Do you think the Indian team selection for the World Cup has been done keeping in mind English conditions?
I would like to think so. But I feel the selectors limited their scope by picking up 40-odd cricketers from whom they made the final choice. It created problems as they eventually discovered that Laxmi Rattan Shukla was too raw and had to go in for Debashish Mohanty.

The Board had to go bythe ICC guidelines and name 19 players in advance.
The point I am making is that they did not keep domestic cricket in mind. Sunil Joshi had done well, Dodda Ganesh took more than 50 wickets in the Ranji championship and yet he was ignored. If Karnataka has five playing for India it does not mean more can't come from that state. We should not get caught in these kind of regional traps.

You have been a national selector as well, what do you think a selector needs to do to appear being above board?
There is a collective need to think India. Zonal representation should not play any role in selection. There is very clearly a bias here...

Could you explain this?
Well, let me ask you one thing. Do we have a bench strength? Do we have players in the reserve who inspire confidence? Look at our World Cup team, Chopra, Mohanty, Khurasia and Ramesh are our reserves. Now except for Khurasia, do we have faith in the others to play them in crunch games? Take a team like Australia or SouthAfrica. Each member of their team is good enough to be introduced in any game. Can we say that for India?Our batting line-up is good, we need bowlers.

But there are bowlers, like Chopra and Mohanty.
Nikhil Chopra is okay on the subcontinent wickets, but in England the ball will hardly turn. That is why I feel a bowler like Joshi was needed. Even he won't be able to turn the ball much, but being a left-arm spinner, his ball will come in with the arm which gives him greater variety. And it is far more difficult to hit a left arm spinner than a right-armer. Going by merit even Azharuddin is struggling.

It could be a bad patch.
I can understand the bad patch if it is in the middle of a career. A bad patch in the twilight of one's career? People say we should back our team and not criticise it. Fine. But are we backing the right team? Let us be pragmatic, we can't be blinded by patriotism.

Do you think we are ill-prepared for the World Cup?
Well, our preparation for the WorldCup has been pathetic. We exhausted our kids by making them play against teams like New Zealand and Zimbabwe or made them play in Sharjah. Look at Australia. They gave their team 10 days off to relax in Bermuda before they came to England.

But even Australia has played too much cricket.
Yes they have but unlike us they have played good competitive cricket and not played outside home against teams like New Zealand and Zimbabwe.

How would you have liked them to prepare?
Planning is a must but our think-tank is woefully short in the thinking aspect.

How much freedom do you think our selectors have?
They have all the freedom provided they are not there because of manipulative reasons, in which case it is obvious what kind of freedom they will exercise. A selector should have credibility. Credibility not only in terms of experience and knowledge but integrity and honesty.

How do you define these qualities?
You have them or you don't have them. You can't pick them offa shelf in a supermarket.

I am also convinced that we don't need five but three selectors. We should have three selectors for a period of three years. They should be paid handsomely so that they are not lured.

You were the selector in 1983 when India won the World Cup...
I wouldn't like to take any credit for that. We were very fortunate at that time to have players like Srikkanth, Binny, Madan, Yashpal, Sandeep Patil, Kirti Azad. Players with experience but, unlike the present lot, players who had not exhausted themselves by playing too much. They were hungry for competition, for victory. And Kapil was the most fantastic news for India at that time and he was in his prime. Can you say the same thing for Azhar?And just look at our bench strength in that World Cup. Even players like Gavaskar and Vengsarkar were dropped! The team was also very fit and had no physical stress.

But modern day cricketer is different. Players have to cope with the commercial demands of the game and the fitnessparameteres too have changed.We are falling short of that adjustment also.

How? Do we have a system which can help players to cope with the demands of international cricket?
In countries like Australia and South Africa, their domestic cricket is highly competitive. In India we depend on individual passion. We have no system. Here the Board is like an event management. They are more concerned with playing tournaments in Singapore, Sharjah and Dacca and not running Indian cricket, which is their prime job. Also the establishment here is far too one-sided. In the absence of any healthy opposition all the lacunae go unnoticed.

But is there anything going for Indian cricket then?
Despite all this, cricket will flourish. It is a passion in India, far greater than any religion or political alignment. Take the World Cup. An average Indian is looking forward to watching the tournament and forgetting the bleak political scenario of the country. They are hoping that the Indian team will bringback smiles to their faces. Everyone here knows that India may not be good enough to win the World Cup, yet they are hoping that they do well. Can there be anything more positive than this? It is a binding factor, the only visible secular force in India today.