Coach Factory

(Image courtesy: New Indian Express)

L Suresh visits the Coach factory and profiles eight of the best.

A few of them will walk into the sunset. A few will switch sides and continue to plan for the next milestone – World Cup 2011. The rest will down their drink and go out into the sun to look for another job. But that’s for later. Right now, here’s where the coaches of the top eight teams stand.

Mickey Arthur
#1 South Africa

Despite coaching the team with the hottest talent in the world cup arena, Arthur must be wondering what needs to be done to get South Africa to the podium. They lost to rain in ‘92, to a rampaging Lara in ‘96, to panic in ‘99 and to terrible performances in 2003.

If he had it his way, he would erase all the numbers on the players’ t-shirts and replace them with 438, the score that South Africa made to beat Australia's 434 – a record that produced another record by being one for a little over three hours.

An explosive top order with Smith and Gibbs, a solid middle order with Kallis and Prince, deep batting with Kemp, Boucher and Pollock at 6,7 and 8, one of the world's best pace attacks with Pollock, Ntini, Nel, Kallis and Langeveldt – Arthur knows that the only missing link in this dream team is the lack of a quality spinner. Besides, slow, low tracks have exposed the one dimensional nature of South Africa's pace attack, as the Champions Trophy showed.

And that's where Arthur has his work cut out. He has to keep his team aggressive and hungry - for he knows better than anyone else that if he doesn't keep them fired up with enthusiasm, he will be fired with enthusiasm.

John Buchanan
#2 Australia

As Fletcher was on his way up in life, another coach found himself plummeting back to earth after reaching dizzying heights. Two weeks ago, Buchanan was on his way to the best farewell a coach could ever have gotten. And with his team doing so well, he had all the time in the world to host management workshops and give traveling lectures on everything from team building to success.

And then the threads began to unwind. Leading names dropped out of sight. His star allrounder became an uncertainty. Suddenly, the sick bay seemed to be the most coveted place in the team as Brett Lee, Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting followed Andrew Symonds - Buchanan’s team suddenly bore a mortal streak to it. To add to his misery, the effects of the magic potion have been wearing out on demolition man Gilchrist and Mike Mr. Cricket Hussey – Buchanan finally has a thing or two to be worried about.

And just as he is turning the last page of the coach’s manual, he finds himself having to make a beginning - it's time he learnt how to coach a team that has played five matches in two weeks - and won none.

Bob Woolmer
#3 Pakistan

Who would have thought that a soft-spoken, almost avuncular character like Woolmer would find his name drawn into the biggest controversies of world cricket - match fixing, ball tampering, match boycotts and failed drug tests – as he coached two of the most talented teams in world cricket!

Better known as the man who introduced technology to cricket coaching – and who introduced earphones on the field as he held on-the-field discussions with Hansie Cronje - Woolmer currently finds himself all at sea, seated in a boat with 15 expert oarsmen, each rowing away furiously in a different direction. Is Shoaib Akhtar match-fit, is Shabbir Ahmed chucking, is Mohammad Asif a nandrolone suspect, is Kamran Akmal wicket-keeping material at all, is Afridi playing his own Twenty20 within 50 over matches... Woolmer has a lot to answer for.

Oodles of talent and no direction, sparks of genius and no consistency, inspired performances and no teamwork - in his moments of utter desperation, Woolmer resembles an astronomer, telescope in hand, lying awake in the wee hours of the night and hoping to hell that he gets a glimpse of that famed constellation that he heard so much about before he took over the reigns of Pakistan. But that will happen only if the stars align and play together as a team.

John Bracewell
#4 New Zealand

If John Buchanan could give lectures on success, another John – Bracewell - can wax eloquent on the art of mastering frustration. Having incredible players like Shane Bond in his side, but not being able to pick them because of a torn hamstring or a knee surgery, waiting for a year for the likes of Oram to return to the side, but seeing him injure himself after just half a dozen matches, drafting in the Hamish Marshalls and the Jamie Hows and watch them go runless match after match... The story of Bracewell’s life is that his best players are always injured, his top order is rarely in form, and his bench strength has always been tested, but has rarely delivered.

To make things worse, the loss of players like Astle, Chris Harris and Chris Cairns will make the Kiwis feel utterly wingless. Post their recent losses in the Champions Trophy and in the Commonwealth Bank Series in Australia, New Zealand have done what it takes to gain in form and confidence - call their neighbours over and hand them a drubbing.

The little sparks of talent that made this possible will offer Bracewell hope that his team will make the cut. He has the services of one of the world’s best captains in world cricket today and the two will have to team up and find a way of fusing limited talent with unlimited energy to make the grounded Kiwi fly.

Greg Chappell
#5 India

Greg Chappell must now be in a better position to understand the plight of India’s biggest industries – cinema and cricket – that have for years, been ruled by star-power and have pandered to the demands of a star-struck multitude.

India continues to blaze away at home and blunder overseas and yet, the selectors and the Board have not managed to remedy the situation. In the process of trying to put together a unit of fighting, multi-skilled soldiers who could contribute to all 100 overs of the game, Chappell took on the high and mighty, stepped on toes, rubbed people the wrong way and in the end, was forced to do a roll-back of his ‘experimentation’ – the most hated word in Indian cricket today.

Questions are still asked about the selection of Sehwag and Pathan. Yuvraj and Munaf Patel are still struggling with their fitness. Dravid and Sachin are playing their own hit-and-miss game with form. And as a billion Indians wave goodbye, sign mile- long banners and spend precious money sms-ing good luck messages to their team that sets flight with out-of-form heroes, convalescing stars and aging veterans, Greg will be wondering if he needs to be wary of the Ides of March. Until now, he was damned because he did – and now, he knows that he will be damned if his team doesn’t.

Tom Moody
#6 Sri Lanka

While most teams treat India as a rehab center where they can drop in to get over their bad habits and get back into form, Sri Lanka must be posing a strange kind of problem to their coach, Tom Moody. He is yet to come to terms with the bizarre statistic: Matches played in India: 11. Matches won: 2.

Of course, while stats like these end up being just another addition to the world of useless trivia in cricket, it doesn’t really matter that Sri Lanka and India are in the same Group in the World Cup. There are the two whipping boys – Bermuda and Bangladesh - to make the quartet which means that both Sri Lanka and India can go into the final eight regardless of their performance against each other.

But the issues that Moody needs to focus on have surfaced. While the top four – Jayasuriya, Tharanga, Jayawardene and Sangakkara – look formidable, scratch the surface and the middle order is not the kind that would make a bowler sweat. And as for the bowling, the absence of Vaas and Murali leaves a second-string attack.

The magic word that Moody must be holding on to will be spin – let loose an army of spinners who will slow down the scoring on a slowing pitch and leave the wicket-taking to the big two. This strategy won them the 1996 World Cup. Moody will be hoping for an encore. That would make him the second Australian – after Geoff Marsh - to win the World Cup both as a player and a coach.

Duncan Fletcher
#7 England

Two weeks back, English fans didn’t just want a new coach, they wanted the current one to be burnt at the stakes - though his ashes would be no compensation for the ones they had just lost. And just as Fletcher began contemplating coaching stints in minnowland, destiny came calling - or rather colling - as Paul Collingwood pulled rabbits out of his hat, shoes and pockets and powered England to three victories on the trot against the mightiest team in the world.

Fletcher has finally succeeded in getting his boys to contest against players and not their reputations. Injuries and form don’t matter anymore. Nor do the big names that have only added to the confusion in recent times. Mal Loye and Ed Joyce will do. So will Sajid Mahmood, Monty Panesar and Plunkett.

Fletcher and his team have made a remarkable contribution to the 2007 World Cup – an element of uncertainty that ushers in a level playing field, in what could have otherwise been a one-sided contest. Thanks to him, England will fly cheerfully to the Caribbean, knowing fully well that they have neither the skill nor the experience to be a world beater. However, what they have is a sense of spirit, one that was gained after a bloody battle was painfully lost.

Bennett King
#8 West Indies

The 80s might just be a couple of decades back in time, but to Bennett King, they seem to be another era - when he could have sat back like Buchanan and watched openers Greenidge and Haynes strike a partnership, middle-order bats like Richards and Lloyd plunder runs, and then have the Caribbean quartet perform the grand finale - Holding, Marshall, Roberts and Garner pick wickets at will with the ball. But now, he has a team with the world's best batsman, the world's most explosive opener - and little else.

The Calypso cricketers did make a u-turn in one day cricket, courtesy India and have been showing glimpses of their form ever since, reaching the finals of the triangular in Malaysia and the Champions Trophy. But what will give them greater confidence is the fact that they have beaten Australia in both tournaments.

King's biggest advantage lies in the fact that the World Cup is held in his team's backyard, but therein lies the problem too. No host nation has ever won a World Cup. But if Gayle fires, the famed trio of Lara, Chanderpaul and Sarwan gets cracking and Bravo and Smith excel with their slower ones, there can be no guesses as to who will be crowned ‘Caribbean King’.

(Appeared in the New Indian Express Sunday Supplement on 25 February, 2007)

Great Men, Great Moments

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L Suresh profiles the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen from the past World Cups…

From 1975 to 2003, each World Cup has been a battleground where the world’s biggest superstars of their time have battled it out against one another, pulling something special out of the hat – a performance that has gone down in history as a frozen moment in time.

Super Cat, Big Bird, The King, Haryana Hurricane, Zulu, The Little Master, The Wall… here’s a look at the warriors who made the World Cup an event worth waiting for. And to make sure that the best - in terms of stars and big names, it never really got bigger than the inaugural World Cup – is saved for last, the journey down memory lane begins in the reverse chronological order...

2003 World Cup – South Africa
While Lara’s whirlwind 116 and Fleming's defiant rain-interrupted knock of 134 not out of 132 balls – both against South Africa - stunned the host nation and virtually ended its World Cup run, it was not just batting all the way in the 2003 edition of the tournament. Shane Bond’s 6 for 23 against Australia almost won the match for Kiwis, but Ashish Nehra’s 6 for 23 did win the match for India against England in a glorious encounter.

The rags-to-an-embarrassment-of-riches story of the tournament however featured a blistering 143 from a man who was contemplating retirement before the tournament. Andrew Symonds single-handedly put Pakistan out of contention in Australia’s opening match and set the stage for things to come.

But the hero of the 2003 World Cup was a man on a mission who took on every bowler who shot his mouth off before the match. Shoaib Akthar, Caddick and every other bowler who was ‘looking for a challenge’ ran for cover as Sachin plundered 673 runs from 11 matches. The hallmark was consistency - and coming from a man who had averaged .66 in the three one dayers against the Kiwis just before the World Cup, it was a progression from a flightless bird to Jonathan Livingston Seagull taking majestic flight.

1999 World Cup - England
It was Dravid's comeback vehicle into one day internationals, with 461 runs in 8 matches that left the cricketing fraternity wondering why the wise men of Indian cricket didn't find him good enough for the shorter version of the game. But it was Lance Klusener's saga all the way. Big hitting and deadly bowling came together in one brilliant package with the Zulu warrior ending the tournament with an incredible strike rate of 122.17, an average of 140.50 and with 17 wickets at an average of just over 20.

India had a few individual performances to cheer about in an otherwise losing cause – Sachin’s 140 off 101 balls, coming days after his father’s demise, Sourav and Dravid’s 318 run partnership against Sri Lanka, an inspiring 5 for 27 by Venkatesh Prasad against Pakistan. But trust an Australian to steal the thunder at the very last minute. Steve Waugh waited for the dust to die down and scored a match-winning 120 in the last Super Six match against South Africa. He then tormented them further with a 56 in the semi-finals that led to a historic tie and the one of the most breath-taking semi-finals in the history of the tournament.

1996 World Cup – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
If it’s India, it has to be Sachin. The Master stamped his class across the tournament and ran past the classy Mark Waugh to becoming the highest run getter in the tournament with 523 runs, while Kumble ended up being the tournament's best bowler, with 15 wickets.

Jayasuriya’s pinch-hitting shocked the world as he showed a sample with his 44-ball 82 against England in the quarterfinals. Lara organized his own fireworks show too as he belted 111 off 94 balls against South Africa and ensured that they didn’t go anywhere but home after the match. Jadeja’s 45 off 25 balls and Sidhu’s 93 against Pakistan in the third quarter-final ended a nightmarish day for Pakistan that began with Wasim Akram pulling out of the patch – it also ended their World Cup dreams.

But the knock of the tournament was a special one, reserved for a special occasion - Aravinda de Silva decided to make the finals his own, took on the best team in the world and made them look second-best, with his 107 as Sri Lanka chased Australia's modest 241 with 4 overs to spare.

1992 World Cup – Australia, New Zealand
‘It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Jonty' became the slogan of the ’92 World Cup as Jonty Rhodes, unlike Icarus, needed no wings of wax to became the first airborne fielder in the history of the game. It was also a tournament where the biggest contribution came not from the bat or ball, but from a captain. Imran Khan inspired his team - that had capitulated to a mere 74 all out to England – to come back to win the World Cup.

Two other gentlemen who got their names inscribed in the history books were Messrs. Duckworth and Lewis as their new-fangled calculations for rain-affected matches resulted in the situation swiftly changing from South Africa needing 22 off 13 balls to 21 off 1 ball after a bout of rain.

Martin Crowe showed what a class act he was with 456 runs and a sensational average of 114. Wasim Akram tore through the top order of several teams and topped the wickets tally with 16 scalps. But the revelation of the World Cup was a youngster whose quickfire 60 off 37 balls, saw Pakistan into the finals. Of course, Inzy didn't entirely deviate from convention - he was run out at the end of his innings.

1987 World Cup – India, Pakistan
This was the first time a man swept his way to the finals - the Indian bowlers misread the signals when they found Graham Gooch on his knees. The sweep shot worked - Gooch ended the tournament scoring 471 runs in 8 innings.

The batting accolades went to two men who would play their last world cups. It was ironical that India's lone century in the tournament came from a man who scored the only one day 100 of his career. Gavaskar played a scorcher of an innings against New Zealand, scoring 103 off 88 balls - this from a man whose claim to World Cup fame was a 36 not out off 60 overs. The other innings was one that would stand for years as the highest World Cup score - one that beat Kapil’s 175 not out. King Richards piled up 181 runs off 125 balls against Sri Lanka, meting out unspeakable levels of cruelty to the likes of Asantha De Mel who went for 97 in his 10 overs.

What came as a surprise was that the fast bowlers excelled in the land of spinners. Abdul Qadir, Eddie Hemmings, Maninder Singh and Tim May were edged out by the roar of McDermott - who picked up 18 wickets in the tournament - and the wily spells of Imran Khan who followed with 17.

1983 World Cup – England
This could well have been the story of Lagaan, two decades before it was filmed. A scintillating knock of 175 not out by Kapil Dev against Zimbabwe was clearly the defining moment of the tournament and set the stage for India to get their hands on the Prudential World Cup.

While England, Pakistan and the Windies were notching up the big hundreds that became the talking point of the tournament, it was the 30s and the 50s of India that mattered most. Krish Srikkanths's 38 in the finals, Yashpal Sharma's 61 in the semis, an 8 for 49 off 16.2 overs between Madan Lal and Roger Binny that decimated Australia, the prodigious inswinger from Balwinder Singh Sandhu that started so wide off the pitch and knocked back Greenidge’s stumps, Kapil’s unbelievable catch of Richards, with the ball coming from behind him – every little contribution counted.

And for the only time in his career, Gavaskar played neither as a batsman or a captain - he played as a lucky charm. His six matches fetched just 59 runs at an average of 9.83, but he was the talisman - when he didn't play, India lost!

1979 World Cup – England
The story of the ’79 edition in four words - Windies on the roll. The final was truly the tale of two Caribbean Kings - Vivian 'King' Richards and Collis King. An amazing 138 by Richards and a hell-raising 86 by King put the West Indies in a position from where there was only one place to go - the podium to pick up the cup. While the batsmen plundered runs, it was the turn of ‘Big Bird’ Joel Garner to swoop down and prey on the unfortunate Englishmen, with a haul of 5 for 38.

The rest of the World Cup was more about partnerships than individual brilliance - Greenidge and Haynes, Majid Khan and Zaheer Abbas, Brearley and Boycott. It was also amusing to see batsmen like Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan and Geoff Boycott make their mark as bowlers – of course, Richards couldn’t be kept out of it as he picked up three wickets in the semi-finals against Pakistan.

But for the Windies, it was the big four - Holding, Croft, Roberts and Garner. Together with the likes of Greenidge, Richards and Haynes, they made their World Cup journey a tale of the fast and the furious.

1975 World Cup – England
Big hundreds, bigger names, devastating bowling spells, excitement, stunning finishes, one sided contests - the inaugural World Cup may well rank as the best to those who got their first taste of a one day competition.

Dennis Amiss made the first World Cup ton - 137 off 147 balls and Chris Old gave meaning to the world pinch-hitter with 51 off just 30 balls. Glenn Turner's 171, Alan Turner’s 101, Keith Fletcher's 131 - runs flowed as the competition went on to the penultimate stages. And two heart-stopping semi-finals followed - the first where Deryck Murray and Andy Roberts put on 64 runs to take the Windies to a win, from 203 for 9 and the second where Gary Gilmour’s 6-14 resulted in England collapsing for 93. In reply, Australia were 39 for 6 and it took Gilmour to star with the bat as he scored 28.

The Australia vs West Indies final was evenly matched with lusty hitting by Lloyd (102 off 85 balls) and a splendid bowling effort of 5-48 by Gilmour. But one particular performance stood out - Vivian Richards had not yet been proclaimed king, but singlehandedly stole the thunder with three runouts that broke the Aussie top order. After a catch off a no-ball, the crowds repeatedly rushing in, a missing ball, and five runouts, Lloyd heaved a sigh of relief as he held aloft the World cup for the first time ever in cricketing history.

(Appeared in the New Indian Express Sunday Supplement on 18 February, 2007)

Hunting Down Superman

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L Suresh sets up a Federer Bureau of Investigation to find out what makes the greatest tennis star on earth tick.

MAD comics once spoofed Rambo, as seen through the eyes of two old men who are commenting on Rambo taking on the Afghan army with a catapult in his hand. "How unfair!" one of them remarks, "One man against a whole army!" The next frame shows Rambo running towards the army, with one hand tied behind his back. Tennis players the world over would hope the reigning World No. 1 would do something similar to make matches more evenly contested - and give them a chance, a hope that they can at least pick a set off him, if not a match.

Another tournament - the Australian Open - has gone by and a whole bunch of beaten players are picking themselves up, shaking their heads to clear that one disturbing thought - why does everything Swiss have to be so perfect?

His first name is an indication of what he does to his opponents. His surname has an official ring to it, a stamp of authority, a law in itself that no one dare dispute. To Roger Federer, winning matches and tournaments had long become passé. Tennis was about breaking records set by past greats and setting new ones. But who would believe that life was not always about the limelight and star dust for Federer? It’s equally hard to comprehend the fact that F-e-d-e-r-e-r had to wait for five long, agonizing years to reach the final of a Grand Slam after he turned pro! Three first round eliminations in the French Open and likewise at Wimbledon in these five years, and Federer was talking of things that today get attributed to his opponents - loss of confidence, low energy levels and the downhill slide.

One remembers the story of yet another champ – a fighter from another game - a young man who stormed into world cricket in the mid 80s, carrying with him the promise of plenty - oodles of skill, tons of determination and of course, the flair that he exhibited on the field. Sadly enough, he couldn’t sustain the spark that he showed during his early days. But some visionary in the Aussie think-tank wisely decided to let him be and gave him time, of which the young man took plenty, making his first test hundred after 48 innings and his first one day hundred after 186 matches. But Stephen Rodger Waugh responded to the faith shown in him by the selectors and the board by winning everything that was there to be won, and went on to become one of Australia’s most successful captains, having a dream run of 15 consecutive test wins.

Federer’s story was rather similar. The journey downhill stopped in 2003 and took a dramatic u-turn. That was when he won the first finals he entered in 2003 - Wimbledon. The combination of purple and green proved to be too strong for the Swiss as he kept coming back, winning the title four times in a row. Even as he won his third Wimbledon in 2005, the record books made space to include fresh entries for the future and bookies went a step further by putting their monies on Federer winning three more titles to go one up on Borg's five-in-a-row record. Without further ado, Federer won the 2006 Wimbledon as well, getting one step closer to the milestone. One could visualize him sitting quietly by a beach, wondering what exactly Lendl must have meant when he said that grass was for the cows.

While 2003 saw him conquer grass, 2004 saw him take on other surfaces as well. It would be a year when he would shift gears noiselessly and shock the world with his run of success. He won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, ending the year right on top as World No. 1. Since Mats Wilander had already done it in 1988, Federer decided to make it two times better and repeated the feat in 2006, thus becoming the only player in the Open Era to have done the deed twice. He also became the only player to win the Wimbledon and the US Open in the same year for three years in succession, between 2004 and 2006.

2007 was another year where it was ‘business as usual’ for Federer, with the Australian Open trophy being added to his crowded trophy shelf. One was at a loss trying to figure out what made players wilt - extreme heat or the intensity of Federer as he breezed through the competition without losing a single set, a first in 27 years since Bjorn Borg in the 1980 French Open. While Fernando Gonzalez weathered big names like Lleyton Hewitt, James Blake, Rafael Nadal and Tommy Haas on his way to the finals, he ran into a wall before he could run out of steam - the final match up was against superman himself and before Gonzalez could figure out if it was a bird or a plane or a superhero who had exchanged his cape for a headband, he was down and out.

As far as Federer was concerned, the tournament win was just the means to the end - he had his own records to achieve. He became the only player to win three different Grand Slam tournaments thrice. The records piled up as he became the undisputed champion of the Open era. And before this month ends, he's breaking another - a long-standing Jimmy Connors record of being right at the top for the most number of consecutive weeks. While Connors ended his streak at 160 weeks, Federer will make his 161 and take it from there.

Tennis has had so many fascinating characters that have dominated the game - decade after decade - that you would think that a new entrant will have no option but to take after one of them. And yet, Federer left behind the mercurial McEnroe, the charismatic Borg, the flashy Yannick Noah, the ever-popular Connors, the coldly efficient Lendl, an almost-boring Sampras, the crowd-favourite Agassi and the booming Becker to bring to the world traits that that were not quite human – the tennis court was his telephone booth where he would enter and emerge a superhero.

Connors-Borg, Borg-McEnroe, Wilander-Lendl, Becker-Edberg, Sampras-Agassi… The biggest and best tennis stars have always hunted in pairs - no expedition was complete without the two hounding each other from either sides of the net. And with the first toss of the ball, they would morph into Sherlock Holmes - Moriarty, Batman-Joker or white spy-black spy and let loose cannon shots at each other. This went on for decades, until one fine day, one side of the net went silent. From then on, only one man has been holding court. For those who remember the McEnroe era when an aging Connors or a wet-behind-the-ears Chris Lewis couldn't offer the least resistance to a marauder on the rampage, it all came back, like Wes Craven's nightmare. And the man causing all this turbulence was Roger Federer.

Most tennis stars have had to fight form, fight opponents, fight pressure and fight their own nerves when they reach the big stage. But how does one fight an aura, a demonic image of a man who no longer hails from a country or a continent, but from a 'planet'? Before he turned 25, Federer had usurped the title of ‘the greatest ever’, leaving scribes scratching their heads as they frantically looked for more superlatives - and wisely so, because they knew that he had just begun and possibly had another decade to go.

Just as Superman has an alter ego, Federer has one as well - that of an emotional, warm-hearted young man who empathizes with the plight of young kids halfway across the planet and sets out to do something for them as a goodwill ambassador of UNICEF. One such mission brought him to the ravaged areas of Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu, where he brought cheer to the lives of many - especially kids - who had lost their parents and their childhood to the killer waves. The newspapers splashed pictures of him with a cricket bat, playing with wide-eyed kids. Somehow, an image of Federer playing cricket doesn't look ludicrous. You would think that a man who can be so good in a game can't do too badly in another!

The non-spandex suited side of Federer has had the honour of lending his persona and his name to a good Samaritan bear too, thus finding his way into the lives of millions of kids as Feder-bear, a cuddly bear with a neon blue t-shirt, a tennis racquet and a sporty headband to match - all of Federer's trademark accessories. Of course, keeping in line with the changing times, this is a bear with a blog that describes its adventures around the world! And like its original - the man himself - Feder-Bear also plays for kids through the ACE (Assisting Kids Everywhere) program whereby you buy a Feder-Bear for $8, out of which $5 go to ACE. Feder-Bear is also as sportive as Federer, for in its blog, you would find it describing ACE as 'something that Andy Roddick hits a lot'!

So the year's first Grand Slam is over and won. There will now be a drought for the next four months until the next big one comes up at the Roland Garros. Now that is one Grand Slam that will have the world sit up and watch keenly - it has been the only big one that has eluded Federer and the only Grand Slam event where he entered the finals and did not win. Chances are, he will win this year, and the only questions that remain are, will he conquer Laver territory by winning all four Grand Slams in a year? Will he rub shoulders with Borg and Laver in their 11 Grand Slam Winners Club?

One hears of new-age tennis racquets being made of material like carbon fiber and titanium. If the other players want to change the script for 2007, perhaps they should encourage racquet manufacturers to use the only known element that might just make Federer human - kryptonite.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What's common to Yannick Noah, Rod Laver, Mats Wilander and John McEnroe, besides their numerous Grand Slam wins? Their views on Roger Federer.

"You feel he is on gear four at the maximum while he has six gears. It's awesome."

Yannick Noah

"I would be honoured to even be compared with Roger."
Rod Laver

"I'd like to be in his shoes for one day to know what it feels like to play that way."

Mats Wilander

"He's the most gifted player that I've ever seen in my life."
John McEnroe

(Appeared in the New Indian Express Sunday Supplement on 11 February, 2007)

The Great Indian Search

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30 probables. 8 matches. 15 who will make it to the final shortlist. And yet, it doesn’t add up. L Suresh reports.

There’s this fable about an old man who found a couple of strangers searching for a gold ring under a streetlight and decided to help them look for it. After half an hour of unearthing the neighbourhood’s garbage and nothing else, he asked them doubtfully if they were sure that they lost it there. “Not really,” came the answer and one of the men pointed in the opposite direction. “Actually, we lost it there.” “So then, why on earth are you looking for it here?” “Well, it’s dark over there and this is the only place with a light on.”

Replace the two men with the likes of Irfan Pathan and Sehwag – losing their form in various overseas tours and combing their home grounds looking for it - and you know where all this is heading. Embarrassing losses every time we play outside the country - the most recent ones being in the Caribbean and in South Africa – and we are back in India trying to put together a team that would bring us the World Cup. The modus operandi? Get them to play eight one-dayers in familiar terrain.

But why on earth would anyone seek redemption for their poor performances abroad by playing in home conditions, where friendly pitches transform the most ordinary cricketers into stud performers? Sehwag plundered a 100 almost immediately after returning to domestic cricket. Pathan ran through a rather depleted Mumbai side and reduced them to none for five. It was almost as if these men have always been in the pink of good form.

That’s the reason why the eight-match jamboree in India doesn’t sound too convincing. Knowing well that our lack of form overseas has been the key concern, we end up looking for it back home. When exactly did we carry our form – the kind we exhibited when playing in home conditions – to the matches we played abroad, for us to believe that we would do so this time?

While the Indian team didn't exactly find this Christmas bringing in the spirit of giving - the South African team gave nothing away - to 30 probables, Christmas has come a second time, bringing in the joy of playing on Indian pitches. The formula to engineer an Indian win on home soil seems to be rather simple - have more cracks in the pitch than in the Indian team.

One person who will be wondering what to make of all this would be Greg Chappell. After looking at various players, combinations, strategies and roles, Guru Greg has been forced to do a 'rollback' of all his plans and go back to exactly where he started from. The team is almost back to its original composition and his detractors are delighted. While some are happy that their old favourites are back, others are rejoicing that Greg was finally proved wrong and had to own up to his mistakes. And in the middle of it all stands Team India, like a child lost in the Kumbh mela, not knowing where it came from and clueless about where it's got to go.

The uncertainty factor still prevails and at the end of eight matches, India may have rediscovered its winning ways. But there are questions that will never be answered. Do these wins really count in the preparation for the World Cup? What if the senior players continue to fumble in matches they play – will the selectors be man enough to drop them? What if the young guns fire in the opportunities they get – will they go on to replace the stars?

Spare a thought for the other two teams in this international version of the Challengers Series – glorified, extrapolated forms of the Challengers Series, with West Indies, Sri Lanka and India instead of India Red, Blue and Green. The Windies, a team whose trajectory has now degenerated into a downward spiral in recent years will be looking to think only of the good times – when it beat India 4-1 at home and then took on Australia, both in the DLF Cup and in the Champions Trophy. However, Lara and his men must have wondered what exactly they were doing halfway around the world, playing on wickets that behaved like cement tracks or gravel pits as the case may be, when they could have been playing more domestic tournaments at home. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka must be trying to figure out if revisiting the haunting memories of a 6-1 drubbing - something that they have so successfully shut out of their minds after England and New Zealand - is necessary at all.

The forecast for this World Cup is that the pitch will tend to keep low, the tearaway quicks will draw first blood after which the slow medium bowlers have a major chunk of the action with their lethal slower ones. Unfortunately, India has neither, the Taylors nor the Bravos. (This is the part where we pay tributes to the likes of Kapil Dev, Mohinder Amarnath and Roger Binny and then moan about the lack of slow medium bowlers and allrounders.) 250-plus scores will be as much a rarity as an Indian win in these island nations.

And yet, no step is being taken to familiarize players with the conditions that we have been finding so hostile to play in. The one-dayers could have been more meaningful if some steps were taken to simulate typical Caribbean fare. The matches could have been organized in the hottest and the most humid parts of the country. If most matches in the World Cup are going to be day games where the dew or lights will not affect the teams during the second half of the game, why waste precious practice time under lights? Thirdly, when low scoring matches are typically what one has seen in the Caribbean, why provide flat pitches where teams score in excess of 300 effortlessly?

Most importantly, we are still hoping that spin is going to take us close to the Cup. We did get a crumbling track for the last test against the West Indies in 2006, but as mentioned before, Christmas comes just once a year. Our attempts to squeeze in 30 overs of spin when every other team is planning its gameplans with four medium and slow medium pacers is rather unnerving. Gayle and Marlon Samuels did us in with accuracy – we can’t expect to return the compliment with classic spin.

The West Indian series should have been the litmus test for players – this is where the search for our heroes should have begun. Unfortunately for us, the team played without Sachin, Sourav and Kumble – three certainties for the last 15. Dinesh Karthik and Zaheer Khan too didn’t get a look-in and the duo is also almost certain to make it to the final squad. And if Robin Uthappa or Gautam Gambhir make the grade, that would be half the team that missed the boat – and valuable match experience where it matters most.

Back home, the opening bars of our hosanna to our heroes has gone off well – the tigers are roaring, the spinners are doing the trick, the seniors are back and so are the flat tracks and the dustbowls. The nation heaves a sigh of relief. The four that was stroked without the batsman moving his feet and the ball that turned square indicates that it’s cricket time in India and the fans have made it amply clear that the hand that extends to seek autographs will also reach out to slap.

But what began as a nation’s search for the best players has now become a bounty hunt with so many parties looking for something that you’d wish they’d just log on to Google and be done with it. The West Indian Board’s searching for funds to add a semblance of respectability to their near-empty coffers. For the Sri Lankans, this could be payback time. Their 1-6 drubbing could be rankling in their minds, and after splendid performances in England and New Zealand, this must be one record they would want to correct.

But at home, a billion Indians would make Indiana Jones proud, with their search for everything from cricket’s Holy Grail to Sehwag’s audacious slash over backward point. The BCCI, of course, is seeking its millions from telecast rights and sponsorships, the selectors are searching for the right team, the players are searching for form and the vast sea of humanity that switches off from its daily routine the moment they switch on the TV to see the men in blue take the field is searching for moments to celebrate.

In the end, only 15 will make it out of the 30 probables and going by convention, the toss up will apply only to the fringe players – let’s say from positions 11 to 15. One noted with great interest the list of probables for the Rest of the World team that was put up for the Superseries against Australia and watched with disbelief as one hero after another got knocked off the list, as the final XI was announced.

However this list will cause no tremors. The ones who will keep their fingers crossed are Laxman, Pathan, Sehwag, Kaif, Ramesh Powar and Gautam Gambhir. Of course, Munaf and Yuvraj will be hoping that they overcome their injuries and make it in the nick of time. As for the big three, Tendulkar will be fighting age, Dravid will be looking for his once impeccable form and Ganguly will be fighting for a permanent place in the team. Kumble, Harbhajan and Powar must be fighting for the two specialist spinner spots, with Kumble bringing in experience, Harbhajan, his doosras and Powar, his allround capabilities with both ball and bat. In the periphery, youngsters like Raina and Gambhir must be wondering if they will turn out to be casualties because of the return of the old order. Once these issues are sorted out, the 15 will be in place. But only the coming months will tell if they will be in the running for victory at the highest level.

(Appeared in the New Indian Express Sunday Supplement on 04 February, 2007)