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By Suresh Menon

A decade ago, when the match-fixing scandal broke, there was a possibility that Indian cricket might be destroyed. Especially since the national captain was involved. If India survived, and survived well enough to defeat Australia in a memorable home series and then climb to the number one spot in Test cricket, it was due to the unquestioned integrity of their senior players – Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Javagal Srinath.

Kumble and Srinath went on to contest the election for posts to their state cricket association, which was the tougher option given that media and coaching contracts are more lucrative and less fraught with tension.

Kumble, an all-time great, has the public image of a tough team man, willing to sacrifice his all for a cause, uncompromising in attitude, and the man, as the advertisement line goes, you would trust enough to buy a second hand car from. In fact, the endorsements they do are good indicators of the public image of the individual sportsman. Thus there is something of a maverick about Harbhajan Singh in his various ads, something about a voice speaking from Mount Olympus about Tendulkar’s pronouncements about the products he endorses.

With Kumble, it has always been about integrity, trustworthiness, and a no-nonsense approach. It is a fair assessment.

Which is why his abrupt descent into the world occupied by Board President Srinivasan, chief selector Srikkanth, commentators Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri – the key phrase being ‘clash of interests’ – has been baffling.

No one is making the case that by signing up two players who have just made it into the national team, Kumble is on the road to influencing all selections to the state or national squads. After all, such is his stature that even without official posts in the national bodies that he heads, his word will be listened to, his advice taken. You don’t dismiss the Tendulkars and Kumbles of the world so casually when they have something to say.

Kumble has a passion for mentoring young players, and has a plan ready for the education and proper counselling of players, especially youngsters who suddenly find themselves incredibly rich, insanely sought-after but without the equipment to handle success or failure. Tenvic, his company at the eye of the storm, has signed up men like Prakash Padukone who will play the role of mentor alongside senior players.

But – and this is the nub of the argument – however good the intentions may be, once commerce enters the picture, questions about clash of interests will be asked.

The stakes in the Kumble case are higher than are immediately apparent. Here is a man who is a natural choice as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. And some years hence, an equally obvious choice to run the International Cricket Council. If in the years to come, thanks to the politicking of the politicians, the cry, ‘Leave cricket to the cricketers’ gains ground, then it will be players like Kumble who will be charged with the responsibility of ensuring the growth and development of the game they once served with such distinction.

If Kumble sees no clash of interests, that is not difficult to understand. In his book, he is taking players under his wing for mentoring – and hoping that someday it will be a feature of the Board’s approach to players.

But in a high profile job, public perception is important. There is too much at stake for Kumble to embroil himself in needless controversies. We haven’t heard his side of the story. But he has been presented with an opportunity to do the right thing – even if that means a temporary commercial loss.

We must remember this was the man who recently pulled out of a lucrative television deal when he discovered he would have to share screen time with a colleague who was involved in match-fixing. Integrity is indivisible.

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By Suresh Menon

Sachin Tendulkar is being used once again. This time by political loudmouths so keen on protecting his good name that they think nothing of throwing dirt on the fair name of our democratic country. ‘Thou Shalt Not Criticise Sachin’ has, especially in recent years, become a commandment that is at once silly and embarrassing. The cancellation of the book release of Shoaib Akhtar’s ‘Controversially Yours’ because he criticised Mumbai’s favourite son should make us all hang our heads in shame.

It began with Rajiv Shukla, Vice President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India demanding an apology from Shoaib for suggesting Sachin didn’t enjoy playing him. I haven’t read the book, but if media reports are to be believed (just because it is on television, it doesn’t mean it isn’t true), then Shoaib has called into question Sachin’s match-winning abilities and said that on one occasion, Sachin rather than play the ball simply moved away from the line.

To me these sound like the desperate attempts by an immature person to get back at Sachin for the treatment the batsman meted out to him especially at the 2003 World Cup, and a pathetic attempt to sell the book. By pouncing on these irrelevancies, the cricket Board, the National Congress Party and the Shiv Sena, each more loyal than the king, have done Sachin a great disservice. They have lent credibility and seriousness to frivolity. Shoaib Akhtar will laugh all the way to the bank.

Sachin does not need the Rajiv Shuklas of the world to defend him; if anything, such a move is counter-productive. He does not need political parties to use him to score cheap points with the voting public. Politicians should have taken a pointer from Sachin’s dignified response when the story broke. His response was lack of response and the suggestion that it was not worthy of a response.

Sadly, this is not about Sachin. It is not even about the climate of intolerance which seems to be built into our system by the defenders of the indefensible (although that is an important element too). It is about the new political discourse – dragging in art, sport, entertainment, culture into the ambit of the one great perceived cause. Nationalism. Thus, to criticise Sachin is anti-national; to appreciate the works of M F Husain is anti-national; to watch a movie which deals with reservation in educational institutions is anti-national.

Politicians say, refining Frank Sinatra further, ‘It is my way or my way.’ There is no choice, no other sieve through which anything can be filtered.

The Sachin story is made to order for politicians. A good Brahmin boy with an international reputation versus a wild Muslim boy from Pakistan. There are so many layers – good vs evil, India vs Pakistan, wholesome vs tarnished, us vs them, our icon vs your bad boy, blameless career vs career full of off-field shenanigans and much more.

The question is not whether Shoaib is right or wrong. Either way he is entitled to express his opinion. It is unlikely that many of those calling for his head now have even heard of Voltaire, but it has become a cliché to quote him in such situations: I do not agree with what you say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it.

The self-appointed Upholders of National Integrity consistently fail to recognise that they usually cause great harm to the person or institution they are trying to protect with such excessive zeal.

A politician who has taken credit for browbeating the prestigious CCI into cancelling the event said, “Sachin is the God of cricket, and I, being a cricket fan, organised the protest. I also called upon the CCI to prevent their venue from becoming a platform for a book that criticises Sachin."

The Shiv Sena man has said, “(The book) will hurt the sentiments of all our countrymen."

It would have been possible to sympathise with the CCI who might have decided to cancel the show calculating that discretion is the better part of valour, but its president has been reported as saying, “We do not want to sully the association we have with Tendulkar.” So it is about protecting Sachin’s fair name, after all.

If a throwaway line by a sportsman is expected to hurt the sentiments of all our countrymen – a significant portion of whom live below the poverty line – it does not speak well of the country. And who gave these windbags the right to speak on our behalf anyway? Our culture needs to be protected from them, not by them.

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By Sunil Gavaskar

It was great to see the ovation that Rahul Dravid got when he came in to bat in his final one-day game for India and it was even more emotional when the England players rushed to shake his hand when he was dismissed after a fine innings of 69. It showed the respect they had for this wonderful player and the recognition of his yeoman service to the game.

Dravid has shouldered the burden for India for more than 15 years now and is still there for Test matches though it may not be for too long. Like Tendulkar and Laxman he will want to try and conquer Australia. That team and the South African team are the two teams that the Indians have not beaten in their countries and so that is what these stalwarts will be trying to do and if they succeed then that would be the right time to say good bye and pass the baton on to some of the younger lot who are doing well in the limited overs format but need to organize their skills and temperament for the longer version to be able to fill partly the big shoes of the seniors.

Dravid has done everything that can be asked of him. He has opened the batting, he has kept wickets to allow the selectors the flexibility to add a batsman or a bowler according to the needs of the team and he has also fielded in the suicide position of forward short leg and taken a few blows there too. All this he has done in his unassuming manner and without any fuss or drama. That unfortunately has not been recognized or appreciated by those who think the only way to bat is to hit sixes. He has hit them too when the situation demanded it but he has been happier playing risk free shots and still scoring at a brisk rate. His batting will not set the pulses racing as when a Sehwag or Yuvraj or Dhoni come in to bat but in the dressing room they know his value and importance to the side and in the end it is the appreciation and respect in the dressing room that makes a players day.

When he came in to the team Sachin Tendulkar had been playing for about six years and had captured the imagination of the cricketing world with his audacious batting, which was a rare combination of classical correctness blended with some brutal hitting. In every sport there are always players who catch the eye and become the ones the crowds come to watch despite others playing in a similar or sometimes better manner. There are many golfers who hit shots like Tiger Woods does but when Tiger hits it there is an excited buzz that is heard more than when another player hits an identical shot. In tennis too when Federer plays his sublime backhand passing shot the crowd erupts and not as much when a Nadal or a Djokovic plays the same shot. It is just a connection that is there between the player and the spectator and which is hard to explain but it is there and that’s why ‘sports’ is unique.

Dravid, because he built his innings like good old-fashioned brewed coffee over a period of time, has been appreciated more by the connoisseurs of the game and not the aam janata, who want to see the big shots into the crowds or out of the ground. The janata has enormous respect for what Dravid brings to the team. They also know that they breathe easy when he is at the crease because of the solidity that he brings with his technique and temperament. His work ethic, his preparation for a game and his concentration are such that a young player would do well to try and not just follow but also emulate.

To Indian youngsters to share the same dressing room with Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman is a blessing for they can teach more about batting and how to get big scores than any university could. There is also Sehwag, Yuvraj and Dhoni who can teach them how to keep cool and then go out and smash the bowlers, but they have a special skill set that not many others have and the temperament too and therefore are harder to emulate than Dravid who brings a method that can be easily followed.

It would have been fitting if Dravid had bowed out of the one day game with an India win but it has been such a forgettable tour that India just have not been able to find a combination that has worked and have not been able to finish the opponent when it was down. Injuries of course have not helped but what it also shows is that India must find bowlers who can take 20 wickets in Test matches and not rely on its batting to bail them out.

Indian cricket has been on an upward curve but the England tour has shown that the slide down has begun. Let us hope that it is not a steep one but a slow one.

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By Suresh Menon

“I don’t think India actually won the World Cup. I think the television channel did a ‘Wag the Dog’ type of production where everything was staged,” began my neighbour in the Edrich Stand at Lord’s. He was unhappy at the fall of the early wickets, unhappy at the way India had played throughout the series, and worried he might not get his money’s worth on a lovely Sunday.

But he had reckoned without Suresh Raina and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni who gave a glimpse into the kind of batting Indians are capable of when the planets are in the right configuration. It was exhilarating stuff. Raina threatened to become the first Indian batsman to hit the Lord’s clock, his bias towards rousing shots over midwicket indicating the time had come. He did cart the ball hard and high, but it went into the stands at the opposite end of the ground.

Raina continues to remain an enigma. India’s only centurion in all three forms of the game, he looks world class when battling the white ball. Against the red, however, he often looks pedestrian, even pathetic. At Lord’s, even off spinner Graeme Swann pitched short to him; the faster bowlers didn’t need a special invitation to do so. Yet Raina not only coped, he attacked. The shots were clean, power-packed and cleared the field comfortably. Steve Finn bowling consistently over 90 mph (this was England, and there are some things no one wants to change, metric or not), was sent screaming past midwicket to start the Indian onslaught.

Stuart Broad was deliberately lifted over the wicketkeeper’s head. James Anderson was treated with disrespect bordering on disdain as Raina stepped on the accelerator to add 140 in the last 14 overs with his captain. There was something surreal about all this.

Not so long ago, England’s Graeme Hick had caused similar confusion. He was the finest batsman of his generation – but outside the Tests where he struggled. He had over a hundred first class centuries to his name, including a quadruple century. The West Indies fast bowlers exposed him, as fast bowlers everywhere seem to be doing to Raina.

It is not the easiest thing to do – to play a delivery that is rising into your ribs at top pace. Those with the technique get out of the way or help the ball along towards the boundary. Raina is often caught between two stools, neither moving out quickly enough nor hitting confidently.

Yet it need not all be about technique. Dilip Vengsarkar didn’t have a great technique against the short, rising ball either, yet his centuries against the West Indies during their period of dominance is bettered only by Sunil Gavaskar’s. The opener had flawless technique, Vengsarkar had something that is sometimes a useful substitute. Heart. He was often squared up by the short ball, but he had gumption was tough. It meant taking the odd blow on the body, and being a tall man meant his height was sometimes a disadvantage, but he not only coped, he carried the fight to the bowler.

Raina is clearly a talented batsman, and a potential India captain should he cement his place in the Test squad. In the shorter forms of the game, he is currently India’s best batsman, which allied to his brilliant fielding makes him India’s most valuable player. There is too his off spin bowling.

For a while as the sun shone, and a packed house watched in wonder, sanity seemed to have been restored to the series. India had shown what might have been, but to me the day only served to deepen the Raina mystery.

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By Partab Ramchand

Lala Amarnath whose birth centenary falls on September 11 was always news. On and off the field he unwittingly made sure that he was always in the public eye. He made brilliant centuries, bowled accurately and skillfully, fielded in an agile manner that belied his build and led his side as shrewdly as only he could. This was all on the field. Off it he was involved in countless scraps with officialdom, fighting for more freedom and better facilities. He was even sent home from a tour of England for indiscipline - ``an ``uncalled for’’ and ``high handed’’ act as it was termed. He was the most outspoken player of his time – this was seen later in his newspaper columns and radio commentary - and cared ``two hoots’’ for administrators. You liked him because he was ``open’’ and ``candid’’. Or you disliked him because he was ``blunt’’ and ``rude’’. But you could never ignore him. Amarnath wouldn’t have liked that!

It is true that Amarnath might have helped his and the country’s cause better had he been a bit more diplomatic in his statements. He was an impetuous young man given to sudden outbursts and could have been a little more restrained in his comments. But it would be incorrect to say that the fault was entirely that of Amarnath. For the major part of his long career he was player and captain under the most autocratic leaders and administrators. Vizzy’s infamous role as captain has been well documented. Major Brittain-Jones who was manager of the team to England in 1936 was a tactless official. Anthony de Mello for long president of the Indian Cricket Board ruled like the ``big boss’’. It was difficult for a player of Amarnath’s temperament to get along with them and the result was a chequered, start-and-stop career for Amarnath who under normal circumstances should have played many more Tests than the 24 he did.

Happily however history has reprieved Amarnath. He has been absolved on all counts. Regarding his being sent back from England the Beaumont Enquiry Committee considered the step taken by the powers-to-be then in England as ``stern’’. Wisden termed is as a ``drastic action.’’ Don Bradman and Wally Hammond shared this opinion in their books and both in fact had high praise for Amarnath not only as cricket and captain but as a person.

Indian cricket has seen many enduring personalities over the years but could there have been a more colourful character than Amarnath? Veteran sports journalist PN Sundaresan once told me that for cricket lovers of his generation, their great hero was Amarnath. But Amarnath bridged the generation gap many times over and was a hero to a new generation of cricket followers. Such was the personal charisma of the man, his dynamic personality that young cricket fans born after Amarnath’s playing career was over were eager to hear tales of yore told in the inimitable Lala manner.

Amarnath possessed a touch of flair in whatever he did. After all, did not Bradman write in `Farewell to Cricket’ that ``I look back on the season with Amarnath as my opposite number as one of my most pleasant cricket years. Amarnath was such a pleasant ambassador and throughout the tour I found him absolutely charming in every respect.’’

As an attacking batsman, a skillfully accurate bowler, a shrewd captain and one of the leading personalities known for his outspoken views and acerbic wit, Amarnath’s exalted status in the history of Indian cricket is enshrined forever. As a batsman, he was once described as ``a pure romantic, the Byron of Indian cricket.’’ For sheer razzle dazzle of his strokeplay he takes his place among the most entertaining batsmen in Indian cricket. As a medium pace swing bowler he was naggingly accurate best symbolized by the story concerning Harold Gimblett on the tour of England in 1946. For long Amarnath tied down the naturally attacking batsman until in despair Gimblett asked him ``don’t you ever bowl a half volley?’’ And that impish Amarnath humour came through spontaneously - ``Oh yes I bowled one in 1940’’. As a captain Amarnath was pitted against master tactician Bradman on the tour of Australia in 1947-48 but that did not stop him from
emerging with a lot of credit. He was a daring strategist and in fact it was said that his knowledge of Australian pitches was superior to even that of Bradman’s!

Amarnath’s reputation as one of the great entertainers – on and off the field - is secure and unchallenged. He served five terms as chairman of the selection committee and being remarkably perceptive opened the avenues for a host of talented cricketers many of whom went on to notable international careers. His behind the scenes role in India’s miraculous triumph over Australia at Kanpur in December 1959 has been well chronicled. In later years he earned a name as a radio commentator and newspaper columnist his shrewd observations and frank views on players and issues making him immensely popular. The tributes paid to him when he passed away in New Delhi in August 2000 were sincere and handsome. They came from all over the world and were headed by Bradman himself.

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By Sunil Gavaskar

India’s cricket team is going through the horrors at the moment and while England have played remarkably well and are high on confidence, a lot of India’s problems have been brought about by being overconfident and complacent after the World Cup win. That tremendous victory made for joyous celebrations alright but it also made some people take it easy and that is where India finds itself in trouble.

International sport is such that it is tough to be away for a bit and then come back to the same competitive level immediately. It will happen of course if enough hard work is put in and if there is inherent talent but it does mean a few barren games. The preparedness that was seen before the world cup was conspicuous by its absence for the subsequent tours to West Indies and England.

True, there were injuries that upset the balance of the team and brought in inexperienced players into the fold but even here there were some whose selections were based on performances in a format that was other than the one that they were picked for. Far too often in India we have given India caps to players on the basis of scores in the IPL which is only a T20 tournament and so does not give a correct idea of the player’s skill level as well as his temperament. Just because the IPL has more viewership than the Ranji Trophy does not mean that the players who do well in that should get the India cap but have a look at some of the players picked for the ODIs and see if they have done well and been anywhere near selection for the Indian team again. So the caps were quite clearly undeserved and a waste.

The Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy are the premier tournaments for selection and have always been so, but how many of the games are watched by selectors who are now paid to do so? The selectors are seen at Test and international matches in India and that too even when the Ranji or Duleep games are going on and it would be far more productive if the selectors were out for those and look for new talent than go to a Test and see players whom they have seen so many times before. Mind you, with most if not all Ranji games being played without the international players it doesn’t always give a correct picture of the ability and temperament of the player. Still to ignore that is not a smart thing to do.

What has been hard to understand is why those who have been picked are unbale to get visas and get to England in time for the matches. Aren’t standby selected along with the team? And if so, aren’t they informed that they should keep themselves ready physically and mentally to leave at a moment’s notice. Aren’t the visas done for the standbys too or is it only for those actually selected to go on tour. The delay in R.P. Singh and now Ravindra Jadeja coming in makes one wonder if there’s been any information exchange at all between the selectors and the players.

If R.P.Singh’s selection to replace Zaheer Khan smacked of a left -arm seamer coming in for another left-hander, Jadeja coming for an opening batsman shows confused thinking when there have been so many batsmen who could have come in as replacement. If Jadeja does get to England in time for the remaining matches the management may not want to play him but with injuries coming thick and fast it could well be only eleven fit men on the day who can take the field for India. Of course detractors will once again blame the IPL for the injuries but the fact is that India is not yet a fitness conscious country and prefers skills rather than fitness that is more athletic than cricketing.

The shorter formats of the game requires more athleticism than the Test version but skills still have to be paramount and there has to be a healthy blend of the two. England dropped Samit Patel because he was too heavy at one stage and while he has not dropped too much weight the England selection committee seems to be satisfied with him. In any case if looks were to be the criteria for selection then models have a good chance to play international cricket than those ordinary looking ones.

India will look to salvage some face in the one-day series and being the world cup champs will be a factor in the confidence level but as we saw in the Test series being number one does not guarantee anything excepting that those below will be gunning hard for you.

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By Suresh Menon

Dr. Mahendra Singh Dhoni – the honorific thanks to a university in Leicester - turned 30 this year. An international sportsman at that age is the equivalent of an accountant or a candlestick maker at 50. There is a good chunk of career remaining, but its quality will depend on how well the mind and body are trained to cope. Matches not played will have a bearing on matches played.

Dhoni is one of the most over-worked cricketers in the world. In Manchester recently, he admitted his players are tired and called for a rotation policy. After the first one-dayer he suggested taking 18 players on tour. Dhoni has stood up to the strain remarkably well, although former England wicket keeper Paul Nixon has spoken of the Indian captain’s “sore hands” and general air of fatigue on tour.

The question we should be asking ourselves – and by ‘we’, I mean the selectors, the coach, the player himself, the sponsors, the fans, the media, everybody with a stake in the success of the player (not always financial) – is: How do we protect Dhoni?

Protect him from the excessive physical and mental demands so that he is at the top of his game for longer than his workload might indicate? To keep wickets is a full-time, nerve-wracking job; to lead a side, ditto; to be one of the main batsmen with responsibilities to control the innings, ditto. And Dhoni does the job of three men in three different formats of the game while maintaining one of the coolest responses to victory and defeat by any captain.

He didn’t burst into tears when India were thrashed in England (at least one international captain in recent memory walked off centre stage in tears), he didn’t suggest it was the end of the world. Such self-control is both awe-inspiring and frankly, a bit worrying. How does this man let off steam?

The pressures are incredible, yet Dhoni never complains. Apart from the playing and the touring and the public relations, there is the matter of IPL and the Champions League which swells the number of playing days by a significant percentage every year. Now that the boss at his IPL franchise is set to take over as the President of the cricket board, chances are that if Dhoni has to take a break, it will not be from the shortest format. India might let him take a break, but Chennai Super Kings will not.

Yet it need not be all doom and gloom if Dhoni’s career is handled with care and sensitivity. If, like Tendulkar and Dravid, Dhoni hopes to play into the late 30s, steps have to be taken now. Periods of rest and a careful policy of rotation will keep a player in the game for much longer than the existing arbitrary play-everything policy.

Dhoni has played 61 Tests, 186 ODIs and 27 T20 internationals. It took Polly Umrigar – India’s batting record-holder in the pre-Gavaskar period – nearly 14 years to play 59 Tests. It has taken Dhoni just five years.

England’s three-captain policy is beginning to look attractive. A specialist T20 captain will reduce the strain on Dhoni who can sit out the games or play without the added responsibility.

For the moment, there is no call to shift Dhoni in the one-day matches. He is the captain of the reigning World champions, after all. When the Indian team returns, there will be post-mortems, finger-pointing, blame-avoiding, responsibility-spreading and all those other exercises so beloved of the fraternity in India.

In the midst of all this, two important issues have to be tackled. The question of easing the next generation of players in, and the matter (and manner) of stretching career of the captain. I am not sure how successful the ‘Save the Tiger’ campaign has been in India. But the ‘Save the Captain’ campaign must aim at greater success.

 

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By Partab Ramchand

It may be too early to be talking of an Australian resurgence but their emphatic victory over Sri Lanka at Galle could just be the first step towards the long, hard road back to the top. They may have slid to No 5 in the ICC Test rankings but their performance in the opening match of the three Test series against a team ranked one place above them was heartwarming. It is never easy to beat Sri Lanka at home as so many teams have discovered over the years. Even without Muthiah Muralitharan they remain a fairly strong bowling unit while the batting continues to be formidable. So there is a positive ring about Australia’s victory that could signal a climb back. After all let’s not forget that they remain the No 1 team in ODIs.

The Aussies are still in the rebuilding process following the retirements of greats such as Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer and Damien Martyn. But they have adopted the right approach to the task picking the right young talent, discarding a couple of older players and persisting with those who can still contribute substantially. And under a new captain things seem to be falling into place.

If there is one player who symbolizes the feeling that the Aussies are on the upswing it is Shane Watson. Not too long ago he was regarded as a limited overs specialist who could chip in usefully with bat and ball. In the last couple of years even as he has played an even bigger role in ODIs it is his Test record that has caught the eye. He is suddenly indispensable to the team in the longer version of the game too and his batting and bowling skills have burgeoned.

And then you have the new kids on the block who have made an immediate impact. How many times in a Test match have two debutants struck in their first over, one with his second ball and the other with his very first delivery? And yet this was the double feat pulled off by Trent Copeland and Nathan Lyon. With a five wicket haul in his maiden Test innings Lyon has pushed Nathan Hauritz into the background. And the emergence of Copeland and Ryan Harris has meant no place for tried and trusted bowlers like Doug Bollinger and Peter Siddle. If anything this illustrates the depth in the Aussie pace attack.

Finally you have the veterans who can still pack a punch as events at Galle indicated. Ricky Ponting even at 36 has still a lot to contribute with his bat. The former Australian captain who has just become the first player to figure in 100 Test victories is the third highest run getter and century maker in Test history and somehow one feels that after being relieved of the captaincy one could see the return of the commanding Ponting who peeled off 12 hundreds in 25 Tests in the period 2005 – 2007. Mike Hussey and Michael Clarke are an integral part of the squad and if any proof was needed it was provided at Galle when on a turning track they notched up the two highest scores on the Aussie side. Usman Khawaja brings a touch of Asian elegance to the middle order while Mitchell Johnson fast approaching the 200-wicket mark in Tests is still a very fine bowler. Brad Haddin’s reputation behind and in front of the stumps is growing with every match. And
with Phil Hughes, David Warner and Shaun Marsh around Australia have the nucleus of a side that could well enjoy an upturn in their fortunes. The current series in Sri Lanka and the contest at home against India in the winter could well determine that. You can never really write off the Aussies can you? You do so at your own peril.

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By Srinivas Kanchibhotla

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By Gulu Ezekiel

Any cricket historian worth his salt will tell you with a chuckle that history has an uncanny knack of repeating itself when it comes to the so-called gentleman’s game.

When England’s Ian Bell was run out and then recalled under controversial circumstances by India’s captain MS Dhoni last month at Trent Bridge, the closest parallel was from a Test match in 1974. That was the run out incident involving England’s Tony Greig and West Indian batsman Alvin Kallicharan at Port of Spain, Trinidad.

But cricket and controversy have been uneasy bedfellows since the dawn of the game over three centuries back and few epitomised this rocky relationship more than England’s Dr. WG Grace, champion of the Victorian era and cricket’s first superstar.

It was Grace’s underhand tactic of running out Australia’s Sammy Jones in 1882 when Jones innocently stepped out of his crease to pat down the turf which led to a chain of events culminating in the creation of the mythical ‘Ashes’, symbol of supremacy between England and Australia ever since.

It happened at the Oval and Grace’s action so incensed the Australians in their dressing room that they vowed revenge.

“We can do this thing,” said their champion fast bowler Fred ‘The Demon’ Spofforth to his fellow Aussies and fired up, he blasted out the English batting in their second innings for a paltry 77 when the victory target was just 85. Spofforth’s match figures were magnificent--7 for 46 and 7 for 44.

Cricket was struck by its greatest crisis in 2000 when South African captain, the late Hansie Cronje was revealed to be on the take from illegal bookies. Cronje, India’s Mohammad Azharuddin, Pakistan’s Salim Malik and others were banned by their respective Boards for their alleged role in match-fixing and the scourge of corruption continues till today.

But they were not the first to be so punished. That ignominy befell the champion batsman of the day, William Lambert way back in 1817.

The evidence against Lambert was circumstantial (no sting operations those days!) and he could well have been the fall guy. But corruption was rampant till the mid-19th century with travelling pros playing high-stakes winner-takes-it-all matches, a format ripe for corruption. Lord’s was rife with bookies and violent brawls often broke out at matches around England. After Lambert’s ban, the clean up began and bookies were evicted from grounds, only making a comeback in 1973 under strict regulations.

The Indian Premier League and before that the Indian Cricket League, cricket in Sharjah and Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket brought big money into the game leading to tags of mercenaries and freelance cricketers.

But guess what? Cricket had its fair share of sporting impresarios and businessmen paying the pros big bucks going back to the early 18th century as teams rode on horseback from village to village around England. There are a series of matches on record in 1700 where the winning team for each game received the-then princely sum of 10 Pounds Sterling. The advent of the railways in the 1830s led to the wider spread of the game with even more money coming in.

Today there is a new wave of jet-set cricketers who are either not skillful enough or simply not interested in playing for their countries and are busy plying their trade in the numerous cash-rich Twenty-20 leagues that have sprung up around the world following the financial windfall of the IPL.

And while Packer was thought to have been the first to bring coloured clothing into cricket in the late 1970s much to the horror of the traditionalists, cricket teams going back centuries wore coloured shirts of various hues to distinguish their villages.

None quite as tasteless as some of the IPL outfits though!

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By Suresh Menon

Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings and chief of selectors. “The batting did not click for us,” Krishnamachari Srikkanth has pointed out with devastating honesty. “We also did not do well in bowling and fielding.” As a summing up of India’s performance in England, that can’t be bettered. So what were India good at? Appealing? Arriving at the grounds on time? Who is responsible for the terrible performance?

“Nobody is to be blamed,” says Srikkanth. As brand ambassador of the Chennai Super Kings, which is owned by the Board Secretary N Srinivasan and is led by the Indian captain, Srikkanth is entitled to his opinion. Of course no one is to be blamed. Just as no one is to be blamed for the Great Train Robbery or the galloping price of petrol or the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

“Let us not indulge in the blame game – on the players, or the administrators or the BCCI,” he clarifies. Who does that leave, gentle reader? People like you and me – we are responsible for the disaster that was the England tour. Unfortunately, Srikkanth doesn’t explain just how, but we can guess. Perhaps it is because we supported the IPL so thoroughly that there was no focus on Test cricket. Perhaps it is because we insisted that India prepare for a major tour of England by not preparing at all. Perhaps we were wrong to allow Virender Sehwag to play only 11 IPL games before his dodgy shoulder was fixed.

You can fool us, Srikkanth but you can’t bribe the gods of cricket. The comeuppance was swift and severe. Two first-ball ducks in a single Test.

You can pretend that Zaheer is fit, or allow the bowler himself to hide his real condition, but you can’t bribe the gods of cricket. Suddenly, India were not only a bowler short, they were a whole bowling attack short.

You can’t refuse to see the decline of your leading spinner from an attacking wicket-taker to a defensive run-saver and hope that when you keep your eyes closed the rest of the world can’t see too.

“Now that we have lost,” says the chairman of selectors putting on his philosopher’s hat, “we have to accept the loss.” In other words, let us do what we have been doing all these years – nothing.

While there is something charming and adult about accepting loss and moving on, it would have been nice to see the chief selector a little more worried than all that. Or is it only that the fans feel bad, while the officials merely see the defeat as just another day in the office? If you don’t feel badly at the loss, how will you ensure things change? You don’t have to feel so bad that you stone M S Dhoni’s house, but you have to feel bad enough so you try to get things back in order.

Between now and September 2012, India are scheduled to play 106 days of international cricket. Then there is the Champions League and the IPL. It is not a huge number (even allowing for travel), but there is the question of balance. How do you ensure that the team is prepared well enough for a particular series? The next major tour is to Australia in December. And guess what? Only one match, against the Chairman’s XI in Canberra, has been scheduled before the first Test.

Sadly, unlike astronauts who can get a feel of space travel in simulations at NASA, Australian conditions cannot be simulated in our cricket academies. The best preparation for playing in Australia is playing in Australia. One match – the same as in England before the Test series there – is woefully inadequate, as India have been discovering with embarrassing frequency on virtually all their recent tours.

Another India captain has been more forthright. Tiger Pataudi has said, “I fear the players are going to say it's only a bad dream, just forget it and get on. The BCCI is not going to show a great deal of vision. Cricket will continue the way it is but I sincerely hope that some sense does come in.”

The English tour might have shown up some of the players, but mainly it has exposed the BCCI’s skewed priorities, and its lack of respect for the game. The gods of cricket are angry, and can be mollified only if they are approached with humility and common sense.

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By Suresh Menon

Rahul Dravid plays his cards close to his chest, so we will not know how close he came to telling the selectors to walk off a cliff (or its many physically impossible variants) when he awoke one morning and found himself in the one-day squad. It is a tribute to his decency that he accepted the assignment and to his professionalism that he celebrated by announcing his retirement from the shorter forms of the game. Few players have been jerked around as much as Dravid has in the course of a distinguished career. This is ironical since few have contributed as much with as little complaint as the Bangalorean.

When flat-pitch bullies, of which there are a few in the Indian team, are exposed on tracks outside India, the selectors turn to Dravid. And he obliges. Scores runs, keeps danger at bay. And as a reward, he is dropped from home series where the FPB (flat-pitch bullies) are reinstated. And he never complains.

Unlike V V S Laxman, another player who was jerked around initially, and Sachin Tendulkar who bats at number four, Dravid has seldom been given the choice when the going has got tough. Dravid is the cricketer’s cricketer, the consummate professional, and the glue that has held the Indian team together for a decade and a half.

As one of only five batsman in the game to have scored over 10,000 runs in both forms of the game, Dravid has nothing left to prove. Yet he will be up for the challenge one last time in England. His presence will be as much a tribute to his greatness as to the desperation of the team which won the World Cup (without Dravid) only four months ago.

What does Dravid’s comeback after two years out of the team say about the state of India’s one-day game? The selection committee has given it a positive spin, saying it is sensible to pick the batsman in form. This was not something that occurred to them in two years; as recently as in the West Indies, the committee didn’t think it worthwhile to ask Rohit Sharma, the batsman in form in the one-dayers to stay back for the Test series.

The only batsman missing from the team that played the final against Sri Lanka in April is Yuvraj Singh who is injured. A combination of poor form, injury and lack of fitness has paved the way for the oldest active international cricketer to return to a format he served with great distinction till, illogically, he was kept out of it.

The recall is also the early warning system telling us what to expect when the triumvirate of Tendulkar-Dravid-Laxman bids goodbye. Suddenly the batting cupboard is empty, the bowling cupboard is ill-stocked (leading to the return of R P Singh who last played a Test three years ago and didn’t take a wicket in his last three Tests), and drought and despair stare the team in the face. Planning has not been the strong point of the administrators who must take the blame for this unhappy state of affairs.

The sad thing is, even if India lose 4-0 in England, the Board of Control for Cricket in India will continue to make the same mistakes on future tours, giving the team little time to acclimatise, focussed more on lapping up the last rupee available than on sending out teams in peak form.

At the individual level, Dravid’s recall is a tribute to his fitness and professionalism; at the national level it is an indictment of a system that cannot see beyond the its nose. The BCCI has much to learn from Dravid’s brand of fitness and professionalism.

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By Partab Ramchand

Where was the need for the selectors to press the panic button and recall Rahul Dravid? The Indian team is performing admirably in ODIs, they are ranked No 3, they have just won the World Cup and it was basically a young team that pulled off the great feat.

When the future is looking bright, when there are a number of young players who have proved themselves where was the need for the retrograde step of recalling a 38-year-old who last played in an ODI two years ago?

Make no mistake. Rahul Dravid is a great player, a great team man and one of the most selfless cricketers in the history of Indian cricket. He has rendered yeoman service to the team in both formats of the game over an extended period. But while he continues to be an integral part of the Test squad he has done nothing to warrant a recall to the limited overs squad. This is no time to turn the clock back; instead it is imperative to look ahead and plan for the future. And with Dravid’s decision to retire from limited overs cricket once the series against England is over his recall means that this is just a short term solution whereas long term planning is the need of the hour.

Overall however his decision can be termed as the right one for he can now concentrate on Test cricket where he still has a major role to play in shaping the Indian team’s fortunes.

Limited overs cricket is very different from Test cricket and whatever the recent travails that the Indian team has undergone in the longer version of the game there is every reason to believe that India will do well in ODIs against any opposition and in any country.

The team is bonding together nicely following the World Cup triumph and of particular gratification is the form shown by the three foremost young batsmen in the country Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Dravid’s recall could well mean that only one of the three will find a place in the playing eleven and that is not an encouraging scenario for the future.

But for Dravid’s recall there are no real surprises in the squad picked for the five ODIs and one Twenty20 against England. Yuvraj Singh’s injury – he has not played an ODI for India since winning the man of the tournament award at the World Cup – probably led to Dravid’s recall while Harbhajan on current form might have not found a place in any case. This gives another opportunity for Amit Mishra and Ravichandran Ashwin to advance their claims for a permanent berth in the ODI squad.

There are no surprises when it comes to the pace quintet. Zaheer Khan’s return led to the omission of contenders like Ashish Nehra and S Sreesanth. His subsequent withdrawal through injury has earned a recall for another left arm seamer RP Singh who it may be recalled had a successful tour of England in 2007 though he last played in an ODI almost two years ago.