Pink of health

What a season of test cricket it’s been. Of all men, Chris Gayle constructing a masterpiece to come within a striking distance of humbling Aussies in their own backyard was a sight to behold. That this came in the wake of extraordinarily sweeping judgments of the WI Cricket team in the Australian media after the meek surrender in the first test makes it all the more commendable. For a guy who said that he wouldn’t worry too much if test cricket goes on a decline, Gayle more than made up for his innocuous and irresponsible statements with a sterling show of commitment and skill which has invigorated hope in Caribbean Cricket. The performances of Adrian Barath and Dwayne Bravo in the ongoing series have been heart warming and equally so is the emergence of a genuine quick bowler in Kemar Roach. WI Cricket has promised many a new dawns in the last decade only to wither away later, but for cricket’s sake let’s hope this is not another one of them.

In the neighboring Kiwi land we have had an even better series. The first match was an absolute classic with the see-saw battle between Pak and NZ continuing till the last session on the fifth day. The return of Shane Bond at his best was as comforting a thought as it was depressing to see him sit out immediately after the first test due to injury – is there a more wasted talent in the game of cricket? If the first test was a classic, the second test was equally significant though less exciting as Pakistan came back to square the series like only they can – whoever thought Pakistan cricket is dead and buried. Mohd. Asif came back and reaffirmed his status as one of the best going around in the business of fast bowling. A bowling line up of Mohd. Ameer, Asif , Gul and Kaneria is quite a handful in most conditions and the emergence of a classy top order batsman in Umar Akmal has given the Pak team the much needed balance. A strong Pakistan and WI team is very critical for the long term health of the game.

Back at home, after a yawn inducing draw in the first test we witnessed a superlative performance from India to bulldoze past Srilanka in the next 2 tests and go on to lead the test rankings for the first time since the ranking system was introduced. It may not appear to be the most exciting test series if you go by the series score line alone – 2-0 drubbing by India and both by an innings. But that would be a narrow view of exciting test cricket. If you had seen those 2 masterpieces from Sehwag, you would know what I am talking.

If the brilliant hundred at Kanpur didn’t get its due, we can only blame Sehwag for that. Even before we could fully appreciate what he did at Kanpur, he comes back and puts on a show of such attacking cricket which with all due respect to past greats doesn’t have precedence in a sport of a few centuries vintage. I consider it to be one of the greatest privileges of my life that I was present at Chepauk when Sehwag sent the South Africans on a leather hunt when he scored his second triple hundred. I had not seen such a brutal, almost insane level of aggressive bastmanship ever. But at Brabourne he even surpassed himself. To make arguably the greatest wicket-taker in the game look so hopeless and impotent is plain rude. The statistics alone paints quite a picture – 293 off 254 balls with 40 fours and 7 sixes. At 10 in the morning, Srilanka was ahead by 393 and at 4.30 in the evening they were behind by 50 runs – Only Sehwag is capable of doing this to opposition. But the fact that all this is only a small part of the entire picture aptly describes the Sehwag phenomenon.

I wonder if any other sport could provide a platform for such kind of continuous and sustained brilliance. Maradona’s magic is a matter of minutes; Jordan’s genius is sometimes about seconds, Bolt’s defying human traits is all of a few fractions of a second. It’s entirely appropriate that Sehwag plays the sport whose grandness allows for putting on a show of such a sustained spell of brilliance that no other sport can quite match (with the exception of tennis maybe). Hang on, Let’s deal with Sehwag in a separate blog.

As usual Sambit Bal gave better words to my thoughts than what I could conjure up myself in an article aptly titled “There’s nothing quite like test cricket” in Cricinfo – an extract of which is as follows: "A good game of Test cricket - it's hard to imagine Pinter referring to any other form - is like five whole days of delicious foreplay, a treat for the senses. Each day leaves you with anticipation, and the final day, the final session, leaves you sated, fulfilled, and with a glow of well-being. No other form of cricket, and indeed no other sport, can match the sensory pleasures of Test cricket - so languorous, so drawn out, and ultimately so rewarding.”