False Tunes

Most former cricketers turned media-experts have a tendency to mislead cricket followers. The latest version is, “To win a Test, one has to take 20 opposition wickets.” Of course, every cricket follower knows that. It is obvious. But we also know that you have to score more runs than the opposition. Obviously enough, no point getting 20 opposition wickets and then losing 20 own wickets for less runs. No big deal.

This has nothing to do with Einstein or Kafka. There is no abstraction involved. It is simple class 1 maths. My only apprehension is that if genuine cricket addicts follow the ‘experts’ too closely, they will forget the normal cricket knowledge that they possess.

On a lighter note, let me relate an incident. Mohun Bagan’s secretary Dhiren Dey – known for is straight-face wit – once addressed the club cricket team, “Just score one run more than East Bengal. One more goal in football and one more run in cricket. Very simple!”

Years back the doyen of cricket writers Neville Cardus had lamented, “The score-board is an ass.” What he meant was, do not have total reliance on bare statistics. Absolutely to the point.

Kohli’s overseas Test series victories have been against lowly Sri Lanka and very pathetic West Indies of recent times. These teams are way below India in the Test rankings. What credit is there in winning against wooden-spoonists?To win against them is no different from winning Tests against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

Instead of trying to mislead cricket followers, it would be best if our so-called experts learn to give credit to those captains who have won Test series for India abroad against top quality teams like Australia, South Africa, England and the West Indies of earlier decades.

Ajit Wadekar led India to overseas victories in West Indies and in England in 1971. Kapil Dev defeated England in England in 1986, following his marvellous achievement in the 1983 world cup. Rahul Dravid led India to defeat Lara’s team in West Indies in 2006 and then England in their own backyard in 2007. In between Dravid also won a Test in a losing series in South Africa as well as a Test on Pakistan soil. Unfortunately these captains have never got their rightful due.

We are obsessed with captains who have the media dance to their ‘false’ tunes. Please note that India is yet to win a series in Australia and in South Africa.

Now, instead of trying to mislead the cricket followers with long lectures, the team management and the players would do well to acknowledge the glorious deeds of Wadekar’s, Kapil’s and Dravid’s men. But will our ‘experts’ ever learn to admit the truth?