 Can Tamil Nadu do it this time?
 Every year, hope rises afresh in the Tamil Nadu cricket partisan’s breast. As the new season unfolds, the few hardy perennials still following the state team’s fortunes with greater enthusiasm than international cricket and analyse the team’s prospects in the national championship. Will our boys ever overcome the challenge of Mumbai, even a side depleted by the absence of Tendulkar as happened in the last couple of seasons? Or will they fall by the wayside, unable to take in their stride the youthful exuberance of a team like Baroda, which, apparently too good for TN, could not overthrow the Railways the last time they met?
 Unfortunately, our talented team invariably flatters to deceive. Some of our prolific scorers decide to hit a trough at just the time they should be riding the crest of a wave. S Sharath, the indefatigable left-hander, for one, has made it a habit, though it seems cruel to fault a player who has done so much for Tamil Nadu cricket.
The selectors do their bit. Last season, for instance, they decided to drop Sadagopan Ramesh in a crucial Ranji Trophy knockout encounter, as though the state is overflowing with superior batting talent.
 This season has begun ominously. The team lost to Jharkhand in the opening league match of the Buchi Babu tournament, but recovered well enough to win the title, though not without a number of hiccups en route. Ramesh was rested because he is an automatic choice who doesn’t have to prove himself, according to an official statement. Another proven performer C Hemant
Kumar was left to warm the reserve benches.
 Though some of the younger pacemen did an admirable job, the bowling seems to lack teeth overall in the absence of L Balaji - who sportingly joined the state’s second eleven and bowled brilliantly in vain, as Maharashtra upset them to earn a berth in the final against the first eleven.
Fifteen years ago, Tamil Nadu started the season disastrously. Amidst the general gloom, one man struck a chord of dissent and predicted that the state would annex the title it had last won in 1954-55. And Suresh Menon of the Indian Express was proved miraculously right. Any predictions this year, Suresh?
V Ramnarayan
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