Oct 10 2009
2007 The year gone by
Indian cricket is much like any Ekta Kapoor television soap. Although the name of every player doesn’t start with K, there are similarities, which would put any competing soap to shame. In this case, cricket played in any other country. There is drama here, angst, agony, adrenaline pumping all the time and not to forget, emotions and opinions of a billion strong fan community. All in all, this soap opera never loses its TRPs. No matter what happens, the people are always hooked to the game. Doesn’t matter if Chak De was about hockey or somebody does well in any other sport. Cricket is and will be the main attraction.
And the trend continued with 2007, like all the past years. Even more so, considering that this was the “double world cup year”, the ODI world cup in the Caribbean and the T20 world cup in South Africa. As always the expectations were sky high and sometimes the performances were too. At other times, may be not so much. Cricket Today takes a look at the year that was 2007.
January: The year started on a high note of expectations from the team which was on tour in South Africa. They had beaten the Proteas in the first Test and now, going into the third Test, the series was at 1-1, with a chance of making history. But, as has always been the story of Indian cricket, that opportunity went a begging as the team was bowled out in the last innings for a paltry 169. What made this defeat even worse to digest was the fact that two batting stalwarts of Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid had shown no intent what-so-ever during their stay at the crease, spanning a ghastly 24 runs in 15 overs.
The team returned home to face West Indies in a four ODI series which began their build-up to the world cup. Some new faces were tried out, as were old horses, the name of Sourav Ganguly being the primary one. After missing out much of the 2006 season, the comeback man of Indian cricket was still looking to cement his place in the side for the world cup. The series was won 2-1, as both Ganguly and Tendulkar played out their parts, the latter batting at no.4 again to lend solidarity to the middle-order. Finally, the debacle of South Africa had been left behind.
February: The question, who would be on the bus to the West Indies, surely took center stage in the mind of the average Indian fan. The team, on the other hand, had a four match series to tend to. The visiting Sri Lankan side very aptly rested Muralitharan and Vaas for this tour as India was in the same group as them in the world cup. The home team did manage to win this duel 2-1, but the concentration of the whole country was on the actions of the selectors rather than the team.
Without throwing any surprises, the Indian team declared for the world cup was along more or less expected lines. Pathan and Sehwag had both made the cut inspite of early doubts, but it was the inclusion of Ganguly that added all the jazz to the news. But even spicier was the statement of the Indian coach that he was not particularly happy with the mix of the team. With a fortnight to go for the biggest cricket tournament in the world, there seemed to be something amiss in the whole situation.
March: If there were to be one time period that would stand out as the most shameful in the history of Indian cricket, it would be this third month of the year 2007. For years and years, the Indian fan had anticipated an Indian world cup victory. With stalwarts in the team providing experience and the new players adding that dash of youth, under the watchful eyes of the great Greg Chappell, surely this had to be the edition, that India would lift the coveted trophy again. No wonder the Men in Blue were considered to be among the favourites to go all the way and even challenge Australia.
Call it the kick of luck or fate, or a mix of both. Nothing worked for the Indians in the Caribbean and after the three group fixtures were completed, the fact that the much hallowed Indian team had won only the one match against minnows Bermuda was testimonial enough that there was indeed something wrong within the team. They were beaten black & blue by Sri Lanka but it was the humiliating loss to Bangladesh that would have hurt the most. For, its ramifications were felt throughout the length and breadth of the country.
Suddenly there was an out flux of both interest and money out of the game. The ICC’s losses coupled with the sponsors, TV rights and the BCCI’s losses were to the tune of millions. It is said that Pepsi lost out more than six million dollars in its planned operations for March 2007 alone. It was a sad day indeed as it dawned that the names of Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Kumble might never be associated with a world cup win.
April: The BCCI’s retribution was swift. Immediately all players were under the scanner and there was a limit stipulated to their endorsements. The coach of the team was asked to submit a full report and this was the moment that all hell broke loose. Greg Chappell accused some senior players of not listening to the coach or the captain and that they were trying to disintegrate the team. Obviously this did not go down well with the players and they came out with their own different versions. What was most surprising about the whole issue was the fact that the usually calm Sachin Tendulkar was the most vocal player about the whole issue.
When Tendulkar talks, be it with the bat or otherwise, India sits up and notices. Maybe this age old adage came true as Chappell parted ways with the Indian team after two relatively unsuccessful years. What was surprising was the fact that Rahul Dravid chose not to resign from his post and that the selectors decided to persist with him. If there was a need for a new leader to usher in a new beginning, this was the moment. As it so often happens in Indian cricket, this moment was put off too as was the issue of selecting a coach for the impending Bangladesh tour.
For the first time, the team was to set off without a head coach. Although the BCCI did heed to Dravid’s request for fielding and bowling coaches as Robin Singh and Venkatesh Prasad came onboard. The team also gained in Ravi Shastri, the manager of the team, a post that also partially fulfilled the duties of a coach. Meanwhile, a long serving son of Indian cricket bid adieu to the shorter version of the game. Anil Kumble retired from the ODIs to prolong his Test career.
If one were to think that this particular month had brought its share of hustle, the ZEE group only proved this notion wrong. Alongwith retired ex-cricketers, prominently Kapil Dev (chairman) and Kiran More, Subhash Chandra dealt a Kerry Packer-type blow to the BCCI with the announcement of the Indian Cricket League. The league was to contract players from all over the country, whose chances of donning the Indian colours were slim and then, teamed them up with retired international stars, such as Chris Cairns and Brian Lara. BCCI banned all players who would join forces with the rebel league as well as ousted Kapil Dev from the NCA chairman’s post. This was poised to be a long and hard battle to be fought throughout the season.
May: Normal cricketing service resumed both literally and figuratively. Figuratively, as the Indian team took revenge over the Bangladeshis in their ODI series, winning 2-0 comfortably. The team repeated the same margin in the Tests as the preparation for the forthcoming tour to England continued. Literally, as the mayhem off the field continued. This time it was in the coach selection process. At first, Dav Whatmore was declared by many board officials to be the favourite to replace Chappell. That he would be selected without any hassles was even clearer when he met BCCI chief Sharad Pawar, who was on a trip to Bangladesh. But as nothing can ever go smoothly in Indian cricket, in a strange u-turn, it was declared that he was the inappropriate man for the job.
Even stranger was the fact that he was still given an advisory role at the National Cricket Academy. Furthermore, the coach selection committee was now convinced by the players to rope in Kent coach Graham Ford for the job. But again, Sunil Gavaskar pulled out England spinner John Emburey’s name out of the hat. The two were called for an interview and it was evident that Ford was the man they wanted. But as it panned out, its not only Indian cricket that works strangely. Ford refused to take up the offer, after he had accepted it at first.
June: The Indian team traveled to the united kingdom without a coach. Ravi shastri, however, relinquished his post and was replaced by an elder statesman, Chandu Borde. The tour began on a high as they first took on the might of South Africa in Ireland playing for the Future Cup. This is where the 90s jinx started for sachin Tendulkar when he scored two consecutive ones to set up a famous record win over the proteas. It was the first time the Indians had beaten their opponents in a limited overs series outside india.
July: It just got better and better as the English summer set in. In the first Test at Lord’s, the team dug in to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat, something one would rarely associate Indian cricket with. But it was the second Test match that caught every one by surprise. In adverse conditions at Nottingham, the Indians fashioned a memorable win over the home side to go one up in the series. From then on it was all about winning the Test series in England for the first time since 1986.
As always, Indian cricket without a controversy is hard to fathom. And so, keeping with the tradition, in the third Test, the Indian skipper didn’t impose the follow-on, after having scored a mammoth 664 and then bowling out the opposition for 345. In the process, he endangered the match and series results, as India were reduced to 11 for 3 and subsequently, the match could only be drawn after that. Much debate ensued after the match where in, the whole country felt that the follow-on should have been enforced but Dravid felt otherwise. The reasoning given was that the bowlers were tired but then his spearhead Zaheer Khan refuted that point. Any way, India won a major Test series overseas.
August: Rahul Dravid’s actions were already under the microscope when he endured another horrible series in the ODIs against England. His batting was already suffering and now cracks began to appear in his decision making prowess. Some of his field placements and bowling changes were truly strange and went a long way in surrendering the series to the home team. A prime example of this fact was the 4th ODI, where after losing seven wickets, England still won the match due to some horrible decisions. As it were, the big trio had already pulled out of the forthcoming Twenty20 world cup in South Africa.
September: Four months after the ICL declaration, pat came the reply of the BCCI. It had already banned all those associated with the rebel league but alongside, it was also working on another front. In consultation with the ICC, Australian, English and South African cricket boards, it declared the Indian Premier league, which would be a premier Twenty20 format tournament to be played from April 2008. The league was based on a franchise based format, where teams and players such as Dravid, Tendulkar, Ponting, McGrath and Warne were available for sale, ala the English football league. The Twenty20 fever was all set to grip the world.
But we discuss the proceedings in South Africa, it is important to mention that immediately after the IPL declaration, Rahul Dravid resigned from the Indian captaincy and plunged Indian cricket into another crisis. The reason cited was his focus on batting but it was apparent that differences with the selectors were the major force behind such a step.
At the same time, the world cup of the shortest version of the game had begun in South Africa. This was to be the highlight of the year for the otherwise troubled Indian cricket. The young Turks led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni upstaged all other teams to lift the trophy beating Pakistan in an epic final. The final was a repeat of another record breaking league match played out between the arch rivals, where the Indians triumphed after a bowl-out since the match had been tied. They also beat Australia, England and South Africa on the way to the final. It was a pure team effort displaying the attitude and courage of a young team. It isn’t possible for anyone to recall all the fantastic moments of that tournament, but surely the six 6s struck by Yuvraj Singh off Chris Broad have been etched too deeply in memory, that one is indeed compelled to mention them.
October: Amidst all the vehement celebrations, the Aussies landed in India for a seven match ODI series. The team had a new captain in Dhoni and the attitude from the T20 win reflected in the ODIs too. The series, though, was lost 4-2 as the Kangaroos avenged their loss from South Africa. It was obvious from the beginning itself as the team was yet to find its feet after the change in leadership. However, new storms brew up as the visiting side, particularly Andrew Symonds, complained of racial slur from the Indian public first and then, followed them up with complaints against the Indian players’ behaviour. With the tour down under lurking, the rivalry was agitated once again. As if to prove a point that the world cup win was no fluke, the team once again got the better of the visitors in the one-off Twenty20 match played in Mumbai.
November: A depleted Pakistan side arrived in India to play five ODIs and three Tests. For the first time in years, such a weak Pakistani attack was on tour and thus, it only meant that India had a golden chance to set a few records straight. The ODIs were won 3-2 as Dhoni’s captaincy finally began to look convincing. The highlight of the series was the sublime batting of Tendulkar, who now had seven 90s in the year but no hundreds since the couple against Bangladesh. He became India’s highest run getter in ODIs as he accumulated more than 1400 runs in 33 innings. The focus now shifted onto the Test arena, where there was the small matter of captaincy, still to be solved.
With the Australian tour in the offing, it would have been a very brave set of selectors to hand over the captaincy to Dhoni. Sachin Tendulkar was in the hunt for a third shot at the job but he pulled out at the last possible moment. Seeing no other option, Anil Kumble became the new Test captain as for the first time, Indian cricket entertained the idea of dual captaincy. The Kumble-effect rubbed off on the team immediately, as they beat Pakistan in the first Test at Delhi in a professional display of determined cricket.
Meanwhile, the coach selection committee finally found a willing candidate in Gary Kirsten to take control of the Indian ship. However, they forgot to iron out the small matter of prior commitments with the former South African player. As a result, he was to assume charge only in march 2008, while the team was to travel across Kangaroo land, again without a coach.
December: The ICL had begun without anybody actually noticing it. Players came in and left as quietly as they had come. The likes of Lara and Cairns failed miserably to ignite the imagination of cricket followers all over the country. The tournament more or less failed in its approach to provide fringe domestic players, the requisite platform as not one noteworthy performance by an Indian player comes to mind, however hard one may try. For the record, Chennai Superstars won the first edition of the rebel league.
Meanwhile, the question of Yuvraj Singh’s inclusion into the Test side had been looming large for some time now, especially since he was in stupendous form over the past couple of months. With Sachin missing the last Test against Pakistan due to injury, he gained a welcome entry into the side and posed further headaches for the selection committee with a rollicking 169 to almost confirm his position in the squad for the Test series against Australia. India, meanwhile, riding high on the majestic double hundred of Sourav Ganguly, won a home Test series against their arch rivals after a gap of 27 years. In the process, Ganguly top scored in Tests with 1100 runs from 19 innings at a staggering average of 61.
The team, then left in a hurry for the tour down under and got to play only one practice match before the Boxing Day Test against the Aussies. This highly displayed the inefficiency and greed of the BCCI in planning a tour of major importance. The results showed almost instantaneously as the team lost the first Test, with the much sanctified batting line-up failing to reach 200 even once in two innings.
As one can clearly make out, this was an incident packed year. A year, which no hardcore Indian cricket fan, can forget in a hurry. There were lows and highs as so often happens in sport. There were highlights, both in the positive light, and in the negative aspects. But watching India play in 2007, one point that became apparent without any doubt was that, the game of cricket is a great leveler.
