Sports: Flawed Talent

The current Indian team maybe more gifted than the one that won the World Cup 16 years ago but it could still take a few tips from the gritty heroes of 83'.

There is a tendency, even a temptation, to believe that the 1983 World Cup team consisted of the finest set of cricketers this country has given birth to. True, they were solid men, some were truly men of steel, and they played with great spirit, but was that the best team we have had?

I believe there was a set of factors that contributed to their stunning achievement. They had played together for a while, they were gritty rather than gifted, but more than anything else they displayed two qualities that the team of 1999 might want to embrace.

There was humility in them and there was effervescence and, contrasting as these qualities may seem, they resided quite happily together. The core of the 1983 team, Mohinder Amarnath, Yashpal Sharma, Madan Lal and Roger Binny, were not the most outrageously talented cricketers but they knew what they couldn't do. In their evaluation of their own self lay the humility I was talking about. So they stuck to what they were best at: gritty, down-to-earth, combative cricket. But there was in that team a touch of effervescence as well that evaporated tensions and bonded individuals. The spectacular cricketing skills of Kapil Dev, the continuous chatter from Sandeep Patil, the oddities of Syed Kirmani and the on-field exuberance of Krish Srikkanth.

I believe such humility and effervescence could well be the potion that the team of 1999 needs to imbibe in their quest for the World Cup. They have everything else: abundant skill, even outrageous rewards waiting for them. Frequently that combination is good enough but I just sense that this team needs something more. It needs its players to play within themselves, to actually rein in their great ability and it needs something to shake them out of the stupor they so often allow themselves to lapse into.

I have little doubt that the team of 1999 is vastly more talented than the team of 1983. It has, potentially, a superior top order, has greater class and more variety because it has a couple of left-handers that the team of 1983 didn't. Compare, for cricketing skill, Gavaskar, Srikkanth, Amarnath, Yashpal and Patil versus Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Azharuddin and Jadeja and you see what I mean. On basic cricketing skills, the 1999 team is way ahead. On factors like grit and persistence I am not sure they would match up.

This is also a far more attacking bowling side. In Javagal Srinath, they have the pace that the team of 1983 didn't and both Venkatesh Prasad and Ajit Agarkar can be wicket-taking bowlers. By contrast Madan Lal and Binny, who actually ended up taking 35 wickets between them, weren't attacking bowlers. Amarnath was at best steady and Balwinder Sandhu had only been in international cricket for a year. And remember, they didn't have a spinner anywhere near Anil Kumble's class. Before that World Cup started, and it is from that position that we should really be drawing comparsions, you would have thought, with some justification, that the bowling was made up of Kapil Dev and the rest.

This team has played a lot more limited-overs cricket, has seen a lot more of other nations on television and should therefore be a more savvy side. The greater experience and exposure should make them a more confident side as well and I believe that should counter the effect of the enormously higher sense of expectation: from the man in the street and critically from corporate India which I fear is becoming a bit irrational.

Team 1983 had the huge advantage of being firm underdogs. They went to England with nothing to lose for India's one-day record wasn't something anybody could be proud of. And so every performance became a celebration, every win a revelation. All the way through to the final. Team 1999 is backed by an estimated advertising expenditure of Rs 250 crore and a younger, more demanding audience to whom anything short of victory at the World Cup is a disappointment. That is a huge cross to bear and requires them to be mentally stronger, again an area they have not been very convincing in.

There are, however, two critical areas in which the team of 1999 would find itself deficient -- lower-order batting and fielding. At No. 7,8,9 and 10 that team had Kirti Azad, Binny, Madan Lal and Kirmani. The first three regularly batted in the top six for their state teams and the fourth had played some crucial innings at Test level. Sandhu was no mug either. Now put those names against Nayan Mongia, Agarkar, Kumble and Srinath and you start to feel insecure, especially when you remember how often the bottom half bailed out the side in 1983. Mongia needs to bridge the two halves of the line-up but somebody needs to remind him that he is not just a wicket-keeper who can bat but the seventh batsman in the team. Then there is the No. 6 factor. Robin Singh is a gritty cricketer and a proud man but he is not Kapil Dev. In 1983 Kapil Dev was good enough to be picked as a batsman alone and the No.6 batting slot was his by right, not by convenience. And he took the new ball by right as well.

But the overriding difference between the two teams will be seen in the field. Lining up for Team 1999 will be Azharuddin, Jadeja and Robin Singh with a supporting cast of Tendulkar and Agarkar. Match that against Kapil Dev, Srikkanth, Binny, Madan Lal and Yashpal with support from Gavaskar, Amarnath and Azad and it is a bit of a knockout for Team 1983.

In spite of all that I think 1999 is the better team because it is inherently more talented. Talent cannot be acquired. Determination can be and so can pride provided there is the inclination to do it. On paper India did not have the team to win the World Cup in 1983. In 1999, they actually do.

The Experience Factor
Name	Matches Played Before 1983 World Cup	Name	Matches Played Before 1999 World Cup
Krish Srikanth	9	Sachin Tendulakar	211
Sunil Gavaskar	31	Saurav Ganguly	95
Mohinder Amarnath	21	Rahul Dravid	75
Yashpal Sharma	27	Azharuddin	312
Sandeep Patil	21	Ajay Jadeja	159
Kapil Dev	32	Robin Singh	75
Kirti Azad	8	Nayan Mongia	127
Roger Binny	15	Anil Kumble	162
Madan Lal	20	Javagal Srinath	157
Syed Kirmani	28	Venkatesh Prasad	106
Balwinder Sandhu	6	Ajit Agarkar	34
Total	218	Total	1513