The controversy over club vs country, the debates over too much cricket and the injuries to various key players and the reasons as to why and how all this happened can be kept aside for the time being. The most positive aspect of the selection of the Indian squads for the tour of the West Indies is that it gives many promising players the opportunity to cement their places in the team in the near future. After all the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh cannot go on forever. Much has been said and written about the Indian team's bench strength and here was a chance for the selectors to look ahead and plan for the future and that is what they have done.

Kris Srikkanth and his colleagues have spread the net far and wide but in reality there is never any need to do so as the replacements for established players are always ready. In batting and bowling India have an admirable second line of defence and there is no reason