The recently concluded Ind-Aus test series has created a lot
of excitement amongst the Indian and British Cricket fraternities and “Furor” amongst
the Aussie Fans, Media and Cricket Pundits alike. While it is a commendable achievement on the
part of a reasonably inexperienced Indian Cricket team to beat Australia 4-0,
one cannot but help worry about the future of our test cricket team.
This victory, however emphatic has been camaflogued by poor
pitches and equally poor display of batsmanship by the Aussies. It says a lot
about the Team’s mentality when the Captain keeps shouting for spinner friendly
wickets time and again. The message he seems to be sending is that since we
will keep struggling outside on bouncy/swinging wickets, hence it is okay to use
our strengths to keep the visitors at bay in home conditions and that’s it!!
The result of this attitude is that we will continue to
struggle Abroad while the Captain and the Management feel that winning in India
is the best we can do. But the recently
concluded series against England in India proved otherwise!!! The sad thing is that the loss to England has
been completely forgotten, which in my opinion should be hurting the team, the
captain and the Coach, the Most!!! It certainly has hurt millions of True
Cricket Fans but the BCCI and the Team and its Management have not yet felt it
and they will continue to thump their chests for the 4-0 win over Australia.
Come the South African tour, if the results work out as
expected (a comfortable win for the South Africans is what most experts are
predicting), then a familiar reaction will be expected from all quarters, the
wickets are bouncy and we do not have the technique to adapt to such
conditions!! And a few heads will roll
and they will be the familiar faces who generally do not perform well in
overseas conditions and things will get back to normal i.e. the captain will
shout from the roof-top for turning wickets and we will continue our winning
ways in India (and that too is not a guarantee given that we will continue to
struggle against quality spin attacks even at home!!)
It is indeed remarkable that we had the fortune of
witnessing some of the all-time great batsmen like Gavaskar, Dravid, Tendulkar,
Sehwag, Laxman and a brilliant all-rounder by name Kapil Dev, who have
performed remarkably well abroad despite the mind-set of BCCI and our Team
Management over the past few decades.
It will be a miracle if we can get another such crop of
wonderfully talented cricketers ever again unless we change our archaic mindset
and start to believe that we need not always depend on turning tracks to win at
any cost!!! But this I am sure is a ‘Miracle’
waiting to happen. But if it does, then
Indian Cricket will surely be turning a new leaf in its history which shall
result in new highs especially in the Test Cricket Arena.
Here’s hoping and praying that better sense will prevail
amongst the Indian Cricket Administration as well the Selectors, Coaches and
Players.
Cheers
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