The Hindu : Sport : Jelly-bean incident blown out of proportion

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Wednesday, Aug 01, 2007
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Sport

Jelly-bean incident blown out of proportion

Special Correspondent

Nottingham: The second Test between India and England is being called Jelly-beangate in the sensation-seeking English tabloids, but both captains brought much needed perspective, saying it was blown out of proportion.

Understandably, Rahul Dravid chose to focus on a memorable Test win.

“We’ve not won very often in England,” said Dravid, “so every win is special. It helps the younger boys of the team, those coming in. Getting international success away from home early in their careers will spur them on as they become seniors and inspire them to do much better whenever they come back.”

How did the win rate in comparison with Headingley?

“It was similar to Headingley, there the batsmen did the job for us, here the bowlers responded when given the opportunity,” said Dravid. “I’ve always felt we’ve done well when we’ve had the opportunity to take 20 wickets,” he added.

“I feel our best chance is when there’s definitely going to be a result. Sometimes on good wickets, when we struggle to take 20 wickets is when we’re put on the backfoot early. Even last time at Headingley when we had a chance to take 20 wickets, we did. Because all it then needs is one good batting performance to set up the game.”

What of all the aggression, the posturing, the chatter, the incidents?

“As captains we have a responsibility to ensure things don’t get out of hand — it’s been a bit blown up as well and it’s been close,” replied Dravid.

“And I think there’s a huge amount of respect we have for a lot of English players — I personally have a lot of respect for Michael. I’d rather not emphasise (the verbals). To me mental strength was how our openers played, how Zaheer responded. The second new ball had to count, and he responded beautifully.”

Apology

Vaughan said his side had apologised to Zaheer Khan for the offence caused by “the prank”, but refused to be drawn into what the joke was about.

“In the big picture,” said Vaughan, “we didn’t lose it because of the jelly beans. It wasn’t the reason at all. I know it’s given you guys something to write about, but it’s been blown out of proportion. We lost a big toss, but we should have shown more skill and application when batting. We were 80 runs short in both innings.”

Interestingly, Vaughan dismissed the theory that the episode had fired Zaheer up, saying he had been bowling well even before it.

Dravid, however, said: “If he’s going to perform like this, can we please get him upset after every game? I would be more than happy to get him upset I’ve never seen him as fired up, keyed up.”

Vaughan expressed concern over Sreesanth over-stepping by nearly a meter, though he was careful with his words. “I hope it wasn’t as it was meant to be, and I spoke to Rahul.”

Dravid said Sreesanth told him it was "a mistake". Sreesanth was young and excitable, said Dravid, and the matter would be treated internally.

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