Bouncing Yorkers

My friend Ravi, an intelligent and knowledgeable cricket follower, sent me an e-mail yesterday after he heard of the selection of the Indian cricket team for the one-day series against England. He has always been an ardent follower of Dravid and is one of those who believe that Dravid is one of those cricketers who- despite his acknowleged greatness- has never really gotten his due. I present his mail below (with some minor edits), which perhaps echoes the sentiments of a large section of Indian followers:

Couldn’t help laugh when I read that RD was recalled for ODI series in England…. and I had to respond to this joke.

He was dropped in Oct’2007 as it was perceived that he does not fit into the scheme of things for India in the shorter version. This was after he had resigned abruptly from captaincy after coming back from England, where had scored a 85 ball hundred in an ODI….

He is then called back to ODIs in 2009 after a disastrous T20 WC campaign where the Indian youngsters could not handle “BOUNCE”. He may have played about 3 games and was again left out…… to be recalled now in 2011 since most of his team mates cannot handle “SWING, BOUNCE”. ….. maybe even “SPIN”. That’s about the batsman

The irony is that it’s a World Cup winning team……..The “WORLD CHAMPIONS”……… need a 38 year old …. probably not even to win … but to reduce their margin of defeat.

In my opinion no one would be laughing harder than the man himself for BCCI’s step in the wrongdirection.

Ravi wanted my views on it and I didn’t have a straight answer– I was just in one of those moods!

BCCI is showing that it is a flexible organization that can adapt itself very quickly; it is flexible and not as rigid as the rest of the envious world makes it out to be. They realize that Dravid is the man in form and they are adopting a horses for courses policy—he is the horse that can respond to swing, seam, bounce and spin. What’s more, he may well keep wickets, which will allow Dhoni to focus on his captaincy and also contribute a bit as the fifth bowler. That way we can have an additional batsman and really strengthen our already formidable batting line up.

You see, BCCI and the selection committee use hindsight and foresight in their selection; it’s bunch of smart guys we have out there.

Nevertheless, later in the evening, Rahul Dravid himself gave the best response to the selection panel- he announced his retirement from the shorter format of the game to focus on test cricket. Being the gentleman that he is, Dravid didn’t decline the opportunity to play in the forthcoming series– which he couldn’t be blamed for even if he had done it.

Years from now, if someone were to see this picture without a caption detailing its context, it is unlikely that anyone is going to believe that it is that one of the greatest ever South African batsmen trying to evade a snorter from an Indian medium pacer in South Africa, in their own den- the Kingsmead in Durban! This picture tells a story, as does the result of the test match at Durban, where supposedly the green and bouncy track was supposed to have blown away the Indians: the story is that the current crop of medium pace bowlers India possesses are perfectly capable of making the most capable of batsmen hop and fish if they were to get a seaming and bouncy pitch.

This is a lesson which overseas teams don’t seem to have absorbed- at the WACA in 2008, Shaun Tait was supposed to blow away Indian batsmen, but it was the Aussies who were blown away by the swing and seam of R.P.Singh and Ishant Sharma. And now, Durban…

As the captain Dhoni sai on the likelihood of encountering a green pitch at the Newlands in Cape Town for the decider, “the greener the pitch, the better it is” , it is very clear that the Indians are confident of doing well on seaming tracks. I believe the Indian batsmen are more adept at playing the moving ball than batsmen in some other parts of the world, including Australia and South Africa, while their bowlers are skilled at seam and swing bowling, which makes up for their lack of pace on helpful tracks. More than seam or swing- or for that matter, pace- the challenge seems to be bounce and that is something that the Indian batsmen have still some way to go before conquering.

Jacques Kallis scored his first double hundred in a test match today at the Supersport Park in Centurion and, as the commentators,  proclaimed “finally got the monkey off his back”. It’s only just reward for such an illustrious career. For me, Kallis is certainly one of the greatest players of his generation, if not the greatest. I don’t think anyone would be too far from the mark even if he was called the greatest.

For some reason, the word “great” hasn’t been used as liberally with Kallis as they have been with players who have far less to show as their achievements. True, Kallis is neither the most attractive of batsmen- mind you, he looks darn good- nor is he the most explosive; he is the not the kind that will fill up stadiums like a Tendulkar or a Sehwag would. 

However, he could most certainly win a game for his team with either bat or ball, and of course his slip catching.  He has been the one genuine all-rounder that cricket has seen in the last decade and half, though many have been bestowed the title rather easily.  

With close to 12000 test runs, 38 test centuries, over 260 test wickets and over 160 catches (stats courtesy: Cricinfo), Jacques Kallis is the Gary Sobers of this era. I feel it is high time he gets mentioned in the same breath as some of the other legends of the game. He richly deserves it and it’s only fair!