It`s whim and lose at the top

UMPIRE`S POST

Selectors have a cruel streak that makes them give a cricketer a taste of the big time, only to take it away.

The appointment as a cricket selector perhaps changes more than the professional, social and monetary status of a person. It seems to pervade the DNA and convert him (one hasn’t heard of women selecting men’s teams) into a particular species, which, across nationalities, seems capable of springing frequent surprises.

Legend has it that Baqa Jilani was drafted into the Indian team on the 1936 tour of England because he pleased the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram by insulting C K Nayudu at the breakfast table. When Australian selectors picked Peter Taylor, an off-spinner, for the fifth Test of the 1986-87 Ashes Test in Sydney, it is believed that they actually meant Mark Taylor, the opening batsman who later became a successful and dogged captain.

When fast bowler Yasir made his debut for Pakistan in a Test against Bangladesh, it became his first first-class match. Still just 22, he is unlikely to be picked ever again. Martin Crowe, the best batsman New Zealand has ever had, said recently that he was picked to represent the country four years too soon and that resulted in the sputtering start to his career.

The latest victim of selectorial whim is Darren Pattinson, who was chosen to play for England in the second Test against South Africa when he had yet to become a familiar presence in the Nottinghamshire dressing room. He was in fact better known in Australia, where he made a decent start in the Pura Cup.

In fact, many Australians expressed surprise when they came to know that he had an English passport and could actually be picked to play for England. It wasn’t a case of catching them early either — Pattinson, who had played 11 first-class games till the national call-up, is 29.

The only purpose Pattinson’s selection seems to have served is to provide an easy scapegoat for England’s resounding defeat, for which at least 10 other men have to share direct blame. In fact, Pattinson didn’t do too badly, taking 2 for 95 in South Africa’s first innings (its second innings was not required to last long).

By all accounts, Pattinson is an honest toiler, not only in the field but also off it. He has constructed a decent first-class career and moved away from his earlier occupation of a roof tiler.

Selecting him to play for England was cruel. It has inflicted rude jokes on him. It may have also changed the perspective and world view of a player who could otherwise have been content to play domestic cricket. The one thing worse than not playing at the top level is to taste it briefly and pine for it ever after.