Young guns boom

We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.
— Franklin D. Roosevelt

THERE are times in the history, or rather sporting history, of a nation when everything falls into place like a fairy tale. When South Africa’s Bradley Barnes was bowled by Siddharth Kaul in the Under-19 World Cup final, a new chapter ushered in for Indian cricket. For the second time in six months, an Indian team had won the World Cup (the Twenty20 title being the earlier one). The colts had completed the circle of Indian cricket’s much-hyped youth finally coming of age.

The juniors had the zeal, the potential and the peculiarity of every young team that led them to a superb success.

A strong captain who leads his boys by example, Virat Kohli has won many admirers. The senior team’s manager, Lalchand Rajput, recently pointed out that the Delhi lad could be the next big thing in Indian cricket. He bats lower down the order and has a knack for clicking in tense situations.

Then there is the lanky left-hander from Uttar Pradesh, Tanmay Srivastava. He top-scored for India in the final and ended up as the highest run getter in the tournament as well, averaging over 50.

The Man of the Match in the final, Ajitesh Argal, was extremely effective and hugely influential in turning on the heat as the South Africans went about chasing a relatively modest Indian total. In his five overs, he conceded just seven runs and picking up two wickets (his tally in the tournament was eight).

There were others who contributed significantly to the team’s show. Saurabh Tiwary hails from Jharkhand and like Mahendra Singh Dhoni has built a reputation of being a hard hitter.

Vice-captain Ravindra Jadeja (Saurashtra), who picked up 10 wickets in all, restricted the South African batsmen in the final just when the match could have slipped from the Indians’ grip. Another bowler who blossomed during the tournament was Mumbai’s Iqbal Abdulla. He too grabbed 10 wickets at an average of just 13 apiece.

Delhi’s Pradeep Sangwan has emerged as India’s new hope for an all-rounder. His medium pace can be effective and he is capable of contributing with meaty blows lower down the order.

With the IPL coming up, these youngsters couldn’t have asked for a better time to deliver. But is being part of a World Cup winning side any guarantee for a berth in the senior team? If one goes purely by history, it’s a mixed bag laden with too many of those who could never even make the cut.

Everyone remembers the dashing duo of Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh, who emerged from the victorious team of the 2000 U-19 World Cup. Kaif became a regular in the ODI squad with some superb innings but has been out of the national team in the past couple of years.

Yuvraj has continued with his flamboyant style, peaking in the Twenty20 World Cup, but hasn’t been able to cement his place in the Test squad. As far as the others are concerned, they have woefully failed to live up to the great expectations.

Let’ hope that these new kids make the transition to the big stage sooner or later. Who knows, some of them might even have crucial roles to play in the 2011 World Cup in the subcontinent. — Va. Sh.

India’s emphatic victory over Australia in the Commonwealth Bank series must have come as a big relief for at least two men, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dilip Vengsarkar. The captain, for sticking his neck out and insisting on a young team with fresh legs for limited-overs cricket, and the chairman of selectors for fully backing him.

Dhoni hasn’t made a secret of his gambler’s instincts when he said he listens to his mind and takes decisions on intuition. He has his own mind and speaks it out too like when he said he preferred players who were willing to stand in front of a speeding truck for him.

His instincts or his choice of players have rarely gone wrong. It was he who insisted on having Joginder Sharma for the Twenty20 World Cup and even asked him to bowl the last over in the final against Pakistan when he had more experienced bowlers at his command. Joginder came good in a nerve-wracking finish and Dhoni was vindicated.

Likewise, he used RP Singh and Sreesanth as frontline bowlers, sidelining Ajit Agarkar in the Twenty20 championship and on return he did not bat an eyelid in telling Rahul Dravid that he had no place in his scheme of things. In Australia, he sent out the message loud and clear to Sourav Ganguly.

Rohit Sharma came in for Dravid and Gautam Gambhir for Ganguly and the two young batsmen did not let Dhoni down. Virender Sehwag was the next in line. Pundits wanted him to open the innings, but Dhoni would have none of it. Instead he chose to go in with five bowlers and he has been proved right yet again.

Even his bowling changes bamboozled the Australians. One day it was Ishant Sharma and on another day Munaf Patel. Amazingly, in the finals the new ball was given to Praveen Kumar. If Praveen is a hero today, Dhoni should get credit for it howsoever well the Meerut lad bowled. He has also seen to it that Irfan Pathan regained his place in the eleven as an all-rounder. These gutsy decisions are fraught with risk. Dhoni backs his decisions without trying to fire from someone else’s shoulder.

The only player, perhaps, he could not have touched (or he honestly believed in his necessity to the side) is Sachin Tendulkar. By the end of the tour, Tendulkar became a fan of Dhoni’s captaincy, saying that he thoroughly enjoyed his leadership qualities and backed him to the hilt.

Dhoni did not hesitate to say that he needed runs from his leading batsman if the team had to do well. The great man responded with two match-winning knocks in the finals.

He backed Yuvraj Singh at a time when the southpaw’s confidence was quite low. For Dhoni, getting Yuvraj back in the groove was vital and the latter did regain his touch somewhat. At times, Yuvi made up for his lack of runs with his brilliant fielding.

For Dhoni, these little, little things count more than a meaningless big knock or useless bowling feats. For him the bits-and-pieces men mean more and that too when they deliver at a crunch time. He has more or less got the nucleus of his side for some time to come and he is going to create more excitement with his maverick moves and out-of-the-blue decisions to surprise the conformists. — Ve. Sr.

IN THE NEWS
Missing Sania

Tennis ace Sania Mirza’s absence undoubtedly did some damage to the Bangalore Open, with not many spectators turning out to see some of the big names of the sport during the initial days.

The organisers claimed that the 21-year-old Hyderabadi’s non-participation in the Tier II WTA tournament to stay away from controversies had hardly made any impact, but the truth was something else.

One look at the numbers turning up at the KSLTA Tennis Centre on the first two days was enough to gauge the impact of her absence.

With Sania missing, the Williams sisters were the stars, though Jelena Jankovic got her share of attention too. — IANS