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Pumping for Ganguly

Harsha Bhogle is probably one of the most intuitive writers in world cricket today. His unassuming omnipresent smile might give you a semblance of an average man, but there is nothing average about what he said way back in July 1999 when Sachin Tendulkar was thrusted with the Indian captaincy.

To quote him: "My only fear is that he will try too hard to succeed and while that is not wrong in itself, it might lead him down that same stressful path as his last visit at the helm. For a man who has only known success and who has largely kept failure at arm's length, his inability to get his team to produce the results he wanted, hurts. The responsibility, and its attendant frustrations, troubled him last time and the last thing India want is to lose the fire in their main batsman."

Staring back at these words six months later, you hate to think if Harsha’s fear of losing the fire in Sachin might come true. Honestly, how many of you don’t believe Sachin Tendulkar would serve India for at least another 10 years and shatter every batting record except the famous 99.94. Next to none I would assume; we have taken so much for granted that a good innings from Sachin is always around the corner. I bet five out of ten of you guys thought it was preposterous for Sachin not to have scored a hundred in eight one-dayers Down Under! So huge are the expectations from him, he has no choice but to carry the burden of those expectations in his tender back. And if he is not relieved of this additional burden of captaincy right now, we might not see him play the game for another 10 years.

Sachin can try to justify that his batting is not affected by the captaincy with his Man of the Series award. Agreed, he will always maintain his average and nine out of ten times he might end up with that award. But that’s not just what we expect from him, do we?

One shot he played told me lot of things about his captaincy and his batting. It was a dreadful Sydney pitch where India were shot out for 100-odd in the one-dayer against Australia; Sachin was quiet for almost five overs and McGrath pitched one just short of length outside the off. I saw Sachin play a funny shot, one he has never played before, seemed to me he was trying to thump the ball over point ultimately edging it to Gilchrist. That attempt told me volumes about the stress he was going through as the captain of a side that couldn’t find a way to win.

Simply put, as Harsha feared, he was trying too hard to make up for his mates, to stand tall singlehandedly against those feary Australian conditions. That to me more than anything else ladies and gentleman, is why he shouldn’t be the captain at any point. Not because he tossed the ball to Ganguly when the Aussies were reeling at 58 for 4; not because he sent in Sameer Dighe playing only his second match for India, at No. 3 chasing 269, and not because he didn’t make an action plan to stop that one run off the last ball against Pakistan.

Besides, remember 'Tendulkar Unleashed' right after the captaincy was handed back to Azhar in 1998, he went berserk in those tournaments in Dhaka and Sharjah. And coincidentally, that’s the time when India had a terrific winning record and that’s exactly what we need; Tendulkar at his total self, uninhibited, uncontrolled and unburdened.

So who should tie the bell to the cat? No worries mate, we have a tiger! Saurav Ganguly is a true inspiration to his team, I am not talking about his batting here; his sheer attitude towards the game. Like Akram, he might not be the best of fielders in the side, but he is the first to pounce on a missed catch or a fumble. And more often that not, cricketers from the sub-continent need that kind of baby sitting. Saurav thrives under pressure, his collection of man of the match awards in high tension India-Pakistan matches is a testimony to that.

The other candidate for the job is Ajay Jadeja. Jadeja is all flair, his philosophy is purely based on the motivation factor. He always sports a smile and he too has a word or two for a fumble or a missed catch, but those are always accompanied by a smile. Just like his batting, he is all innovation when it comes to captaincy too and the most important feature of his captaincy is how he handles the new comers in the team.

Kaif, in a recent interview after his two 90s in the Challenger series said how rewarding it was to bat alongside Jadeja while building his own innings. Jadeja thrives under pressure too, no less than Steve Waugh rates him alongside Michael Bevan as the two most cool headed one-day cricketers.

Ganguly and Jadeja have a way of reaching up to their team mates. And the important factor is they do that in a non-intimidatory way. Take the case of their predecessors. Azhar was incommunicative. He was of the opinion that the boys should know what to do playing at that level. Sachin was certainly intimidatory through his sheer cricketing genius, he would also create a sense of fear for not batting well or bowling badly or fielding sloppily. The players always had the fear of living up to his standards, the fear of letting the genius down and in turn put more pressure on themselves and that took away their creativity too.

Ganguly and Jadeja are two different captains, but very effective. Ganguly doesn’t seem to worry himself too much about failure, he seems to acquire a renewed energy anytime he takes the bat or the ball and as a captain. His captaincy is more in the mould of a dictator with a touch of niceness about it. He demands what he wants from his players and doesn’t compromise for anything less.

Jadeja, on the other hand, is the master of motivation. You see him constantly cheering his guys, giving them all the liberty to show their skills and, above all, he is a friend to them. And that touch of friendliness brings out the best from his teammates.

Both Ganguly and Jadeja are very creative and innovative. They are very daring, they make unusual yet effective bowling changes, they make unorthodox yet wise field placings. They both have the ability to make their teammates come to them with any suggestions or problems without the fear of having to approach someone with the greatness of Sachin Tendulkar. For the Gandhis and Kanitkars, they are regular cricketers, normal human beings who are capable of making mistakes and living with it. Above all, both Ganguly and Jadeja can bat without the huge burden of being the best batsman in the side. Rest assured, as long as Sachin is in the side, he will always take that one!! Everyone expects only Sachin to make the runs, no matter who the captain is.

So, who’s my choice?? It has to be Ganguly and not Jadeja who still hasn’t found a place in the Test side. For those of you who seem to like the idea of dual captaincy for Tests and limited-overs, trust me, it will turn out to be disastrous for us. We Indians play the game with a human touch. Steve Waugh, the one-day captain might be able to perform at his best without any reservations under Mark Taylor in the Test team. But I can’t say the same thing about two Indian captains. The psychological factor always comes to play. Didn’t the selectors have to give Azhar a "stand down" for his lack of motivation under Sachin. And how many times did you see an enthusiastic Sachin after he was stripped of his captaincy and given back to Azhar. You always saw him patrolling around the deep mid-wicket and the sweeper cover area.

Historically, we’ve had turbulent relationships between two guys, one a captain and the other an ex-captain, leave alone two captains, one for the one-day team and the other the Test team. Which is why, dual captaincy will never work for India.

That brings the question, does Jadeja merit a place in the Test side. Sorry Jaddu fans, a big NO is my verdict. We have seen him long enough for him to score 5,000 runs in one-day cricket. Yet, he has played only 14 Test matches and that’s not without a reason. Players like him and Robin Singh can never be good Test match players. Not long ago, we talked of how compulsive it was for Rahul Dravid to run the ball down to third man even in Test matches. Jadeja and Robin Singh have many such compulsions. Two out of their three shots are innovative shots, carefully executed to beat the fielders in a defensive field setup. How many times did we see Robin trying to run the ball down the slips Down Under, inspite of a slip fielder and he managed twice to edge the ball to Damien Martyn in the slips through a deliberate shot! They both play the ball in the air most of the time and their game is most suited to a defensive field. The triangular series India played against Pakistan and Sri Lanka before World Cup at home is a great example. Sachin didn’t play and Jadeja opened with Saurav and he was found wanting against the pace and swing of Akthar and Akram. If a certain Michael Bevan with an astonishing average of 60-plus in one-dayers cannot find a place in the Test XI, why are we going back to Jadeja over and over again. First as an opener and now in the middle order.

This is where the non-existence of our killer instincts surface out. Steve Waugh hyped Brett Lee so much that the selectors had to pick him and the young lad had the confidence of his captain’s words to perform to his best. Take the case of Kaif or a Martin. The under-19 captain shows excellent temperament and technique in leading India to a win and then comes up with consecutive scores of 90-plus against the country’s best bowling attack minus Sri. Both Jadeja and Ganguly have come out and said good things about him.

In the case of Martin, he showed very good temperament in his brief stay Down Under in the one-day series, no less than Sunny Gavaskar said Martin looks a good batsman for the future. And what better time to play these guys in the series at home where they have Ramesh, Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly coming above them. We tend to be too conservative when it comes to blooding these young talents and seem to wait for that "right time" which no one knows. Instead of investing in lads like Kaif and Martin, why do we have to go back to the tried and failed Jadeja, Beats me! India certainly doesn’t need Jadeja to strengthen the middle order and this is not the time to test if Jadeja can mature as a Test cricketer. He is a great one-day cricketer and we don’t need to show him our gratitude by picking him in the Test side. Test cricket is about flawless technique in batting and we don’t need Jadeja just to show the boys how to enjoy the game, how to run between the wickets and how to field with passion. I think one head is good enough to do that!

But I do think Jadeja should be the vice-captain for the one-day team. Both Ganguly and Jadeja visibly get along very well, both understand their roles are very different in the team and I am sure they would only compliment each other rather than brood over why one is the captain over the other. They both share a friendly relationship with Sachin to make sure Sachin has no hard feelings about giving up his captaincy. One-day cricket is about fast decisions, decisions that can change the course of the game and it's about giving everything you’ve got in a span of 100 overs. In this case, two heads are certainly better than one and that’s why we need both these guys to manage our team.

Test cricket, on the other hand doesn’t really need a vice-captain at all. You have all the time to take decisions, you have an interval every two hours to discuss things with your coach and that’s why we can do well even without Jadeja’s "vice-captaincy" skills.

We certainly haven’t heard the last of this issue, have we? But hey, we are just the empty vessels. The committee doing the selection has always had its own agenda. We only have home series and tournaments in the next six months and, of course, we will come out with flying colours, thanks to stellar batting performances from Ramesh, Dravid, Sachin, Ganguly et al and Kumble’s bowling magic and captaincy; no worries mate!!