India-WI: The Gentle Art Of Mental Disintegration

By Gaurang
May 31 2006

A net practice facility that looks like something found behind the compound of a building in Mumbai to prepare for the ODI series. For the only tour game, a ground that has never hosted a domestic first class match.

The Antigua Police Recreation Ground, hosting the current tour match between India and Antigua & Barbuda, has a ridge running right through the middle. There is a distinct slope along the pitch, and a wicket situated on a mound (supposedly to ensure good drainage.) This is the location of the only "warm-up" game before a crucial Test series. The opposition is barely club class, with just the captain and a couple of players even on the fringes of national selection. What gives?

It seems unconscionable that the West Indies Cricket Board, whose penurious plight the Indian team and its legion of fans have just wiped away in a blink of an eye, should produce such shockingly shoddy facilities for the visitors. This is particularly galling considering that Indians have always believed and usually practiced the axiom that "Guests Are Gods", providing visiting sides with excellent facilities and strong teams to practice against.

But before everyone gets ready to lambast the West Indies authorities for incompetence, maybe it is worth considering whether the West Indies have done this intentionally and are finally getting the hang of the gentle art of mental disintegration? It would appear so.

From home columnists like Michael Holding, Viv Richards and Tony Cozier, who have ever so subtly but quite clearly highlighted the weaknesses and shortcomings of the visitors in their columns for mostly Indian papers (unlike Indian ex-cricketers, who if asked to write columns in English or Australian papers have bent over backwards to praise those teams) to the picking of Messrs. Bucknor and Doctrove as the West Indies umpires for the One-day series, to the subtle but cutting remarks from West Indies captain Brian Lara, who first indicated that he thought India were dazed and confused, then that they were missing the great Tendulkar, to claiming that "sly remarks" from the foot-in-mouth Indian coach Chappell had spurred on his team.

The West Indies were aided by the presence of Rahul Dravid as the opposition captain. A gentleman to the core who would never indulge in such tactics himself, or even if he were interested in doing so would have a difficult time figuring out how, being much more attuned to counter mental disintegration on the field with bat in hand rather than in the public arena.

So the Indian captain decided to leave it to the Indian coach, as a lot of things that have traditionally been in the captain’s domain are now being left to the coach. Said coach, a brash and brusque Aussie who once led his team to a 5-1 triumph over Clive Lloyd’s Team of Invincibles with as ruthless and dominant a performance as any in the history of the game, had probably started to believe the adoring Indian press about the team’s greatness, especially in the shorter version of the game. He came out with all guns firing and claimed that the West Indies had forgotten how to win after India won the first game by a razor-thin margin. It was therefore ironical that in the next four matches, it seemed to be India that had forgotten how to win.

While India were being pummelled on-field, the coach roped in a long-time associate Dr. Rudi Webster to give his team a pep talk and some insights into winning psychology. It is not known what Dr. Webster charged the Indian Board for his advice, but if the results are any indication, he should not have been paid a penny. In fact, the hiring of Dr. Webster may have had the exact opposite effect in that it psyched up the opposition.

It so happens that the current West Indian coach, another Aussie Bennett King, was insulted by Webster, who publicly stated that he "regretted ever recommending King for the position of Coach to the West Indies Board." Hiring Webster in the middle of a series not only sent out the signal that the Indian team was mentally weak, but also galvanized the West Indies coach to ensure that he would do his utmost to humiliate both Webster and Greg Chappell. The latter two had once claimed that coaches like King who had never played the game at the highest level and who were more oriented towards skills training (i.e. batting, bowling and fielding), rather than Chappell’s more esoteric mental process training methods, were no good for cricket. How sweet it must have been then for King to cock a snook at both Greg Chappell and Dr. Webster.

Brian Lara further rubbed it in when he revealed that he believed West Indies had won their games mostly in the team meetings. What he was saying is that he and King had out-thought, out-maneuvered and out-witted the Indian think tank. It should be quite clear now that Chappell and his sidekick Ian Frazer are not the great messiahs of Indian cricket out to deliver to the Holy Grail of a World Cup victory to the yearning Indian public, but rather the great mercenaries of Indian cricket profiting quite handsomely regardless of how the Indian team does.

India captain Rahul Dravid, who trusted and accepted the Chappell Way, must now be wondering if it was the correct decision. He himself has been leading the way by personal example so far. But every player meets a rough patch and after the first match, his bat has been quiet, delivering a mere 44 runs in 4 innings. This has coincided with the bats of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina going stone cold. His acknowledged spearhead Pathan has looked anything but that. On top of this, the selectors have not agreed to his request to keep the in-form Ajit Agarkar back for the Test series, to add to the news that Sachin Tendulkar is not yet ready to return to international cricket. During this whole ordeal, he has not had another senior head to turn to, and he is looking increasingly frustrated.

That frustration nearly spilled out when he admitted, albeit indirectly, that he missed the experience of a Ganguly, Laxman or Kumble, echoing the laments of the Indian team’s vice captain, Sehwag, who was reprimanded by a dictatorial Indian Board for even mentioning the ex-captain’s name in a positive context.

As this writer had pointed out earlier, it is time Dravid took the reigns of captaincy -- all aspects of captaincy -- including decisions about team composition: five bowlers or four, what line-up to go with, whether he should open the batting or not, and other such issues, into his own hands.

As the old saying goes, "The Buck Must Stop" with him. His teammates, who always have respected him as a cricketer, will respect him now as a leader if he does that. If he does not, then the Tests series may descend into utter chaos for India, with a rudderless team going through the motions. The time to make changes is short, but changes must be made if India hope to win the Test series which they certainly can win, because they surely have the talent to do it.

Rahul Dravid, bolstered by his statemate Anil Kumble and senior pro VVS Laxman, must find a way to counter the new-found talent for the gentle art of mental disintegration that Brian Lara has seemed to have discovered the third time around.