Review of International Cricket - January 2003 - Sanjay Manjrekar

It was a very busy cricketing month, with all the Test-playing nations involved in some tussle or the other, on, and in India's case, off the field as well! While it is important that the players spend some time in the middle before a big event such as the one slated to begin in Cape Town on the 9th of February, it does seem that the players are spending far too much time in the middle. The 'travel travails' of the Indian cricket team in the past few months are a case in point.

From the Indian point of view, one hopes that none of the leading players sustains an injury in the remaining one-day internationals in New Zealand to put his participation in the World Cup in jeopardy. Too much cricket is being played, and it has already taken its toll with injuries to Zaheer Khan and Sachin Tendulkar in the recent past. Zaheer missed the one-day games against the West Indies and Sachin hasn't played in the one-day series in Kiwiland at the time of writing. God forbid, if something happens to one of the big guns on the eve of the World Cup, what will the team do? Having said that, going by the performances of the Indians in
New Zealand, one need not worry. After all, aren't the batsmen, India's warheads, spending more time indoors than outdoors, even on match days?

India's umpteenth failure on foreign shores isn't the only predictable occurrence of the month. It must be noted however that for once, the Indians aren't being outplayed. They are being 'outbowled’. The batsmen have struggled on unfriendly wickets, but so have the Kiwis. It was just that the Indians did not put up enough runs on the board for their bowlers to play with. The second Test at Hamilton and first one-day international at Auckland, which the Black Caps won by four and three wickets respectively, might well have taken a different turn had the Indian batsmen scored even 40-50 runs more than what they did.

The West Indies whipped everybody's favourite whipping boys Bangladesh, but that particular result was only to be expected. The Pakistanis, victorious in Zimbabwe, have struggled in South Africa, always a formidable force at home.

If there was one team that provided a slice of unpredictability in this 'month of the predictable', it was, inevitably, Pakistan. After being thrashed in the first one-day international at Durban, the tourists amassed a phenomenal 335 in the second one-dayer and went on to win by a sweeping margin of 182 runs. Their performance would have surely given the Proteas the jitters, but the hosts recovered to win the next three games by comfortable margins and take the series 4-1. The versatile Jacques Kallis showed once again why he deserves to be ranked alongside Chris Cairns in the top bracket of all-rounders. He was consistent with the ball in the one-dayers and capped it with 5-41 in the final one-dayer. He had an indifferent time with the bat in the one-dayers, but made up for that with a strokeful 105 in the Boxing Day Test which his team won by 10 wickets.

Another highlight of the month was the omission of Stephen Rodgers Waugh from the Australian World Cup squad. He thus earns the dubious distinction of being the first World Cup winning captain to be dropped from the team in the next edition despite still being a current player.

Three wins in the triangular series and a fourth successive win in the ‘Ashes' series have once again illustrated the gap that exists between Australia and the rest of the cricketing world today, a gap that seems to be widening with every passing match. While it is all right for the Indians, Pakistanis, South Africans, New Zealanders, Zimbabweans, Sri Lankans, West Indians, Bangladeshis and even some Englishmen to deride the England team for its poor showing 'Down Under', can the national teams of any of these countries realistically hope to fare any better against the Aussies in their current vein of form?

We shall know the answer very soon, in the land of the Cape of Good Hope.

Wishing You a Prosperous New Year.