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| SPORTS TRIBUNE |
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Turf tussle |
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Turf tussle Seven Test series have been played between the arch-rivals so far in 28 years, with India winning only one, losing five and one ending in a draw. In view of last year’s performances, Pakistan have the edge. It was a dismal 2005 for Indian hockey. The team finished fifth among seven nations in the Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament in Kuala Lumpur, seventh among eight teams in the Rabo Trophy in Amstelveen, and at the bottom of the heap in the six-nation Champions Trophy held in Chennai. The juniors failed to retain the World Cup title, finishing third in the Rotterdam event. For Pakistan, it was a roller-coaster ride last year. Several juniors were tried out in the Azlan Shah tournament, in which the team came third (Australia emerged winners, followed by Korea). Pakistan upset the Australian apple cart in Amstelveen, beating them in the final to be crowned champions. They suffered a form slump in the Champions Trophy, and finished a poor fifth, only above India. In the Junior World Cup, Pakistan fared worse than India and had to settle for the seventh spot. The encounters between the two sides during 2005 were dominated by Pakistan, who beat India once each in Kuala Lumpur, Amstelveen and Chennai. The Indian team got the better of their rivals in a Champions Trophy league match. Down by two goals, India came back strongly to win 3-2, with drag-flicker Sandeep Singh scoring twice. However, they lost 3-4 in the playoff after leading 2-0 to claim the unenviable wooden spoon. Sandeep’s conversion rate would be crucial to India’s fortunes in the series. He was not at his best in the just-concluded Premier Hockey League. Playing for eventual runners-up Chandigarh Dynamos, he got going rather late in the tournament and missed a few chances in the all-important third final against Bangalore Lions. India have two other penalty-corner specialists in Didar Singh and S. Raghunath. While Didar was the player of the tournament in the PHL, Raghunath was the top goal scorer in Tier II. One hopes the omission of Len Aiyappa, the top scorer of Tier I and one of the heroes of the Lions’ PHL victory, would not cost the team dear. The return of newly married Dilip Tirkey should bolster the Indian defence, while the midfield looks weak in the absence of the “rested” Viren Rasquinha. Goalkeeper Bharat Chetri is in good nick, having saved several goals for the Lions in the PHL. The forward line, including Tejbir Singh, Sardara Singh, Rajpal Singh, Tushar Khandekar and Arjun Halappa, looks impressive. However, the team lacks a goal poacher like Deepak Thakur, who was unfairly left out. Several Pakistan players featured in the PHL, and their experience could benefit the team. Rehan Butt, the star forward for the Lions, was arguably the most impressive import of the league. The others, such as Mudassar Ali Khan, Imran Khan, Mohammad Saqlain and goalkeeper Salman Akbar, did not do badly for their respective teams. Moreover, they are quite familiar with the Astro-turf at the Sector 42 stadium in Chandigarh, which will host two matches (February 17 and 18). The two countries last played a Test series in September-October, 2004. Pakistan won the eight-match rubber 4-2, largely due to Sohail Abbas’ deadly drag-flicks. Much to India’s relief, there is no Sohail to torment them this time. (Mohammad Imran, who is far less lethal, will do the duty in the current series). The series assumes greater significance as 2006 is a crucial year for both teams. There are the Commonwealth Games, the World Cup and the Asian Games. Pakistan would also be playing the World Cup qualifiying tournament in China in April, but it is likely to be smooth sailing for them. (India qualified by virtue of their victory in the Asia Cup). With India eyeing an elusive series win and Pakistan eager to assert their dominance yet again, it should be an absorbing tussle. |
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Master fighter Form is temporary, class is permanent — That’s what Sachin Tendulkar has shown in recent times. He might be approaching the twilight of an illustrious career, but he is not yet a spent force. Sachin has been through many ups and downs over the years, but he has always bounced back. Time and again he has come up with big scores, especially when India needed him the most. Perhaps no other contemporary cricketer has divided the experts so much as Sachin. The number of critics who say that he is now past is prime is increasing. However, others are of the opinion that Sachin, just like deposed captain Sourav Ganguly, should be handled with care by the coach and team management so that he can serve Indian cricket for a longer time, or least till the next World Cup in the West Indies. As far as Test cricket is concerned, India can look up to the brood of youngsters to fit the slot. For 16 long years, Sachin has bestrode the cricket world like a Colossus. In 129 Test matches, he has scored 10,386 runs at an average of 56.14 with 35 centuries and 41 half centuries. However, in the 2005-06, he has scored only 252 runs in six games at an average of 31.50, with the record-breaking century at Delhi against Sri Lanka being the only innings of note. True, a triple century in Tests has eluded him (several batsmen less talented than him have achieved this landmark over the years) but his mastery over bowlers has been phenomenal. The way he reached his 35th century against Sri Lanka at the Ferozeshah Kotla last year only goes to prove, his die-hard fans are quick to point out, that he still has a lot of cricket left in him. But, his detractors are quick to say that he had to wait for a year after scoring his 34th Test hundred, an unbeaten 248 against lowly Bangladesh at Dhaka, which helped him to equal Sunil Gavaskar’s record. This unending debate about his dipping form intensified with India’s debacle in the Karachi Test. India might be able to recover from the big loss but will Sachin be able to recover his form of old when he treated every bowler with disdain? Only time and the little master himself can give an answer. The way Mohammad Asif’s delivery beat him and uprooted his stumps in the Karachi Test can unnerve any cricketer, even a stalwart like Sachin. Ironically, this was the ground where Sachin began his international cricketing journey 16 years ago. Asif’s delivery was not exception, nor was his pace. But the delivery got past the bat and pads of Sachin and bowled him. The Master Blaster himself must be wondering why and how the delivery, which on a better day would have found the ropes past the bowler, beat him all ends up. In the three innings that he played in the second and third Tests in Pakistan (he did not get an opportunity to bat in the first Test at Lahore) Sachin had scores of 14, 23 and 26 and his average of 21 is only better than that of Anil Kumble and Rudra Pratap Singh. These scores came on strips where for most of the time the batsmen held sway and centuries were scored at will. And in the three innings he batted he was out bowled on two occasions, a tell-tale sign that his reflexes were not as sharp as they used to be. His early dismissal in both innings of the Karachi Test must have rankled not only his fans but also his team members because this was one Test where India needed a big score from his blade. Where does Sachin go from here? His 39th ODI century in the first one-dayer at Peshawar shows that he has still not lost his appetite for runs. Maybe his reflexes have slowed down a little. Or perhaps he is still worried about his tennis elbow. which kept him out of international cricket for quite some time. But there is no denying the fact that Indian cricket still needs him and given the proper impetus he can still stand up and deliver.
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Big names, short memory Michael Holding, Nasser Hussain and to a lesser extent Imran Khan’s critical comments on the Indians appealing for and getting the wicket of
Inzamam-ul Haq — given out obstructing the field — in the opening ODI at Peshawar opened up a can of worms from their own playing days. Though Imran was mildest in his criticism, it should be remembered that he admitted using a bottle cap — just once, he claimed — to illegally scuff up the ball during a county match in England. The cases of West Indian fast bowling great Holding and former England captain Hussain are more blatant, given their condemnation of the Indians in view of their own track record. In the first Test against India at Edgbaston in 1996, Hussain was caught behind off his glove when on 14. Umpire Darrel Hair turned down the appeal and Hussain went on to score 128. That cemented his place in the side just when it was in jeopardy and there was no looking back till his retirement in 2004. Speaking on television during the Test series between India and Pakistan last month, Hussain expressed his admiration for captains who had in the past played within the rules but only just. This is surely where the question of the spirit of the game comes in. Hussain had boasted on air of his defensive tactics, bordering on the hated bodyline, which he used so controversially to bottle up Sachin Tendulkar when England last toured India in 2001-02. Legendary England captain Mike Brearley had condemned these tactics while writing in an English cricket magazine. The article appeared under the headline “A Moral Win, but at What Price?” Like many former cricketers, Holding appears to have a short memory. He perhaps needs to be reminded that in 1976 at Kingston, Jamaica, his blatantly intimidatory bowling put the Indian batsmen in mortal peril. The local umpires, of course, expressed their helplessness. And this at a time when helmets were unheard of in cricket. Sunil
Gavaskar, in his autobiography, recalled how Holding not only bowled bouncers from round the wicket, but also deliberately let loose beamers aimed at the head. Gavaskar referred to the tactics as “barbarism”. There is perhaps no action in cricket which is as much against the spirit — and now fortunately the laws too — of the game as a deliberate beamer aimed to maim or kill the batsman. One incident that continues to haunt Holding is of him kicking the stumps in disgust after having an appeal turned down in the first Test against New Zealand at Dunedin in 1980 which the home side won by one wicket. “'The incriminating photograph has since appeared far too frequently for my liking,” he writes in his autobiography. The saying “people in glass houses should not throw stones at others” is highly relevant in these cases.
— UNI
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Kick star Brazilian striker Jose Ramirez Barreto is going great guns for Mahindra United in the ongoing 10th National Football League. With five goals from six matches, Barreto is the top scorer in the league so far along with Nigerian marksman Ranty Martins, who is playing for defending champions Dempo Sports Club. Thanks to Barreto’s magic touch, undefeated Mahindra are sitting pretty at the top of the NFL table and have become the favourites for the title. Having won the Federation Cup last year courtesy Barreto’s prolific goal-scoring, Mahindra are eyeing the coveted double. In this year’s NFL matches, Barreto has scored twice against Fransa Pax, and once each against Dempo, JCT and East Bengal. The Mumbai-based Mahindra won all these encounters. He has failed to score in only two games — against Salgaocar (Mahindra won 2-1) and his former club Mohun Bagan (goal-less draw). Born on September 3, 1976, in Alegre (Brazil), Barreto has distinguished himself for Mohun Bagan in the past, playing a key role in the Kolkata club’s NFL title victories. In 2002, he was the second-highest scorer in the league with 15 goals after Churchill’s Yusif Yakubu (18). Barreto left Bagan on a bitter note after he was allegedly ill-treated by club officials. It goes without saying that Bagan’s loss has been Mahindra’s gain.
— Vikramdeep Johal |
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Mauresmo on fire Ending a long drought, Amelie Mauresmo succeeded in winning her maiden Grand Slam title when Justine Henin-Hardenne retired injured from the Australian Open women’s singles final. However, Mauresmo was leading 6-0 in the second set, having wrapped up the first 6-1, when Henin-Hardenne had to quit. Displaying imposing form throughout the tournament, Mauresmo, the season-ending WTA championship winner, dominated the proceedings, reducing the grand finale into a lopsided affair. Through hard work and tenacity, she broke her Grand Slam jinx in style. Mauresmo created a record of sorts as she marched into the final when Kim Clijsters retired from their semifinal encounter on account of an ankle injury. In the third round, her opponent Michaella Krajicek pulled out owing to heat exhaustion. But these “retirements” can’t belittle Mauresmo’s performance. Tarsem S. Bumrah, Quit gracefully Sourav Ganguly should retire instead of facing humiliation repeatedly at the hands of the selectors and coach Greg Chappell. It is a matter of self-respect for him. Ganguly should not forget that his selection in the Test team against Pakistan had little to do with his performance on the field. It was the protest by cricket lovers in West Bengal that forced the selectors to include him in the side. He played in the first Test against Pakistan but did not get a chance to bat. However, he was dropped for the second Test inexplicably. Several captains of other countries, like Arjuna Ranatunga, Steve Waugh and Allan Border, made a graceful exit even when they were performing well. They did so keeping in mind the team’s future. Ganguly should follow suit. Y.R. Handa, |
The India-Pakistan one-day cricket clashes might be hogging the limelight at present, but the focus will quickly shift to hockey as the six-match series gets under way on February 17. 