BOMBAY, 24 December 2004 — With a few more days to end the year the usual review, stock-taking, or drawing up of a balance-sheet, so to speak, is a must. In India, the masses stayed glued on cricket. In the roller-coaster ride that it had in 2OO4, the best way to describe the performance of the Indian team is to draw on the parable of good, bad and the ugly.

After beginning the year with the extension of a glorious tour of Australia, the team led by Sourav Ganguly went into an unprecedented phase of success by beating Pakistan in Tests and One-dayers for the first time in the latter’s own backyard. The good gave way to bad, when on their own home soil, the team performed dismally against the very same Australian side, which they had matched run for run and wicket for wicket just a few months ago. A highly inflated victory in the fourth Test on a sub-standard wicket in Bombay was the only saving grace for the Indians. The pitch at the Wankhede Stadium came in for severe criticism from one and all as the Test match ended in two days. This indeed was strange for two strong teams. But for the record, India finished with a 1-2 defeat in Tests and a more frustrating one in the ODIs. The team’s performance against a weak South African side was not such as to derive much pleasure from and the clean sweep of two Test matches against Bangladesh could best be described as a “slaughter of the innocents.” It was the one-dayers in Sri Lanka, Holland and England that was the cause of great concern for the Indian team and could be termed as a bad phase.

The “ugly” came in the only match against Pakistan at Calcutta’s Eden Gardens. The day-night match, played to commemorate 75 years of Indian cricket, turned out to be a virtual one-sided one for Pakistan, but it will be remembered more for the manner in which the Indian skipper displayed unnecessary gamesmanship. His delaying tactics led to the side bowling 10 overs short of the quota at the end of the normal time. The match-referee penalized him and handed out a three-match suspension to Sourav Ganguly. It was finally the great influence of Jagmohan Dalmiya that forced the ICC to set aside this penalty and Ganguly could lead the side against South Africa. Only three ODIs remain to be played against Bangladesh and it would be terribly naïve on anyone’s part to think that the result in these matches could be anything other than victories for India. Coming to individual performances, the top stars generally did not fare well. They might have got an occasional big score but they woefully lacked consistency. The bowlers, however, stole the limelight with their stout-hearted performances. It was particularly a great year for the newcomers.

The most outstanding performance came from young Irfan Pathan. The 19-year-old, who made his Test debut in Australia in late 2OO3, has not looked back since. In nine Tests he has already taken 38 wickets, with a 5-wkt haul three times. What is remarkable about this young and modest cricketer is that he is increasingly developing into an all-rounder that India have been desperately looking for. Coming toward the end of the innings, he has an average of close to 24. He has bowled his heart out and was mainly responsible for India winning the series in both forms of the game in Pakistan. Irony of ironies, a young player who has finally showed his true value is today without a permanent place in the playing eleven in Test matches. The reference is to Mohammed Kaif. His statistics may not look all that outstanding, having scored 153 runs in just three Test matches. But on more than one occasion he has come to the rescue of the side or has played a match-winning innings. There is no doubt that he is one of the finest fielders in the world. He is at the moment not fighting so much against the opposition, as he is against his own colleagues for a place in the side. Somewhere, it is felt that a grave injustice is being done to this outstanding young player. It must once again be said that the leading lights did not come to full bloom. Although, they had a couple of big innings to show for their standing, one had expected much more from Virendra Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar. If India lost a few Tests and one-dayers, it was only because, the gallant bowlers did not have enough runs on the board to achieve victories. And to think that Tendulkar scored two double centuries and Sehwag a score of 3O9, to be the first Indian triple-century maker among Indians. The big flops of the year were V.V.S. Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel and to a lesser extent, Sourav Ganguly. More and more youngsters are on the rise and the senior players cannot afford to be complacent any more. The year-ender is a pointer to the shape of things to come in the new year.