The day of Frank Sinatras of Indian cricket

It is almost twenty years since the original 'Frank Sinatra' of Indian cricket played his last test match. Today belonged to the neo 'Frank Sinatras' of Indian cricket.

Playing 100 tests is a great achievement for a any cricketer, by any yardstick. What looked like a distant dream just a year ago, is now a richly deserved reality. For this reason alone, Mohinder Amarnath must be extremely proud of Sourav Ganguly, especially the way he forced his way back into the team. It was pleasing to see Sunil Gavaskar and then Anil Kumble felicitate one of the India's most hotly debated player/captain in recent years, on a fantastic landmark.

And what a comeback has it been for the other Frank Sinatra - Zaheer Khan! He has been ably shouldering the Indian attack ever since his return from a forced exile, again courtesy Chappell and Kiran More combo. As Sunil Gavaskar said in the post match show, Wasim Akram would have been proud of the ball with which he bowled Ricky Ponting. No praise can be higher than that, if you happen to be a left arm fast bowler. Not only did that ball sent the dangerous Ponting back to the hut with almost nothing against his name, it also opened the floodgates for Kumble to barge through.

For Anil Kumble, life has come a full circle. It was in Australia during the 2003 series, that he reinvented himself with a typical Kumbleish spell of 5/154, when Ponting's bat was raining runs in torrents. Up until that series, Kumble had done little noteworthy on an overseas tour, despite having a phenomenal record back home. The Adelaide test changed all that, and since then Jumbo has been a vital cog in most of India's test wins outside India. More importantly, captaincy seems to have renewed his vigour to play test cricket for some more time and made him even more determined. His spell today was a testimony to that.

From the Aussie stand point, standing up to the Indians was the enormous Mathew Hayden, with an unmistakable swagger in his walk. His innings reminded me of Sehwag's in the Melbourne test of 2003 series. India folded out for a paltry 366 after being comfortably placed at 286/3 at one time. Australian innings seems to be treading a similar path. Anil Kumble would dearly hope it does so on remaining days too.

Like on numerous occasions in the past, India's unsung heroes - the bowlers - have delivered on their promise. It is time for their more illustrious team mates to put up their hands and be counted.

The onus is squarely on you gentlemen.

Boxing Day test and a Patiala Peg

During the early days of my initiation to the wonderful game of cricket, I was often intrigued by few terms associated with it. Topping them was, where does ‘Ashes’ derive its name from? What is the significance of a ‘Boxing Day’ test?

It was the second query that lingered for some time. Much longer, in fact. And when I attained enlightenment, the Australians had started on what seemed like a never-ending ascendancy.

Wiki has this to say about the Boxing Day:

The celebration is traditional, dating back to the middle ages, and consisted of the practice of giving of gifts to employees, the poor, or to people in a lower social class. The name has numerous folk etymologies and the Oxford English Dictionary attributes it to the Christmas box the verb box meaning: "To give a Christmas-box (colloq.); whence boxing-day."

As India starts a much-anticipated series on 26th December 2007, it should not expect any such goodies or boxes from Australian team, even though in terms of cricketing prowess, they, along with most other teams, still count from amongst the ‘poor’ or the ‘lower social class’.

With its newly acquired muscle (read money) power, India has succeeded in forcing Australia (probably for the first time in years) to change its cricketing calendar and start the series on a ‘Boxing Day’. It bodes well, especially for the fans in India. Imagine a regular schedule, so, by the time the Aussie juggernaut reaches Melbourne, the series more often than not, is a dead one. Such has been Australian domination over the decade.

From my recollection, I cannot think of any team in last decade, that has gone into a Boxing day test with its slate clean, let alone being in the lead. India did that on their last tour, only to trip at the goal post.

Here’s something that might help them avoid a repeat:

Unlike ‘Boxing Day’, which had no connection whatsoever with the game, but has become a cricketing folklore since, ‘Patiala Peg’ actually owes its origin to cricket.

In its early days, cricket used to enjoy princely patronage in India. Maharajah of Patiala was one of the few royal bloods, who played the game on the field too. It was commonplace for the visiting English teams to play a friendly match against the ‘princely’ states. But the Maharajas simply loathed losing and so the visiting Irish team, supposedly stronger than the local team, was treated to extra large pegs of whisky on the eve of this match. Needless to say, the locals won the tie with ease, and Maharaja’s famous reply, "Yes, in Patiala our pegs are larger" became a part of cricketing history.

Indian team’s support staff has couple of days more to work behind the scenes and ensure the lead Aussie players guzzle a few ‘Patiala pegs’ on the test match eve.

Therein lies India’s best chance.

Fame is a fickle food

After the rain-curtailed one dayer at Bangalore, MS Dhoni said, "Discretion is better part of valour," in an apparent retort to Adam Gilchrist’s charge that Indian team shied away from taking the filed.

“If you play 10 Twenty20s in a row, you can't put money on who's going to win because it's so variable. But in 50-over cricket, the better side will win more often than not,” snapped Gilchrist at Cochin, as if to suggest India’s success in South Africa had much to do with the format than a sudden resurgence in their cricketing prowess.

As the war of words continues, Gilchrist has hit where it hurts India.

But this series has already seen things, that are hurting the game, most.

I felt the pre series Babel typified the Aussie idiosyncrasy. But inside the ring, players from both sides are plumbing new lows. It is one thing to be aggressive and other, to be downright vicious (in your mannerism), given that millions of kids of impressionable age are watching you. If this is what is being dished out at the start of the series then I do not want to imagine how ugly things can turn at the end of it. Someone needs to reign in the players, and fast too.

Aside that, there has been some fascinating cricket, mostly, and expectedly, from the men in yellow. Australians bat deep and inspite of none so good start from the openers, they have managed 300 plus totals in both the matches. It is a tribute to their strength that a player like Brad Haddin has had to wait on the fringe so long. Or perhaps, Michael Clarke and Symmonds should consider themselves plain lucky that they broke into to this champion team in their early twenties.

But for the rain at Bangalore, Australians would have headed to the ‘Charminar city’ with a comfortable 2-0 lead.

Indians have found out how difficult life can be, post world cup win. And as Emily Dickinson would say, Fame is a fickle food. Ask Tendulkar and Dravid, whose heads are almost on the chopping block, coming as it does on the back of a successful overseas tour of England.

With selectors picking the team for the next four one dayers, Rohit Sharma and Virendra Sehwag will most certainly bulldoze their way into the team after the Hyderabad one dayer. The question is at whose expense? Can India afford the luxury of playing the ‘big three’ in all the matches from here on? Even if the selectors defer taking a call on the future of ‘big three’ in the ODIs, can they keep public sentiments at bay?

These are tough questions and it would be most unfortunate if the future of Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid is allowed to be dictated by public outburst than common sense. Selectors and the powers that be in the BCCI should talk to these players and chalk out a road map for their eventual retirement from the ODIs, regardless of the outcome of this series.

For the starters though, India must square the series at Hyderabad, failing which, they will need to beat the Australians in next four matches – something the Indian team has never done before.