Wright must shoulder much of the blame
Erapalli Prasanna - 17 December 2002
Caught between their cricketing and commercial interests, the
supermodels of Indian cricket must have been under the illusion that
all they had to do was strut their stuff and the Wellington Test would
be theirs. There was an obvious lack of effort from the visiting
batsmen who seemed to be only going through their motions. Probably it
was this apathy that also led to them showing a complete lack of
emotion after their abject performance.
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My mind goes back some 34 years to another Test match at Wellington -
the third match of a four-Test series. India had won the first Test at
Dunedin, which incidentally was also its first-ever Test match win
abroad. New Zealand bounced back well to take the second at
Christchurch. When the two teams came to Wellington for the all-
important third Test, the conditions were similar to those which
greeted Ganguly's men in the recent Test; it was cold and windy, and
the pitch had a lot of grass on it. But the then Indian team showed
the will to fight it out and win the match. Our eight-wicket win paved
the way for us winning the series 3-1.
I reckon the New Zealand team then was far superior when compared to
their present line-up, especially when it came to the batting. I
distinctly remember the right-handed opening batsman Graham Dowling.
If my memory serves me right, he scored 143 in the first Test at
Dunedin and then piled on 230-odd runs in the second Test at
Christchurch. The Kiwi batsmen then were good at playing the sweep
shot, a much-favoured form of play against our spin bowling attack
which included the likes of Bishan Singh Bedi, Bapu Nadkarni and yours
truly.
At the Wellington Test that followed, after New Zealand had decided to
bat first, yours truly destroyed their batting with a five-wicket
haul. And in the second innings it was Bapu Nadkarni who picked six
wickets, getting the ball to turn viciously, while I finished with
three.
The nature of the track was very much the same after 34 years. Sourav
Ganguly's men found out like we had all those years ago that the Basin
Reserve track in Wellington has always had a spongy feel to it which
helps the seam bowlers.
If it helps the seam bowlers, it would also definitely help good spin
bowlers. If I am correct, Shane Warne has been a very successful
bowler in New Zealand. The simple trick is that the bowler has to give
the ball a great deal of tweak. It is the ability to turn the ball on
any surface that matters in the end.
Spin was our strength all those years ago and it continues to be our
strength now too. In the circumstances, I think the current team
management got the game plan completely wrong. And the lion share of
the blame rests with the coach John Wright.
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As a former New Zealand captain, Wright would have been the best
person to guide the Indian batsmen about the conditions. But somehow
he does not seem to have succeeded in achieving this. At no point did
the Indians seem like a team that had prepared for this game. The
batting, in particular, with the exception of Dravid in the first
innings, was pathetic. Even Tendulkar's effort in the second innings
was not convincing.
Make no mistake; the Indian team in 1968 did not have a foreign coach.
It did not have the services of a physiotherapist and a trainer.
Neither did it have a computer analyst. The team did not have the kind
of facilities the boys have today. But the then captain Pataudi, and
the rest of the team had the will to win. Surely the ball seamed and
bounced, but fortunately for us, there was one batsman, Ajit Wadekar,
who stood like a rock and scored the bulk of the runs. The debutant
made a classy 143, which played its part in helping the spinners to
destroy the New Zealand batting.
There was no one to play a similar role this time around. After the
abject surrender, Wright was quoted in newspapers as saying that the
batsmen should have been judicious in their shot selection. Well, all
I have got to say to this is that most of the top Indian batsmen did
not get out playing shots, they were completely undone by the bounce
and movement - and played nothing shots. As for his observation that
"we've got some wonderful batsmen. When they get in, they express
themselves and they're good to watch", well, all a Indian supporter
wants is for this Indian team to be good enough to win, even if they
aren't necessarily good to watch.
Stephen Fleming mentioned after the thumping win that his team had a
clear game plan, and that it worked out to perfection. It is evident
that Wright and Ganguly, in contrast, did not put in much thought into
the first Test.
After the walloping at Wellington, I, for one, can't see this Indian
team recover and do well at Hamilton just by making a few changes to
the bowling line-up. What instead has to be done is that the batsmen
will have to be told to show some more courage and fight it out rather
than setting their stall to look good against Kiwi bowlers.
It will also be prudent for Wright to remember the different cultural
backgrounds the Indian players come from. In general the Indians are
soft, much unlike the Australians or Kiwis. So a tough schoolmaster
approach or a hands-free professional approach would not do any good
to the team when the chips are down. At the end of the day, the coach
is responsible for how well the team prepares and performs. Wright,
then, must do everything in his powers to ensure that another
demoralising loss at Hamilton is avoided.
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