Coming to terms with reality
In sport, as in life, one must never lose perspective
Partab Ramchand
31-Oct-2000
In sport, as in life, one must never lose perspective. But then in
India, the sports fans are not really known for balanced views. If a
team wins, they shower it, most of the time, with praise of the
undeserving kind. And when the team loses, they shower it again, but
this time with the kind of venom that the team does not really
deserve. It is so very important to treat Rudyard Kipling's two
imposters - victory and defeat - with the same equilibrium. But then
we are creatures not of logic but of emotion and we frequently tend to
distort a team's performance.
Writing in his autobiography `Running into Hundreds', published in the
early sixties, Ken Barrington makes a few pertinent comments in this
regard. With a string of high scores - including a century in each
innings - in the county championship in 1955, he was included in the
England team for the first Test against South Africa following heady
praise in the British press. He was then 24, but as he admits he was
`not yet ready and was rushed into the big league.' Not surprisingly,
he failed and was promptly discarded for four years before coming back
into the England side in 1959 after considerably tightening up his
batsmanship. Recounting his unhappy debut, he says it is very
important for people not to lose perspective and indulge in overpraise
when the player is not yet ready for it.
Over the last fortnight or so, I have been frequently reminded of
Barrington's wise observations. Reading some of the opinions on the
showing of the Indian team at Nairobi in particular and the views on
players like Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan, there is no doubt that
writers have not put the performances in the proper perspective.
Newspapers and magazines have gone overboard in lavishing gushing
praise on the young duo, one national newsmagazine even carried a
cover story on `Indian cricket's new dawn' while another ran a special
feature on the two players. The encomiums showered on the team
bordered on the kind used to describe the triumph in the World Cup in
1983 and the accolades for Yuvraj and Zaheer brought back memories of
the adjectives used to describe Sunil Gavaskar's record breaking feats
in the West Indies in 1971.
There is no doubt that both Zaheer and Yuvraj did very well. But was
their performance deserving of the kind of praise that has been
showered on them? One has to come to the conclusion that, encouraging
as their showing was, the praise could have been a bit tempered. If
proof was needed that they were not as good as some `experts' thought
they were, it came about at Sharjah. And if proof was also needed that
the Indian team was not really deserving of the heady kind of praise
that had been showered on them, again proof of this was seen at
Sharjah.
Let's consider the performance of the Indian team first. What exactly
was their achievement to warrant phrases like `a team for the 2000s',
`entering a new phase' and `a new sheen and a new attitude that
signals a hunger to compete fiercely and win?' Yes, they scored two
splendid victories in a row over top rung teams Australia and South
Africa. But they could not cap it and lost to New Zealand who till
Nairobi had never even made the final of a major competition. It was a
very good performance but not a great one but then most of us got
carried away - so much as to gloss over obvious weaknesses in the
side. These shortcomings were ruthlessly probed at Sharjah. And by the
end of the campaign in the triangular series, the musical notes were
more sombre. ``The worst performance by the Indian team in the recent
past'' was coach Anshuman Gaekwad's assessment. What else could it be
when the margin of defeat in the final was the heaviest ever suffered
by any team in a one day international? Suddenly all the drum beating
stopped and the new dawn became the dark ages all over again.
Now let's analyse the performances of Zaheer and Yuvraj. The left arm
fast bowler started off in dream fashion with three for 48 against
Kenya, two for 40 against Australia and two for 27 against South
Africa. More than the figures, it was his manner of bowling, his pace
and bounce and aggressive instincts and his ability to send down the
perfect yorker that attracted considerable attention. But he failed in
the all important game against New Zealand (none for 54) and learnt
that cricket can be a great leveler. Against much less fearsome
opposition at Sharjah, he had spells of three for 37 and four for 42
in the two games against Zimbabwe but was far less successful against
Sri Lanka, his one wicket in three matches costing him 143 runs).
Yuvraj, like Zaheer, made a dream start hitting 84 off 80 balls
against Australia and following it up with 41 off 35 balls against
South Africa. In his case too, more than the scores it was his
belligerent approach, refreshing spirit and attacking skills that
caught the eye. In addition, he showed he was an outstanding fielder.
But then reality caught up with him too. In the final against New
Zealand he was reduced to scoring 18 and at Sharjah he had a really
wretched time with scores of 7, 7 and 3 against Sri Lanka, faring only
slightly better (34 and 4) against the weaker Zimbabwe attack.
So quickly then the two youngsters learnt that cricket, like life, can
be full of ups and downs. And so did the `new look' team, though for
many of the members, this roller coaster ride could not have been a
new experience. If anything, the trips to Nairobi and Sharjah have
shown that praise should be tempered. The overall performance at the
ICC KnockOut was very good, but not great. And the same can be said
about Zaheer and Yuvraj. But the paeans sung in praise of them were of
the gushing variety. The defeat in the final at Nairobi followed by
the dismal showing in Sharjah proved that what benign ol' Ken
Barrington wrote almost 40 years holds good today. And if Yuvraj and
Zaheer, far from getting carried away by the heady kind of praise,
learn that the best place for their feet is mother earth, they could
still serve the cause of Indian cricket for a long time to come.