Another Test match starts today, a test in every sense of the word, India-Australia clashes, or to use a more politically correct term, 'meets' are fraught with the kind of emotions we used to find with India-Pak encounters or The Ashes maybe, including the latters' mudslinging, mind-games and war of words,,the print media taking sides and going all out, no holds barred too. I am at my hostel room, far away from a Television set ,to participate in any of this, but am still rooting for my team.
Furthermore I am praying fervently for the 'oldies' in the team, who have so much to prove, unthinkable after all they have given to our cricket, I know, but that is just the way we are, or I should say, a 'select' few of us are. Early Alzheimer's setting in I guess. Among the Seniors is the one man who gave Indian Cricket its present face. Previously we were renowned as being the capitulators of the game, quick to give in at the knees, adept at looking the other way, turning the proverbial other cheek, always managing, by dint of sheer hard work, to snatch defeat from the jaws of Victory, till this Captain came along.
He was given the Cap by default, but what a turn around for our cricket that became..
The rest is history, they say, but for us who overlook history so very blithely, we need to recall them. We became gritty, starting to turn around and show our teeth, rather than walk-away, we started initiating mind-games, making a Hoity-Toity Captain wait at a toss, matching pert remarks with smart ones. Defensive playing was at an end, we started to think we could win, and we did. Youngsters came into the team, selection meets did not end until the Captain saw to it that he had exactly those he wanted in the team, nervous debuts were converted into man-of-the-match awards, T-shirts were waved from the balcony of Staid cricketing grounds, Overseas umpires in certain countries now couldn't just, on a whim, give any of our batsman ,the dreaded finger, there was someone who would raise a questioning voice, stand up chest to chest and question. This Captain was called 'The Bad Boy' of cricket, and he ended up with a lot less that he actually earned, because the rest of the money saw their way back into the ICC coffers, as fines. He made the team gel into a unit, made every member stand up for the other, if the occasion arose. He made the rest of the world, who always took us to be a Nation with one or two Individual talents, see us as a team who could give the rest a run for their money, and make a claim for the world cup. He made me proud to see us on the field, filled with confidence, raring to go, fighting tooth and nail, every single time, he made me stand up and applaud my team, and him along with it. He turned us into a Nation of fighters, and today I pray that his swan song is one which is heard loud and clear, I want him to go out with a bang, holding his head high, full of the pride he instilled in us.
For he is and always will be, India's most successful Captain Ever.
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