When India might have lost the World Cup to food

From 1983 World Cup to 1987 World Cup, many things changed in the realm of Indian cricket. From mere underdogs at the 83’ Cup to potential title winners in 1987, Indian cricket came a long way. They proved to the world that the 83 world cup victory was not a fluke by winning the Benson & Hedges World Series in Australia in 1985. In 1986, India won the Test series in England under Kapil Dev’s captaincy, but that series is more known for Dilip Vengsarkar’s exploits in the first two tests. His 3^rd consecutive test hundred in Lords (2^nd in that series), also gave him the tag ‘ Lord of Lords’ ’.

Dilip Vengsarkar continued his form in 1987, a year considered by many as Annus Mirabilis in his career. He also entered Wisden cricketers of the year listing that year. The two home series with Australia and Pakistan were perfect preparation going into the world cup at home. By then Sunil Gavaskar announced his retirement at the end of the world cup and Indian middle order was primarily revolving around Vengsarkar and India went into the World Cup as one of the contenders for the title. India almost cruised into the Semi Finals without any hiccups except the loss in the first league match against Australia.

Setting: 1987 World Cup, Semi Final between India and England in Mumbai, then Bombay. The preparation was fantastic and some Mumbai players got to stay at home too. However, the morning of the match threw up a big shocker as news of Dilip Vengsarkar not playing trickled in. The reason: he was down with food poisoning. Being a great fan of Vengsarkar those days, I was completely shocked knowing this, as many other fans would have been. When the match started and I read the starting XI and the replacement for Vengsarkar, my heart sank. It was Chandrakant Pandit, the stand-in wicket keeper, who was drafted into the team as a specialist batsman.

It would be harsh on other players to say that we lost the match because of the absence of Vengsarkar. But it certainly had an impact on the end result as he was the mainstay of Indian middle order during the period. It would be surprising to realize all that a sportsman has to consider with care these days, while the playing season is on, and more so when a major event is happening. Food certainly is one of them and today there are coaches and other support staff who ensure that these are taken care of. But do coaches and support staff really control what cricketers eat or drink?

World Cup 2011 - Fight for supremacy between oriental artistry and molded perfection

The world cup returns to the sub continent after a gap of 14 years. This will be a world cup which will see a battle between the artistry of sub continent teams and the laptop based analytical approach. Over the years teams like South Africa and Australia have used the latter technique to perfection. By analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each opposition player methodically, they tried adapting their game accordingly. It has yielded its own results. What that approach didn’t teach them, however was how to react in pressure situations, how to stay calm in crunch games and how to churn out class players year after year. South Africa have never won the world cup. The closest they came was reaching the semi finals. Australia, though they have a record to die for in world cup history, are fast realizing that cricketers can’t be churned out of laptops. However strong the lower level systems are, it finally boils down to the skills of the individual players, their perseverance and discipline and spotting those players early. All the success they achieved was not just due to the systems they had in place at domestic level, but because of a few individual players, all of who played together for a large part of their careers.

This is where the sub continent teams like India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan had been different. Lot of people described that watching some players from these countries was like watching a painter with a brush in hand. Today, these teams too have realized the importance of using analysis before games. But I don’t think these analyses really matter to players like Virendar Sehwag when they go out on to the field. So, players from these nations still are artistes. When you see Mahela Jayawardene you recall the word ‘touch artiste’ very much associated with tennis players like Ramesh Krishnan, for whom brute force was never an option. While one finds both types of players on either side of this divide (A Shoiab Akhtar in the mould of Brett Lee and Shaun Tait, A Graham Swann with fine spin skills) the divide itself is pretty much present and clear.

So, as the curtain rises for the start of the World Cup, this battle between artistic finesse and molded perfection is renewed. The pitches suiting spin bowling will surely test players from outside the sub continent. Whichever team adapts quickly to the grounds and conditions will come close to entering the last four. But one thing that can be assured is total entertainment for all cricket loving fans the world over. Let the entertainment begin!!!