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Braveheart
IN THE NEWS
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The off-colour Indian team desperately needs to perform well on the tour of South Africa, which begins with a warm-up match on November 16, to rekindle their World Cup hopes, writes Abhijit Chatterjee Shortly after the conclusion of India’s miserable campaign in the Champions Trophy and the selection of the team for the tour of South Africa, Chairman of Selectors Dilip Vengsarkar said though India had a large number of first-class cricketers, there were very few good players who could play at the international level. He did retract from his statement the next day, but the fact remains that the selectors had a very small base of players while picking the teams for the Champions Trophy and the South African tour. This situation is not likely to improve in the near future. With the World Cup less than 150 days away, the selectors have a big job on their hands, especially if a couple of players are injured, just as Yuvraj Singh was hurt prior to India’s crucial Champions Trophy game against Australia. The absence of one key player probably made all the difference. Virtually all players in the squad are on trial in the run-up to the World Cup. The selectors will have to decide sooner than later the composition of the team for the World Cup and that should come once the tour of South Africa is over. India’s poor record in South Africa, coupled with their patchy current form, will make this tour a tough one not only for the youngsters but also for the veterans. For players like Wasim Jaffer, Anil Kumble and Zaheer Khan, the recall could not have come at a better time. The team is in tatters and there is every likelihood that these players might have a major role to play in the team’s resurgence. It is quite possible that coach Greg Chappell is running out of ideas with the current crop of players and per force he had to look towards the discards to infuse some “fresh” blood into the squad. It remains to be seen how successful their comeback would be. Zaheer, who last played for India against Pakistan, has battled poor form and injury and made his way back into the squad on the basis of a very good showing both in the domestic games and the English county circuit. He has toured South Africa earlier and his experience might help the other bowlers in the squad. There is no doubt that Kumble always deserved a place in the Indian one-day squad. Given his age, he has to be nursed and the team management should leave it to him to decide when he wants to play and when he wants to rest. But it is rather unfortunate that Mumbai’s off-spinner Ramesh Power had to be dropped to make a place for Kumble. Power was one of the few success stories in recent times and in the only match he played in the Champions Trophy, against England, he had figures of three for 24. He is probably the best off-spinner in the country today and his axing is a situation which the selectors must have found difficult to carry out. Kumble’s success on the tour of the West Indies earlier this year makes him an automatic choice for the World Cup. With an average of 17.3 in the last 12 games, Suresh Raina will have to do something extraordinary in South Africa if he has to find a place in the World Cup squad. While Raina is among the best fielders in the team, he has to perform with the bat. If Raina is unable to regain his form, the selectors will have to take yet another look at discards like Sourav Ganguly or VVS Laxman. With Ganguly showing sign of coming back into form with a century against the formidable North Zone in the Duleep Trophy, Raina has to be on his toes. If Raina is in the line of fire, so is Mohammad Kaif, yet another outstanding fielder whose performance with the bat has been below par. Kaif played only one match in the Champions Trophy where he scored 30 in comparison to Raina’s 32 in three games. However, to be fair to Kaif, he has done well in recent matches. Jaffer’s induction into the team as the third opener only adds to the selectors’ dilemma as they try to grapple with the poor form of the top-order batsmen. While the recall of Zaheer and Kumble may be logical, the reinduction of wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Kaarthick defies explanation. Vengsarkar’s argument that India need a back-up keeper in case something happens to Mahendra Singh Dhoni does not hold water. However, there is no doubt that Kaarthick is good enough to be considered purely as a batsman.
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Braveheart
Pahelan Ratanji “Polly” Umrigar was the find of the 1948-49 season while playing for Bombay University in the Rohinton Baria Inter-University Torphy. He rose to play international cricket for about 15 years when Test stars received almost no remuneration for representing their country. Umrigar was known to have “the limbs of a lion”. He had a very strong pair of hands and well-developed shoulders. His driving was powerful and immaculate; he spun the ball which looked a puny golf ball in his huge palm. He played 14 international series, hitting 12 centuries. His aggregate was 3,631 runs (average 42.22) in 59 Tests. He captained India eight times, won twice and lost twice, while four Tests were drawn. He held 33 catches and took 35 wickets for 1473 runs (average 42.09). A versatile batsman, Umrigar’s rise in Test cricket came in 1951-52. Hemu Adhikari sustained an injury through a fall at Dadar (Bombay). He fractured his wrist. He went out of the Test. Umrigar, the 12th man, was drafted into the side against England in Madras (Chennai). Luck smiled on him. He scored an unbeaten 130. He along with Pankaj Roy (111) and Vinoo Mankad (8 for 55 and 4 for 53) gave India an innings and eight-run victory in their 25th Test. This was India’s first Test win. There were justifiably huge celebrations. Even President Rajindra Prasad sent a message of congratulations to skipper Vijay Hazare. Initially, Umrigar was not confident in handling rising deliveries. But as he gained experience, he played quick bowlers as comfortably as spinners. In his 59th Test against the West Indies at Kingston, he scored 56 and took five wickets and then hit 172. When eight short of his century, Wes Hall bowled bouncers. According to Poly Kaka’s version, Hall bowled 14 bouncers and he sent most of them to the boundary. To Everton Weekes’ remark that “You were once diffident in playing rising deliveries,” Polly replied: “They said it, not I”. Umrigar’s performance in the Kingston Test was considered the second best effort. The first was of Vinoo Mankad against England when he scored 72 and 184 and took five wickets in 1952. Winner of many awards, including the Padma Shri, Umrigar was also a good human being. He was gentle with immaculate etiquette. He respected seniors and treated juniors with care. Above all, he was a very good tutor and the cricket board should have utilised his services, knowledge and ability to teach instead of burdening him with meaningless administrative work. Being humane and a God-fearing person, he was ideally suited to train youngsters. But sadly, the board did not show even wee-bit sensibility during his playing days and post-retirement days. Umrigar was a member of the “musical chair society” as far as Indian captincy was concerned. In the series against the West Indies in 1958-59, there were as many as four captains. For the Madras Test, there was one vacancy. Umrigar wanted a batsman but the selectors included a spinner. He resigned but he made it clear that he would be available to play. The extraordinary drama affected Umrigar. He was hardly able to talk. He was in a state of distress. There were tears in his eyes. The officials tried to persuade him to withdraw his resignation. He did not. Vinoo Mankad captained the side. Born in Sholapur on March 28, 1926, Umrigar died of lymph cancer, he faced the dreaded disease bravely for more than six months before passing away earlier this week.
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The 46th National Athletics Championship, which was held in Chennai from November 2-5, assumed great importance in view of the forthcoming Doha Asian Games. Record-breaking performances were few and far between as the ground conditions at the Nehru Stadium were not conducive for athletes to go all out. National champion Navpreet Singh of Punjab bagged the gold in men’s shot put. He qualified for the Asiad by heaving the iron ball to a distance of 18.93 m, pushing Delhi’s Kuldeep Mann (18.18 m) to the second place. Another athlete from Punjab, Hardeep Kaur, won the women’s hammer throw gold with a heave of 60.79 m. She erased the meet record of 58.36 m set by K Jogeswari Devi of Bengal in July, 2000. Commonwealth and South Asian Games gold medallist Anju Bobby George expectedly won the long jump title. Anju improved on her South Asian Games jump of 6.42 m with a leap of 6.53 m in her second effort, registering a meet record. Anju pushed her nearest rival, fellow Olympian GG Pramila of Karnataka, into the second place. She lowered Pramila’s meet record of 6.52 m set in the 2000 edition of the nationals. Anju also turned sprinter to help Tamil Nadu win the gold in the women’s 4x100m relay. Running the anchor leg, Anju was behind leader Poonam Tomar, but breasted the tape well ahead of the second-place finisher, Karnataka’s G.D.Gowramma. Tamil Nadu (Nagalakshmi, Jessy, N Sharadha and Anju Bobby George) returned a timing of 47.17 secs, followed by Karnataka (47.89) and Kerala (47.55). Anju would be part of the 4x100 m relay team at the Asian Games as well. Jharkand’s Sini Mole Paulose won the 1500 m gold with a meet record of 4 minutes 10.51 seconds, surpassing Sunitha Ranna’s 1999 mark of 4 minutes 12.40 seconds, to qualify for the Asiad. Tamil Nadu’s S Shanti, who finished second, also lowered Sunitha’s record, clocking 4 minutes 11.66 seconds. In the absence of reigning national champion JK Bishnoi, Delhi’s Sunil Goswami emerged on top in the men’s javelin throw with a best effort of 70.07 m. National champion L Deepamala Devi of Manipur won the 20 km walk gold erasing West Bengal’s Y Bala Devi’s record. Deepamala, who holds the national record, clocked 1:39:00, eclipsing the 1:44:37.40 mark achieved by Bala in 2005. Setting a meet record, Ranjit won the men’s triple jump with a leap of 16.50 m. He eclipsed Punjab’s Amarjeet Singh’s record of 16.44m set in July, 2004. Amarjeet, who had the mortification of seeing his record being eclipsed, took the silver at 16.16 m. Despite the unfavourable conditions, Athletics Federation of India Secretary Lalit Kumar Bhanot expressed satisfaction at the performance of the athletes in the meet. “Considering the softness of the track due to rain, the athletes did fairly well,” he said. The AFI Secretary declined to say anything about India’s medal chances. “It’s very difficult to say. But we expect tougher competition this time,” he said. India had won 17 medals, including seven gold, in athletics in the 2002 Busan Asian Games.
— Agencies |
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IN THE NEWS
Though Australia romped home with their maiden Champions Trophy, one man who stole the limelight with his spectacular display of power hitting was Chris Gayle. Galvanised by great determination, he guided the West Indies to their second successive Champions Trophy final. He was the leading run-scorer in the tournament with 474 runs (150 more than any other batsman) at an average of 79 and a strike rate of 92.94. He hit three hundreds and took eight wickets in as many matches with his off-spin to end up as the player of the tournament. His centuries against Bangladesh (104 not out), England (101) and South Africa (133 not out) made him the only batsman to hit three tons in a single edition of the Champions Trophy. Gayle also became the first visiting batsman in the world to hit six ODI centuries on Indian soil. The Jamaican left-hander has the ability to spoil the figures of even the thriftiest of opening bowlers and he proved it in the semifinal and to some extent the final. Shaun Pollock, known as the epitome of accuracy, and Makhaya Ntini, who had earlier destroyed Pakistan, were scurrying for cover before this imposing batsman. In the final, too, Brett Lee suffered the same fate. Though many critics do not include him in the pantheon of great cricketers and term him as erratic, Gayle says that it is only this type of cricket he likes to play, though consistency is one area he is working on. His emphatic performance has taken him to the second place in the latest ICC rankings for ODI batsmen. He has also overtaken Shaun Pollock as the top one-day all-rounder. The feats of this burly opener have revived the fortunes of the West Indies, making them a strong contender for the World Cup at home. The West Indians are now in Pakistan to play three Tests and five one-dayers. Let’s see if this 27-year-old Jamaican can help his team achieve a series win on Pakistani soil.
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Aussies on top
Australia finally laid their hands on the Champions Trophy after crushing the West Indies in the final in Mumbai. It was a much-deserved victory for the Aussies, who were easily the best team in the tournament. Though Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Chris Gayle gave the Caribbeans a flying start, the Australian bowlers did not lose their composure and determination. Left-arm pacer Nathan Bracken broke the back of the top order and the West Indies failed to recover from these big blows. The grand finale was reduced to a no-contest as the Windies were bundled out for 138. The target posed few problems for the Aussies. They lost a couple of early wickets but recovered soon through Shane Watson and Damien Martyn to achieve a facile win. This triumph should give the Australians a lot of confidence as they launch their campaign to regain the Ashes. It has also made them the firm favourites for next year’s World Cup in the West Indies. Jagroop Sandhu,
Jalandhar
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World champions Australia cruised to an easy victory in the final of the Champions Trophy. The West Indies disappointed everybody with their pathetic show in the summit clash. Just like most of the matches of the tournament, the final also proved to be a one-sided affair. On the whole, it was not a very exciting tournament, with very few superb performances. A lot of top batsmen, barring Chris Gayle and Damien Martyn, struggled on the bowler-friendly pitches. The performance of hosts India, too, left a lot to be desired. Arvinder Singh,
Mohali
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