BOMBAY, 23 January 2004 — India’s brilliant display in the Tests which had the Australians after a long time engaged in trying to stave off a defeat has led to a new-found respect for the visitors. That has been enhanced by the inept performances of the third team in the tri-series and now there is talk of inviting the Indian team more often to Australia and even making the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as important as the Ashes.
With England hardly putting up a fight, busy as they usually are in looking for excuses, a regular contest with the Indians who also play an attractive brand of cricket and bring in the crowds is definitely more appealing to Australia. India is acknowledged as the financial engine of the game and so the spinoffs for the Australian players are also greater the more they play against India than it would be otherwise.
The crowds here for the tri-series have seen more Indian flags flying as more and more Indians have made the trip Down Under.
As always in such a scenario, it has led to some Australians believing that it’s the Indians who are living in Australia who are the ones supporting the visitors and that according to them is not on as they should be supporting the country they are living in and not the one where they or their ancestors were born.
This has been a bone of contention in England, in the West Indies and now it is beginning in Australia. The difference is quite clearly in the accents that indicate that these are visitors and not Indians living in Australia who are the ones supporting the visiting team. While the Aussie supporters have taken it in good spirit so far and there has been much good-humored leg-pulling going on in the crowd, there has been the odd Australian player who has shown that he is not impressed with this support against them. After the first game of the tri-series which was a close one till the rash of wickets cost India the game, there was more than one Aussie player who after the fall of the last wicket made a gesture to the army of Indian supporters which luckily wasn’t seen on TV.
Remember, during the recent tri-series in India, a group of Australian supporters wrote a letter of protest about the Indian skipper gesturing at them at one of the venues. Well, as could be seen at the first game, the Aussie players are now returning the favor, but the difference is that there won’t be any letter written by the Indian supporters who will accept it as being part of the game in another country.
What has been disturbing is the kind of comment that’s been hurled at some of the Indian spectators and once again it’s the patience of the Indians that has not led to an incident.
However, as the tri-series gets closer and the drinks start to flow, there is every possibility of an incident happening. The BCCI has been pulled up at ICC meetings for racial taunts at the West Indian players when the matches were called off in India due to crowd trouble, and though no Indian player has complained about such comments from Aussie spectators, it might be a different story if the Indian spectators are asked about it.
Cricket Australia has a very commendable policy against racial comment and heavy penalties too for its players if they indulge in it, but obviously there can be no control over spectators who often under the influence can say things they would not normally say.
No Board can totally control crowd behavior or comment and to censor it would drive crowds away. Quite simply, it is a matter of the upbringing one has had and that reflects on the way one conducts oneself in different situations.
The hammering that Brett Lee got from the Indians has led him to send an SOS to Dennis Lillee to come and help him sort out his problems. The former great has been in Lee’s corner ever since he began his career and believes that the best of Lee is still to come. There is no doubt that Lee along with Shoaib Akhtar is an exciting sight to watch when in full flow.
However, Lee’s belief, perhaps fueled by ignorant media comments about India’s ability to handle pace, led him to try and frighten the Indians on pitches which had very little help for him. Certainly the bounce in the pitches was nonexistent after the first hour’s play in both Melbourne and Sydney and this is not taking away anything from the valiant efforts of the Indian batsmen.
Lee has offered to fly Lillee wherever and whenever the great man is free to help him get his rhythm and pace back.
The number of no-balls that he bowled, some of which got him the ‘wickets’ of the Indians has led to questions being asked about the contribution John Buchanan makes to the team.
If a coach is not going to be able to help sort out the technical problems of players, then what is he doing there? If anything, the Test series proved that just like a captain is only as good as his team, so also is the coach.
Having McGrath, Warne to bowl sides out and the strong batting line-up to score quickly gave Australia the chance to win matches, but in the absence of the two bowlers they had a problem getting even ten wickets in the final Test at Sydney. Not only that, they seemed bereft of ideas as to how to get the batsmen out and that’s why the legitimate questions about Waugh’s captaincy and Buchanan’s coaching skills. Not too many former Aussie players are enamored with Buchanan and it’s a wonder that the world hasn’t seen another leaked letter or tactical inputs from the coach who has shown the intelligence to keep quiet and not attract any attention to the fact that Australia did not do well and were dominated by India in the Test series
Make no mistake however, if Australia wins the tri-series, the coach will have plenty to say about how he strategized the win.
It has been a quite different experience to see the arrogant attitude here turning to a bit of humility as the Indian team performed so well.
No more talk of batsmen not liking short bowling and no more talk of batsmen not having the stamina and stomach for a fight. In that itself it’s a victory for India.
