A lot to play for

Rajeev Pai

It's tough being an India cricketer. Not only do you have to carry a huge burden of the expectations of millions (now it's a billion!), you also have to fight the odds that are invariably stacked against you by your own board.

Thus, while Australia have been systematically preparing for almost five years to conquer India in India, and especially since their tour of New Zealand more than a year ago, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has been least bothered. As proof, it even hosted a domestic limited overs tournament right on the eve of the all-important three-Test series -- as if the surfeit of one-day cricket had not already impaired the ability of most Indian players to adapt to the rigours and demands of the five-day version.

Then there's the bunch of five jokers that constitutes the board's selection committee. Inscrutable indeed are its ways. Thus, even before the Bombay-Australia tie had begun, they had selected their team for the first Test, effectively excluding all the Bombay boys (except for the two who didn't play -- Tendulkar and Agarkar) without even evaluating their performance against the visitors.

Then, with India crashing to a humiliating defeat inside three days, the jokers jerked their knees again. And came up with even more ridiculous answers. Thus, though the team already had an off-spinner -- and one who had performed reasonably well at that -- they went and included a second off-spinner, one who is almost a copy of the first, and in fact plays on the same state team, Punjab.

Likewise, they selected Ashish Nehra, a left-arm medium-pacer, to replace Ajit Agarkar, who is said to be down with a viral infection, when there's already Zaheer Khan, another left-arm fast bowler, in the side. And Narendra Hirwani, the leg-spinner who was resurrected from oblivion as Anil Kumble's replacement, was sent back there after having merely adorned the bench in Bombay.

Nehra has presumably been chosen on the basis of his performance against the Australians for India 'A' at Nagpur. Which probably means Nilesh Kulkarni, the left-arm orthodox slow bowler who performed creditably for Bombay against Steve Waugh and his men, can hope to be considered for the Madras Test. Hopefully, the series will still be alive then.

The doings of the board and its five jokers are, however, all in the past. And, as Pumba puts it in his delightfully bumbling manner in The Lion King, you have got to put your past in your behind. Which is what the Indian team, including its new members, will also have to do. Lump the past. Which includes the humiliating defeat at Bombay.

Despite everything, despite the Band of Crackpots and its jokers, the Calcutta Test isn't lost. Not yet. Sourav Ganguly and his team would do well to remember that a game isn't lost until it's been played and done with. Whatever happened at Bombay and elsewhere is all in the past. It cannot be changed now, for sure. But it does not mean the future is lost.

Ganguly and his team have to pull together and fight as if their very lives depend upon it. (Since the match is being played at the Eden Gardens, where crowds have developed a reputation for rowdy behaviour, that may well be true.) There will be no room for half measures. They have to attack the Aussies with all their might and take the fight to them. And yes, they may even have to lay the gentleman (or sissy, depending on your perspective) image aside and give back as good as, or better than, they get.

Filthy abuse isn't exactly an Australian monopoly and I'm sure some of the Indian players could teach a thing or three to Steve Waugh and his gang. (Tip: They could curse in their own languages and translate for the Aussies' benefit. That should do the trick.) Later, all they have to do is have a beer with the targets of their ire and claim that it was all said in the heat of the moment and they didn't mean a thing. Or, if they don't want to drink beer, they can say that they are going through a difficult phase in their personal lives.

Whatever they do, even if it is descending to the level of the Aussies, the Indians must do wholeheartedly. Only then will at least some of the pieces start falling in place.

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