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Remember those bad old days of the late 90s and
early 2000s? When we Indian cricket-lovers lost
count of the number of times we turned green with
envy? All we had to do to experience the pangs of
jealousy was to look at virtually every cricket
team barring our own. Pakistan had Wasim Akram and
Abdul Razzaq, with Moin Khan and Rashid Latif
battling for one spot, and Azhar Mahmood making a
guest appearance every now and then. Australia had
the one-and-only Adam Gilchrist. England had Andrew
Flintoff, and New Zealand had Chris Cairns and
Daniel Vettori. South Africa had Kallis, Klusener,
Pollock and Boucher.
The point is, all the elite cricketing nations on
the planet had in their ranks atleast one
individual who was actually two cricketers rolled
into one. His versatility had in fact enabled his
team to first reach and then maintain its 'elite'
status. But the land of Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri
could not be included in the same breath.
It wasn't that we Indians had an opportunity to do
so. In fact, we had as many as three opportunities
in the middle-to-late 1990s. Anil Kumble, Javagal
Srinath and Ajit Agarkar were three cricketers who
had it in them to fill the redoubtable Kapil's
'all-round' boots, not wholly, but substantially.
What the Haryana Hurricane could achieve on his
own, the trio could have accomplished together. At
numbers eight, nine and ten, they could have lent
solidity to the brittle middle-order that cost
India many a precious game of cricket in the late
90s. That they could do much better than grip the
bat correctly was a fact known to the entire
nation, who had witnessed Kumble bat out of his
skin to score 88 against a fiery Allan Donald at
Kolkata in 1996-97 and Srinath blunt the fearsome
Courtney Walsh to score 60 at Mumbai in 1994-95.
Agarkar's pyrotechnics in the 'death' overs of many
a one-dayer in the late 90s convinced many that the
future of the Indian 'tail' was bleak, in that it
would no longer be referred to derogatorily as a
'tail'. But the trio flattered to deceive. That was
one of Indian cricket's biggest tragedies, probably
as huge as the inability of leg-spinner L.
Sivaramakrishnan and wicketkeeper-batsman Sadanand
Vishwanath to click on a sustained basis at the
highest level in the 1980s.
But the years of frustration are now over. India
today has not one, but two all-rounders in its
ranks, who have done enough in their brief careers
to show that they will not go the
Srinath-Kumble-Ajit way. While it is certainly
premature to compare Irfan Pathan and Mahendra
Singh Dhoni to Andrew Flintoff and Adam Gilchrist
respectively, there is no doubt that they have the
talent and temperament to have a long stint at the
international level.
Both men were sensationally used as 'floaters' in
the Indian one-day side by skipper Rahul Dravid and
coach Greg Chappell in the 2005-06 season. And both
delivered spectacularly. In Pathan's case, Dravid
and Chappell sought inspiration from Sachin
Tendulkar. It so happened that in a Duleep Trophy
encounter between the West and South Zone in early
2005, Tendulkar promoted Pathan to no. 3 when West
Zone needed a little over 200 to win. Pathan
responded with a blazing match-winning hundred. Far
from being demoralized, South Zone and future India
skipper Rahul Dravid was delighted.
Irfan Pathan possesses all the attributes of a
batsman: a still head, a compact stance, and
run-hunger. He is elegant, as all left-handers
generally are, and his driving on the up with the
full face of the bat meeting the ball cannot help
but remind you of his first international captain.
Add to that his prodigious ability as a bowler, and
a committed approach in the field that reminds you
of the legendary Kapil, and you have the
close-to-complete package
Another player who epitomizes the bold, new India
as much as Pathan does is the belligerent buccaneer
from Ranchi. India's new pin-up boy has had a
wondrous year. His swashbuckling batsmanship turned
many a match on its head, and made all the
difference in India's stunning 4-1 win in Pakistan.
The appeal made by the Pakistani President, wherein
he advised the buccaneer to refrain from having a
haircut, elicited a lot of claps at the Gaddafi
stadium in Lahore, soon after Mahendra Singh Dhoni
had taken India to a breathtaking victory. But
those claps and cheers were nothing compared to
those heard in every Indian town when he launched
into the Pakistani bowling with a required rate of
seven an over staring him in the face.
A careful study of World Cup statistics reveals
that the last six out of eight tournaments were won
by teams that had atleast one quality bowling /
keeping all-rounder in their ranks. The West Indies
teams that won in 1975 and 1979 were so awesome
that they could do without one! India (1983) had
Kapil, Kirmani, Amarnath, Binny and Madanlal,
Australia (1987) had Steve Waugh and Simon
O'Donnell, Pakistan (1992) had the great Imran and
Wasim Akram, Sri Lanka (1996) had the
Jayasuriya-Kaluwitharana combine plus Aravinda De
Silva who bowled like a champ in the final, and
Australia (1999 and 2003) had the services of Adam
Gilchrist, Tom Moody and Andy Bichel. The
last-named will be reluctant to call himself an
all-rounder, but his back-to-the-wall innings
against England and New Zealand in the 2003 edition
proved that he was a man who put a price on his
wicket.
It has to be said, considering this background,
that India has a fairly good chance of making it to
the semi-finals atleast. India will need both
Pathan and Dhoni to be fit and hungry in March
2007. It remains to be seen whether the BCCI gives
them every chance to be so, by not scheduling
pointless one-day matches anywhere and everywhere. |