March 29, 1999
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PAVILION END Playing for a Win World Cup success depends on how quickly we adapt to English conditions
By the time you read this, the one-day series with Pakistan and Sri Lanka would have begun. But like you, to a certain extent, my mind has already turned to the World Cup. The ultimate test. Sixteen years ago we did the impossible. Perhaps it's time to bring the trophy back home. So what do we need to do? I was speaking to Kapil Dev the other day and his answer was simple. In 1983, he says, the team played to its potential. The key was individual contribution -- like pieces of a jigsaw, every player knew he had a part to play. It's called teamwork. Without it we will not win this time either. I have played two World Cups in 1975 and 1979 and we did very badly. We had no idea about one-day cricket. Today, 20 years after my last Cup, India is easily one of the world's finest one-day teams. But in a sense that means nothing. No team seems to be able to dominate one-day cricket, such is the inherent fickleness of the game. For us, playing in England isn't going to be easy. Sub-continental teams always have trouble playing away from home. What's worse, right through last year our cricket was confined to the subcontinent -- Dhaka, Sharjah, Sri Lanka and at home -- and only briefly in New Zealand did we get a taste of English conditions. Funny thing is, I've always believed that cricket in England is best played in June. That the World Cup begins in May, when it can be bitterly cold, smells of a certain advantage to England. Nice way to start the tournament. What that means is we have to make a few adjustments. We're going to have to depend more on batting than bowling. A score of 250 runs would be enough to win the early matches, but as the tournament progresses the scores would increase. Our batsmen have the technique to play on those wickets, but it will require a certain application. The overconfidence that sometimes comes with playing on placid subcontinental wickets has to be left behind in India. In England, batsmen will have to be close to the pitch of the ball to play a shot. And they would do well to play on the front foot. Not merely because the ball keeps moving but because umpires in England don't usually give players out playing on the front foot. Another answer is to go for the single and twos and not be swayed by the thought of boundaries. I say that because we're used to playing shots on the rise and getting away with it. In England, lofting the ball will be risky. In the overcast conditions of the early summer, moisture collects on the wicket and the ball has a tendency to stop after pitching. For batsmen used to the ball coming on to the bat, it can be torturous. If the batsmen have to lead the way, I hardly expect the bowlers to get complacent. In fact, I want the bowlers to compete with the batsmen, a sort of contest to see who can make things more easier for the other. English conditions don't always suit our bowlers. The cold is a worry, for fingers become stiff, legs tighten up and suddenly, when a freezing wind is whipping across your face, the captain asks you to bowl. You've got to stay warmed up because this is not gully cricket where they'll give you a warm-up over. A few loose deliveries and the fielders will be retrieving the ball from the boundary. Kumble and Srinath fortunately have played county cricket and Venky Prasad has toured England before -- newcomer Ajit Agarkar will have to adapt fast. They'll need to pitch the ball up and make it move rather than dig it in. And in a land where the ball swings a lot, control will be essential. But the card up the Indian sleeve this summer could be Geoffrey Boycott's Prince of Calcutta. I don't expect Saurav to just bowl a few overs; if he can replicate the form he displayed in Toronto under similar conditions, he'll be bowling 10 overs every match. Like Roger Binny who took 18 wickets that summer in 1983 (more than any other bowler in the tournament), Ganguly could be our secret weapon. Former Test player Anshuman Gaekwad is the coach of the Indian cricket team and will be writing a regular column exclusively for India Today till the end of the World Cup. (Anshuman Gaekwad, coach of the Indian
cricket team, will be writing a weekly column |
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