The one-day ’keeper’s slot has been contentious for a while. You’ve always stressed on a specialist. Has anything changed since India’s showing at the World Cup? Not at all. I still say that we need a specialist wicketkeeper in both forms of the game. The entire balance of the team depends on the wicketkeeper. Ask any international cricketer; the ’keeper is the best guide to the captain, to the bowlers, to the fielders.

A makeshift wicketkeeper is always going to be an impractical option. Which is the number one team in the world? Australia. Who runs their academies? Rodney Marsh and Wayne Phillips, former wicketkeepers. They are in charge because wicketkeepers are in the best position to figure out the nuances of the game.

Referring to Dravid, I say that if the top six batsmen fail, the seventh can’t change the match.

Can’t they? We have had a couple of matches where our number seven (Mohammed Kaif) has made the difference.It’s a question of temperament. The number seven batsman didn’t do it because he came in at number seven. He had the temperament to do it and would have succeeded if he came in a few slots earlier also.

How has Dravid’s keeping been?He’s been excellent. He has brought off some excellent stumpings and catches. He’s often failed where a regular wicketkeeper might have done better, but that’s not the point. The point is that in a Test match, you might get more chances, but in an ODI, one chance might be the difference between victory and defeat. A wicketkeeper is the backbone of the side. He has to be a specialist.

Do you see any point in trying to work on Dravid to make him a better wicketkeeper?Dravid is not a natural wicketkeeper. He’s done his best, but his place in the side should be as a batsman. Keeping is something that’s in a person’s genes. You can’t teach someone to keep wickets.

The alternatives are Parthiv Patel, Ajay Ratra and Thilak Naidu. How would you rate them, and who would get your vote in a one-day side?They are capable of scoring runs as they have shown. All of them are good, specialist wicketkeepers and competent batsmen. The selectors have to decide, but any one of them would fit in fine. We’ll have to pick them to give them the confidence.

But what would your call be?It will have to be on merit. There is very little to choose from among them, but you can’t overlook Parthiv for the simple reason that he went to the World Cup and to England as part of the India A side. So obviously the selectors are looking at him as the replacement. He’s also the first-choice in Tests. He did very well in England.

Give him the exposure at this stage so that by the next World Cup he is hardened. Ratra, you have to remember, scored a Test hundred in the West Indies. So obviously he can bat. On tour, I have always maintained that two specialist wicketkeepers should go. So give both of them the exposure.