Fab Four & the Captain (Part 1)

Another series loss, on a day an Indian made us proud of his exploits at Beijing, and the arch villains!

Dravid must go! Ganguly must go! Fab Four must go! There are war cries already which will soon reach defeaning cries! Wiser counsels, enough of them say, these guys have been such great servants of Indian cricket. Their career needs atleast a decent burial. Besides, Indian cricket will suffer!

My memories went back to 1978-79. I was a tot! Rememeber the Friendship series against Pakistan, when Zaheer Abbas hit the quartet out of the Indian team. It was unthinkable - Indian cricket without the quartet. But Sunil Gavaskar rebuilt the bowling attack within 6-8 months and the void left by these great bowlers were alleviated to some extent!

Remember 1982-83. Vishwanath, the greatest batsman of the times had come back from Pakistan after a rare disastrous tour. He was dropped from a side which was to embark on the toughest tour of those times, the West Indies. To go to the West Indies, without Vishwanath was as unthinkable those days as going to Australia without VVS Laxman these days! But still the decision was taken inspite of Vishy's show in the previous tour to England where he had four fifties in five innings! What probably sealed the decision for the selectors was the one sight of Vishy being hopelessly bowled by an Imran indipper at Karachi!

Few months later, when the West Indies were here for the grudge tour, Mohinder Amarnath was dropped after just a solitary run from six innings. This was the same Amarnath who had a great 12 months preceding this series. Remember that he scored more than 500 runs in each of the twin series in Pakistan and West Indies - the toughest assignments those days. His knocks in Pakistan and Barbados are stuff that legends are made of. Remember his match-winning roles in the triumphant World Cup campaign. But when the West Indies came here, he struggled to come to terms with the short-rising deliveries aimed at his body and he failed miserably. Still the bunch of jokers made the decision. Jimmy, as was his wont, fought his way back to the Indian team and was incidentally the top-scorer against David Gower's English team.

The point is that there have been enough instances in the past when the selectors had to bite the bullet and they have chosen to do so. It's their time of reckoning!

Look at the records of the Fab Four and the Captain!

Let's start with Sachin Tendulkar! Now, I just have to utter Sach, and I know there are people who will remind me of his twin hundreds in Australia. I have some damming statistics - eight innings after that Adelaide knock, he has scored 108 runs at an average of 13.5. What is even more telling is that the manner in which he padded upto Mendis and was adjudged leg before. The whole world picked it! How could he not? Is it not a sure sign that his game is not there? A drive on the rise may gladden few hearts but not good enough to make a serious contribution.


Anybody who has had a serious decline over the last 12 months, it is Dravid. What a fall from those glory days. A year back, he was India's best one-day batsman and prior to that the torch bearer of Indian batting for five years. Victories at Adelaide, Kingston, Rawalpindi, and Headingly were built around his batting. Now you look at him and you shudder where his next run is going to come from. He looks like the Dravid who went to Australia in 99-00, pretending as the best batsman after Tendulkar and scratched around for runs. I recently read a piece from Roy Dias, which opened my eyes. According to Dias, if a cricketer begins to struggle with his fielding and catching, it's a sign that your game is not there. You can scratch around for a hundred but your (lack of) athleticism will show up. In Dravid's case, some of the catches he has dropped can only be an indicator about his lack of fitness, if not form. Since the match-winning knocks at Kingston two years back, he has scored 1197 runs in 40 innings at an average of 33.25 (almost down 23 from his career average of around 56) and a strike rate of 27 during the same period against a career strike rate of 41. What it tells you is that Dravid doesn't know where his next run is coming from.

When I saw Laxman walk to the crease, I was astounded by what
I saw. A seemingly-portly figure walked into bat. Guys, we are in modern sport! A player's body language sends signals to the opposition - either positive or negative. Laxman's body language clearly suggests that he is a bunny! The flicks to midwickets, and the off-drives are all there but what is not there is athleticism. He was never athletic, but with advancing (sounds old, yes old) age, this looks HUGE! Thank you, sir for all the entertainment. It's time to move on!

The last two actors in the drama shall be dealt with in the next post!