Interestingly, Tendulkar has been named only for the Singer Cup in Sri Lanka later this month, and the Sahara Cup in Canada in September. The latter tournament pits India against Pakistan and in this context, it is interesting to note that in the past, Indian players who have led against Pakistan have come to rather sticky ends, ever since cricketing relations between the two countries were restored way back in 1978.

Thus, Bishen Singh Bedi led India in the 1978-1979 tour of Pakistan, lost two-nil, and was sacked. Sunil Gavaskar led India to a 3-0 defeat in the 1982-1983 series, and got the boot. And K Srikkanth, who in the 1989-1990 series managed to come away from Pakistan with an all-drawn record, was sacked as well. The only exception to the rule that losing Indian captains against Pakistan get the boot was, in fact, Gavaskar himself after the 1984-1985 series.

But if this is a frightening thought, then the flip side of the captaincy equation is that in the last two decades, Indian captains have managed to leave mega impacts on the game. Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev,who ruled in the eighties, went on to become the second highest Test run-getter and the highest Test wicket taker respectively. And Dev also had the added honour of leading India to a World Cup win in 1983.

For his part Azharuddin, India's skipper since 1989, has turned out to be India's most successful skipper, in both the Test and the one-day varieties of the game.

Another interesting aspect is that each of the players mentioned above attracted criticism for favouring, during their tenures, players from their respective zones. Thus, when India went to England in 1982 under Gavaskar, there were as many as six players from Bombay - Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri, Sandeep Patil, Suru Nayak, Ghulam Parkar and the skipper himself.

Similarly, in the home series following the 1983 World Cup win, skipper Kapil Dev led a side packed with eight players from his own north zone - Mohinder Amarnath, Yashpal Sharma, Kirti Azad, Madan Lal, Ashok Malhotra, Chetan Sharma, Randhir Singh and the captain himself.

And the Indian side that toured England earlier this year, under Azharuddin, had seven players from the south zone, namely Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Rahul Dravid, Venkatapathy Raju, Sunil Joshi and Azhar himself.

Interestingly, Sachin Tendulkar's team appears to right that balance. Thus, while the captain himself is from Bombay, there are as many as seven players from the south in his squad - the seven named above, minus Venkatpathy Raju but with the addition of David Johnson.

Is this happenstance? Coincidence? Or is Sachin the first skipper we have had in a long time without regional bias? Your guess is as good as mine.

Given below, meanwhile, are the captaincy figures for the three skippers named above, in both Tests and one-dayers.

TEST CRICKET

                   Captained  Won  Lost  Drawn  Tie  Success%
M Azharuddin          37       11    9     17    --    52.70
SM Gavaskar           47        9    8     30    --    51.06
Kapil Dev             34        4    7     22     1    45.59

ONE-DAY CRICKET

                   Captained  Won  Lost  Aband. Tie  Success%
Kapil Dev             74       39    33     2    --    54.05
M Azharuddin         118       60    54     2     2    52.54
SM Gavaskar           37       14    21     2    --    40.54

Note: Success percentage have been calculated by allotting two points for a win and a point for drawn/abandoned/tied game.