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June 16, 1998
NEWS
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Upbeat India seeks revenge in ColomboBy our correspondentThe 14 member Indian cricket team which participated in a three-day preparatory camp at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai left for Colombo on Tuesday morning, to take part in the Singer Akai Nidahas triangular series featuring Sri Lanka and New Zealand, as part of the celebrations of Sri Lanka's 50th anniversary of Independence. The team, as announced, is: Mohammad Azharuddin (captain), Ajay Jadeja (vice captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Robin Singh, Nayan Mongia (wicket-keeper), Ajit Agarkar, Gagan Khoda, Anil Kumble, Venkatesh Prasad, Harbhajan Singh, Debashish Mohanty and Rahul Sanghvi. Anshuman Gaikwad accompanies the team as coach, former Delhi Ranji star Venkat Sundaram is the manager, Ravindra Chaddha is team doctor and Andrew Kokinos is the physiotherapist. Skipper Mohammad Azharuddin said he was confident that the team would emerge triumphant in the triangular series. Talking to newsmen before leaving for Colombo, Azhar said the wickets in Sri Lanka with one exception would be flat, and with the new format of the three teams playing each other thrice in the league phase, would not put any pressure on the team. "The team is professional, and we are used to such changes", he added. He expected the team to provide good exposure to the younger members, and singled out all-rounder Ajit Agarkar for special mention. "He has been performing well, but he still has scope for improvement," Azhar said of the young quick bowler. "While we are confident, we are not complacent," Azhar said. The tour gives the Indians, resurgent this year after a dismal 1997, a chance to even the scoreline vis a vis Sri Lanka. Prior to the 1996 World Cup, the two teams had played each other on 40 occasions, with India winning 20, SL winning 14 and three games being abandoned. However, subsequent to the World Cup, the balance has swung drastically in favour of SL -- thus, the two teams have met 12 times of which India has won just two, against eight wins by Sri Lanka and one abandoned game (on Christmas Day 1997, at Indore). Though the overall record -- played 52, won 26, lost 21 -- still favours India, the island nation has been rapidly narrowing that gap as well thanks to its superiority in recent times. The Indian camp said that with the team on a roll, it was looking to the upcoming series to put the balance back in its favour -- more so with Sri Lanka on the losing end recently in South Africa, where its performance suggested that it may be losing its edge somewhat. The fallout of Lanka's below average tour of South Africa was felt on the team's return to Colombo. First, coach Bruce Yardley and manager Duleep Mendis were sacked, in favour of Roy Dias and Ranjith Fernando. Roshan Mahanama was sacked from the team for the first Test, superstar Aravinda D'Silva demoted at the expense of the newly married Sanath Jayasuriya, who was elevated to the vice-captaincy. Yardley had apparently expressed unhappiness with three or four senior players who, he felt, were undermining his authority. The Australian coach issued an ultimatum -- either the concerned players go, or he goes. No prizes for guessing what happened. Mahanama, meanwhile, paid the price for a bad run of form that has lasted a while now. Hyped to replace Asanka Gurusinghe in the number three slot, Mahanama has crossed fifty only thrice in his his last 26 Test innings, including that epic 225 against India in course of which he as involved in a record-breaking partnership with Sanath Jayasuriya of 576 for the second wicket. Skipper Ranatunga, meanwhile, choose the aftermath of the South African tour to blast his board. Arguing that Lanka's less than creditable performances in Tests -- especially during the tour of India in November-December 1997, and the South African tour this year -- owed to the lack of quality bowlers capable of taking out the opposition twice in course of five days, the Lankan skipper blamed the board for not producing decent pitches. "It is about time the Sri Lankan board produced good tracks in our major domestic competitions, where the fast bowlers if they bend their backs will get something out of it, where spinners who are good can turn and ball, and batsmen will get lots of runs," Ranatunga said. "On the pitches we get today, if you bowl three bad balls in a club match, you get away. But then, you don't learn, and you do the same thing in an international, and you are massacred." Reacting angrily to criticism, Ranatunga said, "People criticise us for not winning matches, especially Tests. But to win matches we need quality bowlers. Captains like Hansie Cronje and Mark Taylor have only to toss the ball around among bowlers who are all capable of taking wickets. For them it is easy, but I don't have that luxury, neither did any of the Lankan skippers before me. Here we have a situation where our key fast bowler, Vaas, is injured and we don't have a replacement." Ranatunga warned that the situation was resulting in Muthaiah Muralitharan, their star spinner, being overworked and argued that this in turn could prove dangerous. By dint of preparing spinning tracks, Sri Lanka did manage to take the three-Test series against New Zealand 2-1, but the Lankan captain believes that his bowling resources are being stretched very thin, and could prove an Achilles heel. Albeit the Test arena differs markedly from ODIs, it is this weakness that the Indian think tank hopes to exploit. An interesting fact is that while Sri Lanka has won most of its games with the bat, a straight comparison between the leading batsmen of both sides appears, on the surface, to give India the edge. Thus, Mohammad Azharuddin leads the table with 1628 runs in 45 matches at a very high average of 54.26, Sachin Tendulkar coming second with 1110 runs in 3 games at 42.69. The only other consistent performer for India is Saurav Ganguly, with 309 runs in 10 games at 34.33. The highest Lankan entry in the table is Arjuna Ranatunga himself, with 1231 runs from 48 games at 35.17, followed by Aravinda D'Silva (46 games, 1302 runs, 34.26), Roshan Mahanama (40 games, 1059 runs, 34.16 average) and Sanath Jayasuriya (817 runs from 29 games, 34.04 average). Follows the complete schedule of the tournament:
Note: All six league games featuring India, as also the final, will be covered live on Rediff.
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