a leg spinner with an off spinner and not a left arm orthodox because, despite the different angles that they bring to the plate, both spin the ball in the same direction. Which is why we havent played too many left arm orthodox bowlers except when we have pursued the 3 spinner option - and it has been a long time since we did that ( Venkatapathi Raju is the last left arm spinner who comes to mind who had a fairly extended tenure with the Indian team).

In more recent times, India, because of the depth in its pace attack, have gone into Test matches with just the one spinner - Trent Bridge and Perth are the latest examples of that.

In both of the above cases, our default spinning option has been Anil Kumble - because he is a great bowler and because he is our captain. And when we have ventured into the two spinner area, Harbhajan is the de facto choice ( 250 wickets with no loop and no flight and a leg stump line is nothing to be scoffed at).

Given that the spin set up is such a closed shop, how do you expect anyone to break in - isnt that why the spinners named dont have the test credentials to back themselves?

And here is the other thing, they did not come into contention because we picked names from a hat - Amit Mishra has served his apprentice in domestic cricket, Pragyan Ojha has been amongst the wickets, Chawla had been identified as a prospect from his u-19 days and Kartik is well, Kartik.

Also, as we are talking of replacing Anil Kumble, something we may never be able to do ( Like Sunil Gavaskar and the opening conundrum, Anil Kumble will be irreplaceable).

That said, it does not diminish what the other spinners bring to the plate - just because they are not Anil Kumble does not imply "we don't have any other options." nor does it take away what they have to offer.

And finally, coming to the moot point - I had stated the if Dhoni had not played the Kitply Cup, some hack or the other would have questioned his credibility as captain and the value of the ODI captaincy. As a response to this, you stated "I'd seriously question the credentials of any journalist who had criticised a player for skipping Kitply".

Thing is, just as to drive home the point about the immense challenges India faces when Kumble hangs his boots you made certain other observations( dearth of spinners, lack of quality spin, lack of Test match experience) that may or may not have been grounded in reality, why is it so difficult to assume that some other hack would do the same if Dhoni had skipped the Kitply Cup ( captain not interested, IPL success gone to his head, does INdia need a captain in absentia etc etc.. You know the drill :) )

Cheers,

Poms!

A two-Test drubbing in Ahmedabad and Mumbai, however, will prove almost as little as the one-Test victory that Pietersen has already presided over. The man himself knows the contest by which his tenure will be judged, and for once, to their credit, so too do the selectors.

So I ask you, why should we dignify this bunch of whingers by playing India's best?

I would strongly recommend that we field our U-15's because, seriously, for a team more concerned about Christmas than playing Test cricket, deserves no better!

Say it again, Sam!

Whose line-up is it anyway?