To the good fortune of cricket’s buffer fraternity is that it has so much to reminisce. Decades of polishing these anecdotes have given them a lustre that more recent debacles have somewhat corroded. We even do not have to go for decades but a few, just think of the nineties, how joyous it must have been for the crowds to be inspired by the authority of Arjuna Ranatunga or the wondrous aggression of Aravinda de Silva and the magician himself Muthiah Muralitharan notwithstanding the fielding wizardry of Roshan Mahanama, and the resilience of Asanka Gurusinha and Hashan Tillakaratne.
My own vivid memory of cricket by contrast is of Abid Ali the Indian military medium pacer destroying the English middle order at Manchester in 1971. It could so easily have been Barry Richards or Clive Lloyd or Dennis Lillee, or even Geoffrey Boycott who persuaded cricket fans that cricket was the game of games. In 1971, India was still famous for their distinctive famous four spin wizards, Bishen Singh Bedi, Erappali Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and S Venkatraghavan. Jim Laker had already said that they would be a threat to England, while Abid Ali and Eknath Solkar (I had the good fortune to play against him as a schoolboy international), the lowly medium pacers who came on at the beginning to take the shine off the ball were purely to make up the numbers. In 1971 England had the burly fast bowler, John Snow who could have come out of a mine, had there been any mines in Sussex and Peter Lever and another of the England fast bowlers who was never quite as good as hoped they were going to be. The legendary figure of J.S.E. Price, whose run up started somewhere in the stands, was also in selectorial favourite.
In comparison, Solkar and Abid Ali looked totally harmless. Short of stature- they had about them the distinct air of cannon fodder. The commentators were polite, but even an unusually trusting prepubescent like me got the distinct impression that any batsmen would be able see them off as long as they did bring his bat out with him.
And yet, over the years Solkar came to dismiss Geoffrey Boycott so many times that some bold observers were even heard to whisper the word “bunny” in connection with the great batsman.
And on the morning of 5 August 1971, Abid Ali disposed of Jameson (on his debut), Edrich, Fletcher and D’Oliveira to leave England on 41 for 4. I was flabbergasted to see this scenario unfolding in front of my very own eyes. Abid Ali military looking and of that, pace to match, went through the English top order like a walk in the park. To put the icing on the cake another English batsman bit the dust 41 for 5. But in 1971 this English team under Ray Illingworth had played 25 successive tests without defeat. Since losing to Australia in 1968 (the year I went to England) eventually drawing the series, they had drawn 0-0 in Pakistan, beaten both New Zealand and West Indies at home, regained the Ashes 2-0 in Australia, won 1-0 in New Zealand and beating the emerging Pakistanis 1-0 at home; this was the most successful run in cricket history. Then Abid Ali came along and reduced this all conquering side to 41 for 4. I was so proud of my “brown brother.”
However the “bull dog’ spirit of the English was there and rising from the ashes so to say, came back to score 386. Illingworth himself led from the front scoring 107 and Peter Lever batting at no. 9, remained unbeaten on 88. India scored 212, Brain Luckhurst scored a century in the second innings and Abid Ali did not take another wicket in the rest of the series. They had got the hang of Ali. Had it not bucketed down on the fifth day, England might have won.There unbeaten run remained intact, albeit not for long, as Chandrasekhar got to them in the final test at the Oval.
The injuries to Sri Lanka players and their attitude and not their innate ability, has been the major causes to our slide in cricket. Rotating the players judiciously, now that we have a large pool and India are doing it with success, it has been like musical chairs since of late. Like the Aussie players they are fitness addicts. And I can see that here in Melbourne, they play a lot of ball games when they are young at school, which tunes most of their muscles in the body. Most of them play footy too, which can give the body a good toning up.
We should not hack players till they become plagued with injuries or get jaded due to fatigue. Dilshan Munaweera has been knocking on the door and came good at last, what’s up with Dhananjaya de Silva, he should not been shown the door after one poor performance, he is a class act.
Mental tuning is another requirement, as I mentioned earlier a psychoanalyst is a must since our squad is young, by and large. Niroshan Dickwella clearly does not know how to plan out a long innings and the opposition knows that well and his wicket is always “gift wrapped” to say the least. Many captains were trapped in the “jigsaw puzzle” fighting for their places to advice the talented youngster Kusal Mendis who is also unguided thus far and his focus has gone haywire.
It is good to” have horses for courses”. And in the T20 arena we can still be good as any other. Unfortunately, now the team spirit has evaporated, and the captaincy of Upul Tharanga! If he can captain like the way, he plays those sublime cover drives!
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