Monday, December 10, 2001 Dhiraj Parsana is a celebrity in Gujarat. With his long dark dopey eyelashes, panama hat and white slacks, he is the walking embodiment of empire. But he is the last vestige of something else. Now 54, he was the fourth and last Gujarat player to play Test cricket for India - 23 years ago.

Parsana played twice, at Madras and Delhi in 1978-79, against a West Indies side depleted by the Kerry Packer breakaway. "It was a great moment for me but a different cup of tea from first-class cricket. The atmosphere, the standard of bowling, the spirit - everything was different."

And Darjeeling didn't sit easily with a man used to Assam. Parsana returned figures of 1 for 50 and proved an embarrassment to Sunil Gavaskar, who had tipped off the selectors after playing with him in West Zone. He was swiftly dropped into the pit of anonymity, never to play for India again. He didn't even have any battle scars for consolation - at least fellow Gujarati Nari Contractor had a scarred skull from where Charlie Griffith almost burst his brains.

Gujarat state contains 44 million people and three first-class teams - Gujarat, Surashtra and Baroda. But while Baroda are the holders of the Ranji Trophy, brimming with stars like Jacob Martin, Nayan Mongia and Zaheer Khan, Gujarat bumble along at the bottom, occasionally tripping on their own toes. Parsana, who played for Gujarat for 13 years, puts the blame firmly with the administrators of the Gujarat Cricket Association.

"The people who are running the association have very little influence at board level. You need someone powerful in your own state who can push your own boys at the highest level and that doesn't happen. I got my debut at the age of 31, and had been performing for years in the Duleep and Ranji trophies. There is just no recognition."

No recognition certainly for someone like the swarthy, smiley Mukund Parmar, described by Parsana as "a phenomenon". Parmar breathes runs for fun at Ranji Trophy level but has never had a sniff of Test recognition, despite a first-class career average of 52. Parmar, now 33 and in his third stint as Gujarat captain, did have to battle against middle-order rivals such as Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohammad Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar, but the disappointment still weighs like a pumpkin in a bag of poppadoms.

"I've given up hope, now. I think I should have played, definitely. After getting so many runs and against all the best sides, it is very disappointing. But I was never given a proper opportunity. Gujarat never qualified for the knock-out matches and so the selectors didn't bother to look."

Constant snubbing makes it very hard to motivate his players. "All I can say to them is 'get big scores every time, try to get big hundreds, take maximum wickets, that is the only thing you can do'."

Others aren't so sympathetic. Gujarati journalists raise their eyebrows at the accusation of selectorial bias. Their pet theory is a simpler one. The reason Gujarat players don't get picked for Test cricket is that Gujarat players aren't very good.

The people of Gujarat are very enthusiastic watchers of cricket - the amount of money swilling around in India's richest state equals lots of televisions, which equals lots of knowledge and lots of fanaticism. Probably 20,000 to 30,000 people will turn up to the Sardar Patel stadium tomorrow, even though it is a working day.

But that enthusiasm doesn't feed the team, it feeds the belly. The Gujaratis are famous for their business sense, not their athletic prowess. Patels, who make up 30% of the population, are as adept in the unbending heat as they are in the tepidity of England.

The only successful Gujarati team, Baroda, is heavily influenced by the cricket-crazy Maharashtra culture of Bombay.

Gujarat can't claim to have made the most of their resources either. Rakesh Patel, a young fast bowler with potential bursting out of his boots, was left out of a state game against Baroda. The Baroda players who had spotted him in the nets couldn't believe what they were seeing and tempted him down the road. He has since played for representative teams against Sri Lanka and Australia and this season he was trained with the national team at their camp before the tour of Zimbabwe.

Nirag Patel, another young quick - played for India A, not heard of since - has kept faith with Gujarat. For the moment. If Tinu Yonannan can become the first Keralan to play for India, becoming the fifth Gujarati should be as easy as boiling the kettle. Whether he can cope with the taste once it's been stewed is a different matter.

Tanya Aldred is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

More Tanya Aldred
Heat, dust and talk of three spinners
The game was up
Mark Tully, I presume?

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd