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Given the size of the nation, its population and its geographical
location (eclipsed by a bigger better brother), New Zealand, in an
eerie way, has a knack of upsetting World Cup plans and preparations of
the so called champions.
Now that the whitewash is complete and the
Aussies have been handed down their first humiliating drubbing, a
complete merciless knockout, in more than a decade, it is interesting
to go 4 years back in the past, and see how it meted out a similar
treatment to the Indians, who were on a one-day high, boasting about
their glorious form (at home, of course), and how if everything went as
per the plan, the shining cup would soon become the mantel piece in the
BCCI administrative offices in Mumbai. That was until the first ball
was bowled in the first one-dayer. The pitch (minefields was a better
term) played their part, while the leather put on a ballet show,
swinging merrily from one end to another, blithely gliding through the
air, and upon gently landing on the ground, charted a course that was
as unpredictable as it was unexpected.
With less than a month to the
grand spectacle, the pitches were roundly criticized for their
juiciness, liveliness and cheerfulness. Indians muttered and sputtered,
while the hosts barely made past the finishing lines. None of the
batsmen was left unscarred, and everyone was found wanting - in hope,
in spirit and in game.
Why would anybody go with bowler friendly
conditions, considering World Cup stages are always batsmen's best
buddies, for World Cup preparations, at the cost of batsmen's
confidence on both sides of the fence, remain a million dollar
question. Indians were shattered in confidence and Kiwis came out no
better either. The performances showed during the preliminary stages of
the cup, when the Indians received a good whupping at the hands of the
Aussies, barely made amends against Namibia, before they completely
turned it around. And the less said about Kiwis, the better.
This time, the Kiwis seemed to have learned their lesson. Batsmen's
havens, short boundaries, bowling attacks that were only probing at
best and never threatening, and teams that wagged a very short tail -
the conditions were ideal for records to fall like bowling pins, abuses
(physical, verbal and psychological) to be heaped on the bowlers, and
fielders to come better prepared with IV glucose drips, lest they
collapse playing fetch. If bowling was what that destroyed the Indian
team 4 years ago, it is the batting that completely decimated
Australian hegemony and domination in the one-day sport. It is not so
much as the victories, but the way in which they were secured - first,
a chance less 10-wicket victory, and the second and third, fairy tale
chases of gargantuan totals. The news while serving as a great morale
booster for the New Zealanders just before the Cup, has also thrown the
door wide open for anyone, to lay claims on the Holy Grail, as it
showed that the demon could indeed be slain, not once, not twice, but
many times over. For Aussies, the unwarranted (and unwanted) tour has
become an unnecessary distraction. In spite of the rough talk, and the
tough walk, the tour has certainly laid the seeds of fear and doubt,
among their minds, that their wins do not come as a default option this
time around. Already reeling under a spate of injuries (though it
remains an interesting question if the presence of Ponting and
Gilchrist would have made any difference on the Kiwi blitzkrieg), the
Australians confront the question for the first time in a long long
time - whether they are the same ruthless juggernaut, 10 one-days ago.
If nothing succeeds like success, its converse, nothing flops miserably
like a repeated failure, is equally true. Never before was the case of
warring neighbors, viewed by the entire world wide-eyed and never
before was the repeated failures of consistent success, welcomed with
open arms.
The situation, unfortunately, is not so clear, cut and dried, in the
subcontinent. After being roundly criticized for abject performances in
the one-day arena abroad, in WI and SA, Indians certainly bounced back,
paying back the WI in the same coin in one series, and continuing the
same big brother bullying of the Lankans in the second half of the
double header. The experiments with combinations, batting positions,
team compositions, yielded a core of 6-7 performers at any given time,
which is more than anything that a team or a captain could ask for. The
batting big guns seem to be finally firing full bore, the bowling seems
to hit its stride - taking more and yielding less - and the fielding
unit seems to pull miracles off the thin air, occasionally. However...
(there is always a 'however' with the Indian side) Indians are a
different beast at home. Though conditions seems to be pretty much the
same at the Carribean - hot, humid, slow and low - winning at home
against good sides do not automatically translate to assured
performances abroad. The best that could be said under the
circumstances is any surgeon's favorite, operative phrase - Let's wait
and see.
Pakistan and Sri Lanka would rather trade the current Indian imbroglio
to their shambolic situations anyday. Any foreign tour, only a few
weeks away from the World Cup, is a precarious situation. The prospect
of good batting practice, acclimatization to the foreign conditions,
fine tuning the team - all play hostage to the morale that would be
mightily dented, should the side end up on the losing side. Not only do
they then not have the requisite time to pull themselves back by the
bootstraps, but any adjustments, major or minor, at so late a stage
would prove detrimental to the ultimate cause. It becomes a Catch-22
situation, where they neither can rest in peace doing nothing, nor can
they tinker with it doing something. Given the history, Pakistan always
finds a way of springing up surprises and it would no surprise, that
come the curtain call, all the key players show up to the game, rested
and prepared, and deliver the goods that ultimately matter. And the
Lankans can take comfort in the fact that the ultimate scores in the
concluding series would not have read so one-sided, had they come into
the game with their 2 most experienced bowlers, who know a little
something about shredding sides in their allotted quotas. If the Pakis
and the Lankans have staked on the rock, the Windies find themselves
pitching a tent on the hard place, unable to make anything out of the
dress rehearsal in India, a few weeks ago. Windies line up is very much
similar to the Indians - moderate bowling lineup, backed up by a packed
batting department. If the batting can cover for their inadequacies in
their bowling more times than not, and if the bowling can come to the
aid once in a while, beating the opposition down with gentle but
accurate bowling, backed with some spirited fielding, the Carribeans
could see themselves upsetting the applecarts of formidable sides, once
too often.
At the end of the day, the only 2 sides that can sit back, relax and
wait for the rollcall, are the Proteas and, in an amusing twist of
fate, the English. The South Africans, after whipping both the Indians
and the Pakis, in back to back series, in both forms of the game, are
the current day Australians - who would just show up, do the job,
collect the reward and leave, irrespective of the venue and the nature
of the pitches. If there is an Achilles Heel that could be looked for
(hard), it is the exhaustion factor for the amount of cricket that they
played in the last few months. England, enjoying a great late surge,
thanks to the grit and determination of a Lone Ranger, hopes to ride
the wave that they caught at just the right time. The closest that the
doors were open this far and wide for any team to become the titular
heads for the next 4 years, was in 1987, when an underdog from nowhere,
shot up through the ranks and claimed the ultimate prize. So which team
pines to be the underdog this time? Which team hates to start off as
the crowd favorite this time? The tag has been so enticing so much so
that, even the Australians can come off their high horse and evinced
interest to compete in the underdog race on an even keel with the rest
of the populace, just to not build up any expectations. The situation
is certainly welcome to any average viewer in any part of the cricket
viewing world and as any excited announcer would shout out - GAME ON!
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More Views by Srinivas Kanchibhotla
