The Hindu Business Line : Cricket's big fight

If the Australian measure is accepted, the Hazares and Gavaskars are no way top-notch, having never fetched gold. Only Ganguly's team can claim to be the greatest.

ON the Big Fight show on NDTV, Rajsingh Dungarpur, Ashok Mankad and Harsha Bhogle spelt out their best Indian cricket teams at the request of Rajdeep Sardesai.

Dungarpur mentioned Hazare and Merchant, Nissar and Nayudu and made a strong pitch for Subhash Gupte, who, he said, was the greatest leg spinner ever. Ashok Mankad thought spin was always the strength of Indian cricket, and when Bhogle asked, "Where are the spinners today?" Mankad had no convincing answer. Javagal Srinath is a favourite with Bhogle, and one agreed when he said Srinath had been underestimated. "Srinath never got the backing of the slip cordon as otherwise he would have had more wickets against his name," said Bhogle.

In modern times, with standards set by Cricket Australia, a batsman is top-class if he bats his team into a strong position in the least number of overs. A bowler gets a place in the team if he bowls his team to victory. As no bowler or batsman can push for victory on a consistent basis, none can be sure of a place in the national team, goes the Australian logic and could probably apply to Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. A Test or a one-dayer is about winning always, and in the near future, a Test and a one-dayer could be the same.

Technique and all the rest will not count. Cricket teams could be populated by Chengis Khans, instead of Nehrus. If the Australian measure is accepted, the Hazares and Gavaskars, Guptes and Phadkars are no way top-notch, having never fetched India the gold medal. Only Sourav Ganguly's team can claim to be the greatest.

After the TV show, a raucous debate started at home, with Lachman Singh acting as the moderator. Ganesh and Vidya said the team under Ganguly, which defeated Pakistan 2-1 in Tests, was the best going by results, as for them Vijay Hazare and Lala Amarnath existed in old and faded articles written by some of the best cricket writers. Cricket history does not disturb them with its niceties. "In their times, there were better players in Australia, England and West Indies," added Ganesh, and he was more than correct. To me, Ganguly is the best captain and the team that won the Pakistan series and held Aussies to a draw in Australia the best ever.

Yet, one would like to make two changes: Gundappa Vishwanath in place of Yuvraj Singh and Srinath for Ashish Nehra. Srinath is the best seamer the country has produced, and for long one will recall the fast and furious deliveries which opened up the best of batsmen like Brian Lara. He rarely wasted breath on bouncers the way Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar do, being sure of bringing the ball in and pulling it away from the batsmen. Most importantly he never hollered.

For this writer, Vishwanath will always remain the greatest batsman as none displayed top-class technique in more style. His batting was calligraphy. Like the man, his bat never heaved the ball out of the ground. When he late cut a pace bowler to the boundary, Vishwanath probably felt he was being needlessly cruel. If the rules of the game had allowed it, he would have taken the permission of the bowler before softly tapping the ball for a four. How many sixes did Vishy hit? One would like to know.

They say a Mercedes never hurts the roads (Indian roads could be hurting the Mercedes) and that applies to Laxman. In the last Test match against Australia, Laxman flicked a ball from Lee on the off stump to the midwicket boundary. There was no movement except for the turn of the wrist. No fielder moved as the ball graced the ropes. For me, it was best moment of the series and no batsman did better.

Pataudi was a favourite till Ganguly came along. In the years of Pataudi's captaincy, one was young and every act of the Noob (Nawab) had a cinematic quality. There were times when one prayed to be Noob. Wadekar, Bedi, Gavaskar and Kapil Dev were captains because somebody had to lead the team. Ganguly changed all that with the fling of his shirt at Lord's. Yes, an Indian team could win and proudly display its happiness. One admired the way he needled Steve Waugh, the master sledger. When Parthiv Patel tucked him with a few choice words in Australia, Steve wheezed like an old nanny and talked about showing respect. Parthiv learnt his lessons from Steve and Steve never had any respect or regard for anybody. For Steve, winning was all. For Parthiv, it was the same and he had the backing of Ganguly.

Till the Ganguly era, failures for the Indian cricket team were stepping stones for more failures. John Wright broke the jinx — and thanks be to the New Zealander.

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