Sunday, May 28, 2006

ALL SOUND AND NO ACTION?

After the fourth match in the current one-day series in the Windies, the captain of the home team was speaking about the ‘comment’ of the Indian coach. India won the first match of the series at Jamaica and the coach came out with the statement that the Windies have ‘forgotten the winning habit’. Brian Lara asserted that the comment was ‘sly’ and that his team was out to prove the Indian coach wrong.

Having read many times about a similar comment made by the then English captain Tony Greig that his team would make the visiting Windies team ‘grovel’, I wondered about the possible repercussions. The West Indians were out to prove a point and they beat the English convincingly. A number of batsmen of the English team agree that the bowling faced was the most hostile. While the present team does not boast of Andy Roberts and Michael Holding, there was always a possibility of hurting the pride of the home team.

In the past decade, many former players and greats of yesteryears felt that the poor showing of the Windies was in part due to the lack of the pride playing for the country. But the sly remark of the Indian coach may have brought the sense of pride and that is a strong enough cause of worry for the Indians in the forthcoming test series.

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