 |
|
| SPORTS TRIBUNE |
|
IN THE NEWS
|
|
|
|
Finish with a flourish The wait was worth the while. It was after 35 long years that India beat the West Indies in the Caribbean when warhorse Anil Kumble snapped up the wicket of tailender Corey Collymore. India’s 49-run win in the Kingston Test helped to somewhat mitigate the humiliation heaped on India by the West Indies in the one-day series. It was way back in 1971 when the Indian cricket team led by Ajit Wadekar recorded its first series win in the West Indies. It was in this series that a young man answering to the name of Sunil Gavaskar made a grand start to his illustrious career. This time, too, several young Indian players did extremely well. The victory was the first Indian series win outside the subcontinent in two decades, with the exception of the unremarkable triumph in Zimbabwe last year. The last time the Indians had won a series outside the subcontinent was in 1986 in England, when India won 2-0.
Hard-earned win The Indian triumph at Kingston was not without hiccups. Skipper Rahul Dravid stood firm in both innings even as wickets kept tumbling. Chasing a stiff target of 269, the West Indies, after an initial collapse, waged a grim battle as wicketkeeper-batsman Denesh Ramadin hit an unbeaten 62. The last four West Indies wickets put on 71 runs and caused anxious moments to Dravid and his men. But that was as far as the West Indies could go as Kumble, using all the guile and experience he had at his command, bagged six wickets for 78 runs (in the first innings, Harbhajan Singh had been the wrecker-in-chief with five wickets for just 13 runs). But one must not overlook the obvious while heaping praise on the Indian team. Given the standings of the two teams in the ICC Test rankings, it was predicted even before the series got under way that the Indians would be able to put it across the below-par West Indies, who lacked the firepower of the old days. That the Indians had to wait till the last match of the four-Test series for a clear-cut win only goes to prove that the West Indians are no pushovers even if they have slipped down the ladder.
Upper hand To be fair to the Indians, the visitors held the upper hand in the first three matches of the series but were unable to deliver the knockout punch. And a lot of the credit for this should go to Dravid’s counterpart Brian Lara, who led from the front. Lara knew that his team lacked both in experience as well as firepower, but despite the shortcomings, he was able to keep the visitors at bay in the first three Tests. However, he felt let down by the West Indies selectors and the pitch curators. This tour must have given a lot of food for thought for coach Greg Chappell as the Indians set their sights on next year’s World Cup campaign. The Australian will have to give a very hard look at the performance of the team, especially in the shorter version of the game. With Chappell’s overemphasis on youth, there is an undercurrent of resentment among the senior players, both in and out of the squad, against the coach. That nobody has so far spoken out against him is a different matter. True, some of the youngsters have done very well on this tour, but the fact remains that youth for the sake of youth is no substitute for experience. Players like S. Sreesanth (10 wickets in three Tests) and Munaf Patel, who prior to the tour of the West Indies had played only in three Tests, have come out with flying colours. Munaf, who took 14 wickets at an average of 33.07, has now staked his claim for a permanent place in the squad. The same cannot be said of Chandigarh’s VRV Singh, but his time will definitely come sooner than later, with the team scheduled to play a large number of one-day matches in the run-up to the World Cup. Also, inexplicable is the exclusion from the Test squad of Ajit Agarkar, India’s most experienced bowler with the new ball and the most successful one in the one-day series.
Road ahead After some well-deserved rest, the team will travel to Sri Lanka for a tri-series also involving South Africa, then travel to South Africa for yet another series and finally round it off with a tri-series at home before returning to the West Indies for the World Cup. These matches should give Chappell enough opportunity to finetune the squad for the World Cup. But the biggest loss of form (which has caused problems for the coach) has been that of Irfan Pathan, who seemed totally offcolour in the one Test he played in which he took two wickets before he was dropped. Here is a player who was being touted as the avatar of the legendary Kapil Dev. Chappell will have to sit and analyse what has gone wrong with the Baroda youngster because allrounders would have a major say in the World Cup. One player who has now staked his claim for a place in the World Cup team is the age-defying Anil Kumble, who sent down a total of 192.3 overs in the four Tests in which he claimed 16 wickets at an average of 34.35. He has done enough to merit a place in the World Cup squad even if in the coach’s estimate his age is a disadvantage. Another player who should be given a fair trial before the World Cup is VVS Laxman, who proved in the Test series that he had not lost his appetite for big scores. Laxman has the class and the skill to make a difference to the team’s performance and he must be encouraged. |
|
Much
more than a game It takes a football match to bring life to a standstill in London. As the England team gets ready for its first match at the World Cup, the message from London is clear: “The world can wait. It’s the Cup that matters”. During the afternoon on June 10, a collective frenzy has enveloped the capital city, and indeed England as a whole. The young and the elderly, traders and teachers, tramps and the nobility. have succumbed to the lure of football. When Shakespeare’s King Henry V remarked, “The game’s afoot”, referring obviously to the battlefield, he could scarcely have intended a pun predicting a national obsession. Many first-time overseas visitors would have learned about the country by reading the classics of English literature. If they had expected to find in London the stereotype of the staid Englishman, he of the stiff upper lip, suave urbanity and understated wit, they are disappointed. What they witness is an all-pervasive display of elemental passion for the sport. The image in any mind of the solid, inscrutable Brit vanishes. The modern citizen of England is a fanatical follower of football heroes. From the time they emerge from school playgrounds to local clubs, and graduate to professional football, finally earning the distinction of donning England’s colour, every detail of their fortunes is firmly etched. The media studies and unravels every aspect of the growth and development of the game, its stars and its institutions. The “greatest show on earth”, as the World Cup is called, has transfixed the attention of sports lovers the world over, not merely in the 32 countries that qualified for the finals. FIFA boasts of 207 members, more than the 193 nations that constitute the United Nations. FIFA could rightly claim, as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has wistfully remarked, to represent and bind together the entire population of the world. Football-crazy fans abound even in countries whose teams have no sporting credentials. The national obsession with football in England, I feel, is stronger than the passion for the sport elsewhere in the world. Even club matches featuring famous teams like Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United are known to rouse unprecedented passion, leading sometimes, sadly, to hooliganism and violence that has given English fans a bad name. I remember being advised by a friend, himself a football fanatic, to avoid public transport in the vicinity of prestigious club games. That is where the passions run high, he warned. The football season lasts longer than that of any other sport in England, starting well before spring and continuing up to late autumn. The committed audience gladly braves rain and cold to witness momentous happenings in their favourite sport. What explains this amazing fixation? Empirical evidence may be difficult to adduce, but the answer could well be found in history and sociology. The British Empire during its heyday spanned continents. The end of colonialism, which followed World War II, would undoubtedly have caused a wrench in the consciousness of the population of the island, a feeling of being dispossessed. An empire over which the sun never set suddenly vanished. At the same time, even as some persons publicly justified “the white man’s burden” in “nurturing” colonies in Asia and Africa, contrary liberal views in the UK highlighted the sentiments of guilt and injustice inherent in any colonial rule. For the citizens of the new England, it must be comforting to discover now, some 50 years after the colonies became free, that outstanding athletes from former African colonies have come to constitute a major strength of professional football clubs in England. Almost every member of the teams from former British colonies of Ghana and Togo, as also from Trinidad and Tobago, plays professional football in England. It is often said that the level of of immigrants’ integration into the mainstream of the host nation is to be judged by the enthusiasm with which they cheer the home team in an international match. When foreign cricket teams tour England, immigrants from India, Pakistan and the West Indies commonly root for the tourists and not for the home team. With football, there is no such divided loyalty. The houses and cars of Asians living in England display the red and white English flag with as much fervour as their “native” neighbours. At football matches, Asian teenagers join the chorus as cheerleaders supporting England. Some innovative youngsters of Indian origin even broadcast on radio songs in Hindi eulogising the English football team. Should football not be given its due for promoting cultural integration? People in England are fond of almost all games. The country prides itself in adopting the ideals of sportsmanship — “to love the game beyond the prize” (Clifton Chapel) and dogged determination. “The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton and Harrow”, the Duke of Wellington had declared. It is the desire to excel, to aim for the top spot globally, that fuels the national pre-occupation with football. Since cricket is played seriously in just about 10 countries, even world champions are little recognised outside the Commonwealth. Sports such as golf and tennis invoke awe and reverence for individual champions and cannot light up national pride as a team game does. Success at football, on the other hand. is perceived to propel the nation to what is perceived as truly global excellence. An English victory against world-class opponents can signal a revival of England’s former glory. Surely it is an Englishman who wrote: “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that”. |
|
IN THE NEWS Fred
Trueman was as much a “stormy petrel” in England in the 1950s and
1960s as Lala Amarnath was in India before Independence.
Trueman, who died of lung cancer on June
1, was, however, an exceedingly popular bowler. He impressed with his
fiery swing bowling and nippy words on and off the field. Like Lala, he
was a very witty storyteller, but many anecdotes attributed to him were
the creation of the English media. One anecdote that hurt and harmed Trueman the most was his alleged rude utterance at Indian High Commissioner B.K. Nehru’s party when the Indian team was on tour in 1952. He allegedly nudged a high-ranking Indian diplomat (Gunga Din) in the ribs and said: “Hey, pass t’ salt!” In the story, it was stated that he was sitting on the top table. According to Trueman, it was a total fabrication as he neither made such a silly gesture nor was he sitting on the top table as he was one of the juniors in 1952. Nicknamed Fiery Fred, Terrible Trueman and the Maltby Mauler, Trueman was involved in several racial controversies in the West Indies and other places. Claiming himself innocent of most allegations, he said, “At least I can take comfort from the fact that these stories, old or new, will not sour my marriage with Veronica, as it happened in the case of my first marriage”. Mainly because of fabrication of such stories and his brushes with the powers that be, Trueman was kept out of at least 30 Tests. Had he played these matches, his tally would have been around 400 wickets instead of 307 from 67 Tests. In his autobiography, Ball of Fire, Trueman said: “The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) would pick a southerner if possible, a northerner only if pushed, and a Yorkshireman only when they could not possibly avoid it”. This was the dubious functioning of the MCC (as it was of the Indian cricket board) which chose players from the western region more than players from the other regions. Trueman’s death at the age of 75 has left a void in English cricket.
|
sm
|
| HOME PAGE |
Bang on target Before departing for Malaysia, Indian hockey coach Vasudevan Bhaskaran had exuded confidence that India would vie for a podium finish in the eight-nation Sultan Azlan Shah tournament, dismissing the possibility of grabbing one of the first two positions. True to his word, India finished third to claim the bronze. They beat New Zealand 3-2 in their last engagement to justify the faith reposed by the coach in the team. Hari Prasad and Sandeep Singh, who scored two goals and one, respectively, carried the day for India, while the defence held its nerve in the dying moments to thwart the Kiwis. Thus, India laid their hands on a medal after five long years. For the World Cup, India will have to dish out dazzling hockey to make it to the podium. For that, players like Baljit Dhillon, Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh must be included in the squad. Tarsem S. Bumrah, Pension scheme In the pension scheme for Ranji cricketers announced by the BCCI, the cutoff year is 2003-04 because from that season onwards the players started receiving exalted payments (Rs 10,000 per match). It is good that pension has been announced for cricketers who played prior to 1958-59 (at least 10 matches). There are players who have played for five seasons and their tally of matches is below 20. So the category of 10 to 50 matches (prior to 2003-04) also needs to be covered under the pension scheme. The amount could be reduced to say Rs 7,500 so that seniors who played prior to the 1958-59 season remain at a higher level of Rs 10,000. Players who figured in less than 10 matches could be paid gratuity on a per-match basis. Finally, if playing in one Test match can earn a pension, so can 10 Ranji matches. R.K. Ohri
|
