Nairobi turnaround

Nairobi turnaround

Strange are the spinoffs of victory. When Saurav Ganguly and his men in blue sent world champions Australia home a week earlier than they could have expected, they in one fell swoop seemed to have rescued cricket from the gloomy prognoses of six months and more. It was a message not just woven into the twists and turns of the Saturday encounter, but declared most emphatically by the victorious XI -- and received back home by startled millions -- in the uncharacteristically exuberant gestures of relief after the tenth Australian wicket fell. And why not? Make no mistake, that encounter against Steve Waugh's team, a team that believes in doling out no free lunches, was a do-or-die one for the Indians. Had they lost, not only would they have had to bid a hasty farewell to the gathering in Nairobi, they would have surrendered their fate yet again to the dithering band of selectors and administrators back home. The wise old men would have once again resorted to a merry round of musical chairs to announce acontingent for the forthcoming Sharjah tournament. And match-fixing would still have been the fulcrum of cricketing discussions.

Instead, happily, we can thrill in the emergence of a trio of gutsy youngsters. Yuvraj Singh, who bolstered a normally lackadaisical middle order by whacking 84 runs off just 80 balls and in the process registered the largest number of runs by an Indian making his batting debut in a one-day international. Zaheer Khan, who gave the Indian seam department one less reason to despair over the TINA factor. Vijay Dahiya, who gave ample evidence of his wicketkeeping in just his second outing. We can also thrill in the rare opportunity to rewind to breathtaking displays of fielding, toinspired bowling changes, to telltale signs of determination on the faces of India's now undervalued cricketers. Yes, the matchfixing probe must proceed apace, but something magical was needed on the field to at least refocus attention from raids and sting operations to cover drives and bouncers. To remind us that cricket is after all a much loved sport, not just an excuse to keep the CBI and the income tax department busy.

And yet, one swallow does not a summer make. Even on Saturday, niggling signs of vulnerability were evident. The problem of the third seamer, for instance. The inability of the lower order to exploit the slog overs, for another. Then, of course, there is the problem of nurturing a relatively young -- and inexperienced -- side without a regular coach. The selectors have wasted no time in nominating this twice victorious side for Sharjah; they would do well to show similar alacrity in deciding upon the new coach. They should know how it is when a team misplaces its winning instincts, when its minders indulge in little games on the side. Take that American humorist Bill Bryson's word for it. It becomes a case of two batsmen, attired for battle, taking guard, of a bowler strolling for miles to begin a run-up, an action he repeats endlessly so that spectators can at some point cheer the spectacle of two grown men hobbling across with mattresses attached to their legs. Time enough for spectators to see their hairturning grey ever so gradually. But just add a dash of self-belief and a pinch of competitiveness, and it's quite another sport.