The Indian tour of England, at least the serious part will be over today. I know ourpre-occupation with the shorter version of the game in this part of the world, and yet having been born in 1952 and having seen, heard or read of some of the greatest test matches of all time, I believe that test cricket is the real McCoy. India had the opportunity yesterday of nailing England in what turned out to be dream conditions for seam and swing but ended up batting again. The result? A pathetic reply, headed by a captain who probably had his worst day with the bat for as long as I can remember. I am sure he would like to forget this day in his life. If only we had selective amnesia! But I think Dravid should be the last person to complain as he has taken the decision, (if not the think tank of the team) he is responsible for the collective mess that we almost find ourselves in. I know that it is no fun being captain of a cricket mad country like India where thousands of passionate and often underemployed (here I speak only for myself) people are waiting to scrutinize every action and analyse every decision till they are paralysed! But the move to bat again whatever the justification, to me at least seems to smack of negativity which incidentally was a feature of Dravid’s batting yesterday. Sadly his batting and captaincy till this appalling decision has been fairly positive. The results are there for us to see as well.
Why? Oh Why?
Dilip Vengsarkar the chairman of the selection committee in a statement later said sealing the series was the first priority. So who is calling the shots, the captain on the field or the Chairman of the Selection Committee? Or is the captain there just to call “heads” or “tails”? We need to remember that India was ahead by over three hundred runs with just two days of play left, with the possibility of rain which is as likely in England as Sreesanth losing his run up!!. At the back of the minds of captains who make decisions like these must lie the very special innings of our own VVS Laxman. But those were different climes and different times. Our bowlers were reasonably fresh yesterday. If media is to be believed, India had decided not to enforce the follow on Saturday evening itself. But surely there was scope for a rethink. Or is our strategy so cast in stone that we are impervious to changing conditions and new opportunities?
Negativity the bane of Indian cricket.
The problem with Indian cricket very often is the mindset. This is thanks to generations of cricketers who were happy to avoid defeat at any cost. Leading the pack is our own Sunil Gavaskar. I am quite sure that some of us do not believe in the philosophy of the Nike slogan “You never win silver, you only lose gold” (At least that is what I remember of it). We had the option of winning comfortably, ensuring that the team that was down was out, coming back heroes with a 2 nil victory, the chance to genuinely become the number 2 test team in the world, but are likely to come back almost second best. England has to merely draw today or the elements have to intervene as they did at Lords for England to feel “well it was a close series, we almost won at Lords”. Look at what a positive mindset has done to Surav Ganguly. I have been fairly critical of him in the past but today I have the highest regard for him. I wish some of his positive mental attitude would rub off on Sachin Tendulkar who runs the risk of ending his career as a struggler, striving valiantly to live up to his own high standards as body and perhaps more critically mind delve in the realms of negativity. I think Rahul Dravid should learn from Ricky Ponting. In 2005 when Australia gave up the ashes after 18 long years or more, so it seemed, Ponting’s leadership came under scrutiny. He was leading by committee. Frequent conferences were held in the middle of the overs even, amongst senior players. The results showed up. But what happened afterwards? Today Ponting is one of Australia’s most successful leaders in a country which has produced amazing captains like Mark Taylor and Ian Chappell who are there in the media boxes as well. Rahul is a wonderful batsman, perhaps the best we have produced. He is a gentle leader who leads by example. He can make a transition to greatness as a leader only by becoming more assertive and more positive. He should take a cue from his own one day batting of recent times. I still hope that Indian wins today. They well might. Much rather that I have egg on my face than Rahul Dravid. He is too nice a person for that!!
Ramanujam Sridhar is the CEO of brand-comm
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