Test Cricket to the Fore

Celebration of a Spectacular Month's Action

The months of August to October seemed particularly arduous and bleak for a cricket purist. Right from the culmination of the Eng-SA test series, the game was swamped in a needless deluge of slam-bang T-20 tournaments, where cricketers who would never be considered for test matches were suddenly touted as match winners. The world cup is an acceptable format but the biannual format is a bit too much – to give it real credibility, the powers that be should make it a 4 yearly event. What really got my goat was the ridiculous Champions League. A needless,  hare-brained concept, designed only to fill coffers of the richer boards in the ICC. With a packed international test schedule coming up for pretty much all countries , I was particularly bemused to find many so-called esteemed pundits of the game standing on one leg, trying desperately to diplomatically defend the tournament. You needn’t have been Einstein to see that even they didn’t really believe in a jot of anything they themselves said, but as long as their pockets were being suitable lined, the greater good of the game could go to hell for all they cared. So, you have it then, at the very start of the season, Australia and South Africa are missing key personnel, while a lot of India’s T-20 stalwarts are looking battle-worn and jaded.

That notwithstanding – what an outstanding advert the month of November has been for the original and (if I may say so) true format of the game. While the series between SL and NZ and the WI and Bangladesh has seen some exceptional performances (even as I type this out, the Kiwis have eked out a historic test victory in SL), the real eye catching stuff has been happening down under in Oz and in the dust bowls of India.

2 Tests down in each series...and boy, have we seen some riveting cricket and performances for the ages. I can hardly remember any single test batsman in better ball striking form than Michael Clarke is at this point. Neither Tendulkar, nor Ponting , nor even Lara at his sublime best has looked as invincible at the crease at Pup does presently. The duration of this purple patch might last for another year or for another test, but the sheer pleasure of watching the Aussie skipper stride to the crease with his team three down for not a lot against the fiery duo of  Steyn and Morkel is beyond description. If Clarke’s performances are the epitome of batsmanship at its absolute zenith, similar superlatives must be applied to the South African duo of Faf Du Plessis and the seemingly evergreen ‘Man for All Seasons’ Jaques Kallis. Du Plessis’ astonishing rearguard action at Adelaide in his debut test begs to be reckoned among the best fighting, back to the wall knocks in recent years. True, the Aussie attack was a man down and perhaps lacked the necessary punch, yet the concentration and discipline displayed by the youngster would surely have earned the approval from the likes of Cowdrey , Boycott and Gavaskar.  As for Kallis, what can one say.....hobbling on one leg to come up with 2 half centuries of supreme class. Bards of yore would be making ballads of this performance in their days.

Cook and KP : Keystones of the English Arch

What a perfect setting ,then, for Perth.....2 teams , reeling like boxers in the 12^th round , waiting to land that final knockout punch. The Proteas having played their “get Out of Jail” card twice in the first 2 tests will be looking to time that decisive right hook to perfection. Oh! Yes....and its Ricky Ponting’s swansong.....last innings heroics or failure, team rising up for the legend or distracted by the enormity of  the occasion...limitless possibilities ! Enjoy!!!

On now to the intriguing India-England series, tied at 1 apiece after the Mumbai turnaround. I wonder what odds one would have got for the widely derided English team to pull off a ten wicket victory after the Ahmedabad debacle. To be honest , the signs were there in the 2^nd innings. Cook has mastered these tracks and is playing as serenely and confidently as any opposition batsman that I can remember. The Indian batting , bar Pujara, hasn’t really seemed up to scratch (if you discount the Sehwag cameo ....the kind of innings he can seemingly pull off in the middle of a snowstorm) and England were always in with a shot with Swann and Panesar in the house , if they could get their batting sorted.  Cometh, then , the hour and cometh the man !!!

KP !! Could it get any more romantic.....weeks after the sceptical ‘regintegration’ and days after the horror show in Motera , which had Poms worldwide calling for his sacking, Pietersen came up with an inning of rare counterattacking prowess and control, the like likes of which I can only remember twice in India. Tendulkar’s 160 odd on a Chennai turner where he repeatedly slog swept Warne’s ‘around the wicket’ fizzers to, and over the boundary and Adam Gilchrist’s whirlwind century at Mumbai that single handedly swept the first test the Aussie way in 2001. True, the quality of bowling KP faced was probably a tad inferior to that before either Sachin or Gilly, but that should not it any way detract from the sheer brazen skill and bravado on display. More than once I was reminded of Matthew Hayden’s words in his autobiography about VVS Laxman’s strokeplay in the Kolkata miracle of 2001 – “Kids , do not try this at home”.

India may still have that little bit extra to edge out the series but they had better be warned....back in the 2005 Ashes (no matter that they were held in England), the Poms came back after a drubbing at Lords just with a relentless intensity that caught the Aussies of guard......back before the beginning of the series, 5-0 predictions had been made...sound familiar ???

Not much more to write then...but to be thankful to the glorious test matches cricket for having restored the faith....and to sit back and enjoy Perth and Kolkata and Nagpur....if the start is any indication, there is plenty of lip smacking fare on offer. 

The King Abdicates : Lock up the Throne Room

Tribute to Michael Schumacher

There have been sporting heroes and plenty of them.....Some supremely successful, some not to the same extent......from Shane Warne to Alessandro del Piero, from Roger Federer to Ernie Els, from Kobe Bryant to Lance Armstrong (well, at least in those glorious days of innocence)....but there has never been one who has captivated my imagination as much as Michael Schumacher.

In those early days of the nineties, where cable TV introduced me to the joys  of unfettered  sports viewing (up until then restricted to Indian cricket, the world cup football and the latter rounds of Wimbledon) , I still remember the first TV ads of Formula 1 on Star Sports –

“Watch Schumacher and Hill....go Wheel to Wheel....in a nail biting mayhem”

....and then on a fateful Sunday afternoon, I found myself staring at the starting grid of the Hungarian GP. Michael retired from the race after an engine blow-up, while Damon Hill led from start to finish but a connection had been made. I still do not know what it was in that first race that made me a lifelong Schumi faithful....perhaps the fact that he was reigning world champion, or perhaps that the sky blue Benetton car looked so much cooler than the old Williams.....or maybe even to an untrained eye, there was something about the Schumi style. The deal was sealed in 2 exceedingly memorable races later in the season  - at Spa (Belgium) , where he won after starting from 16^th position on the grid and at Nurburgring (in probably the best individual drive I’ve witnessed in nearly 2 decades of F1 viewing) in a crazy wet-dry race, Schumi came out of nowhere to pass leader Jean Alesi, then fell behind after his routine pit stop, covered the entire time gap in 15 odd laps and passed the Frenchman again in the final few laps to seal his victory.

Michael Schumacher’s place my personal hall of fame was sealed......all that remained was for him to cement his name as the greatest in the sport. That for a few years looked exceedingly unlikely in those initial years after the famous move to Ferrari....the multitudes of technical glitches in the first year (still that huge victory in the downpour in Barcelona reaffirmed his genius), the infamous clash with Villenueve , the near miss to Hakkinen and finally the accident at Silverstone which prematurely cut his season short. Leading into the next season, it was almost like now or never for Schumi and boy did he deliver....and thereafter swept all and sundry in a performance of such exhalted dominance by himself and his team, which I am certain will never be matched – so much so , that the rules of the sport had to be drastically altered to bring Michael and Ferrari back into the pack.

Those Sunday evenings in the college TV room were unforgettable....seats were booked in advance almost as if this was India in a major one day international cricket final....there were 2 distinct groups...the ardent Schumi lovers and the Schumi haters....the latter did not seem to mind who won as long as it wasn’t Michael. From Montoya to Coulthard to Kimi to little brother Ralph , they would root for anyone who could be perceived as denying him that inimitable leap on the top of the podium. That single fact alone bears testimony to his greatness.

From what I see and hear today....there are ardent Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton fans...probably some Kimi and Button ones as well.....but back in those heady days of the first part of the noughties.....there were only 2 outcomes to a race...either Schumi won or he didn’t (people, by the beginning of the next race, would forget who’d won the previous one).  For us, his faithful followers, the tone for the coming fortnight was set by his performance on raceday. The standard line on those rare bleak Sunday evenings, over the 9-30 cup of coffee at midway would be “Haar gaye.....ab agle do hafte kharaab niklenge.” It was never “Schumi haar gaya”...always “hum haar gaye”

7 titles (5 in a row with Ferrari), 91 race wins , 60 odd poles and the almost certainly never to be eclipsed record of 13 wins in a year (out of 18 races) – aye Schumi , had done me justice for the faithful support during those shaky initial Ferrari years. Yet, for all those years of unbridled joy, Schumi has done, at least me, and surely a host of other supporters a grave injustice. He spoilt the sport for me to the extent that after his inital retirement – there was almost unease at trying to sit through a race that didn’t have the German on the grid. There were great moments in the sport, but the adrenaline never shot up the way it did in the Schumi years – and almost certainly will never do so again. Vettel is young and may yet get to 7 or more, but he will never consistently blow the field away season after season like the senior German. What’s more , there will scarcely be another singular personality who monopolized the frenzy of all and sundry in a single sport. Roger Federer has a Nadal , Michael Jordan has a Magic, Messi has a Ronaldo....but Schumi at his scintillating best , had only himself for comparison, the rest very too busy trying to unlap themselves.

I winced when Michael announced a return to the sport....perhaps a premonition to what lay ahead – yet faith in his genius and the joy of the caged fan appeased all other anxiety....maybe not a championship but surely race wins would come, maybe even that magic 100 number might be achieved.  With great anticipation I tuned in yet again for his return season. Alas! My hopes were misplaced. In a relatively underperforming machine, Michael struggled to keep up with the pack. The biggest disappointment was his being consistently 2^nd best to teammate Nico Rosberg. Here was the greatest of them all, fighting for mid-table positions against drivers he would have lapped twice in one race in his heyday. Perhaps age had caught up and the reflexes did not allow him to execute what his mind thought was possible- a fair explanation for the myriad of pile ups in his last 2 seasons.

Yet now that he has fittingly called it a day, these final seasons will soon seem like a minor blimp compared to the days of his glory. Michael Jordan’s return with the Washington Wizards does not lower his standing in baseball. In a similar vein, Michael Schumacher’s legacy is set in adamant, at the very top of the sport. He will be remembered for that bicycle ride in Spa before his Jordan debut,  for the maverick early seasons with Benetton and of course for the all consuming domination of his Ferrari- a domination that which brooks little comparison , in this sport or another.

Farewell Michael....thanks for the years of unfettered joy.