Indian Cricket Team - Old is Gold ?

We've seen this happen all along in Indian cricket

Middle aged men, sitting squat in the Indian cricket team spoiling the chances of an aspiring youngster. Once recent example: Ananthapadmanaban, the Kerala Leg spinner who just retired a few months back.

Its ironic to see such things happen all the time in Indian cricket. Look at the people who lost their chances thanks to Prasanna, Bedi, Chandra and Venkat.

Rajinder Goel, Shivalkar, Raghuram Bhat, Naushir Mehta, VV Kumar to name a few. I feel sorry to about these cricketers and their bad luck.

Look at the stats of AnanthaPadmanabhan who was shutoff thanks to Kumble a 35 year old veteran who has been playing for India since 1989 ( a whopping 16 years!).

Remember, Kumble plays for Karnataka and Anantha played for Kerala. Please have in mind, the batting and bowling strengths of both the teams when you read the stats

First Class O R W Ave BBI 5 10 SR Econ
Anantha Bowling 3594.3 9474 344 27.54 8-57 25 5 62.6 2.63
Kumble Bowling 8761.2 22132 907 24.40 10-74 62 16 57.9 2.52
Limited Overs
Anantha Bowling 405.5 680 87 19.31 5-38 4 2 27.9 4.13
Kumble Bowling 3248.2 13597 496 27.41 6-12 14 3 39.2 4.18

The same thing applies to bastmen as well. In my opinion, (I know many of you won't like this),Tendulkar, Ganguly, VVS Laxman have to go.

I feel that the youngsters should be given more chances. Think about it, How did Irfan Pathan and Balaji get into the Indian team? It was thanks, to Venkatesh Prasad and Srinath.

Maybe we should have a rule in cricket, that a cricketer has to retire at 30 years of age however well he plays.