BANGALORE, 6 October 2004 — India’s Sachin Tendulkar will miss the first Test against Australia starting today due to an elbow injury. “Sachin is not playing in this Test match, he will probably play in the next,” India captain Saurav Ganguly told a news conference yesterday.
“We’ll definitely miss him. He’s a great player and contributes not just with the bat but also with his bowling.”
Tendulkar’s absence is a big boost to Australia, who are seeking their first Test series win in India for 35 years. He has been out of action since the Asia Cup final in August because of tennis elbow. He returned to the nets last week but said his arm was still very weak. The 31-year-old had been undergoing intensive treatment in a bid to start in the series. He also missed Australia’s three-day tour opener against Ranji Trophy champions Bombay.
Tendulkar briefly bowled at the nets yesterday but hardly moved his injured elbow, which was supported with an elbow cap. His tennis elbow, rare among cricketers, has been attributed to wear and tear due to non-stop playing since his test debut as a 16-year-old in 1989.
The last five years have been particularly tough on him, with various injuries to his back, foot, hand, ankle and hamstring.
Tendulkar has scored 9,470 runs in 114 Tests at an average of 57.39. He is just one behind Sunil Gavaskar’s world record of 34 Test centuries. Gavaskar said Tendulkar’s tight bat grip rather than his heavy blade could have caused the injury. “Sometimes when you are playing a long innings, you tend to grip the bat a little harder,” he told reporters yesterday.
“When you are keen to do well and the extra concentration is there, you sort of strain more. Right-handers use the top hand a lot, so at that point there is a bit of strain on the elbow.”
Gavaskar was appointed as consultant to the Indian team yesterday. Gavaskar, the first Test batsman to reach 10,000 runs, has in the past said he did not want a full-time role because of his television commitments.
He said: “I think my role will basically evolve over the period of this series. I will discuss at a meeting the areas that we need to look at and improve.”
Seasonal rain over the last week and a forecast of more showers for the next few days has only added to the uncertainty in both camps at the start of the highly-anticipated series.
Both India and Australia will name their playing elevens today morning, but Ganguly did not rule out including a third spinner in Murali Karthik to complement Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.
“I have never seen such a dry wicket in Bangalore,” said Ganguly. “It is bound to turn but a lot will depend on how the weather behaves.”
Australia, whose coach John Buchanan described the wicket as “terrible” on Monday, will lean heavily on Warne to deliver and the champion leg-spinner was ready for the task.
Warne, who needs six wickets to overhaul Muttiah Muralitharan’s world record of 532, will be supported by a three-pronged pace attack of Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz.
Kumble, meanwhile, hopes to claim his 400th wicket on home turf when the first Test against Australia starts here today — but preferably not on the opening day itself. The veteran leg-spinner is three wickets away from becoming the second Indian after Kapil Dev and the ninth in Test history to achieve the bowlers’ version of climbing Mount Everest.
“It would be great to get it in front of my home crowd,” the 33-year-old Bangalore-based software engineer said. “But hopefully it will not come on the first day because I want India to bat first on this wicket.” The 400-wicket club includes only eight bowlers so far: Muralitharan (532), Warne (527), Courtney Walsh (519), Glenn McGrath (440), Kapil Dev (434), Richard Hadlee (431), Wasim Akram (414) and Curtly Ambrose (405).
Supreme Court Approves Live Telecast of Series
In New Delhi, India’s top court yesterday finally gave a green light for the state-run broadcaster Doordarshan to telecast live the home series.
The decks were cleared after a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court issued an interim order deferring an application by Zee Telefilms against the Indian cricket board’s decision to award telecast rights to Doordarshan.
The national broadcaster Monday sealed the rights to show both the Australia and South Africa series in October and November following a last-minute deal with board officials.
The $22-million agreement includes four Test matches against Australia, two against South Africa and a One-Day International against Pakistan. The court said the deferral order would be operative till Dec. 2 by which time another a petition filed by the Zee network should be heard. The Court however directed the cricket board, Sony Entertainment Network and Prasar Bharti, an administrative body governing Doordarshan, to maintain separate accounts from the advertisements during the telecast.
