Cricket Roundup

Gary Kirsten
By Anil - October 18, 2003
October 18 2003

Aussie bowlers are dropping out of their tour to India for an ODI tri-series competition (New Zealand being the third side) with monotonous regularity. What is the real reason behind why only bowlers, and not batsmen, are suffering from these mysterious last-minute injuries?

First it was Glen McGrath. Then, Jason Gillespie and Stuart McGill announced their non-availability. Shortly thereafter, we saw Brett Lee limping out of a Test against minnows Zimbabwe with an alleged stomach ailment that kept him out of the ODI series. Is that stomach ailment anything other than Lee suffering from diarrhoea at the thought of facing Tendulkar, Sehwag, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman and company, even before sampling his first Indian meal? It is easy to deduce from these events that like yesteryear's overrated bowler Dennis Lillee, who dodged every Aussie tour to India, these bowlers have realized that they will be knocked around by India's lineup on the batting wickets that will be provided for the ODIs. Do we need any further proof that legendary Windies pacemen Roberts, Holding, Marshall, Ambrose and Walsh who not only came to India but also succeeded there in a big way, were far superior to these home bullies?

Pakistan is, after what seems like years, hosting a genuine international side in South Africa -- even if they had to be coerced into it by the ICC, unlike Australia and New Zealand who defaulted last year. However, the Saffies aren't exactly enjoying themselves there, in spite of a 3-2 win in the ODI series. Match referee Clive Lloyd, at the behest of Malcom Speed of ICC, has been handing out bans and fines willy-nilly for what appear to be trivia. After fining Shaun Pollock 100% of his match fee, banishing key bowler Andrew Hall from the tour, and banning captain Graeme Smith from the ODI final, in addition to a puzzling 50% fine on Youhanna, Lloyd has now banned Shoaib Akhtar for a Test and 2 ODIs for abuse that is mild compared to the stuff regularly dished out by such luminaries of the game as Glen McGrath, Steve Waugh, Matt Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne.

A complaint by Pak, and a tit-for-tat complaint by SA team management have been partially to blame. Given the widespread abuse on-field pioneered by the Aussie team, will such complaints be used as a "weapon" whenever a team need to get a key opposition player out (such as Smith, Akhtar or Hall) for the next match or two? Time will tell. When the Aussies come to India, this may be a useful ploy to remove their captain and top batsman Ricky Ponting out of the series if necessary. As bar bouncers across the world know, Ponting is often teetering at the edge of a brawl, and would need a mighty effort to keep himself in check. Besides which, he and his compatriots would be uncrecognizable just glaring with their mouths zipped up.

Incidentally, Gary Kirsten was hurt badly by an Akhtar bouncer that hit his helmet. It is about time officials realize that helmets in modern cricket don't prevent serious injury, and use that information to prevent the likes of Brett Lee from intimidating tailenders with repetitive bouncers instead of just attempting to take their wicket. Kirsten's nose and left cheekbone were fractured when the ball hit his helmet, and this is an accomplished opener, not a tailender.

When Malcom Speed's name keeps coming up, it is worth asking why in the world he is still on the ICC more than four years after he was first brought in by his Aussie counterpart in the president's chair, Malcom Gray, who left in disgrace a few months back. Due to a loophole in ICC laws, it is possible to re-elect a CEO even though the top official (President) must be rotated. People are already talking about the quiet and mild Ehsan Mani's departure to make way for South Africa's Percy Sonn in four years from now. Meanwhile, the widely-disliked Speed -- recently referred to appropriately as an "arrogant old fool" by South Africa's Pat Symcox in reference to his bungling interference in the Pak-SA series -- has managed to get Mani to re-appoint him in spite of his proven incompetence and controversial track record. Is there no justice in the ICC? It is rumored that Jagmohan Dalmiya, in many ways the central figure in the ICC due to India's majority contribution to ICC revenue, lobbied for Speed to be ejected from his position, but that did not happen because the English and Australian reps mounted a desperate bid to keep their man in the spot. This does not bode well for the game.

Although Pak has been able to bring back an international side to their shores, and NZ have promised to tour them as well in the coming months, what every Zia, Immi and Mushy has been calling for publicly, on a regular basis, is a tour by India. While the Indians don't look a bit more likely to play a bilateral series with them now than they have been for the last couple of years, the Indian U-19 team led by prodigy Amabati Rayudu and containing a couple of other well-known names including Irfan Pathan and Dinesh Kartik, will be arriving there on Oct 31 for a week-long four-nation limited over tournament. Here's wishing the kids well, both on and off the field. The mood in Pak public is bitter over India's refusal to play ball.

India's underwhelming flat-track "revenge" for the unacceptably underprepared pitches in NZ with last year has resulted in calls for Venkat Sundaram, BCCI's pitch committee chair, to be nominated as Man of the Series. The Kiwis ran the first Test close, escaping by the skin of their teeth when they were 4 wickets short of a loss on a dead track at Ahmedabad, with a few poor umpiring decisions by umpires Shepherd of England and Koertzen of SA helping them in no small measure.

However, their batting on Mohali's easy paced pitch has left no doubt that Stephen Fleming came here with the primary intention of drawing. This New Zealand team is easily the boringest in the world. With no sparkling performers in their ranks other than Shane Bond, the fast bowler who decided not to come to India based on vague excuses of a back problem, the negative attitude they bring to the field has turned away crowds even in cricket-crazy India, where huge grounds have been running empty in this series. Their last two tours, to the West Indies and Sri Lanka, have also been played to empty stadiums. While they have been able to retain a high ranking on ICC's much-disputed ranking system, they have earned few admirers and many critics. It is NZ, even more than minnows Bangladesh, that deserves to be ejected from Test cricket, for they have done more than their share to kill interest in the long form of the game.

In India's first innings at Mohali, Virender Sehwag gave the Kiwis an object lesson in how to bat on a slow track. His sparkling century at the highest strike rate by far of the 5 centurions, with shots all around the wicket, in spite of negative, defensive tactics by the New Zealand pacemen and spinners, showed what could have been. New Zealand's surrender to Virender came as a birthday gift to him 2 days ahead of time. Way to go, my man!

Rahul Dravid, Man of the match in the first Test and double century scorer, is standing in for indisposed captain Sourav Ganguly in this match, but will want to forget it as soon as possible. For one of the world's top 3 batsmen at the top of his form to score 9 runs off 56 balls at the end of the third day's play, on a pitch that held no terrors and against an attack that would be rated mediocre at best, is not what audiences came to see. Even Akash Chopra looked positive compared to his captain. He has not looked the part of a leader so far in this game. An effort to enliven the match over the weekend would be a good gesture in the face of what appears to be a drawn match and series.

David Shepherd and Rudi Koertzen turned down several very adjacent LBWs in New Zealand's tortuously slow first innings marathon, according to most observers and reporters. Balaji, Kumble and Bhajji must be beside themselves to see Kiwi batsmen, emboldened by the friendly umpires, repeatedly taking liberties with padding up to straight balls that would have gone on to hit the wicket. The run rate was ridiculously low, but they were able to preserve wickets for more than two days. Apparently, only England can be given a record 7 LBWs in a match against Zimbabwe (umpires were Aussies Daryl Hair and Daryl Harper), while Aussie umpire Simon Taufel allowed as many as 3 LBW wickets in a single over to New Zealand spinner Daniel Vettori in Sri Lanka. What's right about that? LBWs must be judged honestly and carefully, especially in the Indian subcontinent, for matches to yield a result. The two umpires have done their bit to kill Test cricket.