A LOT AT STAKE

It is the time that the Indian team stood up to the challenge of playing real fast bowlers on wickets that have pace and bounce.

South Africa has never been a delightful experience for the Indians with the exception of the T20 World Cup, the 2003 World Cup and sterling individual performances.

With the tag of No.1 the Indian cricket team has a lot to prove.The lacklustre showing against the New Zealand at home in the test series should be a cruel pointer.I do not want to sound like a pessimist or a Jaywant Lele, but something tells me that this series could be a make or break for the team and a lot of players.

The news of Zaheer Khan and Shreesanth being doubtful for the first test could not have come at a more inopportune time.The spinners, the less said the better for they could not answer the questions posed by the batsmen from New Zealand.Surely, the likes of Kallis and Co. are much more accomplished and have the entries in the record books to justify this.

In the batting department, everything comes down to the seniors led by the gentleman named Sachin Tendulkar. It would be a photographer’s delight to watch Raina face the fast bowlers.

Historically, India have not done well in the opening test of a series at home as well as on foreign soil.So a wrong foot in the first test could make things extremely complicated in the series.The sad losses in the first two test matches in the last tour of Australia could not prevent India from saving the series even with that famous win in Perth.

The captaincy of Dhoni and his famed ‘midas touch’-largely a myth will be put under tremendous pressure.

PLAYING FIRE WITH FIRE?

During the series against Australia and also during the T20 World Cup, the Indian players displayed aggression in the form of shouting at the opponents and showing unnecessary emotions. For a long time, the average Indian fan felt unhappy because the Indian players were at the receiving end of verbal bashing from the opponents, especially the Aussies. Any gesture or a verbal was misconstrued as an insult to India and Indians. So the newfound aggression got a lot of support. The win in South Africa added to the tall tale. It is not for nothing that George Orwell called sport ‘war minus the shooting’.

The Australians are past masters in the game of verbal volleys. Ponting and his team have taken the art of ‘mental disintegration’ to a new level. The Aussies do not like to lose and the loss in South Africa only added to the decibels.

With cameras everywhere, players like Sreesanth and Harbhajan did their best to keep the spectators interested. Even Robin Uthappa talked about ‘playing fire with fire’. Sreesanth’s behaviour was boorish. The Aussies succeeded in their ploy and the Indians concentrated more on verbal aggression and lost the one-day series.

The media that projected the new found show of aggression with a lot of enthusiasm suddenly did a volte-face after the racist allegations leveled by Symonds. Suddenly, the Indian players were advised to show restraint.

A win in the T20 World Cup is not sufficient to give bragging rights forever. The Indian team surely deserves the adulation since it is in a long while that the Aussies have ended up on the losing side four times in a space of two months to India.

WHO IS RANCOROUS?

England have not taken the defeat at the hands of India in the second test in the sporting sense. It is one thing to be trashed by Australia down under. It is quite another thing for the English team to be beaten at home by India.

First there were assertions by players and also the coach of the England cricket team over the sledging accusations. Even a player of the stature of Matt Prior doesn’t feel bad about the sledging. The coach Peter Moores dismisses such allegations. Collingwood is not ashamed at the jellybeans thrown by some his teammates at the Indian players.

But the cake should go to Mike Atherton, the former captain of the England team and now a media professional. It is right for Atherton to go hammer and tongs at Sreesanth for his boorish behaviour during the test. Sreesanth bowled a beamer at Kevin Pietersen and then shoulder barged Michael Vaughan. Such behaviour should not be condoned by any means. Atherton is not happy with the punishment meted out to Sreesanth. The former skipper wants Sreesanth to be dropped from the third test. Sreesanth looks most likely to be dropped given his shoddy efforts in the match. It is true that the match referee Ranjan Madugalle took a rather lenient view of the whole Sreesanth. But what authority does Atherton have to talk about a tougher punishment?

Atherton himself is someone who does not have the moral authority to sermonize. This same gentleman was once caught by cameras taking sand from his trouser pocket and applying the same to a ball during the course of a test. Then the punishment was not severe, by today’s standards. Probably that is the reason for the present outburst. If Sreesanth’s bowling a beamer was ‘rancorous’, then what should we call Atherton’s behaviour? Sreesanth can walk away from the controversy on the pretext of an accidental act, while Atherton does not have that kind of a luxury.

In a one dayer prior to the Ashes of 2005, Simon Jones hurled the ball at Matthew Hayden when the batsman was not even attempting a run. The ball hit the shoulder of Hayden. The whole of the English media praised this incident as the ‘aggression’ of the English team.

Clearly, it is a case of different strokes for different people.

Don't brand me a racist, just yet.

ATROCIOUS AND OBNOXIOUS

In the second test at Trent Bridge, India is on the verge of registering only a fifth victory on English soil. Good batting by most of the batsmen and excellent bowling from Zaheer Khan has helped the visitors. But the bowling of Sreesanth was nothing short of atrocious.

The bowler from Kerala has been fined 50% of his match fee for shoulder barging the English captain Michael Vaughan. In South Africa Sreesanth waved the bat and showed some fancy dance steps in response to Andre Nel. That was something, which amused everyone. But the latest incident is obnoxious. This is similar to Roger Telemachus shoulder barging Rahul Dravid many seasons ago. In both the cases it was not an accident but deliberate.

On the first day, the bowling of Sreesanth was a parody. In his first over itself, he tried many variations. There were instances when the deliveries went so far as the third slip. Instead of concentrating on the bowling, Sreesanth took the path of a street bully.

I would have thanked the match referee Ranjan Maduagalle if Sreesanth were banned for the next test. That would have given another bowler a chance.