Drinks Break - The Cricket Blog

The most immediate cause for concern after the attack on Greg Chappell in Bhubaneshwar before the second India-WI one-dayer, is the glaring lapse on the part of the security agencies. For a team that is living and playing under the shadow of persistent terrorist threats, one would have imagined that arrangements would have been strong enough to keep at least a deranged “fan” from coming in physical contact with members of the team. Fortunately, Chappell escaped unhurt from the attack and the man has been arrested. But the possibilities of what might have happened had something with more elaborate and vicious designs been attempted, are quite frightening.

After the dust settles on this issue – it will eventually, once a few regulation heads roll in the security establishment and the inevitable “high level probe” is ordered by the authorities – I wonder whether we will find time to address some other disturbing questions arising out of this incident. Questions that have been lurking round the corner for some time now, begging to be answered, but which we refuse to even acknowledge because we don’t want to be disturbed from the happy stupor we’ve fooled ourselves into.

These are questions that ask us to look into the mirror – and answer whether the face we see in it belongs to an aficionado of a gentleman’s game, or to an intolerant, parochial and foul-mouthed ruffian.

These are questions that ask us why, when we accept that zonal chauvinism is unhealthy for the game, we still unabashedly hold on to our own little regional biases. These are questions that ask us why we complain of racism against our cricketers overseas, when we ourselves have populated the North Stand of the Wankhede Stadium and perpetrated nasty racial abuse against a touring West Indies team. These are questions that ask us why, instead of glowing with pride that Mohammad Kaif, a young son of a railway ticket inspector from Eastern UP, has risen to represent India on the international stage, we readily deface the house that his family stays in every time he performs below our expectations.

These are questions that ask us to step out of the veil of devotion to the game which we’ve been hiding behind all this time. And expose ourselves for the fanatics that we are – not cricket fanatics, just ordinary ones.

I remember that during my engineering exams, I always hoped that the questions on sections of the syllabus I had not read through would be in the “optional” part of the question paper – I’d avoid them, and still get through. But there was always the fear of them appearing in the dreaded “compulsory” section, which meant a huge penalty for not answering them.

For long, we as the cricket-following public have tried to play the same game – hoping that these uncomfortable questions will be optional, that we’ll get by without answering them. Unfortunately, as the bigotry and crudeness that has become a part of almost everything in our lives, now takes over even our cricket, these questions are slowly creeping in to the “compulsory” section.

We better start preparing to answer them now, we better try to change the ugly face of the person we see when we look into the mirror – the penalty, otherwise, might be larger than we can bear.

If Nagpur in 2004 marked the beginning of the end of his reign at the helm of Indian cricket, then Nagpur in 2007 will be remembered for being the highlight of Sourav Ganguly’s authoritative comeback to the international arena. Then, he was a beleaguered captain accused of feigning injury before a series-deciding test match; a general who appeared to have lost his winning ways and, more significantly, the trust of his lieutenants. Now, many months of cricketing exile later, the warrior has chosen the same battlefield to announce that he is back – with vintage cover drives still in his arsenal, but a new-found determination to succeed undoubtedly his most potent weapon.

This determination hasn’t manifested itself just in the aggressive intent with which he took on the Caribbean bowlers in Nagpur, or even in the manner in which he dug in against a fierce South African pace attack in the recent test series. It has shone through in every little thing he has done, both on and off the field – from his willingness to bat wherever the team has needed him to, to his refusal to be drawn in to Chappell/Dalmiya-centric exchanges with the media; from his eagerness to get back to the nets even on official “rest days” for the team, to the constant reaffirmation that he is not in the race to be captain. When he has talked – about scoring runs and using his experience to win games for India – he has ensured that he has walked the talk.

It was also refreshing to see that the inevitability of his selection into the one-day squad after the solid South African tour didn’t prevent him from turning out for Bengal in their Ranji encounter against Rajasthan. (Incidentally, he compiled an impeccable run-a-ball century in that game to take Bengal to a thumping win.) He is clearly hungry to play and hungry to score runs. And it is this hunger that ensures that a tentative first-ball nudge now sails between slip and gully, rather than into the waiting hands of a fielder, like it almost always did a couple of years back. It is this keenness to contribute that makes him punch the air in disappointment when he misses out on a juicy half-volley outside the off-stump, even when the scoring rate is decent. It is this desperation to survive that takes the pain away from being hit by a 145-kph Ntini scorcher, as long as it leaves his stumps intact.

What all this means now is that Ganguly is again a prominent feature of India’s plans in both forms of the game. Along with Dravid, Sachin and Dhoni, he is the only batsman who has already assured himself of a seat on the flight to the West Indies in March – a huge achievement in itself, given that he was out in the cold till only a month back.

But if the recent attitude he has brought to his game is anything to go by, Ganguly will not even be thinking of resting on his laurels. The last time India competed for world cricket’s most coveted prize, he ended the tournament with a pat on the back and a tag that said “second-best”. This time, in what will undoubtedly be his last shot at World Cup glory, he’s got an appetite for much more. Some advice for opposition captains: fasten your seat belts; and ya, also try plugging those off-side gaps.

His last 10 ODI innings: 9, 8, 1, 10, 9, 17, 65, 0, 18, 11 (average 14.
His last 10 test innings: 31, 65, 0, 4, 4, 33, 0, 8, 40, 4 (average 18.9)

The last throw of the dice was to accommodate him down the order in the hope that his batting finds some direction. It hasn’t.

Now the only direction he must find is the way out of the team.

For his own good and for that of a team that has laboured under the burden of his abysmal form, Virender Sehwag must go.