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Wednesday, Dec 06, 2006
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Wanted: Strong hearts, cool minds

A great player separates himself from the pack, writes Rohit Brijnath

To watch Australia's team on Tuesday was to be dazzled yet unsurprised.

Sporting valour is a familiar quality on these shores, yet every viewing of it is astonishing. In the morning, on a pitch only a few flowers short of resembling a grave, the match was considered a draw by all. Except the Australian team. In these parts, defeat is reluctantly understood, but never surrender. India must learn the difference.

Of course the Australians seem to carry confidence around in a hip flask, while the Indians have forgotten its sweet taste. Still, from our team at least we expect the good fight. Men must push themselves, hard, if not for flag, or country, or captain, then for God's sakes at least for self-preservation. It does not seem much to ask.

Every fight makes a difference. Rahul Dravid battled to 63 with a broken finger. Dhoni displayed fortitude. More tellingly, Tendulkar constructed a hiccuping, unpolished, unsightly 55, but nevertheless a 55. This was will substituting for misplaced talent, desire compensating for vanished form.

Valuable lesson

Tendulkar-watching lacks an earlier pleasure, for he is an older actor who stumbles over lines that once were simple. He was being embarrassed by Pollock but held his ego in check. A lesson small but valuable was being administered: put a tall price on your wicket, fellows.

Fighting is many things. It is the constant warding off of impatience. It is battling the waistline. It is the honest struggle to lift personal standards. It is the desperate hanging on to concentration. It is uncomplaining Michael Hussey batting wherever he's told. It's Paul Collingwood's desperate catch off Matthew Hayden in the exhausting evening.

Part of the contest of sport is not with opponent, but with the self, the ability to find faith and courage when the hands quiver. Furthermore the great player separates himself from the pack because he asks more from himself than others do.

Not everything, diving over the ball in the field for instance, can be blamed on the coach, and eventually players must peer within and challenge themselves. Spectators desire victory, but will be content with spirited play; they want style but will be satisfied with honest sweat. Ugly crowds let everyone down, but most fans just want a reason to be proud of their team.

Cool wisdom

Some fighting must be done by the BCCI as well for they are failing both game and nation. BCCI vice-president Shashank Manohar's claim that India should not get paid a penny after the Durban performance was the stuff of hysterical teenagers. Cool wisdom is required of older men. Manohar's job isn't to utter populist claptrap but provide a solution. What do we do? How do we make this team better? Does he know? Certainly he is not telling.

For instance, irrespective of what transpires at the World Cup, the BCCI should already have an idea if it wants to persist with Greg Chappell. If not, they should create a committee of former players to find a new coach.

Let them be proactive. Let them figure what sort of coach India needs and find the person who fits that size.

Then patiently we must build. After his initial few years of failure, a football coach in England was met with the banner: "Three years of excuses and it's still crap". The coach's name was Alex Ferguson and he stayed on.

Born of boldness

Great teams are deliberate constructions, born of boldness. India's failure to invest further in new players and going back to the old is safe, short-term, inevitable selection but perhaps not bold selection. It is hard for romantics and the timid to be champions.

In all the recent hurling of abuse you'd think never have we seen Indian cricket so impoverished, so impotent. It is nonsense. Firstly, this team, its one-day form horrifying, did win its last Test series overseas.

Furthermore, we forget that pre-Ganguly/Wright we were enmeshed in similar nightmares. What is most frustrating is that Indian cricket is mostly unchanged, the worries the same, the complaints familiar. It is like a system has given up without a fight.

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