THE WOES of the Indian Cricket Team in Australia don’t seem to end. After putting up a semblance of fightback in the ODIs, it has again registered two crushing defeats at the hands of Australia and Sri Lanka. And of course people are talking. This time the most vociferous are the ex-cricketers.

The media of course has played no mean role in lambasting the cricket team. We all know that things are going wrong for them. We also know that in fast pitches where the ball bounces chest high, Indian batsmen have been victims since time immemorial. But the past has also shown that in these same Australia pitches some four to eight years back the Indian batsmen mauled the Australian pace attack. These same players - Tendulkar, Dravid, Sehwag, Laxman and Gambhir did it for India. At that time we were told that the Australian players were not happy with the pitches prepared as they were batting wickets! So now the chinks in the armour of the Indian batsmen have veritably proved their classic Achilles' heel.

 History repeats itself but people also forget history that the above mentioned cricketers took the likes of Bret Lee and McGrath by their throats and sundered the famed Aussie pace attack. The same batsmen are now accused of being vulnerable especially since age is catching up with them. Then there is a question of their retirement. When will they retire? Ex-Cricketers such as Kapil Dev and Saurav Ganguly have more than once said that it is about time that they hang up their boots. The skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has come in for severe criticism because of airing and expressing his rotation policy. What Dhoni meant was that these cricketers can be rested but they are still vital to the team.

It was Ganguly who mentioned a few months back in his columns that the big three trio of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman should not go at the same time but must be dropped in phases. In fact, his stoic contention was that if all three leave at the same time the Indian Cricket Team will be in doldrums. But now the same Ganguly says that there should be three captains for each version of the game and that the big four or five must be dropped if need be. That is fine but the retirement issue is only befuddling matters with ex-cricketers exhorting them to retire.

One issue must be made very clear. It is the cricketers who decide when to retire, and it is the selectors who decide who to drop. Recently, Ricky Ponting has been dropped from the Australian Cricket One Day Internationals. But he has maintained that he has not hung up his boots and will continue to play ODIs.

Let our cricketers decide when they will retire and let our selectors decide who will play. Obviously, Dhoni is under pressure and cannot openly criticize the big four who are failing; moreover, he does need their guidance and presence to the extent that he can avail it. Too much meaning should not be read into his statement on rotation and fielding.