World Cup Mind Games
By L.H. Naqvi

WHEN Wisden, the Bible of global cricket, lambasted International Cricket Council Chairman Jagmohan Dalmiya for being soft on match-fixers, our reaction was predictable. We saw in the attack undercurrents of racism and launched our Patriot missiles on Wisden’s editors for demanding Dalmiya’s resignation. It was not a case of irrational anger. Dalmiya was sought to be punished for someone else’s trespasses.

If Wisden is biased against coloured cricket-playing countries, which it is, why must we jump with joy when it declares India as the best equipped team to lift the World Cup? Before I share my views on why Wisden is so lavish in praising India (incidentally the operative part of the assessment is "India have everything in their favour to win the World Cup a second time. Can they deliver?"), I would like to dispose of some other cricket-related business which has been bothering me.

No one can take away from England the status of "Mother of Parliament" and "Mother of Cricket". Both parliamentary democracy and the game of cricket are English gifts to the Commonwealth of Nations. But parliamentary institutions are not necessarily blind imitations of the Westminster model and the game of cricket too has gone beyond their control. They are no longer the lords and masters of the game and the fact that it was born on the English village green is of interest to cricket historians only. It is now played on the "desert green" of Sharjah and in conditions which cause cramps and dehydration among players. And one-day cricket is a genie which cannot be put back in the bottle for ensuring the survival of conventional cricket.

Although England lost its grip over the game, it was still considered the natural venue for cricket’s World Cup when it was introduced in 1975. The tournament may have continued to be held in Blighty but for the surprise entry of India in the final in 1983. The then President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India N.K.P. Salve asked for an additional pass for his wife.The request was turned down. That is when the reliable firm of Dalmiya and I.S.Bindra got into the act of obtaining the hosting rights of the 1987 World Cup jointly for India and Pakistan. Not just the Englishmen but the white cricket playing countries were not amused.

There is little they can do to regain control over the game. In the current edition of the World Cup eight out of 12 teams represent coloured countries, including South Africa and Zimbabwe. Counting Scotland on the side of England, Australia and New Zealand is not enough to ensure a "white revolution" in cricket. Wisden is the last straw which the Englishmen use as a whip to cause confusion in the ranks of coloured cricketers. Just as its attack on Dalmiya was unfair, its praise of the potential of the Indian cricketers is highly suspect.

Wisden’s assessment of the potential of India is part of the mind games which every major team is playing to mislead the opponents. Wisden is doing for England because it is in the same pool as India and was beaten fair and square by Mohammad Azharuddin’s team in the Sharjah tournament.

The first dirty trick of the British media was to play up the leadership qualities of stand-in captain Ajay Jadeja to divide and destroy the team. Now Wisden has been let loose to give the Indians a false sense of superiority. But the tag of underdogs would serve India’s interests better, as it had done in 1983 when a far superior West Indies, with the titles of the first two World Cups already under their belt, were virtually ambushed by India. And what was "Mr Divine Wisden’s assessment of Kapil Dev’s team? Wisden’s editor went town declaring that India was not good enough to merit participation in the World Cup and that he would eat his hat if India won the title.

Never fly on the wings of praise of others, for when you fall they will not come to pick your bones.

It is not that India is not aware of the advantage of appearing weak and disorganised to make the enemy lower his guards. Cricketers are said to be superstitious and Indian cricketers are likely to be more superstitious. I suspect their poor performance in recent weeks is cricket’s version of putting a small kajal mark as some kind of a protection against buri nazar waley.

Let me put it this way — No team deliberately wants to lose, but India was not interested in showing the full range of its fire power before the crucial World Cup. It drew the two Test series with Pakistan and ended at the bottom of the table of the inaugural three-nation Asian Test Championship between India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Mind you, an injured Sachin Tendulkar played out the Test series before being rested for the domestic and Sharjah one-day tournaments.

I am not disputing that Sachin faked the injury. But please examine the circumstantial evidence to understand it was played up to fool the enemy. Remember that the gravity of his back injury was "discovered" not during the five-day matches after the Chennai Test but just before the one-day tournaments in India and Sharjah.

All manner of medical experts cropped up from the woodwork with offers making the little genius fit in time for the World Cup. These planted stories created more doubts about his actual fitness.

"Unimpeachable sources" even leaked out to the media the "news" that extent of Tendulkar’s back injury was far too serious than was being acknowledged by the BCCI. Overenthusiastic sports reporters on the basis of the "leaks" even dropped subtle hints that the best batsman in the world may never play again!

One big advantage of keeping Tendulkar out of the one-day contests in India and Sharjah is that the spy cameras will not have the post-injury pictures of his batting.

Mohammad Azharuddin’s shoulder injury, I suspect, was political to allow him some rest and also to test out Ajay Jadeja’s temperament in case he was required to lead. Azhar’s extended toe injury in Sharjah and Jadeja’s "brilliant" handling of the team as stand-in skipper gave birth to the hare-brained demand for a change in "leadership" of the World Cup squad.

On the scale of expectation from the team of its supporters the fiasco caused by "experimentation", the controversy over the captaincy and the calculated exaggeration of Tendulkar’s back injury have pulled down Azhar’s team way below the under-rated Kapil’s Devils. I will still put my money on India not because Wisden but because it is indeed a very good side on paper.

The Sri Lankans too have left no stone unturned — to revive my favourite cliche from my days of unemployment — to tell the cricketing world that they are woefully out of touch and incapable of defending the title they won in 1996. They do not mind being told that they were lucky to reach the final because of the refusal of Australia and the West Indies to play the league matches in Colombo and Mohammad Azharuddin’s decision to field first on a minefield of a track in the semi-final in Calcutta. Was it a fluke that Sannath Jayasuriya walked away with the Best Player of the Tournament trophy?

Where is Jayasuriya, incidentally? Nursing an injury he sustained during the team’s ill-starred tour of Australia where the crafty Mutthiah Muralitharan once again got into umpire Darell’s "Hair". He too is nursing an injury. Lack of match practice must have made the two Sri Lankan superstars a bit rusty. The Sri Lankan skipper with the temperament of a Buddhist monk, Arjuna Ranatunga, would be more than delighted if the enemy buys this line of argument.

My hunch is that Jaya’s and Murali’s injuries have been exaggerated not only to make the opponents let down their guards. Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana had re-written the first-15-overs script during the last World Cup. The credit for making a target of 250 indefensible should go to the Sri Lankans who discovered in Jaya just the player to make the fielders scamper for cover. But he has since been sorted out. Under the smoke-screen of injury the team management may have already re-invented Jayasuriya for the ‘99 World Cup. And Murali has been kept out of the firing line for two reasons. One, to deny the opponents the chance to figure out how to play his deadly turner. Two, to keep him out of getting into other people’s "Hair".

The news about Jayasuriya’s divorce and that the team has sought the help of a professional psychologist too are meant to make the enemies feel comfortable.

If most of the teams are playing mind games to lower the level of expectations from their fans and to fool the rivals, how does one explain the dazzling performance of the Pakistani team under reinstated captain Wasim Akram? Please remember that when the Pakistanis lose they blame themselves and when they win they praise Allah. The match-fixing controversy saw them lose domestic series to Australia and under-rated Zimbabwe. To cut out all the diplomatic jargon, India, for an average Pakistani, is the land of kafirs. In 1996 when the kafirs beat them in Bangalore, they had to go into hiding on their return to Pakistan to avoid being lynched by angry supporters. They would have met the same fate had they lost the two-Test series and the Asian Test Championship title to India or the one-day tournaments in India and Sharjah. What helped Akram’s demolition squad to chalk up facile victories was the lack of hunger for victory among the Indians and the Sri Lankans. Yesterday’s nowhere team is now beeing seen on the victory podium.

But, no, the Pakistanis are as superstitious as any other cricketers. To seek protection from the nazar-e-bud (evil eye) of the rivals, they planted the story about "serious differences" between senior players and coach Javed Miandad. Saeed Anwar even reported him to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif before the team flew out to England for pre-tournament acclamatisation. What does not make sense is the choice of Sarfaraz Nawaz to accompany the team after Miandad’s "surprise" resignation. Akram is supposed to be Imran Khan’s man. And Sarfaraz and Imran are sworn enemies. I do not have a theory on this one.

The West Indians were not under any kind of pressure to seek protection for themselves from buri nazar waley. They had already suffered the consequences of buri nazar during the away Test and one-day series which they lost to the South Africans by humiliating margins. When Steve Waugh arrived in the West Indies for what was to be the last of the warm-up games before the World Cup, Brian Lara’s captiancy and place in the team were on the line. He raised the level of his game to heights he is familiar with and suddenly the West Indians as a team too started clicking. After setting his house in order Lara to "suffered" an injury which forced him out of the last few one-day games against Australia. The report of the "injury" once again saw the value of the West Indian shares drop sharply in the World Cup’s stock market. But Lara is not complaining.

However, Carl Hooper’s surprise retirement from international cricket immediately after the series against Australia has surprised me as much as Wasim Akram and Sarfaraz Nawaz on the same flight to England. Perhaps, his infant son has not recovered fully and he wants to be with his family (settled) in Australia.

What mind games are England, South Africa and Australia playing to fool the enemy? Nothing serious. Australia’s strike bowler Glen MacGrath opted out of the last few one-day games in the West Indies due to an ankle injury sustained during fielding. The English players have settled their pay dispute in the nick of time before the D day. But former superstar Ian Botham is not happy with the squad members playing county games instead of "unwinding somewhere in the Bahamas like the Australians". The news that Ian Austin, a promising all-rounder, has sustained a minor injury in a county game was the reason for Botham’s outburst.

South Africa’s story is different. It is a tale of so near and yet so far. On paper it has been rated as the best team since the 1992 World Cup. The stupid rain rule spoiled its party when the World Cup was held in Australia. The 1996 format too went against Hansie Cronje’s side. After having won all the league matches it was eliminated after a solitary defeat in the quarter-finals. The format for the current tournament will allow the teams to carry with them the points they earn in the league games. It could well be a case of third time lucky for the Proteas.

To sow the seeds of doubts in the minds of the opponents the South Africans took a slightly aggressive line unlike other teams which seem to be happy with the tournament-eve negative publicity. The United Cricket Board reacted sharply to the decision of Pakistan to hire the services of Richard Pybus as assistant coach until the World Cup. "He may reveal our training secrets", was the stated reason for the protest. If this is not yet another example of the mind games most teams are playing, what is?

Those who think that the conviction of Makhaya Ntini, the first black player in the team, would make Cronje lose sleep do not know the real face of the current stock of cricketers representing South Africa. They started playing cricket when apartheid was the official policy. Brian MacMillan was reprimanded for involuntarily letting out a racial invective during a provincial game. Habits die hard, and racial habits die even harder. Ntini’s conviction is a blessing for the nearly all-white team which may perform the miracle of winning the Cup for black South Africa.

If that happens, it would be a case of teams from coloured countries winning six of the seven World Cups. Australia is the only white team to have won the trophy by beating an all-white English team in 1987 in Calcutta.