African Safari: The tour diary
Ashish Shukla - 30 October 2001
A Jumbo evening with the spinners
Whenever you bump into an Indian cricketer these days, the talk
unfailingly comes around to the subject of the England tour. Most of
them want the English to visit; after all, it has been nearly a decade
since they last toured India in 1992-93. That was the series that
started the legend of Mohammad Azharuddin as captain and Anil Kumble as
India's matchless bowler.
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Kumble, like everyone else, wants to know the fate of the winter tour. He tries to remember the name of the English cricketers who don't want to tour: "(Darren) Gough, (Craig) White, (Ashley) Giles, (Andrew)
Caddick and (Robert) Croft...all really are bowlers who don't want to
come to India." There is nothing malicious in this suggestion from
India's most gentlemanly cricketer; it is only a keen observation.
Jumbo moves on to the upcoming Test series against South Africa,
which is going to be his first in a while. "I haven't played a game
under Sourav (Ganguly)," the wily Indian leg-spinner says over a
steaming cup of coffee. "I have missed 11 Tests in all; the last one I
played was in Bangalore, against South Africa in 1999-2000." On that occasion, Kumble bowled 68.3 overs and picked up six wickets for 146 runs!
Meanwhile, his junior partner Harbhajan Singh wants to check up on his
figures in the Standard Bank tri-series. He has conceded less than four
runs per over and picked up nine wickets - the most by an Indian in the
series.
Bhajji, incidentally, misses his home a lot. There was a time
when the young man would have done anything to get another break in
international cricket. Now that he has established himself, it suddenly
seems the march of international cricket is ceaseless and that he would
never get home again! If one accounts for the series against England,
Zimbabwe and the West Indies that are scheduled until next September,
there are another 13 Tests to go for a top Indian cricketer before he
gets a break. That break too will be a short one; soon after that, it
will be time to join the rest of the teams for the 2003 World Cup in
South Africa.
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The talk of home and Punjab sees Sarandeep Singh's name popping up.
Bhajji is happy for his state-mate who did well in the Irani Trophy.
Navjot Singh Sidhu, once their state captain and a commentator on this
tour, too shares Harbhajan's delight. "Bhajji is brilliant, but
Sarandeep is a classical off-spinner, with the right kind of loop and
drift," remarks Sidhu. Knowing how dismissive Sidhu was of spinners,
especially of off-spinners, during his playing days, it is high praise
indeed.
Ganguly, meanwhile, appears to have chosen to take on the selectors
again. Deep Dasgupta, his team-mate in the Bengal Ranji squad, could
very well end up being a passenger for the rest of the tour. It is no
secret that Ganguly has strong views about the cricketers he wants in
his team. As a captain, he might have every right to do so, but
unfortunately the selectors are not always in agreement with him. The
positions on both sides have only hardened over a period of time.
Ironically, Ganguly might have unintentionally played a role in ensuring
that Dasgupta was retained for the Test series. Only on October 23 did
the rest of the world know that Rahul Dravid, not Dasgupta, will be
keeping wickets in the crucial tri-series game against Kenya at Boland
Park, Paarl. "If it had been decided earlier, before the selection for
the Test series was being debated, Dasgupta could have found himself in
the cold," remarked Sunil Gavaskar.
Talking about Sunny, he is not in South Africa these days. The legendary
opener has gone to Sharjah to oversee the technical aspects of cricket
matches hosted by the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series (CBFS).
Interestingly, he has not gone there in his capacity as the head of the
ICC's technical committee, but as a recent technical appointee of the
CBFS. His fellow-member on the CBFS board is that legendary English all-
rounder Ian `Beefy' Botham.
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