The Hindu : Is India shining?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 05, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Is India shining?

By Nirmal Shekar

MUCH like the "technical correction" that is taking place in our stock markets, some of the air has gone out of the feel-good balloon of Indian cricket which was flying high down under. What happened at the WACA in Perth over two matches, against Australia and Zimbabwe, can also be seen as a "technical correction", so to say.

Dancing feet and marauding willows turned into spring-like feet on hot coal and self-defence equipment meant to fend off the missiles. Sunny smiles suddenly transformed into sullen stares, dark eyes betraying fear rather than confidence.

The long Indian summer ended at Perth. And the familiar Australian summer greeted the visitors from India. It was almost as if Adelaide and Brisbane and Sydney never happened.

In sport, India Shining to India Whining is but a single Brett Lee spell away. It is a capricious world where so much can change overnight that any fanciful assessment based on short-term evidence is bound to blow up in one's face.

Yet, the question is this: were the events of Perth an aberration, the result of tiredness and lack of motivation in matches that had no bearing on who would play in the VB series finals, or did they point to technical shortcomings on the part of megastars who make up the most celebrated batting line-up in world cricket today?

A bit of both, to be sure. Nobody who has watched cricket in Australia over three or four decades would dispute the fact that it was at the WACA, at last, that the Indians found themselves playing on a truly bouncy and fast wicket for the first time on this tour.

Melbourne, where Australia won to draw level in the Test series, had quite a bit for the fast bowlers but it was still not a pitch where a batsman's technique against fast bowling was seriously examined. After the first morning, the wicket at Brisbane eased out and the one at Adelaide was a featherbed where it took the sort of monumental arrogance displayed by the Australian batsmen — which, of course, is not meant to devalue the brilliant spell from Ajit Agarkar — to see a team dismissed for less than 200.

For all that, to jump to some fancy conclusion on the basis of the events at Perth would be almost as foolish as trying to hail Sourav Ganguly's team as a world beater because of what it has accomplished down under in the last few weeks.

Nothing that happened in Perth can take away the gains of the tour; but everything that happened in Perth — including the fact that not a single Indian batsman topped 50 in two matches there and many failed to get past 25 — is still relevant in the context of the team's strengths and weaknesses.

The glorious batting form of Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman and the valuable innings played by Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Virendar Sehwag, have indeed made for wonderful watching pleasure all through the tour even while earning newer and newer supporters to the widely held belief that India may well possess the strongest batting line-up in world cricket today.

While Ganguly showed the way in Brisbane with a brave counter-attacking innings before Dravid and Laxman authored their own heroics, Tendulkar's was an inspired reputation-restoring effort in the final Test. And there was to be no let up as the Indians' batting form stretched well into the VB series.

No matter what happens in the VB series finals over the next few days, Ganguly's batsmen and bowlers have done enough to return home with their heads high. For once, a returning Indian cricket team will truly deserve the reception awaiting it once the players' passports are stamped at the immigration on arrival in India.

Yet, the point is, the success of Ganguly's team must not sweep under the carpet certain facts that are of paramount importance for anyone who cares to scratch the surface and look under the glowing skin, so to say.

Here, then, are the bare facts: 1) The greatest Australian fast bowler of the era — Glenn McGrath — did not bowl a single ball all summer against the Indians. 2) Jason Gillespie, even when he was fit, clearly gave the impression that he was past his prime. 3) Brett Lee never really got going until he reached Perth and he does not have a Plan B anyway, when he is attacked by batsmen of substance (read Indian batsmen). 4) And this is perhaps the most important point. Most — if not all — Australian pitches have slowed down, turning more batsman-friendly.

Those are enough reasons then not to compare this Indian batting line-up with the ones — from whatever nation — that have been successful in Australia in the past, especially ones belonging to eras when helmets were not in use and mean blokes such as Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thompson came at you with the hunger and ferocity of lions left starving all week long.

On the other hand, quite apart from pure cricketing skills — which Ganguly's team has in abundance — few Indian cricket teams have ever shown as much hunger and will to fight at any time in the past. From the very beginning, Ganguly's men have looked adversity in the face and fought like true believers.

In the event, it is hardly surprising that even their opponents — from Steve Waugh down to Adam Gilchrist and Brett Lee — have doffed their hats to the Indians's brilliance and tenacity.

Surely, the Australian summer of 2003-2004 will form a glorious chapter in the history of Indian cricket. It is no doubt a turning point. But whether the Indians make the right turn and reach the dream destination remains to be seen.

For, to confuse a summer's success with surpassing glory of the sort achieved by the very team they have matched so well — the Australians under Waugh and Ponting — would be a folly.

If we continue to mistake spasmodic excellence for true greatness, we will continue to settle for the second best. And, in sport, the road to greatness is not a 100m dash; it is a nerve-wracking, gut-wrenching, energy-sapping marathon.

Please reserve the last word on this team. It has some way to go.

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