Wednesday, Aug 28, 2002
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Cricket
By G. Viswanath
MAN OF THE MOMENT: Anil Kumble (left), who struck telling blows to end England's resistance on the final day of the third Test at Headingley, has obviously made his skipper, Sourav Ganguly (right), a very happy man. — Photo: N. Sridharan
The shrewd England captain from Yorkshire had led his team to a series win against Pakistan, which made India's achievement all the more sweet. Chandrasekhar was suitably honoured at Wembley a little over a month ago when Wisden Asia conducted a poll among former cricketers and chose his remarkable six for 38 as the best ahead of a number of distinguished bowling performances by Indian bowlers. The man who presented the award to Chandrasekhar was none other than Anil Kumble. The selection of Chandrasekhar for the `Best bowling performance of the Century' award stirred up a debate at the Wembley Conference Centre. The majority felt that Chandrasekhar deserved the award, but quite a few were not willing to place Anil Kumble's 10 for 74 against arch-rival Pakistan at the Ferozeshah Kotla as second best. It was against England in England that Chandrasekhar came up with magic figures, and though Kumble's three for 93 and four for 66 was not quite anywhere near matching Chandrasekhar's six-wicket haul, it was just as ominous, as it came on his return to Test cricket after a brief break to strengthen his calf muscle. Not long ago during one of his visits to Mumbai to conduct the BCA-Mafatlal Bowling scheme, Frank `Typhoon' Tyson had made a pertinent point. "Indians are good at sleight of hand. They are wristy.'' He named Ramanathan Krishnan, Vijay Amritraj, Prakash Padukone and Subhash Gupte and also the spin quartet. Tyson showed some of the Mumbai spinners how Hugh Tayfield bowled landing on his leading foot toe and turning his trunk. On Monday it was an exponent of spin who spelt doom for England. Things happen for spinners. The ball might have just obeyed the whims of Kumble's wrist and fingers. The two deliveries that dispatched the England captain Nasser Hussain and Alec Stewart were top-of-the-drawer stuff. He was able to get many deliveries to turn from leg to off in the first innings. "But it was a typical Kumble delivery that got rid of Hussain. It just kicked up,'' said Vedam Hariharan, the former Karnataka and Kerala seamer who spends nine months of the year in England and Australia teaching cricket. Alec Stewart, who looked so adept in smothering the turn, could not prevent Kumble's genuine leg break taking the edge. Like Chandrasekhar in 1971, Kumble proved to be the match-winner for India. Test match victories do not come easily to even the best of teams, but as Hussain said on Monday: "They played near-perfect cricket.'' As the English summer is about to end with the final Test to start at the Oval on September 5, the Indian team will play a three-day (not four-day) match against second division side Derbyshire placed last in almost every tournament in 2001. The team's request to use the services of the Sunil Joshi, Dodda Ganesh and Sairaj Bahutule for the three-day match starting on Wednesday was met with a stern no from the BCCI. Efforts were also made to get two seamers from the India-under 19 team, but the BCCI rejected this suggestion, too. Obviously Ganguly is keen to give his four bowlers — Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Kumble and Harbhajan Singh — rest before the Oval Test, but he has been forced to shelve his plan and consider them for the last first class match before the Test. Ganguly himself was to take rest along with Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. But it looks as though the eleven will be named only on Wednesay morning. According to sources V.V.S. Laxman has decided against flying to New Delhi to receive the Arjuna Award. Derbyshire, for which Australian Mike di Venuto is a star player and vice-captain, will be announcing the squad before the start of the match. Dominic Cork is the County's captain, but it is unlikely that he will be asked to lead the side. In the meanwhile the senior players had a meeting on Monday evening and discussed probable ways to end the impasse with regard to signing the `Players' terms' for the ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka. What they have heard from the BCCI is all assurances which many feel is not sufficient guarantee to make them sign on a document that is regarded by the Australian and England cricketers as dubious. It seems that the players, likely to be affected by the ICC curbs, might agree to request companies whose product they endorse not to run any advertisement during the course of the tournaments. The best way to go about the touchy issue is for the BCCI to send one of its senior officials and talk to the players. Apparently, the BCCI is not keen to do so. The team: India (from): Sourav Ganguly (Captain), V.V.S. Laxman, Wasim Jaffer, Shiv Sundar Das, Virender Sehwag, Sanjay Bangar, Ashish Nehra, Tinu Yohannan, Ajay Ratra, Ajit Agarkar, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Parthiv Patel, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.
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