From: vigneswa@ecs.umass.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: In the Steps of Jardine .... 
Date: 4 Jan 93 17:28:28 GMT

Gooch can follow in the steps of Jardine.....

By Scyld Berry (The Independent Dec 27, 1992)

	A few months short of 60 years have passed since England played
their  first Test  series in India.  Yet the  similarities between that
inaugural  tour, led by  Douglas  Jardine, and the  one that departs on 
December 28 under Graham Gooch, are encouragingly numerous.

	Take  the captains  for a start.  Now  Jardine was not  born in
Leytonstone, and he  never supported  West Ham, and he would definitely
not have responded to a pressman calling him "Jardie". But he and Gooch
have it in common that they have to be classified among England's half-
a-dozen best  captains, even if Gooch is not yet great at on-field cap-
taincy.

	In 1933-34 the series  consisted of three  Test matches, as the
forthcoming one will, and at the same  three centres of Eden Gardens in
Calcutta, Chepauk in  Madras, and Bombay.  The only difference  is that
the Bombay Test on this tour will be held at  the Wankhede Stadium, not
the Gymkhana  ground on the  Maidan, which was, incidentally, the first
Test ever to include Sunday play.

	On  Jardine's  tour  England  found  that  India's  bowling was
largely comprised of medium- pace, for all the  subcontinent's image of
being the land of snake-like twirl. This time it is sure to be the same
again: most of India's bowling is now done by  Kapil Dev, Prabhakar and
the new, quite lively Srinath, although the term "attack" is still best
reserved for what afflicts the tourists in the early hours.  Of India's
spinners, the  top-spinning  Anil Kumble  has accuracy and  bounce, the
left - armer Raju  accuracy and  spin, and the leggie  Hirwani spin and
bounce; but none possesses all three attributes.

	Increasingly, India's 20 years from 1961-2 are looking to be an
interregnum  in the reign of pace.  That was the period  when India had
their  wonderful spinners, and  it is only in that  period that England
have lost a Test series there.  Since then India have reverted to pace-
based  bowling like every other country: and it is medium - pace, which
might  wobble out a  few England  batsmen when the  ball is new, rather
than the  speed which can  complete a  collapse by wrapping  up a lower
order cheaply.

	Thanks  to the  playing  conditions as  well, England have  the
opportunity to win the series 2-0, as Jardine's party did.  These play-
ing conditions are new and  potentially  decisive, for they stipulate a
six-hour day in the Tests, instead of the 51 2 hours  hitherto in India.
It has been as much because of shorter hours  of play as the  grassless
pitches that in the  subcontinent alone half or more  Test matches have
ended in draws.

	A minimum of 90 overs a day has been agreed, along with 30-hour
Tests, in  accordance with  the ICC's new principles.  In 1981-82, when
England, under  Keith Fletcher, and  India, under  Sunil Gavaskar, both
brought  the game down to  the metabolic rate  of a water buffalo, only
350 overs  were bowled in  the 27 1/2 hours of the  Madras  Test, which
ended in the most mind-numbing of draws.  Had 450 overs been  delivered,
it may have reached a conclusion.

	England can make use of another advantage here, although specta-
tors and  media-wallahs might  not consider  it one.  To cram six hours'
play into the brief winter daylight, play has to start at 9.30 in Madras
and Bombay, and at 9.15 in Calcutta: one-day internationals have started
at so  unearthly an hour but  I cannot think that a Test has.  While the
outfield is due to be roped every morning, enough moisture should remain
in  the pitch to  stimulate  England's five  pace bowlers.  They will be
using Indian-made balls too - S.G. Test balls - which they have found at
Lilleshall to swing a little more than English ones.

	Strange as this may sound, the six one-day internationals in the
itinerary  provide another reason  why England should  beat India in the
Test series. Ever since India won the 1983 World Cup, a player who nicks
a winning four in the last over  of a one-day international has been far
more of a  hero than the  batsman who has  saved a Test with  a six-hour
hundred. So it is little wonder that India's current batsmen are wizards
at  making a quick  30 or 40 in favourable  conditions, but only  Sachin
Tendulkar has shown an appetite for the uphill struggle.

	Ajit Wadekar, the new  team manager, is an  old-soldier type who
will  do his  best to restore  Test  match values, but  he  is  fighting
against a  remorseless cultural shift.  The country's new  multi-million
mass of television-watchers, on  terrestrial and  cable channels, do not
care for a week to go by without India  playing a one-day  international
somewhere, if  not in a Test country then in  Dubai or Dhaka. (Kapil Dev
is about to clock up  200 one-dayers.)  And whereas  250,000  spectators
were estimated to have watched the four days of the Bombay Test in 1933-
34, it will  be a gratifying  surprise if  the whole of the  coming Test
series attracts as many.

	Another difference between then and now is that a neutral umpire
was  employed on Jardine's tour: the  old Australian all - rounder Frank
Tarrant, who was coaching in India. The other umpire was Bill Hitch, who
as a former Surrey pro and  colleague of Jardine's might not have always
been able to keep the England captain in his place.

	But perhaps the most  important feature of the tour which begins
is  that  it will last only 3 months, against the six months - including
sailing time - of England's first Test tour. By the time they finish off
in  Sri Lanka  England will have had  exactly the right amount of winter
cricket, which is both a preparation and an end in itself.

	Across  the other side  of the  world, meanwhile, Australia  are
being flogged into the ground by their administrators. They have already
had a three-Test series in  Sri Lanka;  they  are currently engaged in a
five-Test series against  West Indies, no rest cure; and they have three
more  Tests in  New Zealand, not to  mention a  gut-full of one - dayers,
before they reach  England for  next summer's six-Test series.  Provided
England stay in one piece this winter, it matters relatively little what
they do: for  so long as  Australia  do not  unearth a strike  bowler to
support Craig McDermott, I believe England have already begun the process
of winning the Ashes.

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Vicky:
UMass, Jan 04