The curious case of world cricket, perspective and Sir Curtly Ambrose

Perspective is a funny thing. A respected older friend once told me “Your perspective is your reality”; it’s an adage I’ve often tried to fault without ever managing to do so.

While listening to Subash Jayaraman’s excellent interview with Sir Curtly Ambrose, I was struck by one of Sir Curtly’s remarks about his series mirabilis, the 1992-93 five-Test stoush away against the upstart Australians.

“We were a young team; we were not expected to win”.

Sir Curtly’s reasoning is logical, in a way: the Undisputed Champs had a new captain in Richie Richardson and the team’s middle order had played in a combined 43 Tests, with Carl Hooper having the vast majority of those (33).

That doesn’t make his statement any less stunning to much of his audience, because while Australia had some victories under their belts against India at home and, with the first glimpses of Warne-spun mastery, away in Sri Lanka, this hardly gave them a claim to the title of World’s Best.

While Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge had retired, the West Indies of 1992 had last lost a series in 1980 and had conceded only 7 of 34 Tests – never more than one in a series – since Ambrose’s debut in April 1988. But Sir Curtly’s interview tells of an interior perception of a team not expected to win.

This is somewhat odd, because the Australian crowd expected nothing else. The locals were talented and might put up a fight, but victory for the home side was nestled in next to a Geelong Premiership and dating Elizabeth Berkley in the most teen of dreams. Our perception of the West Indies was of an implacable machine, a viewpoint reinforced when Keith Arthurton made the highest score of his career in the first innings of the first Test.

Local perceptions formed our reality – the West Indies were coming and they would almost certainly win. How could two viewpoints on the same series be at such crossed purposes? The answer is relatively straighforward: a unique perspective narrows the visual field, for better and worse. What is gained in the detail is lost in the scope.

As heralded best (amongst others) by the documentary Fire in Babylon, the West Indies began life as a handful of colonies who existed almost solely to be taken advantage of. It took independence for these colonies to really coalesce around an oval and some of the best players of all time waged private battles against against racism and imperialism, not just intimidating their cricketing opponents but demoralizing them. While the forefathers of that revolution had moved on, their progeny – Richardson, Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop, Haynes and Lara – remained.

The West Indies of 1992 thought of themselves as underdogs because forty years of being enjoyable non-threats (to 1975-76) had taught them how to be exactly not that.

To outsiders, in no way should the West Indians have been anything other than favourites – if only due to the mental barriers faced by Aussies still scarred from years of Marshall, Garner, Colin Croft, Holding, Walsh, Roberts, Ambrose and Patrick Patterson. The tourists were still a generation influenced heavily by revolutionaries like Sir Frank Worrell, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Clive Lloyd and Sir Vivian Richards; their self-perception was of a team that would continue fighting because otherwise they once again risked being marginalized by the actions of cricket’s off-field establishment.

Australians knew nothing of the financial climate in the West Indies. Nor were we aware of the difficulties faced by many – or most – of our vanquishers, such that cricket was only a route to a comfortable lifestyle for those who managed to secure major sponsors or County deals.

Our perception – bouncers fired in at 155 clicks and Viv swatting Tony Dodemaide for six (again) – meant antipodean audiences could see only a small fraction of the macroeconomic picture. For generations, the West Indies knew nothing but being entertainers. For nearly twenty years, the Australians could only couple this particular set of opponents with impending defeat.

Twenty-one years later, and we can begin to reconcile these opposing perspectives. Both viewpoints are still absolutely valid; if swayed a little by the Kenobi principle (“What I told you was true. From a certain point of view”). Even though world cricket is still plagued by nepotism and self-interest that threatens to further marginalize boards such as the West Indies, the accessibility of information has never been greater and as such we have more facility to appreciate the situations of our rivals. Unfortunately cricket’s never been really good at that.

More reading: My Favourite Cricketer: Curtly Ambrose

My Favourite Cricketer: Sachin Tendulkar, by Subash Jayaraman

In a series called "My Favourite Cricketer", it was only a matter of time before Sachin Tendulkar was nominated. Fittingly, this tribute is by Subash Jayaraman of The Cricket Couch, who has contributed to both Balanced Sports and World Cricket Watch.

“Gentlemen, Tendulkar never fails”, said the elderly selector. This wasn’t uttered after Sachin Tendulkar had captured the imagination of a cricket-crazy nation or after the finest leg spin bowler to play the game admitted to having nightmares because of Tendulkar. It was on the eve of the Indian national team selection to the tour of West Indies in 1989. Tendulkar wasn’t 16 yet. The selector was responding to doubts from other gentlemen in the selection panel about exposing a 15-year old to the might of Ambrose and Walsh.

I was 13. I had to look up the meaning of the word “wunderkid” in a dictionary, as it had recently entered my vocabulary through the several articles on newspapers and magazines praising this precocious batting talent coming out of the Bombay cricket scene. He was lighting up scoreboards at every level he played and was destined to take over the mantle of the next great Indian batsman from Sunil Gavaskar.

With a mop of curly hair peeking out from the sides of his grill-less helmet, a boy amongst men took the first steps of an international career not showing signs of slowing down even 22 years later in Pakistan. My family did not have a television set at that time and I had to imagine the ambience that Tendulkar must’ve walked out to at Karachi from radio commentary and newspaper reports the next day. My school mates and I gushed about the gumption in this little boy-man to halt the senior Pakistani bowler in his run up so that he could have everything just the way he wanted it - perfect. The legend was born when he was dealt a bloody nose in his debut test but refused medical attention to prove a point to everyone around him that, despite his teenybopper looks, he belonged on the stage where men went at each other’s throats.

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Old habits die hard. I was back in India after a gap of 9 years. There was a test series going on between the top two sides in the world – India and South Africa and the World Number One ranking was at stake. The match was interestingly poised - but then Tendulkar got out. My brother, nearly 20 years my senior – I learned my cricket from him – got up, turned the TV off and walked away. I was a bit distracted and had missed the dismissal. When I inquired, pat came the response: “Tendulkar is out. What is left to watch?” This wasn't an unusual scene in the 90’s but I was a bit surprised to see it in 2010, even after the successes the Indian team has had and the team's ability to forge towards wins without overly relying on contribution from Tendulkar.

Greg Baum once wrote in The Age, “I was on a night train winding down from Simla to Kalka that stopped halfway for refreshments at a station lit by flaming torches. On a small television screen wreathed in cigarette smoke in the corner of the dining room Tendulkar was batting in a match in Mumbai. No one moved or spoke or looked away. The train was delayed by 20 minutes. Not until Tendulkar was out could the world resume its normal timetables and rhythms.”

Every thing stopped in India for Tendulkar and Tendulkar moved everything for India.

This is what Tendulkar continues to represent for a large part of the country’s population. He burst onto the cricket arena, captured the nation’s collective imagination and people saw in him and his battles on the field a reflection of their own struggles in their day-to-day lives. When he waged battles, single-handedly willing India to improbable victories, he began to personify the hopes and dreams of millions of Indians.

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The last 15 years Indian cricket has seen four of the best middle order batsmen, perhaps even the game has ever seen. Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar. Each of these batsmen brought their own inimitable styles to the game and cricket is richer for it. The studious, bloody-mindedness of Dravid, the elegance of Ganguly and the lazy ease and fabulous wrist work of Laxman – you can’t go wrong with any of them as your favorite cricketer, but Tendulkar was all that and some.

A perfectly balanced stance, the pure arc of the bat, the still head, nimble feet, swift transfer of weight made Tendulkar a delight to watch. No wonder The Don thought of Tendulkar to be the closest in batting style to him.

When he began his international career he played with the sort of flair and flamboyance only the fearlessness of youth can bring. He played the most audacious shots against the toughest of the bowlers. He was wont to play shots “on the up” to the quickest of the bowlers as he picked the length very early. Ian Healy is known to have said the century that Tendulkar scored at lightning quick WACA in 1992 was the best display of cuts and pulls he has seen from a batsman from outside of Australia. In the same tour, Merv Hughes is reputed to have told the then Australian captain Allan Border, “This little prick is gonna end up making a lot more runs than you A.B.” How prescient of Hughes that was.

Not only has Tendulkar gone ahead of Border but he has smashed the record books in to smithereens and has set an almost impossible benchmark for greatness and longevity. You know all the stats and the records, so there's little point in me regurgitating them for you here.

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There is a video of the young school boy Tendulkar being interviewed. Give it a whirl. I’ll wait.

Welcome back. Did you hear the part when he was asked whether he would like to face the Malcolm Marshalls of the world? His response: “I prefer facing pacemen as the ball would come on to the bat”. So matter of fact. So Tendulkar. That’s a boy not even 16 yet. If not a batting genius, what else?

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He is the pride of India. Everybody wants him. Everybody wants to be him. He was the first mega-star of the cricket world in terms of revenues from commercials. When he said, “Boost is the secret of my energy”, we believed him. When the dark clouds of match-fixing robbed us of our innocence in 2000. When Tendulkar said, “We will get through this”, We believed him. Whenever he stepped on to the field, we believed in him.

When, after hitting the winning runs in Chennai, he said of the terrible tragedy that befell his hometown Mumbai in 2008 “It's not only for the people of Mumbai, it's for all of us. We're Indians and that is how I look at it and I'd like to dedicate this hundred to all the people who have gone through such terrible times”, we shed tears of joy and sorrow.

When he was carried on the shoulders of his teammates for a victory lap at his homeground of Wankhede earlier this year after grabbing the one trophy that had eluded him and young Virat Kohli said, “He has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years and it’s about time we carried him”, we felt our hearts fill with joy for this dedicated servant of Indian cricket. You may not be a fan of the Indian cricket team, but at that moment, I am sure you felt unconditional happiness for this player who has for so long filled our consciousness with so many batting masterpieces.

We have seen many geniuses fall. History is littered with the remnants of athletes that seemed almost super-human. Tiger Woods comes to mind immediately. Even Shane Warne. Even with a billion pairs of prying eyes watching his every move, Tendulkar has pretty much lived a scandal free life. He is humble and defers to the people that came before him. Every kid who has picked up a bat since 1989 probably wanted to be like Sachin: some of those kids actually play alongside him for India. But every parent in India wants their kids to be like Sachin the way he was off the cricket field and that’s the best compliment one can ever receive: A good, decent human being, a good husband and a father.

Back to My Favourite Cricketer series page.

World Cricket Watch podcast up

Listen to Matthew Wood of Balanced Sports alongside Subash Jayaraman as they discuss their expectations of this year's ICC World Cup. You can listen here or download it via iTunes.

World Cup Predictions: Winners

In the finale of our seven-part World Cup prediction series, Matt goes head-to-head with Subash Jayaraman and Dave Siddall in selecting their World Cup winners.

Part 1: Leading Wicket-taker
Part 2: Leading Runscorer
Part 3: Surprise Packet
Part 4: MVP
Part 5: Dream Team
Part 6: Ace in the hole

Matt Wood

As much as the West Indies have (hopefully) crawled out from a decade and a half of shame and the tournament has Bangladesh playing a lot at home, as much as I’d like to pick a smaller nation making the second round, I just don’t see it. The minnows will leave early, leaving us with the obvious choices again. India and Sri Lanka are justifiable favourites due to their home-ground advantages, while South Africa’s finishing school for cricket talent has no equal. The bet here is the Proteas don’t have the attack to really exploit the conditions – Steyn is quality but supporting cast Tsotsobe, Morkel and Parnell aren’t favoured by the slower decks. Australia can’t be discounted – they’ve been impressive in swatting away England’s One-Day side, a team who seem to lack something that they can’t identify. I’m going to bet on Sri Lanka - India is incredibly reliant on the bowling penetration of Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh. Should one of those two break down or play like a honker, India could really struggle to restrict opposition scoring. Sri Lanka have the spin of Murali and Mendis, the pace of Malinga and the all-round talents of Angelo Mathews.

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Subash Jayaraman

This is the third time the world cup is being held in the Indian subcontinent. The last two times it was held (1987 and 1996), two subcontinent teams made it to the semis (India and Pakistan in 1987) and (India and Sri Lanka in 1996) with Sri Lanka winning it all in 1996. I am inclined to continue with this theme and expect India and Sri Lanka to get to the semi-finals this time as well. The two other semi-finalists, in my opinion, are going to be Australia and South Africa. (But I am very tempted to include either Pakistan or Bangladesh). I do think however, India and Sri Lanka will get to the finals. Sri Lanka does seem to be the most balanced side in the entire tournament and they are playing in home conditions. However, India beat them fair and square in Sri Lanka the last time they played ODIs. But the finals are going to be played in front of Tendulkar’s home crowd in Mumbai. So, I am going to go with my gut, heart and all other internal organs, and hedge my bet on India.

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David Siddall

In my honest opinion there are 5 countries that have both the ability and consistency (sorry Pakistan!) to win the 2011 Cricket World Cup. They are Australia, England, India, South Africa and Sri Lanka. Of the 5, it is the perennially underachievers chokers of South Africa and India that have the finest XIs on paper and also the form to be considered the main contenders. In Sehwag and Ghambir, and Smith and Amla, they have the finest opening batting partnerships in the game with one claiming the title for most explosive and the other for most solid. In Kallis and Tendulkar they have two of the greatest ODI batsmen of all time. A further glance down their respective orders and you have batsmen that combine capabilities to play long innings with intimidating levels and varieties of strokeplay.

So what is there to separate these two sides? The answer lies in the bowling department. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel have formed a devastating partnership capable of tearing through a side. As much as Zaheer Khan stars for India, fans would have to concede that South Africa hold in the edge in terms of the quicks on show. India meanwhile will feel they have the edge in terms of spinners on show. Johan Botha is an accomplished spinner but cannot be considered an attacking option. Unlike Botha, Harbhajan Singh is just that. India are also blessed with numerous spinners in their squad with Ashwin, Pathan, Raina, Yuvraj and Sehwag all providing options in favourable conditions.

The case for both teams is remarkably strong but I favour the side with bigger wicket-taking threat to come out on top. With that in mind, it has to be the biggest chokers of all South Africa to turn the tables on history and win the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

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World Cup Predictions: Ace in the Hole

With our penultimate World Cup Predictions, Matt, Subash and Dave examine who's the player flying under the radar ... the perennial Ace in the Hole.

Part 1: Leading Wicket Taker
Part 2: Leading Runscorer
Part 3: Surprise packet
Part 4: MVP
Part 5: Dream Team


Matt Wood

Kevin Pietersen. Oh, sorry, you said ace-in-the-hole. There isn’t a lot of publicity over a few guys who could shape the tournament. South Africa, while not having a spinner, do boast one of the short form’s great slow bowlers in Johan Botha, who should be nicknamed “Immodium” for his ability to restrict runs. His defensive mindset and shrewd field placements have allowed him to open the bowling in occasional T20s. Of the three, he’s most likely to be the trump which has the greatest effect in the tournament’s latter stages. The other two can be solid but may not be game-changers: New Zealand’s Tim Southee is still very young, but he bowls real swing and could help New Zealand back from the brink of world patsydom. The climate, especially at night, will suit him. Tim Bresnan is another who should be suited by the swing-conducive climes of India and has displayed his ability by taking truckloads of wickets in Australia on pitches unsuited to bowling of his style. He has the game to really break some of the best top-orders in the world.

Posted 17th February: One player who's escaped a lot of attention is William Porterfield, who opens the batting for Ireland. He's scored heaps of runs and of the minnows, he seems most likely to be a "breakout" candidate.

More well-known players from the affiliate nations out to impress include the Netherlands' Ryan ten Doeschate, Rizwan Cheema of Canada, Elton Chigumbura & Tatienda Taibu of Zimbabwe.

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Subash Jayaraman

A man whose career is at crossroads and a solid tournament would resurrect his seemingly sliding career – Yuvraj Singh. There has been a mountain of questions regards to fitness, mental focus and attitude towards his cricket. This would be biggest platform for him to respond to his doubters. Play a few match winning innings and bowl his left arm spin that is tailor made for the slower pitches of India, he will regain the confidence that is sorely needed for this gifted cricketer.

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David Siddall

The ‘Ace in the Hole’ refers to the break-out player of the tournament, the player that no one is talking about but will star in the event. The issue with the selecting the Ace is that cricket has become so globalized and so ubiquitous that it is hard for a modern day player to just slip under the radar or for a young star to rise so prominently and not get noticed. Because of this, my ace in the hole is coming from way left field.

He’s a forgotten man in world cricket. He probably won’t even start for his country. But not too long ago he became the quickest man ever to reach the 50 ODI wickets mark in 19 matches at a staggering average of around 10. Back then he was a mystery spinner who mesmerized with his mix of offies, googlies, leg-breaks and carom balls. Bowling wicket to wicket, constantly attacking the stumps he claimed a disproportionate amount of lbws compared to your average bowler. But that was 2008 and he appears to have been figured out since with batsmen getting to know his variations and playing him more like a medium pacer. He still takes wickets but they are thinner on the ground.

Whether Ajantha Mendis can rekindle the form he showed when he burst onto the scene is completely up in the air. Whether he can even find his way into Sri Lanka’s starting lineup is also less obvious. Whether there is space for two spinners in the side is open to debate. Murali is number 1 and Dilshan does a good job as a part time spin option. Mendis also has competition from the slow left-armer Rangana Herath in that department. If Mendis does get his berth in the side who knows what might happen? This writer enjoyed his passage into the history books in 2008 and wanted to see plenty more of him but is still waiting for his wish. Maybe Ajantha Mendis can be a great addition to the few attacking spinners left in the limited overs game…

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World Cup Predictions: Dream XI

Part six of our seven-part series sees Matt go up against Subash Jayaraman and Dave Siddall in previewing the World Cup. Today sees us select our "Dream" teams.

Part 1: Leading Wicket Taker
Part 2: Leading Runscorer
Part 3: Surprise Packet
Part 4: Most Valuable Player

Matt Wood

Hashim Amla (SAf)

Gautam Gambhir (Ind)

Kumar Sangakkara (SL) (wk) (c)

Sachin Tendulkar (Ind)

Cameron White (Aus)

Shahid Afridi (Pak)

Yusuf Pathan (Ind)

Daniel Vettori (NZ)

Dale Steyn (SAf)

Zaheer Khan (Ind)

Lasith Malinga (SL)

It was convenient that basically the four best bets to score the most runs in the tournament are easily selectable at opener, first and second drop. I’m not sure why I picked Cameron White – probably because I expect the Australians to have a reasonable tournament and there really isn’t a heap of other elite middle-order options, I think they need to be represented. Afridi is the most destructive batsman in the game today whose leg-spin has developed from inexcusable to, well, excusable. Pathan’s status as Indian cricket’s NBT (Next Big Thing) earns him number seven, when bowlers Vettori, Steyn, Khan and Malinga are each their country’s best bets to top the wicket tallies. The beauty of this Dream XI, Afridi and White excepted, is that it could quite easily translate across and be the best lineup Test cricket has to offer as well. Rather than going too far down the David Warner, baseball slugger mode, it’s refreshing to see good technique rewarded.

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Subash Jayaraman

Sachin Tendulkar

Shane Watson

Jacques Kallis

Sangakkara

Cameron White

Angelo Mathews

Yusuf Pathan

Dale Steyn

Zaheer Khan

Lasith Malinga

Muralitharan

12th man: Shahid Afridi (primarily for his bowling). You may recognize by now there has not been much of a reference to the England team and quite rightly. They have been battered and beaten (even though they lost some close matches in Australia and you may think it’s not exactly a “beating” but it takes toll mentally. They just lost their middle order mainstay and man for the rescue, Eoin Morgan to a finger injury. They have other players out with injuries and some are on the comeback trail. Plus, their kind of bowling is not gonna be suited for the subcontinental conditions and the last time England played in India in 2008, they were shellacked.

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David Siddall

Here is my dream XI for the tournament.

1. Virender Sehwag

2. Hashim Amla

3. Kumar Sangakarra (w) (c)

4. Sachin Tendulkar

5. Jacques Kallis

6. Shane Watson

7. Yusuf Pathan

8. Zaheer Khan

9. Dale Steyn

10. Lasith Malinga

11. Muttiah Muralitharan

12. Graeme Swann

As you can see it is build upon solid foundations. Sehwag and Amla are an even greater answer to Jayasuria and Kalawitharana in 1996. It features the two greatest ODI batsmen of arguably all time in Kallis and Tendulkar. It features the two best all-rounders in the world today as Watson joins the SA all-rounder. The X factor is brought to you by Yusuf Pathan. In Steyn, Zaheer, and Malinga you have the 3 finest quicks in one-day cricket. In Murali you have the finest, most economical and most attacking spinner. Graeme Swann comes in as 12^th man for when we need to play 2 spinners and attack.

If this group of players was to extend to a 15-man squad it would include Chris Gayle, James Anderson and Mahayla Jayawardene.

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World Cup Predictions: Surprise Packet

Part three of our eight-part series with Subash Jayaraman, Dave Siddall and our own Matthew Wood sneaking a peek at who's primed to surprise on the subcontinent.

Matt Wood

It’s probably telling that with the amount of TV and internet coverage the game gets these days, there really isn’t the bolter-in-the-pack that we’ve come to expect from past tournaments. The glory days of most sports relied on hearing what others had done rather than see them for yourself, and their mystique only increased. With UDRS, slo-mo, hotspot and hawkeye the game’s been robbed of some of that mystery. Flat out, it may be the biggest and most satisfying surprise of the tournament could be an Australian run to the final or even the title. As a cricketing nation they’ve been told it’s well past bedtime, but with Tait, Lee and Johnson they have three bona-fide matchwinners. Unfortunately for the Skippies, they’re all bona-fide match-losers as well if their accuracy doesn’t hold up. The lack of a first-class spinner could hamper them, but of all the teams selected really only India, New Zealand and Sri Lanka have world-class ODI tweakers.

WC Surprise package: Australia?

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Subash Jayaraman

Ahmed Shehzad. I watched the entire Pakistan-New Zealand ODI series. (Don’t ask me why, I just did). Of all the Pakistani batsmen, the only one that oozed confidence was this young lad Shehzad. May be it was the confidence that he was only facing the New Zealand bowlers or he was secure in his opening slot since the back up to him would’ve been Kamran Akmal, I do not know, but his batting seems to be destined for greatness. I expect him to score at least 1 century in the tournament and will not be surprised if it is two and is featured in the top 5-7 of highest run getters.

WC Surprise Package: Ahmed Shehzad

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David Siddall

It seems almost bizarre to consider this player and team for such a title, especially when you consider their standing within the game. Nevertheless, it’s going to be done. The team in question has won 4 out of the 9 World Cups that have ever been played and they have also won the last 3 World Cups in 2007, 2003 and 1999. Despite such an imposing history, very few people are tipping Australia to win the upcoming tournament. They might have been humbled in dominant fashion by England in the recent Ashes encounter, but this perhaps shouldn’t be an indicator of their one-day prowess. As the crushing series victory over England which shortly followed testifies, Australia are a very tight one day unit with ability in every department and a winning mentality.

One of the brightest sparks to emerge from that one day series is the return of the sprightly looking Brett Lee who at 34 has had dreadful luck and been forced to retire from Test cricket. His energy on the field does not reflect his age. He is as hungry and as fired up as a pit-bull terrier you locked up, went on holiday and forgot to feed for a week.

Brett Lee is desperate to reclaim his standing as one of the most devastating one-day bowlers in the world and he will be the bright spark that Australia need if they are to make a serious impression in the World Cup.

WC Surprise Package: Brett Lee and Australia

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