Review of International Cricket - December 2002 - Sanjay Manjrekar

Which is the most popular cricketing maxim? Ask any cricket-lover the world over and he will reply; "Cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties". But put the same question to an Australian and chances are that he might just give a different answer. Blaming him for his 'ignorance' will not make much sense, as he will have at the back of his mind, his team's recent victories over their favourite opponents, wins that have been as certain and predictable as rainfall in Guyana.

The Aussies routed England by a staggering 384 runs in the first Test of the series at Brisbane. In the second, at Adelaide, they came out on top by an innings and 51 runs. The third Test witnessed another innings triumph. So comprehensively have Australia dominated the series that not even the most die-hard English supporter will back his team to save the last two games. Nasser Hussain and his men will have to pull out all the socks that they have brought to Australia (including those that the injury-stricken players might have left behind) to prevent a 0-5 drubbing.

Even as the Aussie opener Matthew Hayden continued his rich vein of form with centuries in both innings at Brisbane in the second week of the month, another left-handed opening batsman commenced a purple patch across the Indian ocean at the same time. West Indian Chris Gayle scored an unbeaten 103 at Nagpur to help his team take a 2-0 lead in the seven-match one-day series against India. He followed it with blistering knocks of 72, 140 and 101 in the next three games. Added to these were his three wickets in the final match that his side won by 135 runs to win the series 4-3. Gayle's sledge-hammer batting at the top of the order played a major role in enabling his side to avenge their first-ever Test series loss in India since 1978-79.

It wasn't a happy month for Sri Lanka's left-handed opener and captain Sanath Jayasuriya. The Sri Lankans lost both Test matches and also the first two one-day internationals on their tour of South Africa. Jayasuriya's injury and Muralitharan's hernia problem affected them badly. Fortunately, the World Cup is still two months away, which gives both players ample time in which to regain complete fitness and also gain invaluable match practice in the VB series, in which Sri Lanka will be pitted against England and Australia. The series is divided into two segments, one to be played in December and the other in January, on the eve of the World Cup.

48 hours after the end of Sri Lanka's tour of South Africa, the hosts will take on Pakistan in the first of five one-day internationals. On their own pitches, the hosts will have the edge, but as always, it will be difficult, and even dangerous, to underestimate the Pakistanis. Look what they have achieved in Zimbabwe. A clean sweep of the Test and one-day series! ..The selectors and team management, so mercilessly criticised and abused in the recent past, deserve a pat on the back for picking just the right men from the rich reserves of cricketing talent that the country possesses. So we’ll have youngsters like batsmen Taufeeq Umar and Saleem Elahi, paceman Mohammed Sami and the wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal performed that the likes of Saeed Anwar, Wasim Akram and keepers Rashid Latif and Moin Khan have hardly been missed. To his credit, Akram did come back strongly in the one-dayers, particularly in the second game in which he took 4-22.

From the depths of a combined total of 112 in a Test match to an 'away' series win fashioned by the exuberance of youth, the Pakistanis have come a long way. Admittedly, the Zimbabweans are one of the weaker sides in world cricket at the moment, but a series win away from home is always a valued achievement. Ask the Indians! When the Proteas take the field at Kingsmead, Durban on Sunday the 8th of December for the first one-day international, they will find a Pakistani side ready, and hungry for battle.