From: vigneswa@ecs.umass.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: CMJ matches-up the teams for the next match.....
Date: 27 Jan 93 11:51:51 GMT

England hope for higher marks from charm school

By Christopher Martin-Jenkins


     The series of one-day internationals between India and England
which got going, to general relief, with a rousing match typical of
the genre  at Jaipur last week, is being  played for the Charms Cup.
I shall find out soon enough when  I arrive in India today  exactly
what product it is that  Charms is hoping  to sell  through cricket.
What I hope above all, however, for the Test series which starts in
Calcutta on Friday is  that the cricketers themselves will sell the
charm of their unique game.  We have seen too much  of the scowl on
cricket's face  of late: let us now see the smile; not the smile of
sly calculation but the one  which wells up  from genuine  pleasure
and joy. The standing of Test cricket in  India is at stake in  the
three-match  series, due  to  continue  at  Madras (Feb  11-15) and
Bombay (Feb 19-23), and it is less important who wins than that the
integrity and superiority of the five-day game should be maintained - 
or revived.  

     There is a general impression being conveyed that Test cricket
is  already doomed in India.  In fact, though it seems to have lost
almost all public support in Pakistan, the game in the main part of
the  sub-continent  is  rather  like  a  threatened  ornithological
species:  healthy  when last  spotted but  rarely seen by anyone of
late.  Anxious eyes  are now watching, as if to see whether a breed-
ing pair can establish itself again and encourage a general revival.
Sometimes  conditions  can defeat  even  the  best  intentions  and
players  and  spectators  alike will  depend to some  extent on the
groundsmen to make invigorating cricket possible. 

     No  doubt  Keith  Fletcher  and  Sunil  Gavaskar, captains  in
possibly the most turgid Test series played, in 1981-2, would argue
that the pitches were as big a reason for the five draws out of six
as the disposition of the captains.  This time, the bowling of both
sides looks too  ordinary to gain a lasting  ascendancy on lifeless
pitches, especially  if  attitudes are  as negative  as India's  in
their recent series in South Africa. On the other hand, if Mohammad
Azharuddin is to save his cricketing skin and his team's reputation,
he ought surely to  conclude  that his  best form of  defence is to
attack.  He knows that  England possess  no fast bowler  of the sus-
tained menace  and quality of  Allan Donald, the  man who broke the
deadlock in Port Elizabeth, and if he can find an effective opening
pair he has plenty of batsmen who like  to assert  themselves  when
the mood  is right.  By  positive, as opposed to  reckless, cricket,
India  are  capable of  giving an  England team, who  have  started
indifferently, a highly  watchable run for  their money.  The alter-
native scenarios  are a dull stalemate, with neither  side prepared
to risk  enough to win, or  success in  Calcutta for England.  That
would surely lead to a new Indian captain - more likely to be Kapil
Dev  again  than Tendulkar - and to  possible mayhem  within Indian
ranks from  which England  could only profit, assuming civil unrest
does  not worsen to  the point that  the tour has  to be  abandoned.


     Happily, when  India last played a proper Test  series at home,
more than four years ago, groundsmen gave bowlers a chance.  Crowds
were both  large and  enthusiastic in  matches at Bangalore, Bombay
and  Hyderabad, India  beating  New Zealand  2-1 on  pitches  which
helped their then spin bowling pair  of Narendra Hirwani and Arshad
Ayub.  Conditions were even livelier when  India last played a home
match, a hastily arranged game against Sri Lanka at Chandigarh, the
14th  Indian city and the  17th Indian ground to  stage a  Test, in
November 1990.  It was  Azharuddin's  seventh match as  captain and
remains, 10 games  overseas later, his  only  success.  This oddity
apart, the Indian public have been starved of Test  cricket and the
decision to have only three matches this time, rather than five  in
1984-85 when England came from behind to win the rubber 2-1, hardly
suggests  confidence on the part of the  Indian board that they can
put the clock back to, for example, Jan 6, 1977.  On that morning I
witnessed 80,000  people bustling  into  Eden Gardens  at 9.45 even
though the home side were going into the final day facing the possi-
bility of defeat  within the space of  three balls.  Thank goodness
there was a  bit more cricket  than that.  Such blithely unsophisti-
cated days have gone.  

     People  everywhere want value  for their money  and spectators
have  been bewitched by the harlot charm of the one-day game.  More-
over, since cricketers have become so accessible through television,
touring teams no longer  hold the allure  which  came from  players
being  household names  yet distant,  unknown figures.  Nonetheless,
matches  have been shrewdly spread  across the vast  land this time,
so there  should be enough  novelty to  attract people.  The Indian 
board have  not had an  easy life  over these last few years.  They
were forced by  the Indian  Supreme Court  to rescind the fines and
bans imposed  on senior players  after they had  made a disapproved
tour to Canada and the United States, and they  had to preside over
the desperate  anarchy with  which the 1990-91 Duleep Trophy ended.
Rashid Patel, of West Zone, having  bowled a beamer at Raman Lamba,
of  North Zone, from several  yards up the pitch, lost all control
and chased him  with a stump: this  in the final of the  country's
most  important competition.  The  predictable  consequence (apart
from bans of 13 and 10 months for the two players) was a  riot and
the premature  end to  the match.  In the present  volatile social
climate tempers need to be kept under tight control. 

     Pride in themselves and their game, the responsibility of the
two captains and the presence of  Cammie Smith  as referee  should
ensure  that  matches  are played  with  dignity.  England  have a
favourite's chance.  Their recent record is better and they have a
big advantage in having a tested  opening pair in Graham Gooch and
Michael Atherton.  These two  had  opening stands of  204 (Lord's),
225 (Manchester) and 176 (Oval) against Kapil Dev, Manoj Prabhakar
and the rest in 1990.  Whereas  Javagal Srinath, a fast  bowler to
respect, is the only significant addition to India's  attack since,
England, at least  at this  stage of the  tour, have  considerable
bowling options which have been  widened by the decision to retain
Ian Salisbury.  Neil  Fairbrother and  Dermot  Reeve have  already
franked their value as one-day  cricketers and  Richard Blakey may
yet do  so, but  had  David  Gower and  Jack  Russell  been chosen
instead, England might  be taking the  field on Friday with  their
best team.  That is now a  sterile debate, if not  a forgotten one.
Much of  England's cricket  so far has been unconvincing, but that
is not unusual early in  any tour.  The matches  which matter  are
soon to begin.  Let us hope they will be  remembered for the right
reasons.

Thanks: The Daily Telegraph

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Vicky:
UMass, Jan 26, 1993