Laxman dropped?

India lose a series and axes fall on V.V.S.Laxman - a familiar disheartening tale.Laxman has to be the most unluckiest of the lot of the Indian cricketers who have had a stint with the national side.At 32 and counting, his chances of cementing himself have gotten dimmer and the exclusion from the West Indies tour of India has proved to be a major setback right after the 2003 debacle.His tale has to be titled as "Very very sad laxman"(very very special seems to be ages ago).Born and brought up at Hyderabad, he made his debut way back in 1996.The 90's had those remarkable one test stincts - Ganguly (1992),Dravid(1996) all having one or two tests before been shown the doors only for them to return more strong and hard hearted.But for laxman the scripts have been written differently and in a more sad and empathetic way.

At his sublime best, VVS Laxman is a sight for the gods. Wristy, willowy and sinuous, he can match - sometimes even better - Tendulkar for strokeplay. His on-side game is comparable to his idol Azharuddin's, and yet he is decidedly more assured on the off side, and has the rare gift of being able to hit the same ball to either side. The Australians, who have suffered more than most, paid the highest compliment after India's 2003-04 tour Down Under by admitting they did not know where to bowl to him. Laxman, a one-time medical student, finally showed signs of coming to terms with his considerable gifts in March 2001, as he tormented Steve Waugh's thought-to-be-invincible Australians with a majestic 281 to stand the Kolkata Test on its head. But even though he had another wonderful series against the Australians in 2004-05 with two centuries, one of them involving back-from-the-dead, match-winning, 300-plus partnership with Kolkata ally Rahul Dravid at Adelaide, he hasn't quite managed the consistency that could have turned him into a batting great

Then again,how about a Virender Shewag?He has had similar or more failures than laxman.Again one can argue that Shewag can bowl and field while Laxman cannot bowl and can only field in the slip cordon.(His slip catching abilities are amazing and his blinders at 2 nd slip and gullies have given India some crucial breakthro's).But again, we are talking about V.V.S.Laxman who hails from the southern half of the country unlike his close buddy who comes from the capital.The autobiography of John Wright has this line that says "mate,suggest dropping me to the selctors and u ll find urself out of the job" sums the attitude that our players have..Under Saurav Ganguly, the dice was heavily loaded against the South Indians - only few debutants emerged in his captaincy that spanned almost 5 whole years(Yohannan,Balaji,badani,venugopal Rao).And it isnt surprising to say the least to find none of them in the scheme of things now.Infact,Anil Kumble was made to sit out despite his heroics in West Indies in favour of Harbhajan.Although one can go about ranting that harbhajan was the younger and more verstaile, selectors comfortbly axe the old south indian war horses while the North Indian underperformers go under the cover despite their lack-lusture form.Shewag is a recent entry into the elite list.

It is indeed baffling to see a pattern emerging out against the southies but then thats the reality and its hard to digest.The fate of laxman is very much on the walls, with virtually no chance of his re - entry into the ODI team and with the likes of youngsters like Dinesh Karthik and Raina giving his place a real run for the money, one can comfortably ink his career as the one that was ruined by badluck,fate,illtiming and above it all-selction blunders.May be the thumping off drives and those gorgeous flicks are no more to be seen from Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman.