Sport - Cricket   

It's about courage and determination

Like most young boys growing up in Australia in the 1950's with a love of cricket, I dreamt of playing Test cricket for Australia. One-day cricket was unheard of then and as the Australia-England series were the most prominent of the time I dreamt only of playing in an `Ashes' series when I grew up.

My heroes were Australian players such as Richie Benaud, Neil Harvey, Norman O'Neill and Allan Davidson. Because I had to be England in the backyard Test matches with my older brother I had a soft spot for some of the England stars of the day such as May, Dexter, Cowdrey, Graveney and Trueman but my heart was with the Australians. Cricket and cricketers from India and Pakistan had not hit my cricket radar at this stage.

Even though Pakistan toured Australia in 1959-60, my first memory of cricketers from the sub-continent came when Pakistan toured here in 1964 and again when India toured in 1967-68. The two players who captured my attention on those two visits were, of course, both batsmen. Hanif Mohammad for Pakistan and M.A.K. Pataudi of India.

Hanif was the original `little master' from the sub-continent and was a batsman of rare talent and class. The two memories I have of Hanif on that tour is that he didn't seem to like fielding and spent a lot of time resting in the dressing room when Pakistan were in the field, and that he made a brilliant century in the drawn Test in Melbourne. It was his cleverness at the crease that I remember as he deftly dabbed and glided his way to a hundred.

The two innings that stood out in my mind on India's tour a few years later were the two played by Pataudi in the second Test match in Melbourne where, with his one eye and on one leg, literally hamstrung, he hooked and pulled his way to scores of 75 and 85. India still managed to lose the match by an innings but I have vivid memories of him hobbling as he single-handedly withstood the onslaught from an Australian pace attack led by Graham McKenzie.

What I noted from these two tours and subsequently playing against both countries, was the stylish strokeplay of the top players plus their incredible ability to hit the ball with power square on the off-side on slow pitches. I was fascinated by the way players such as Mushtaq, Majid, Asif Iqbal, Javed Miandad and Zaheer Abbas from Pakistan and Gavaskar, Vishwanath and Sandeep Patil from India could manufacture power in this area when I, and most Australians, really struggled to generate power in this area on the slower wickets.

Doug Walters was one of the few Australians strong enough in the wrists, perhaps because of his early life doing chores on the family farm, to match the players from India and Pakistan in this area. This is probably why Walters was so successful against the marvellous Indian spin twins, Bedi and Prasanna on Australia's tour of India in 1969/70.

On watching the sub-continental players at work it seemed to me that they had developed a two-handed style, not unlike a hockey slap-shot, that was foreign to our way of playing. No doubt the wicket types evident in the various countries had a lot to do with this difference in style.

Gavaskar, Vishwanath, Pataudi and others such as Hanif, Majid, Asif and Zaheer had played innings full of courage and class but the one player from the sub-continent that played the quick bowlers the best during my time was Javed Miandad. He played well against all types of bowling but seemed to bloom when the pace bowlers came into the attack. Some of his battles with Dennis Lillee, in particular, are legendary.

Very few players in my experience genuinely look forward to playing fast bowling; Keith Stackpole is an exception of my teammates. Where most players from India and Pakistan seemed to keep their head well and truly down when Dennis was firing, Javed was more than happy to stand up and be counted, even to the point of taunting Dennis on occasions. It was almost as if he would rather make Dennis bowl short than pitch it up. Perhaps we should have taken more note!

The Test series coming up between these arch foes is going to be won by the team that shows the most skill, courage, determination and has the desire to take the fight up to the opposition. If Javed Miandad can impart any of the qualities that he possessed in this area to his charges then John Wright and Sourav Ganguly will have their work cut out keeping the Indian players up for the contest.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport

News: Front Page | National | Tamil Nadu | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | Kerala | New Delhi | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Updates: Breaking News |

Stories in this Section

Cricket

• Kaarthick on song
• Kumble raring to go
• No injury to Ganguly's back: Manager
• It's about courage and determination
• Test series win guarantees Rs. 1 crore to Team India
• Sinclair stages New Zealand's fightback
• Jadhav stays put
  
  Tennis
  
• Isha, Megha withdraw
  
  Football
  
• India faces tough opener against Bangladesh
• Punjab SC moves up
  
  Chess
  
• Anand-Kramnik match drawn
  
  Golf
  
• Four atop the leaderboard
• IGU announces plans for juniors
  
  Racing : Motor
  
• Rally Cross 2004 today
  
  Swimming
  
• SAF Games-bound squad expresses wish to emulate the cricket team
  
  

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu