The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Wisden 2004: India deserved at least a mention

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Friday, Apr 09, 2004

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Wisden 2004: India deserved at least a mention

By Ted Corbett

ST. JOHN'S, APRIL 7. When Matthew Engel, the editor, pressed a review copy of Wisden into my hand one lunch time during the third Test in Barbados, he whispered to me that I must conform to his deadline of Thursday morning newspapers; and I thought that yet another Indian had made his way into the Five Cricketers of the Year and that, as a consequence, I had to sign cricket's official secrets act or be in danger of excitedly revealing the details ahead of time.

Oh, foolish me. India in particular and the sub-continent at large seems to have once again Retreated into the fog that used to surround that area in the days when second-rate England teams were sent to play under junior captains and the top-notch players declared they were unavailable. As a result of that policy, which allowed the stars to pick and choose, no one among the English ruling classes took notice of the results. "Oh yes, but that was away in India/Pakistan/Ceylon,"

came the cry and the feats achieved there were forgotten or at best misremembered.

I thought, in my simple way, sitting at home and watching by way of the satellite, Rahul Dravid making runs and Sachin Tendulkar fighting back with a double century and Sourav Ganguly pointing in that steely-eyed way to move someone from deep mid-wicket to square-leg and the wonderful Virender Sehwag using a bat like a flail, that India had done rather well. When did England last draw a series, or even look like drawing a series, in Australia? Engel and I were both there in 1986-7 when Mike Gatting, sprinkling every sentence with the word "tremendous" to describe his men's better moments, won a series. England does not seem to have done so well since, either at home or away and I should have thought it might be worth a word of praise or a whole damn great hymn of praise when another lesser country made the champions weep as they wiped their bloodied noses.

The facts are recorded, of course, but not in any special way and certainly not by one of the writers or any of the cricketers who was with India at the final of the World Cup and the trip to Australia.

There is too much evidence in Wisden 2004 that it is looking backwards and inwards; at Cheltenham not Chennai; that it believes the success of Sussex in the championship is more important than anything done by Muttiah Muralitharan or Anil Kumble or Waqar Younis; that it rates the antics of those strange people in the Reform Group as useful; that it is too British, too cucumber sandwiches, too cuppa tea. Perhaps, even in these international days, that is the way it should be, but I would have it otherwise.

Do not misunderstand me. I am here to praise Wisden, not to bury it. Engel has made it stylish and modern and full of interest without detracting from its old-fashioned worthiness. You will not find a better piece of writing anywhere than that by Nasser Hussain in appreciation of Steve Waugh called "Trying to Melt the Iceman." I noticed Hussain shake the hand of Brian Lara at the end of the Barbados Test and the gesture had something of the "I-know-what-you-are-going-through-and- I-sympathise" in its warmth.

So too with Waugh, an enemy to be admired, an adversary to be held in awe. Hussain says: "Throughout his career, Waugh, almost on purpose, maximised the challenge — whether it be a sore calf, a last-chance saloon innings or a fired-up Ambrose — to bring the best out of himself. Basically, for over 20 years he has been playing mind games with himself and the opposition. The crowd did not turn up at Sydney to thank him for his statistics. They came to thank him for his character."

Beautifully put, Nasser. I wish I had written that myself. But if there was time for that article, there was also a day to say that India was, for a couple of months in 2003-4, a special team worth a special mention, however brief.

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