Focus on overseas players

Not surprisingly, indeed almost inevitably, attention has focussed on the overseas players, and that is why I looked at the latest MVP rankings on rediff.com with more than usual interest.

Of the top 30 players, irrespective of their price tag, 15 are Indian. It could be argued that it is no big deal given that 15 overseas players make the cut out of, for ease of argument, 32 that can be used and that the the 15 Indians who qualify do so from a much larger universe. But remember we are looking at the best among overseas players and so supporters of Indian cricket should be quite happy to see 15 players there. It is interesting as well that 10 of those (Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Yuvraj, RP Singh, Ojha, Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Jadeja in that order) make the Indian T20 world cup team. The five not in the Indian team are Tendulkar, Kumble, Nayar, Karthik and Dravid, a big vote for the seniors. Of these Karthik should be disappointed at losing out and Nayar couldn't be far away from making it. But I wonder if it should be a matter of some concern that five players who will almost inevitably make it to the first eleven seem to be struggling a bit (Sehwag, Gambhir, Harbhajan, Ishant and Zaheer!).

That world cup should be a magnificent spectacle only maybe a touch short, if anything at all, on the heartwarming moments that a Tyagi, a Suman, an Ojha or a Jakati provide. It is these young players who add the little something to an event!