It's talent-showcasing time again

The tenth edition of the Challenger Trophy, the annual tournament contested by three teams made up of the best players in the country, gets underway at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on the February 7. This year, as always, the Challengers offer the intriguing prospect of the country's top players testing, and in turn being tested by, a whole host of young players keen to make a name for themselves on one of the few domestic stages to command national attention.

For this reason, it is all the more unfortunate that this year there is as yet no scheduled telecast of the games, the BCCI having failed to work out either this matter or that of a sponsor. Both the players and cricket fans around the country stand to lose by this, and it is to be hoped that the issue can be sorted out somehow by the time the tournament starts.

For several years the Challenger teams were made up of the full Indian side playing two teams made up of fringe players and hopefuls, which did not always lend itself to good contests. But in the last few editions the players from the national side have fanned out over the three teams, and among the potential one-on-one contests in store this year are Zaheer Khan trying to rough up Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag taking strike against Irfan Pathan, and Lakshmipathy Balaji returning after a long layoff due to injury to bowl at players like Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. Tyros like Gautam Gambhir and Romesh Powar will get a chance to take a crack at Anil Kumble, and Pathan may be reminded of backyard contests in his childhood if he gets to bowl at his brother Yusuf, who has been picked for India A.

This year's Challengers carry a special significance because the form of the Indian team in the last year has been poor; also, one-day cricket is a young man's game, and several members of the current side have turned past 30. There is perhaps one batting place up for grabs, or even two, as also a slot for a fast bowler and a wicketkeeper; and good all-round performances will immediately attract attention, not least that of Ganguly.

One can discern several categories of prospects from among the players picked. Some stalwarts of Challengers past, like Sridharan Sriram, Dinesh Mongia and Amit Bhandari, will once again showcase their wares and hope that their years will not be held against them; consistent young performers in domestic cricket over the last season and a half like Dheeraj Jadhav, Niraj Patel, and Venugopal Rao will be there; and pleasingly some members of the side that made it to the semi-final of the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh last year, like Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina, and Rudra Pratap Singh, will also be on show.

Crowd turnouts at the Wankhede should be good, even if Sachin Tendulkar is absent, and in the press box there will be many punts being taken on who among the hopefuls will be wearing the India colours within the next year. But will the TV cameras, and through them the rest of the country, be in attendance? That is a question that the BCCI must attend to in haste.

India Senior 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 MS Dhoni (wk), 3 Yuvraj Singh, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 Venugopal Rao, 6 Niraj Patel, 7 Irfan Pathan, 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Lakshmipathy Balaji, 10 Gagandeep Singh, 11 Rajesh Pawar, 12 Shikhar Dhawan.

India A 1 Rahul Dravid (capt), 2 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 3 Satyajit Parab, 4 Dheeraj Jadhav, 5 Mohammad Kaif, 6 Dinesh Mongia, 7 Murali Kartik, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Rudra Pratap Singh, 11 Yusuf Pathan, 12 Robin Uthappa.

India B 1 Virender Sehwag (capt), 2 Parthiv Patel (wk), 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 VVS Laxman, 5 Sridharan Sriram, 6 Rohan Gavaskar, 7 Ramesh Powar, 8 Joginder Sharma, 9 Ashish Nehra, 10 Shib Shankar Paul, 11 Amit Bhandari, 12 Ambati Rayudu.