Four Retirements (Lara, Inzamam, Kumble and Jayasuriya) and a Wedding (Abhiash - yes, I have picked up this term - I read the Bangalore Times)

The one month since my last post on this blog (or any other blog for that matter) has seen India's second-most (in)famous wedding (rank 1, I think, still belongs to the wedding of that foster son of Jayalalitha's - elections were won and lost on that one. We will have to wait and see what effect this one has on Amar Singh and the UP elections); the announcement of India's new look, 'young' team to Bangladesh (I can't seem to recollect any other team make such elaborate plans for a tour of Bangladesh - such commitment to the game and professionalism surely augurs well for the future of Indian cricket); my introduction to Ingmar Bergman (the opening sequence in Persona puts any big-budget-special-effects-modern-Hollywood-movie to shame, and the movie itself ranks in my top-5 of all time, of about 1500 movies watched over the course of my life. How did I calculate this? The unparalleled Rishabh Gupta finally made a list of all the movies he owns and it amounted to around three hundred and fifty. When I went through that list, proving to him that The Departed would not even feature in my top 50 favourite films, I realised that I had watched about 250 of the films on his list. Now, this list does not include too many movies in Indian languages, and many English movies that I have watched. Making a rough calculation from there, I reached the figure of 1500) and Federico Fellini(will put something in these brackets when I have seen 8 1/2. I have this urge to make a comment about the term "foreign films", but I shall save that for a different post); the World Cup droning on in the background (I can recall three matches worth watching); Samrat Singh's 19(1)(a) rantings on responsible behaviour and "making out" on campus (frankly, I thought the comments on the notice were more entertaining than the notice itself); and most importantly, Lara's retirement (Ian Bradshaw also retired, but I don't think anyone really took note of that). This post is about that retirement (and a couple of others from this edition of the World Cup).

(I prefer footnotes to brackets, they make the text look cleaner and more academic, but on blogger, I guess I'll have to do with brackets)

A famous quiz question from the start of this World Cup was - "Only five players from the 1992 World Cup are playing here in the 2007 World Cup. Who?" The answer to that was -
Lara, Sachin, Inzy, Jayasuriya and Anderson Cummins. At the end of this World Cup, only one person will continue playing international cricket, despite strong calls for his 'dignified' exit from cricket when he is still on a 'high'. Two others, who emerged a little after that World Cup, Kumble and McGrath, are also calling it a day. None of the teams will continue to be led by a player who even played in the 1996 World Cup. For the first time in all my cricket watching years has the older generation been so systematically wiped out. I use this term 'wiped out' because except for McGrath, the other players would have liked to continue playing if their team still wanted them to. This is the proverbial golden handshake - we've let you play this last World Cup, now leave before we throw you out.

The loss that hurts me the most is, of course, Brian Lara. My favourite batsman of all time has been forced out of a game he stopped enjoying some months ago thanks to West Indies' callous attitude towards one of their greatest assets ever. Much like how we treat Sachin every time the team does badly. At the same time, it is this very West Indian atmosphere that allowed Lara to become the best batsman of his generation. As usual, West Indies produced a batsman who, like Sobers and Richards before him, was not bound by the confines of playing 'correct' shots, and yet looked majestic. Every time Lara takes strike, time seems to slow down. When his bat swishes backward, in that high backlift, for a split second, we are unsure of whether the ball might just sneak through. It is this tension, and Lara's extraordinary success rate that made him the most exciting batsman to watch in the last decade-and-a-half.

I have often wondered what he might have achieved if he was in the Australian side - with a stronger batting order supporting him, and a better administration backing him. If Lara had come through the Australian system, I don't think he would have been recognisable. He'd have this percentage cricket style, a business-like approach to batting devoid of all the romance that is attached to Lara's cricket. His high backlift and flourish would have been stamped out of him by the coaches at the junior levels, and we would have had a more prolific Justin Langer redux in place of Lara.

In almost stark contrast to Lara is Inzamam. While Lara's batting is buzzing with intense energy and dancing footwork, Inzamam waits and waits and waits. With minimal effort, he plays his cricket - be it his batting, his running between the wickets or his captaincy. Kumble is different from both these players - he toils tirelessly, conspiring and calculating at the same time. His cricket is played as much between his ears as beyond them. With still no spinner in the country as effective as him, he might continue to serve in the Test team for some years to come. However, this is not the case with Inzamam - Pakistan cricket has taken this World Cup debacle badly, and heads will roll for it. As always, the easiest target is the captain himself.

Jayasuriya and McGrath have one last match in the game, and it might well be their most important. Both have played exceedingly well in this edition of the World Cup, and both will be looking to leave with a bang. And while Australia will be looking for a hat-trick, individually, McGrath and Jayasuriya will try and ensure that they make more of a mark on the game than they did in the 1996 World Cup final. Watch this match closely, for you might never see a bowler as mechanically efficient as McGrath, with Asif's career in a cloud, and you might never see forearms as powerful as Jayasuriya's.