From: 9063iyerm@vms.csd.mu.edu (Murali Iyer)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: Fielding, how tough is it?
Date: 9 Apr 92 22:10:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: vms.00958DA0.09A9E260
Reply-To: 9063iyerm@vms.csd.mu.edu
Organization: Marquette University - Computer Services


I have often wondered how test cricketers bring off some of the outstanding
catches that they so often do. And some do --or did-- this at an amazing
frequency. The people who spring to my mind are Rod Marsh, Solkar, Randall,
Kirmani, Sobers, Colin Cowdrey, Harper, Richards, ......the list can go on. 

The main question in my mind was : How do they do it? And are ordinary
people capable of such feats? I wondered for a long time. Then, suddenly, I
found myself in the midst of such stupendous acts. And the wonderful thing 
was that they happened in matches which could be termed as "local" matches. 

In retrospect, it seems to me that the positive change in fielders' and
bowlers' attitude came about around the early and mid-eighties. The change  in
the approach to fielding was especially obvious after the 1983 world cup and
the B&H world series which India won in 1984-85(?). The superb coverage given
by Channel nine provided an opportunity to viewers all over India -- I can only
talk about India, since I do not know the impact of TV coverage on other
countries' viewers -- to actually see the effort put in by the cricketers to
excel on the field. And the slow motion helped no end. It was not long before
young cricketers at the league levels started trying to emulate Azhar, Javed,
Logie and the other fleet-footed fielders of the world.

Aggressive bowlers also became quite common. They would not tolerate fielding
lapses which resulted in an extra runs or two, nor dropped catches.
Wicket-keepers started playing important roles in many teams. The list can go
on and on. But the main reason behind all this was that India, which was
hitherto labelled as an ordinary --or even below par-- fielding side, won
matches with the help of superb fielding and aggressive bowling. To name a few,
Azhar, Srikkanth, Kapil (with his run-outs, pivoted on the balls of his feet,
turning around after cleanly picking the ball up on his follow-through; his
unforgettable catch to dismiss Richards) and Gavaskar, were people to make
a lasting impression on the paying/playing public. Mohinder who was not too
well-known for his fielding, turned out to be the quietly excellent fielder.
Shastri could not stop himself from going for the slide-stops in the outfield.
Such was the excellence Indian team achieved on the field.

All this made youngsters sit up and take notice of the neglected area of their
cricketing abilities. These changes were taking place in my third-division
league team, too. The most important thing we all realised was that everything
was in the mind of the individual. If the fielder believed in himself and
worked with an objective, nothing was impossible. I would not have believed it
possible but for the fact that some outstanding catches were taken right in
front of my eyes, and even I took some apparently impossible catches! There
were many fielders who did not drop a single catch for years together. Not
only that, they made it look like the ball was always coming towards them.
Diving for the ball became quite common. 

I remember a catch my team-mate took when he was supposed to be standing at
second slip. This guy was a very, very obese young man. Batsmen never believed
that he could even move about on the field, and thought, hence his position at
second slip. As if to reinforce this belief in batsmen, our captain rarely
moved this fellow out of the slips area. When spinners came on, he would be the
lone slip, chewing gum and muttering to me, grumbling about the hot sun and
loss of body-fluids. God forbid the day when he so much as scratched himself
while going for a ball! I would be treated to ears-full of choice curse words,
self-pitying stories of how much he gave for the team and cries of whatever did
the team do to deserve this selfless fielding? And invariably the skipper
avoided looking this fellow in the eye for about ten overs after an accident
like this. The biggest injury this fellow ever had needed a 3" X 1" band-aid
plaster, but listening to him whine, one would think he had a broken leg or
had lost his precious stones while going for a pull! But none of this can take
away the fellow's ability on the field.

Back to the catch. This was a crucial league match for us, which means if we
lost we would be staring a demotion in the face. Not too common those days for
our team. The openers of the opposing team were going great guns, for once
paying us back in our own coin. In other words, they started attacking from the
word go and our opening bowlers knew not where to bowl. The time tested
approach of bowling just outside the off-stump when in doubt did not look like
yielding any result that we wanted. Many square-cuts and late-cuts were
executed with impunity and runs were flowing. It was then that our skipper
reduced the slip cordon to just one. Satya --that was our friend's name -- was
the only guy beside me, slightly farther than usual. The gully was very wide
and could almost be termed short point. 

Like many times earlier, the batsman slashed a ball outside the off-stump and
the ball was travelling at terrific speed towards the fielder at short-point,
very low for him to take a catch. When the fielder turned away to avoid injury,
lifting his left ankle about a foot above the ground in the process, the ball 
hit his boot's toe-end and popped up just a lttle bit. Before the ball could
land, the solid figure of Satya banged into the point fielder, his right hand
miraculously nestling the ball within!! I cannot for my life imagine how he
travelled so far within such a short time. He literally flew a few feet after
lunging from his position. The batsman was flabbergasted! More than that, the
point fielder had apparently stopped breathing! No, thank God! He did not die.
He was just knocked out of breath by Satya's girth banging into him at
such high velocity. He did not know what hit him, really. We had a hard time
convincing him it was only Satya and not any thunderbolt which had struck him.
:--) Ahh! I loved having that guy beside me. But this fielder said he preferred
a thunderbolt to Satya. :--) Amidst all this, Satya came back to me and started
pointing to his elbow and the tiny spot of crimson, and started...... I could
not help wondering whether these catches he took were worth all the
belly-aching he indulged in. :--)

His acrobatics inspired me to do somethings I did not believe I could do. Maybe
I will tell you about it some other time. I have dragged on long enough. 

But the fact is that cricketers can achieve very high levels of competence on
the field if only they apply themselves to it. Especially the Indian
cricketers. They should not forget the lessons so effectively learnt only a few
years ago. The core is still there in the form of Azhar, Kapil and Srikkanth.
In fact, the core is stronger because we have another man who believes he can
conquer the world with his talents, Sachin Tendulkar.  Here is hoping for a
resurgence of that wonderful time. 

-Murali.

                               Murali Iyer 
Office: (414) 288 6890                             Home  : (414) 288 8576
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