Vengsarkar should ask for an official astrologer

By John Cheeran
Chairman of national selection committee Dilip Vengsarkar has stressed the need for a bowling for the Indian team.
While announcing the Test team in New Delhi for the South African tour Vengsarkar reiterated that he had told the BCCI top brass how important is a bowling coach for India though Indian bowlers have relatively down well on the tour so far.
It is not Anil Kumble who needs bowling tips. Indian pacers are relatively newcomers to international cricket and more tactical and technical inputs should help Sreesanth, Munaf Patel and Irfan Pathan. Teams such as Australia and England do employ bowling coaches, and why should India lag behind?
But I, however, recall that when Kapil Dev and Madan Lal handled the Indian team there was hardly any improvement in the overall performance of our bowlers.
May be more than a bowling coach, Indian board should appoint an official astrologer to the side.
An astrologer should sit along with the selection committee while teams are selected and he also should travel with the team.
Every time Vengsarkar need to pick a team, he should send kundalis of the players who are in the reckoning to the astrologer to get expert opinion. Any selection without getting the Global Position of planets would be foolish.
And I understand that as a first step, Vengsarkar has recalled Ganguly ignoring his poor performance in the recent months, on the advice of a Calcutta-based astrologer.
With Sachin Tendulkar performing poojas to negate the sarpa dosham after and before his tennis elbow surgery and whole of Calcutta holding non-stop poojas till Ganguly was recalled to the side should be pointers to the crucial role Gods (or is it godfathers?) and grahas (planets) play in Indian cricket.
An Indian TV channel had proved that a Calcutta astrologer, Chatterjee, had predicted Ganguly’s comeback looking only at the star charts of the player. Astrologer said, though much after it was clear that the behind the scenes machinations ensured Ganguly’s comeback, Ganguly has successfully negotiated the harmful effects of Saturn and is set for wonderful exploits with bat now.
Chatterjee has also said that the combination of Sehwag and Ganguly will be excellent for India. And proving the astrologer right instantly, the unbearable burden of vice-captaincy vanisehd from Sehwag's drooping shoulders!
May be the BCCI should interview Bejan Daruwala and few other renowned astrologers, including Kerala’s Parappanagadi Unnikrishna Panicker, who predicted the recent election rout of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister with pinpoint accuracy.
I suggest Sharad Pawar and Vengsarkar should instruct captain Rahul Dravid and coach Greg Chappell, based on the official astrologer’s feed back, based on changing planetary positions, on batting orders, bowling changes and what to do in the event of winning toss.
After all, stars above should decide the fate of stars on the ground.