Side lines

The Madness of Indian Cricket

NADEEM A. KHAN

Tuesday, October 29.

Indian cricket's future has officially hit a brick wall--the same one it's been naively butting the head against day after barren day. Early on Tuesday afternoon, South Africa chopped, sorted and wrapped them up individually. Third time in a row, for those keeping count.

How long this will continue, only the Almighty knows, but with another meeting scheduled in two days time, odds are stacked against their pulling out of this vicious circle.

The present Indian plight is a throwback to the early days of Azharuddin's tenure when the side tramped through Australia and South Africa with their souls in the boots, fleeing from one venue to another, ravaged, plundered, and gasping for mercy. Along with the requisite foul dozen, Tendulkar has inherited the age-hardened tradition sanctioned to all new India captains--The Buffer or an "adjustment period", which means he can lose as many games as he wishes.

As Sachin's men keeled over on a stale and difficult Municipal Ground wicket, it became evident that the ploy of playing aliens on spinning tracks had boomeranged. The South Africans, being advanced life forms, had studied local conditions closely and left for India with their game against spin in full working order while India's itself lies in shambles.

One of the tragedies of Indian cricket is it never gets two things right at any given time. If it succeeds in batting well, its bowlers gift wrap the game over to the other side. It happened in Toronto. When the bowlers get it together, the batters bungle their bit. It happened in Jaipur. If the two harmonize, then the fielders trip over their big feet and spill catches. It happened in Hyderabad.

In Rajkot today, the ball did a few versatile things. First, in the hands of Allan and Fanie, it slid through at an amiable velocity. That was enough to down Tendulkar when he played through an imaginary line to be lbw. Then under Boje's influence, the ball turned, sometimes twice and the batsmen gawked. To be fair, Boje was lucky. The off-spinner, not considered to be exceptional at the SA first-class level, spun one past a Mohammed Azharuddin blade, which left a breach the size of Canada, and dashed off a solo enquiry. Caught at a time when he was examining a blade of grass, Umpire Rao clenched the teeth, gave the bowler his first international wicket and averted the gaze tactfully as a glowering Azhar strode off to answer quizzical enquiries from the management.
Smitten by the compliance of India's players, surfaces and umpires, Boje is expected to file for citizenship.

Tendulkar's wicket and then Azharuddin's exposed the vacuous state of Indian morale. Both hung their heads even before the decisions were handed out leading one to presuppose they were guilty. Didn't they know that inane Indian umpires, a rapidly multiplying breed, unfortunately, read the meaning of life and the universe into such gestures?

Maybe India should study Pakistan. If a sixteen year old, eschewing foreplay, can produce the fastest one-day century in his very first game and take his team into a final then India is wasting time with sluggish 32 year olds who glitter when the going is easy and slip out when the side's begging for help. India should be looking for boys born after 1980. Its bowlers must be requested to put away the fodder and dig within to see if there are a couple of stingers somewhere. If there are not any, then they should be booted and replaced with men of hardy stock who can knock batters dead. Or off the feet. In a swamp. If India had one like Wasim today, that pitiful 185 would have had a fighting chance. I admire the accuracy, gusto, and determination of Prasad and Srinath, but can't help wishing they would sacrifice some of that range for a modicum of speed and reverse- swing.
Finally, India needs to duplicate the ancient enemy's passion and win, at least at home, instead of palming off excuses.

These days the India captain doesn't even make an effort to lie convincingly. On the eve of the Rajkot game he said, "We hope to do well......"
Translation: Let's hope we don't get slung out on our ears again.
After the debacle there was the compulsory,"We are learning. This has taught us valuable lessons."
Rot. No such learning is in sight. No longer can India trivialize senseless defeats and indulge themselves in baloney of lessons being learnt. They've been at it for the better part of the decade. How about graduating?

And so India's troubles continue. Misled by its important players, frustrated by myopic umpires, crippled by an ineffective administration, Indian cricket again faces awkward questions.