A billion blues

(Image courtesy: New Indian Express)

L Suresh runs through the Champions Trophy line-up to reach a dead end that worries a billion Indians.

It is believed that Thomas Alva Edison made almost 10,000 failed attempts in his storage battery experiments. But luckily for him, he had enough success behind him to famously proclaim that he had never failed, but had simply ‘found 10,000 ways that won’t work’. After the DLF Cup debacle, Greg Chappell would be hoping that people would understand if he claimed that he hadn’t failed in his experiments, but had just found 100 gameplans that didn’t work for the Indian team.

The recent flip-flop performances of most teams have muddied the tranquil waters that had until recently, reflected a clear picture of the front-runners and the also-rans for the Champions Trophy. Going by current form, the playing conditions and recent results, the teams have succeeded in inverting the pyramid – with the result that while the top is crowded, the bottom is plain confused.

At the top

Australia
If there was one noticeable fact in Australia’s win in the DLF Cup – yet another final, yet another cold-blooded slaughter - it was that the winning performances came predominantly from the fringe players and not from the likes of Ponting or McGrath. By Australian standards, this must have been a nightmarish tournament for both, with Ponting averaging 20.75 in four innings and McGrath picking up just one wicket in four matches.

But what makes the Champions Trophy so interesting for the men from down under is the fact that they have never won it. They are also aware that the rest of the world will probably want to record to continue, if only to be reminded of the fact that the Aussies are human after all. If Bjorn Borg could never win the US Open, if Ivan Lendl could never win the Wimbledon, if John McEnroe could never win the French Open, it is clearly a sign of divine justice, of someone up there wanting to ensure that there is still hope for lesser mortals.

Pakistan
Undoubtedly the most talented team in the tournament, with the longest batting line-up, the most number of bowling options, the strongest middle-order seen in recent times and most explosive pinch-hitters, Pakistan lack just one thing - a good opening pair, with Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik not in the best of form. But as Younis Khan once said, a game against India is the best way for an international player to come back to form, so things may well change for them during the course of the tournament.

Sri Lanka
They have been the perfect anti-thesis of India, racing uphill even as we have been spiraling downwards. A few months back, they were languishing at the bottom of the table after a 1-6 debacle against India, with just West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe below them. But all that changed in a matter of months after the 5-0 English whitewash. The blossoming of Tharanga as an opener, the entry of Malinga Bandara to bolster Sri Lanka's spin attack, a strong middle order with Attapattu, Jayawardene and Sangakkara and the momentum gathered from their recent wins gives the men from the emerald isle great chances of grabbing the trophy.

West Indies
When a team has the audacity to play just one fulltime bowler in a match, it shows the options that there are in the bowling department, besides a mile-long batting line-up. Ironically, it is this line-up that remains Lara's biggest headache – in the DLF Cup, Runako Morton, Wavell Hinds, Marlon Samuels, Bravo and Dwayne Smith played match after match without troubling either the bowler or the scorer. On paper, the batting looks to be as strong as that of Pakistan, but the problem is identical too - lack of consistency. How can one lose 9 wickets for just 29 runs? How can an opener play 31 balls without scoring a run? This team has the answers.

Next in line

England
The goods news is that Flintoff is back in the squad. The bad news is that Trecothick is out of form and out of the team, the bowling is out of depth and the Ashes heroes still out of action. Ever since half the team went missing because of injuries to the body, mind and soul, England has been testing its bench strength and unearthing mediocre talent that looks completely out of place in the international arena. While every other country is desperately eyeing the Champions Trophy, eleven men are standing on their toes and trying to look beyond, hoping to see an urn that they will be playing for in November. There are two things they will be doing until then - watching their step to make sure they don’t get injured, and watching footage of their match against the Aussies during the Champions Trophy 2004, when Vaughan, Trescothick and Strauss pounded McGrath and Brett Lee into submission.

New Zealand
When New Zealand won the Champions Trophy in 2000, the ‘Chris Twins’ were pretty much in action – Cairns and Harris. A lot has changed since. The team is still filled with allrounders, but their effectiveness on Indian pitches will always come under the scanner. But there is only one question that the other teams will be interested in – is Shane Bond fit?

South Africa
They have a pace attack comprising Pollock, Ntini, Nel and Kallis that ranks alongside Australia and Pakistan as one of the best in the tournament, but South Africa lack what the other two teams have in the slow bowling department - options. Will Gibbs rekindle memories of March 12, 2006 when the team chased 434 and won with a ball to spare? Or will Boucher repeat his recent 147 off 68 balls against Zimbabwe as South Africa got past the 400 mark for the second time in six months? Nine other teams will hope not.

Lower deck

Every big tournament has to have some small players who will be fodder to the big guns before the stage is set for primetime action. Bangladesh and Zimbabwe will be looking at their sparsely populated trophy shelves and savouring their past glory. While Bangladesh will recall its wins against Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup and against India and Australia at home, Zimbabwe will recall its first ever one-day victory – when it beat Australia in the 1983 World Cup. But today, memories mean little when it comes to doing well in the Champions Trophy - what they need is a miracle.

The lone ranger

India
They put their heads down to do some serious experimentation, tried out role plays, assigned multiple tasks to different players and did everything to add flexibility to the line-up, only to find half the team woefully out of form when it came to the last lap. Pathan’s bowling figures in the DLF Cup read 1/54 off six overs – it’s hard to believe that he was once India’s strike bowler. Sehwag has been woefully out of form, averaging seven in four matches. And with his decline and subsequent descent down the order, Dravid has had to promote himself and as a result, has averaged 10.3 runs in the last eight games, of which six were as an opener. In the DLF Cup, his average has been an abysmal 9.75 and clearly the single biggest reason for India's downfall in recent times - the wall suddenly resembled the ruins of the colosseum.

Another shocker has been Yuvraj's form that hit a low after the one day series against the West Indies. An average of 17.33 in the subsequent test series was an indicator of things to come. In the DLF Cup, Yuvi failed to open his innings in the two matches he played in and ended a miserable tournament with zero plastered across every column of his series statistics. Meanwhile, another hero was going through similar problems. Friendly pitches and some ordinary bowling had made Dhoni's honeymoon period in the team sweet as sin. But on slow pitches and against accurate bowling, he could do little to redeem his reputation as India's answer to Gilchrist. Today, he stands a long way behind the stumps – with Sangakkara, Brad Haddin and Boucher in the queue before him as they make their presence felt, both with the bat and the gloves.

If there’s one thing that Greg Chappell has failed to realize, it is that no one likes experiments – people are jealous of the ones that succeed and pounce on the failures to absolve themselves of the guilt that they never tried to think different. Chappell will now face the flak for all the little differences he tried to bring into the team, with every recent failure undoing all the preparations made so far. The call for Ganguly to be reinstated will get louder now, never mind that he hasn't had a decent score in recent times. The omission of Kumble will be talked about more often. The choice of persisting with Sehwag, the decision to send Dravid opening, the gamble of playing five bowlers and hence one batsman less - every little decision now will be questioned.

In short, Chappell's World Cup dream is slowly turning into a nightmare as the nucleus of the team is falling apart. With the Champions Trophy round the corner, there's no time for another 'confidential' email. But it’s certainly time to dispel the darkness that surrounds his team. However, unlike Edison, he won’t have the luxury of 10,000 attempts to find light.

(Appeared in the New Indian Express Sunday Supplement on 01 October, 2006)