Sammy and Friends

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There is a theory doing the rounds that with Sammy in the eleven, the Windies will always be either one batsman short, or one bowler short. It is an easy argument to make. Sammy, the batsman, struggles to make an impact because he does not have the defensive technique to play a long innings. Sammy, the bowler, is a holder, and he cannot be more than that at his pace. The only successful attacking Test Match bowler at Sammy's pace in recent memory is Shaun Pollock, and Sammy doesn't have the skill or the control to be Shaun Pollock.

On the afternoon of the first day of the Third Test match, I prayed that West Indies would have the courage to play one batsman less, and pick Kemar Roach to bowl with Edwards, Rampaul, Sammy and Bishoo. In this series, every time the West Indies had the Indian batting on the mat, the batsmen found a passage of uninspiring bowling to capitalise on - Harbhajan and Raina did it in the First Test, Laxman and Raina in the Second. A fifth bowler might have helped, I thought; a fresh pair of legs, some variety. Moreover, the extra batsman hasn't done much at all. Yesterday, with Rampaul missing - an unfortunate, unforeseeable tragedy - the Windies still had India in trouble, at 18 for 2 and at 172 for 5, and both times, the bowlers who were doing the damage were too tired to continue. A fifth bowler might really have helped.

But with Sammy in the fold, a fifth bowler means a batsman less. It means that Baugh bats at six, and Sammy at seven - not confidence-inspiring at all. Which brings us to that easy argument again - that Sammy is the fielder, not good enough as a bowler or batsman.

Let's look at the tougher argument for a moment.

That the West Indies have been struggling to compete in Test matches is trite, it is obvious for all to see. They won a Test match after two years against Pakistan earlier this year. They ignominiously lost to Bangladesh at home some time ago when their top players walked out on the series. The Board and the Players Association are locked in a battle that resembles a socialist trade union struggle for better pay and better working conditions. There are player strikes, suspensions, mysterious selection decisions, rabid interviews, talks of corruption, mishandling, unnecessary interference. For ten years now, since Walsh retired, the West Indies have been a collection of talent fissured and fractured by politics.

Sammy's appointment as captain - he's known as a Board man, rather than the Player Association man his predecessor Gayle was - happened in this context. He was never a regular in the Test side, and in the shorter versions, his report card read, "Can do better". His appointment came as a bolt in the blue. And it was well understood that he is role as a captain is similar to his role as a bowler - hold until the next guy is fit and ready.

Sammy has done a lot more.

Before Sammy, there were flashes of team-play, in that unexpected Champions Trophy win, for instance. Fans of the team, like myself, have consoled ourselves in individual brilliance - Lara's exploits against Murali, Chanderpaul's invincible runs of attrition, Chris Gayle's random, merciless attacks, and Jerome Taylor's freak spell.

For the first time in ten years, under Sammy, the West Indies are playing like a team, pooling in collective resources to punch above their weight - in a manner that reminds one of the way New Zealand play their cricket. In this home season, they drew with Pakistan, and have troubled India more than India would've imagined possible. Yesterday, with Rampaul out of the eleven, it would have been easy for the West Indies to bend over and submit. But two bowlers and Sammy - who, by the way, always bowls better than he looks like he's bowling - all carrying niggles, made India fight for their runs. Except in that last hour, when the bowlers were too tired to make an impact, they traded on equal terms with the Indian batting line up.

Sammy has brought this will to toil to the team, he has brought heart and commitment. When he's badgered in the press conferences, his responses are never tired, they are honest. When he is asked about his own merit, he responds with belief. When asked about selection, Gayle's for instance, he responds with a shrug, it's not his job to comment. And that is exactly how he plays his cricket, and how he captains the side - with enthusiasm and devotion that belies his natural talents. Maintaining his morale, his conviction amidst this pressure from the media and the players is admirable enough; that he infects his teammates with this courage is the sign of a truly great leader.

This generation of West Indian cricketers are still only discovering how to win, and Sammy is pushing them to discover it together, as a team.

Sammy is still doing a holding job, he knows that. When Bravo, Bishoo or Barath are ready, he will, most probably, make way. But he is doing a lot more than he was expected to do - it is just a question of time, and a little luck, before results follow.

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.

The West Indies and I

My three favourite cricketers of all time are Brian Lara, Curtly Ambrose and Mohammad Azharuddin (all left handers). (It took me some years to convince myself that Azhar bats left-handed, but my faith in that fact is unshakeable at the moment.)

As a necessary corollay of who my favourite players were, I fell in love with the West Indian cricket team in my early years of cricket watching - around the 1992 World Cup. I supported the West Indies irrespective of who they were playing against - even if they played India. I spent nights together watching cricket in the West Indies - somehow it always seemed like such a fun affair. Maybe it was just the experience of staying up all night (read 11.30pm, after which sleep would invariably take over) watching cricket, maybe it was stadiums that looked like the hockey ground on our campus with makeshift stands, maybe it was just Michael Holding's accent - watching West Indies play was something else.

And then there were my two heroes - Ambrose and Lara. I always wondered what would happen if Ambrose bowled to Lara, for it was my belief that both were invincible - nobody could get Lara out, and nobody could hit Ambrose for a boundary. One was 6'7", and the other, a little over five-feet, but in their aggression, they were almost similar.

When Ambrose's bowling came thundering down at the batsman from a height of ten feet, I'd have this wry smile on my face, waiting for the ball to rise up around the nose and make the batsman jump around. I dreamt of bowling like that one day - intimidating the batsman with my sheer presence, and getting them out when they move and bat as if they're scared of the ball. Given all this, I almost ignored that Ambrose's bowling was not all about its intimidatory effects - he was quick, deadly accurate, and moved the ball when his profession demanded it. I cannot recall a single instance when he has ever felt the need to say anything to the batsman, - his cold, expressionless eyes said so little that the batsman feared whatever hidden message they were trying to convey and assumed the worst.

Lara on the other hand, was, to use a chiched expression, poetry. I copied his high backlift and drive, cut and pull technique with little success all my life (although it did take me to two centuries in neighbourhood cricket - one where I was actually out on 30-odd and refused to walk even though the 'umpire' had given me out). There were days when I'd be upset all day when Lara got out cheaply, other days when I'd skip meals because he missed a century! I had a fairly large collection of Brian Lara photos carefully cut from newspapers and stickers, which I lost when I lost my wallet. My wallet had some money (my winnings at a quiz), quite a handsome amount at that age, but I had my priorities right - I was more upset about the stickers.

Gradually, though, my environment and innate Indianness began to affect me. This other little batsman from Mumbai joined the man they called the Prince, and this batsman who was then, according to me, the most boring batsman in the world changed the way I watched cricket.

But this World Cup, I'm back where my heart belongs. Go West Indies! Make sure no one takes the Cup away from home!