(Image courtesy: New Indian Express)The day when records went for a full toss will be remembered for a long time to come. Read on to find out why…
So another one bites the dust. Another record, I mean. Kapil lost his throne to Kumble and shared his rare and precious ‘allrounder’ tag with Ajit here-today, gone-tomorrow Agarkar as the latter became the second Indian to reach the milestone of having scored 1000 runs and taken 200 wickets in one-dayers. Sachin, the man who could consider taking up an alternate career as a DJ considering the number of records he has amassed, went on equal the world record of 34 hundreds. Rahul Dravid, the wailing wall for most teams in recent times, showed his class by scoring a hundred in every Test nation.
The youngsters had their own little milestones. Pathan’s five-wicket haul as a ‘senior’ stressed the fact that his 9 for 16 against the same hapless team was not a mere flash in the pan. Meanwhile, Zaheer decided to give batting a shot and in the process, broke the world record for the highest score by a No. 11 batsman, with his stunning 75.
But there are some records that merely get into fact books. And then there are some that stun the world, create a sensation and change the face of things to come. Like India winning the ‘83 World Cup. Cricket created a parallel economy in the country. Sponsorships, telecast rights, advertising… Signing a hundred crore sponsorship deal was suddenly commonplace.
21 years and 361 days later. Bangladesh, through their act of winning their first one-dayer at home, have brought on another revolution that will have a staggering impact on the world of cricket, right through 2005.
Here are a few things most likely to happen this coming year.
The Indian Team will (again) extend a helping hand to lesser known teams
Remember the ‘Friendship Series’ in 92-93 against South Africa? It was a tour when Azza and his merry band of men in blue walked in with arms outstretched, saying “Mon ami…” and hobbled out screaming “Tsunami”. While we made plenty of friends, they made mincemeat of us. Such hard-learnt lessons will be put to good use in 2005 when the team embarks on ‘not-so-friendly’ tours, with Dada mouthing his favourite ‘bc’ at slips, Zaheer glaring at the batsman everytime he bowls a dot ball and Bhajji climbing up the family tree of the batsmen and questioning a few key ‘issues’.
The Indian Team will be give a clean chit in any random dope test
The entire Indian team will come out as clean as they normally do at the end of a day’s play, in any drug test. Obviously results will have to indicate negative – drugs and THEM? As Confucius once said, “Man who can’t chase for nuts is no good at drugs”.
The number of cricket-playing nations will go up
As India continues to play big brother to smaller nations, several countries will vie with one another to enter the international arena and fancy their chances of playing (India). With more countries, there would be more matches and hence more channels that will get into the fray. The result? More live relays, more court cases (with DD playing the slog overs with aplomb), more stay orders, more advertising, more endorsements, more ambush marketing clauses… and hence less cricket. Where’s the time for that? And yes, a corner of the sports sections will feature a couple of lines on Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand and Indonesia recording maiden wins in their respective home series.
ICC – the Indian Chapter
If all that is ‘imperial’ could be changed to ‘Indian’, why can’t the same be done to all that is ‘international’? So there will be an Indian Cricketing Council (ICC) – a body headed by all those who lost elections in the BCCI over the past decade. Now doosras will be given a second chance and doctored pitches will no longer be a bitter pill to swallow. Most importantly, there will be many more tours to ‘do-they-play-cricket’ nations.
Ashraful will get a handful of endorsements
All of them will have one thing in common – he has to smile into the camera and say, “I love India”. He will also join Aaqib Javed, Andy Flower, Ronnie Irani, Mathew Hayden and Douglas Marrillier in the Band of Brothers – all those who owe their career to India.
India will seek to improve their ‘away’ record
Obviously there are two ways of doing this. The first and the most obvious is to act in many more commercials so that they can be seen more often and for a longer duration when a match is on. The second is to actually play hard and seek to win - whenever they get to bat first.
Fading stars will seek a new firmament
‘You’ve seen the country, now it’s time you see the world’. That could be Jet talking about its expansion plans on an international level, but it is more appropriate to those cricketers who are queueing up for the quota system – outside the doors of Bengal, Orissa, Rajasthan and Goa. They can now establish international careers for themselves and seek pivotal positions in newly-formed teams. And if they manage to fashion a win against India, they’ll just be proving an old adage right – if you can’t join ‘em, lick ‘em.
The Indian Team will prove to be the world’s most popular team
The Indian Team will be voted the ‘world’s most popular team’ – by other teams. Not surprising, considering the fact that the only other people who drop in and leave a gift behind are Santa and his helpers.
The Indian Team will carry its own coin for the toss
Enough said about the toss, the ‘toss ka boss’ and associated puns. The Indian team shall henceforth carry the famous coin that decided Jai’s fate and Veeru’s destiny in Sholay - with both sides being heads. That way, even if the coin gets misplaced, we won’t be accused of having our tails between our legs and will never lose our heads.
The noodle-strap mania will rage on
There was a time (say 2003) when a few extraa people in the studio mistook Lara for a right hander and didn’t know if Muralitharan was an offie or a leggie. Well, they can now rejoice, for there are happy times ahead for them. With so many countries and so many new players, no one will notice a faux pas. Of course, they will be too busy noticing noodle-straps and voting for the bimbette of the match.
Well, happy watching and a happy 2005!
(Appeared in the New Indian Express Sunday Supplement on 02 Jan, 2005)
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