(Image courtesy: New Indian Express)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.
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)
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