da aviator aposta： Even a close look at the England squad, will not set the pulses ofIndian cricket fans in India racing
Partab Ramchand18-Nov-2001Nasser Hussain has this happy knack of saying the right thing at theright time. The 33- year-old Indian born England captain has earned afew PR points on arrival in India with his not so highly rated squad.And he has also not wasted much time in putting the pressure on India.Cheerily admitting that England were the underdogs in the ensuing Testseries, Hussain has cleverly named India as the favourites, whichmeans that the media and public will be gunning for the home team ifthey fail to win the series.
Even a close look at the England squad, will not set the pulses ofIndian cricket fans in India racing. There are very few well-knownnames, but even among them, there is no match-winner or a playerlikely to draw crowds. In the past even if the England teams wererather ordinary, there were dominant personalities like Dexter,Barrington, Lock, Underwood, Knott, Greig, Gower, Botham, Boycott,Gatting and Hick who attracted considerable attention among the Indiamedia and the public.
Most of his statements have carried the “we have come to learn”refrain. “To bowl to guys like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly andVenkatsai Laxman, and face Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh will be agood education,” he said. “With a young team like this, beating Indiain their own backyard is a huge challenge. There’s a big difference inthe game in India. It will take a lot of effort by the younger lads toget used to it.” No big talk, no tall promises. Just very matter offact and strategically disarming.Indeed, both current form and past history would seem to be against anEngland win. At home, India have always been a formidable side againstany opposition, a fact driven home by the great triumph over Australiaearlier this year. And England on the face of it, are several notchesbelow the Australians as the Ashes contest this summer in Englandproved.Even a close look at the England squad, will not set the pulses ofIndian cricket fans in India racing. There are very few well-knownnames, but even among them, there is no match-winner or a playerlikely to draw crowds. In the past even if the England teams wererather ordinary, there were dominant personalities like Dexter,Barrington, Lock, Underwood, Knott, Greig, Gower, Botham, Boycott,Gatting and Hick who attracted considerable attention among the Indiamedia and the public. In the present squad there are hardly any namesthat can be taken in the same breath. To a certain extent, Hussainbecause of his Indian background, Butcher because of his one heroicknock in the Ashes series, and a few others like Trescothick, Thorpe,Ramprakash and White may attract some attention. But the other teammembers are, generally speaking, the faceless and nameless ones.Of course, India is a great place for nobodies to come good and thatis an encouraging thought for the Englishmen. One remembers a certainJohn Lever coming here in 1976-77 as a reserve seam bowler and thentaking ten wickets on his Test debut at New Delhi to star in the firstof three successive victories before emerging as man of the series.History though is against Hussain. Out of nine campaigns by Englandteams in India over the past 68 years (if one ignores the GoldenJubilee Test played in 1979-80), only three have been victorious.Jardine in 1933-34, Greig in 1976-77 and Gower in 1984-85 held theirhead high at the end of the tour and the last two triumphs wereachieved against the odds. It will certainly be an unexpected resultif Hussain is able to hold his head high at the end of the three-Testseries. It is more likely that he will join Dexter, Lewis, Fletcherand Gooch as England captains who have lost Test rubbers in India. Thecontests in 1951-52 and 1963-64 were shared.Like so many England teams in the past, this one too is not at fullstrength. The absence of Stewart, Gough, Caddick and Croft willundoubtedly be felt but Hussain has turned this to an advantage bysaying that the young team is eager to do well. “The enthusiasm isterrific and everyone is doubly keen to perform,” he said on arrival.Indeed, the unknown quantity could well become the team’s strength ifthe Indians display even the slightest touch of over confidence. Forthat matter, one recalls that Lewis’ team in 1972-73 and Gower’s squadof 12 years later were not rated highly. But while the latter turned a0-1 deficit to win the Test series the only team to come back andwin in India Lewis’ unheralded team surprised a cocky Indian side inthe first Test before going down by slender margins in the next twogames to lose the rubber narrowly.The script at the start of the series is not likely to be differentfrom what happened in 1992-93. That time, the Indians came back from anone too successful series in South Africa but found the England teameasy prey and won all three Test matches, two of them by an innings.This time too the Indians are bound to come back from an unsuccessfultour of South Africa. Whether the rest of the script follows thepattern of nine years ago remains to be seen.