By Rajat Subhra Chatterjee
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When your country loses any international game, be it football, hockey, cricket, tennis, badminton, table tennis et all it gives immense pain in the heart. A kind of emptiness creeps in, wondering if our country is that poor vis – a – vis the winning country ? When an individual Indian loses, the pain becomes even more as by experience and practice, India has produced talented individuals galore but when it comes to team game, Indians normally have fared not too well in recent memory.
Surely in Badminton, Table Tennis and few other not-so-popular games, Indians have made us proud in recent time itself. And this trend is on the rise. Youngsters from different parts of this vast country are slowly yet surely taking centre stages in world competitions. That is not only commendable, but most welcome trend indeed.
Cricket, though is played amongst fewest nations compared to any other sport in the world, is a sort of National passion in India. The game is also hugely popular anywhere. Mighty talented, gifted and successful Indian individuals have made the game more credible. But winning a Test match, at home or away, against any opposition under any circumstances gives us perhaps the highest pleasure. And winning against England as it has been in the just concluded Third Test at Rajkot has been an awesome one. Individual brilliance brings success for the team. Yet, steam rolling a myth funnily treasured by the British as ” Buzzball Cricket ” have truly been vanquished and RIP by the Indian Cricket Team. This has been a Test match. Not a T20 or T10 ! Man you got to understand this very simply.
Superb feats by few individuals apart, it has been well orchestrated team efforts. Indian fans can only hope that these heroes of Indian Cricket will continue to shine in other parts of the globe when conditions may not be found quite conducive as they are now getting in India.
Test Cricket can survive and continue to enthrall its huge fan base if ICC can make it mandatory that Test match wickets anywhere under any circumstances must be sporting enough to help all stake holders of the game – players, Boards and spectators. And inspection and declaration to be ‘Fit’ has to come from a neutral expert always like neutral on-field umpires. Well, there could be a little hitch. A country’s demographic position and climatic condition not being same, this mandate may be effectively caused as far as possible. The wickets must not be green top with huge bounce like the last Cape town Test nor the one at Ahmedabad for the last World Cup Final when India dug its own grave by offering a rank slow turner.
‘ Buzzball ‘ may be RIP in India but Test Cricket must go on with its head high.
Concluded..
