India thrashed a hapless Sri Lanka at the Bellerive Oval at Hobart and took its rightful place in the finals and will not have to wait for or worry about a now meaningless league tie between Australia and Sri Lanka that will be played on Friday. Significantly India is making it to a final in Australia after the World Series of Cricket in 1986 that many of us saw live for the first time on our newly bought colour televisions. Make no mistake; this is a really competitive Indian team that could make history again in a week’s time. It is being led with flair by Dhoni who despite all the smiles is hard as steel and showing some of his batsmen at least, what it means to bat responsibly. It has one outstanding fast bowler in Ishant Sharma who has troubled the best and spearheaded the bowling. It has an emerging talent in Gautam Gambhir who has demonstrated a quality that is so rare amongst Indian batsmen – consistency. In Yuvraj, it has a batsman who can dismantle most bowling attacks, even if he has not yet done that on this tour of Australia. In Rohit Sharma it has a player of great promise. In Uthappa it has a bold stroke maker whose press pronouncements seem more potent than his current batting. More than anything else it has the confidence of being the T20 champions of the world and more critically in the context of this series, this team does not seem to have any scars of previous Australian defeats unlike other world teams and Australia seem to have less of a swagger against this team than they seem to have in with the rest of the world.
Aggression that could make us lose focus
This tour has been marred by controversies - some real and some imagined- but almost all fuelled and clouded by media. As someone who has watched the tests and one days ball by ball, I must confess that India have hardly been lily white. Symonds now claims that he was complimenting Ishant after being bowled which seems a little hard to stomach. But equally hard to comprehend was Ishant letting forth a volley of abuse that was obvious to see even if our networks never showed that vulgar display again and kept focusing on Symonds. Ishant can complain till the cows come home about how Symonds provoked him but the offences that have been booked are against his name and they all add up even if the ICC conveniently misplaces offence records. And I was shocked to see Ishant sending off the veteran Jayasuriya last week in a similar fashion. Jayasuriya is one of the mildest cricketers that one has had the privilege to watch over the years however explosive his batting may be and he has probably been playing international cricket even before Ishant was born. Clearly this amazingly talented lad must be reined in. And speaking of bad behaviour, how can one not speak of our worst ambassador on the playing field Harbhajan whose behaviour continues to shock me. In the same match against Sri Lanka he jumped up and down and thrust his tongue out after he got Sangakkara out, reminding us of an animal that had caused all the tension at Sydney. Sangakkara, another decent cricketer with an outstanding record did not deserve this. Clearly we are not even discriminatory in our bad behaviour and do not reserve it for Australia. Harbhajan is a rotten apple who has no place in this young, emerging, motivated team and clearly his bowling is pedestrian. I am sure we can find a better spinner and most certainly a better human being. India has done enough for him, perhaps far more than he deserves and the time to move on is now. My worry too is that aggression is better demonstrated by hitting the stumps, carting the ball over the fence or holding a spectacular catch. That will hurt Australia more than this volley of abuse and complaints about how they are starting things. They have been doing it, are doing it now and will continue to do it in future as well. The trick is not to get side tracked or lose focus but stay with our game plan and our strategy. I remember Zaheer Khan’s needless aggression in the World Cup finals of 2003 and the disastrous first over which led the way to a humiliating defeat.
A breath of fresh air
Amidst all these allegations, counter allegations, complaints, whining and controversy there have been some moments of sanity. Dhoni, like Kumble before him, has been pragmatic and restrained without being weak. Gilchrist continues to walk and Lee has been making conciliatory statements though the cynic might well say that he knows which side his bread is buttered in. But the most special act and words came from VVS Lakshman who in my book at least is India’s best batsman in and against Australia. He declined his iconic status and accepted a much lower fee for the IPL than youngsters who are just making their debuts, for the interest of his team and came out openly to say that Symonds was his friend and had been his friend for years now. Courage! a rare commodity in today’s mercenary and sycophantic world.
The game’s charm has been lost
The finals could be gripping as India could come firing, what with Hayden just calling Harbhajan an “obnoxious little weed”. If Australia wins again as they have done in the past it could be just another trophy in their already bulging cabinet. If India wins, we will not forget it in a hurry, nor will we let them forget it. But for me the regret is that this entire summer which had some fantastic cricket will be remembered for the wrong reasons. Between Ponting, Hayden, Clarke, Symonds, Harbhajan and the BCCI with its threats, Sunil Gavaskar and Harsha Bhogle who kept fuelling the fire and incompetent and self serving television channels in India and rags in Australia that published bilge they have ensured that I watch less and less cricket however absorbing and fascinating it is. And believe me you; we did have some outstanding cricket on view this Indian summer in Australia.
Aggression that could make us lose focus
This tour has been marred by controversies - some real and some imagined- but almost all fuelled and clouded by media. As someone who has watched the tests and one days ball by ball, I must confess that India have hardly been lily white. Symonds now claims that he was complimenting Ishant after being bowled which seems a little hard to stomach. But equally hard to comprehend was Ishant letting forth a volley of abuse that was obvious to see even if our networks never showed that vulgar display again and kept focusing on Symonds. Ishant can complain till the cows come home about how Symonds provoked him but the offences that have been booked are against his name and they all add up even if the ICC conveniently misplaces offence records. And I was shocked to see Ishant sending off the veteran Jayasuriya last week in a similar fashion. Jayasuriya is one of the mildest cricketers that one has had the privilege to watch over the years however explosive his batting may be and he has probably been playing international cricket even before Ishant was born. Clearly this amazingly talented lad must be reined in. And speaking of bad behaviour, how can one not speak of our worst ambassador on the playing field Harbhajan whose behaviour continues to shock me. In the same match against Sri Lanka he jumped up and down and thrust his tongue out after he got Sangakkara out, reminding us of an animal that had caused all the tension at Sydney. Sangakkara, another decent cricketer with an outstanding record did not deserve this. Clearly we are not even discriminatory in our bad behaviour and do not reserve it for Australia. Harbhajan is a rotten apple who has no place in this young, emerging, motivated team and clearly his bowling is pedestrian. I am sure we can find a better spinner and most certainly a better human being. India has done enough for him, perhaps far more than he deserves and the time to move on is now. My worry too is that aggression is better demonstrated by hitting the stumps, carting the ball over the fence or holding a spectacular catch. That will hurt Australia more than this volley of abuse and complaints about how they are starting things. They have been doing it, are doing it now and will continue to do it in future as well. The trick is not to get side tracked or lose focus but stay with our game plan and our strategy. I remember Zaheer Khan’s needless aggression in the World Cup finals of 2003 and the disastrous first over which led the way to a humiliating defeat.
A breath of fresh air
Amidst all these allegations, counter allegations, complaints, whining and controversy there have been some moments of sanity. Dhoni, like Kumble before him, has been pragmatic and restrained without being weak. Gilchrist continues to walk and Lee has been making conciliatory statements though the cynic might well say that he knows which side his bread is buttered in. But the most special act and words came from VVS Lakshman who in my book at least is India’s best batsman in and against Australia. He declined his iconic status and accepted a much lower fee for the IPL than youngsters who are just making their debuts, for the interest of his team and came out openly to say that Symonds was his friend and had been his friend for years now. Courage! a rare commodity in today’s mercenary and sycophantic world.
The game’s charm has been lost
The finals could be gripping as India could come firing, what with Hayden just calling Harbhajan an “obnoxious little weed”. If Australia wins again as they have done in the past it could be just another trophy in their already bulging cabinet. If India wins, we will not forget it in a hurry, nor will we let them forget it. But for me the regret is that this entire summer which had some fantastic cricket will be remembered for the wrong reasons. Between Ponting, Hayden, Clarke, Symonds, Harbhajan and the BCCI with its threats, Sunil Gavaskar and Harsha Bhogle who kept fuelling the fire and incompetent and self serving television channels in India and rags in Australia that published bilge they have ensured that I watch less and less cricket however absorbing and fascinating it is. And believe me you; we did have some outstanding cricket on view this Indian summer in Australia.
(Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO, brand-comm, and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds)
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