Indian cricket can clearly be divided into two distinct halves, one of which involves matches played in India and parts of the sub-continent, and the other matches played outside the comfort zone, in England, Australia and South Africa. What our team does in one half of the cricketing world, which is mostly at home, is in no way reflected in the other zone. It is almost as if a different game is played when it comes to playing abroad. The strangest part of it all is that this has been happening since time immemorial -- from much before I started my career until now, and this is what I find difficult to understand.
Poor travellers?
It was said earlier that we Indians were poor travellers. How then do you explain the fact that the moment you land at London's Heathrow Airport , you see more Indians -- many of them employed there -- than anyone else?! If we indeed are poor travellers, how did so many of us get there? Also, it is not as if we haven't had good results at all. There have been a few, but they have been far between. My team won in the West Indies and England in 1971, Kapil's team beat England in 1986 while the present side has had its share of wins and draws in England, Australia and the West Indies, while all our teams have time and again beaten good visiting sides at home.
So it is not as if we are not good at what we do. The problem then lies in us not doing it everywhere. Why is this so? Is it a problem with our system and if so, how do we solve the issue? Isn't it time to sit down and think hard about what the real problem is, why are we so inconsistent, why we cannot put out more impressive performances overseas even after the cricketing world has shrunk with more tours undertaken these days?
More ‘A’ tours
The one solution I can advocate straightaway is to have more 'A' team tours to places with the more difficult pitches and conditions. Let us send members of the 'A' team to Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand on a regular basis, and take as much care with their itinerary as we do with the senior team’s itinerary. These tours will help our future cricketers acclimatise and prepare better.
While dwelling on preparation, perhaps we need to review the actual pre-tour preparation of the Indian team as well. I read so much about how the Australians prepared for their conquest of India in India. Then again, it needs to be studied if our system allows the players to prepare properly.
Questions and more questions but unless we ask them, there will be no question of any answers coming forth, will there?
Dravid’s quandary
Anyway, moving on to the second Test at Trent Bridge, Rahul Dravid must be in a typical quandary. Does he change the team or stick with the same combination, does he somehow include Yuvraj Singh?
Well, one way to look at it is that since the Jaffer-Kaarthick combination too is very much a stop-gap one, pushing one of the last Test's middle-order batsman to open, thus opening up a place for Yuvraj, may not be such a bad idea.
The good news for the Indian batsmen is that the Trent Bridge pitch is usually a batsman's paradise, unless of course the weather plays its part in providing an edge to the bowlers. The conditions being predictable, both captains should take care not to bat for too long and look to make sporting declarations instead to make the contest interesting.
Chivach Sports/ Hawkeye Communications