Canny resemblance

Gautam Gambhir is the best opening batsman in the world today.There are no two ways about it.There are 2 men who come real close in comparison of form in the current category-Virender Sehwag and Graeme Smith.Both of them have played around thrice the number of tests that Gambhir has played and have as many times the number of runs but are not a lot older.Gambhir has a long way to go.But there's another story that needs telling.

Not very long ago,another man made his test debut for a country which was then the indisputable number 1 cricket unit in existence exactly a year after Gambhir made his.While Gambhir was only 23 years when he was called in to represent the tri-color,the other was 30,following mammoth first class scores totaling in excess of 15,000 runs.That man in the frame is Micheal Hussey,as must've been easily guessed by now.

While many might dispute the theory of resemblance between the two batsmen,one can't help but notice the string of scores that Hussey made as soon as his sojourn with the national team started back in 2005.He was already a veteran then.A veteran of around 180 four and five day matches at the first class level.Critics and former cricketers,while welcoming him with open arms,could only do so much by not hurling themselves at selectors asking them as to how such a talent could not have been spotted earlier.

Hussey made century after century,piled up the runs by heaps and went on to become an indispensable vertebrae of the Aussie spine.Mr.Cricket-he was called and no one dared to dispute it.Heck it wouldn't have been shocking to see a score card carrying a batsman's name on the left followed by a "ct.Mr.Cricket b.Lee" on the right.

Hussey's rise was almost destined.There was a stigma attached to every one of his innings.Much like Rahul Dravid's in the mid 2000s.Or when Gavaskar made sure the West Indians cursed their career's time span co-inciding with his.Australia breathed easy every time a 3rd wicket went down.Their pulses settled at the sight of a brisk,responsible looking Hussey with his trademark sunscreen on the nose,striding-in fact hopping to the crease,taking his guard,rubbing his foot to mark it,flashing the thumbs up sign to the umpire,ready to face the first ball,all in a single sweeping moment.

Michael Hussey was branded to be the next Donald Bradman,and so he seemed to-age on his side or otherwise.The way he was going,Sachin Tendulkar's test records and stats or Ponting's mercurial centuries burst after 2001 or Rahul Dravid's world wide acclaim as the strongest pillar of any batting team in the world seemed to be in grave danger with the way Hussey was headed.He was invincible.Nothing seemed enough to stop him.

Hussey avenged his late calling into the team with every opportunity he got in the form of a test innings or an ODI or a T20.He made the best of everything.And the opposition payed.They payed dearly.In a way,it was almost like the selectors of the national team had done more good than bad by calling him in so late.They had unleashed a run machine on the world.A machine that demanded redemption by churning out run after run with dizzying consistency.

Over time,something else seemed to stop Michael Hussey's dream run.Something gradually stopped every innings of his that seemed to grow from single to double to triple digits in no time.Something seemed to be creeping into those eyes that never betrayed fear,concern or dismay if any.Something was stopping him from taking off his helmet after yet another century and saluting a standing crowd at Colosseums all over the world.Something was turning Hussey from coming up with unbelievable herculean antics to measly human failings.

Something to the tune of reality.

While Hussey battled with the harder face of test match cricket,another relatively smaller boy with equal amounts of determination and focus started making rapid strides in the world of bigger names and flashy flamboyant styles of stroke making.The other added dis advantage that Gambhir faced as far as his own notice in people's eyes was concerned was the fact that his partner was none other than Virender Sehwag himself.A man,considered by most to be the most destructive player of any kind of attack on any surface,provided it was his day.

The advantage was also the very fact that it was Sehwag that Gambhir had as a partner to open with.After all,Sehwag was a monster with the bat but a gentleman with his mates.He aided Gambhir's growth and enjoyed his sucess.The chemistry was sizzling.The coordination-exemplary.The result being that India,under MS Dhoni,is arguably the best team in world cricket today.

Why it is also important to notice along the eerie co incidences and comparisons is the fact that Hussey's and Gambhir's graphs have met mid way through their careers.But not after starting at the same point and continuing along.It has now met after Hussey's graph has spiraled down from what people refer to as "bradmanesque" standards to more humane platforms.An average of 55 from over 90.While Gambhir's has grown from 32 in 2007 to 54 right now.In the last 12 tests he has 5 centuries and 7 half centuries.Gambhir punches his bat on his pads with disgust when gets out after scoring 167 on the most grueling of cricket grounds,at not having been able to make a double hundred.That's the standard he has taken himself to.Whilw Hussey is scared now at being out to 40s and 50s.He is desperate to convert.And that's where his graph has met that of Gambhir's.

Gautam Gambhir will never be talked in the same breadth as a Sehwag or a Gavaskar.Well,not if even his career spirals down the Hussey way.This is not to say either that Hussey's time is over.But with not a lot of years to go,it would be but wise to at least question his dominance in the world charts if not completely write him off.

This is a tale of two differently rated individuals.One a little over rated perhaps and the other well lesser than deserved.But it's a tale of two heroes.Two men with hearts larger than their chests can fill.One seems to be on his way to write history in his own uncluttered,unassuming,calm,mature,responsible manner.Just like the other opening south paw after being once dropped from the national side many many years ago.Someone called Matthew Hayden.

Whether Gambhir can go on to become India's greatest opener is dependent on two crucial factors.1)Virender Sehwag's sanity,2)Gambhir's own ability to keep going.By the time Sehwag is finished,assuming he finishes on his own and not because of the team believing he is too dangerous for his own cause,he would definitely finish around in excess of 10,000 test runs.And that would put him in a completely different league,if stats and prowess alone haven't already.Calculating all that,it would take more than just will and focus that Gambhir currently has in abundance to be talked in that very league.

If he doesn't it still wouldn't be too bad,considering his focus is to help his team get starts and not to overshadow a man most consider Sachin Tendulkar's more dangerous clone.One can only hope he doesn't have to end his career,finishing off where he started exactly a year and a half ago,averaging 32.If that does happen,other comparisons will take place.That with a man called Vinod Kambli.Or a certain Sadagoppan Ramesh.

And it won't be as pretty as being compared to men allegedly at spiraling downward curves of their careers,still averaging 55.

The sword has fallen.One final time.

Edward Aloysius Murphy wouldn't have dreamt in his most bizarre hang-overs that there will be an extension to his proposed philosophy by some margin-"What was always waiting to go wrong,will be forced to,by the people knowing that it could."

The fate of a country producing one of the finest cricketing talents in the world in the past many years has been at least officially sealed.By only 6 masked gunmen representing metaphorically,the hordes of people running the most debilitated political and social systems in the history of modern civilization.

Before this year,test cricket was organized in Pakistan 14 months ago.Some of the most ardent cricket lovers I am friends with,had difficulty making out a full 11 man squad of players from the team they last saw when asked to.Teams were petrified at the idea of flying down to Karachi International airport at the prospect of their planes being either hijacked or shot down by unassuming militia of either the Taliban or the LeT or the hordes of other so called "men of god".

It wouldn't be fair to just say that this marks a black day in the history of Cricket in general for it seems like competitive cricket was almost phased out from Pakistan,step by step,as easily as Hutch turned from orange to pink and from Cellforce to Vodafone,without most people even realizing it.People have almost come to terms with the fact that there shall be no cricket held in or around Pakistan(not counting Gujarat,but that's in India!)and even if there is an ODI series involving the 9th most failed state in the world,it'll probably be held close to some desert in a country,most people would ask for your bat to try and dig up a well of oil.

For the next many more months,or probably years to come,there shall be no cricket in Pakistan.At least with players of countries who still want their citizens to live on with all the parts of their bodies intact.There shall be many more Nadeem Ashrafs either made to be the proverbial scapegoat or actually taking a dip in the country's misery like it was all part of a "plan".Mumbai attacks or Ahmedabad blasts not withstanding,Pakistan in itself is going down to forces it probably has fed with fertilizers with it's own hands.Or so we should be thinking,for even this could be a neatly devised political agenda to attain the world's sympathy under whose scrutiny it faces immense diplomatic and military pressure.

But this has come a far way from Politics.Beyond any possible stage of repair.I only shudder to fathom the enormity of the repercussions had India decided to keep sports apart and toured the country like England did to us.Try to think of the kind of pressure Pakistan would have had to deal with had a bullet even scratched the shirt of someone like a Sachin Tendulkar.This is not to say that the lives of equally talented players from a Sinhalese kingdom far south are less important.No.But in that scenario,we could have possibly faced the prospect of an all out war.Mohammad Asif's drug sojourn and Shoaib Akhtar's night club brawls seem to deserve a reprimand from a kindergarten teacher in comparison.

It's the end of many a tumultuous decade;it's even surprising to say that turbulence can last so long.World cup,Champion trophies being far cries,a Rahul Dravid Lahore or a Virender Sehwag Multan seem like being one off events lost permanently to history.There shall be no such orchestras in the land of the Pathans.At least not in the foreseeable future.Pakistan can try harder now and promise even further security or even arrange for the Border Security Force to form a wall around the boundaries,if only a decent test playing nation wishes to tour.

But then it won't be cricket.No one wants to be in or around a playing field,where a batsman looks in circles trying to spot a sniper in the stands than look for gaps in the field to get some runs at the depth.

It's all over for a country indispensable for a powerful and selfish few,and hated by most for reasons including cricket alongside politics.But in hindsight,Pakistan cricket was the bad boy of world cricket.Everyone wanted it to be in the bar and loved to pick fights but still wanted it to stay.Now it isn't the same anymore.The end has come.It had to sooner or later for sure.But it still hurts.

For reasons even I can't comprehend,it hurts to know that a land where histories were re-written and symphonies orchestrated,there won't even be a band anymore.

It hurts.Truth always does.

Who's going to refer the referral?

Ever felt the sickening nausea hit you when you realize a system you have planned and built meticulously has boomeranged so hard that people find it hard to believe someone actually let you build it in the first place?

That's the kind of feeling the guys over at the ICC chambers must be feeling rushing through every bit of their nervous system after almost 10 months since the referral system was introduced,allegedly on a trail basis and heaven-knows-why,directly at the biggest arena of the game,a player,spectator,writer and everyone associated with the game aspires to be-test match cricket.

Enough has been debated about this referral system by now but quite frankly cricket is already in enough turmoil,what with the management at the Caribbean seemingly having resigned to the fact that there shall be an incident every single time an important tour takes place there.Viv Richards must've wanted to erase all memories of him taking his bat out in the field,arms swinging,gum chewing,splitting balls in two and in the process getting a tribute by means of getting a whole stadium built in his name.And what happens?Oh,well someone forgot to make sure it wasn't built on a beach.Big deal.Scmucks!!Keeps happening all the time at the Caribbean fellas!

Fast forward to test no.4 at the newly laid out lush green Kensington Oval.1st Innings,WI trailing England by more than 300 runs,4 wickets down.Anderson bowls to Chanderpaul,batting on 70.Ball hits in line,nips back,Chanderpaul raises his arms,doesn't offer a shot on the front foot;Ball clips the top of the pad way above the knee roll and the umpire gives this one out.Shiv,as does everyone watching the match on their sets,thinks the on-field adjudicators have gotta be kidding their wits.So he decided to use the newly laid out system supposed to usher in an era of justice,where no one goes back to the dug-out at least,unfairly.

The rule book states that,unless the 3rd umpire has absolute and "conclusive" evidence so as to clearly know of their being no discrepancy in the on field umpire's decision,only then can he revoke a decision.The catch here is,even after the 3rd umpire is allowed the use of technology,for some unimaginable self-righteous code,he isn't allowed the hawk-eye,or at least the movement of the ball after impact.

Now, Daryl Harper,the 3rd umpire is forced to make a decision on the basis of the half-available hawk eye and the rule book stating there to be no revoke in case of credible evidence not being present so as to overrule,this in spite the other fact that clearly there was no need of a man to have attended any geometry lessons in his entire school and college life to know the ball was going over the top .So forced to make a decision,in spite of knowing it to be the wrong one,Mr.Harper asks the guys on field to stick with the earlier decision.

Similar incident,half an hour later with the new batsmen at No 6.Brendan Nash.Struck in line,ball not doing much,seems high and given not out.This time Andrew Strauss and company appeal.Out of some un-foreseeable reason,where in Harper seemed to have suddenly grabbed his own hawk from the sky,allows for a sudden change of plans in the "conclusive evidence" part and judges it to have been a wrong decision by the guys at the middle.Aleem Dar crosses his arms at his shoulders(a sign of revoke,but more a sign of disgust to the game in reality)and gives it out.Where did the evidence of the sudden surety of the path of the ball come in from suddenly?Who cares?It's the Caribbean.No?Yeah.That's right.It's test match cricket Sir.

Now,either there is an additional rule in the ICC book not everyone is aware of.Or 3rd umpires get to have a drink or two occasionally as and when time permits while the game is still in progress for this sort of a bias to be explained or someone has got to come out with a system where in a re-referred referral could be referred to a 4th party,may be on the Internet while the game is conducted in the most shameful of ways possible,while people on the other hand still keep coming up with ways to make a test match possible on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean aka Viv Richards stadium.

It's a very simple logic that people still decide to play a game of cricket with human beings.Technology can go only so far as to make things more believable while even 'it' can't actually ascertain in totality,an occurrence of an event which never did occur in reality.There are only two ways as far as even thinking about implementing this new system goes.Start from the county level(something tested not satisfactorily)and make sure every possible resource is available to the 3rd umpire after a referral is made.

To put it in simpler words,if a referral is indeed made,the decision on whether or not it's out should be allowed to be taken by the new adjudicator in his individual capacity,by providing him with the latest in gizmos and technology and not ask him to having to be a judge on whether or not the previous decision was right or not.If a revoke is indeed made,the previous decision automatically becomes void as not having been taken with conclusive evidence on the mere merit of it having being over turned by the 3rd umpire!!If not,forget everything and let the guys in the middle use all their impulse as it has been happening for a century and a half and let's have a game in our hands!

Some one's got to make a referral on this new referral system.Cricket's having it's own tough times.Zimbabwe is virtually extinct.No one's wanting to watch test matches.Cricket is slowly becoming a movie show with 3 hour matches.Australia are going downer by the day(which in more ways than one is actually good for cricket).Pakistan hosts tests in leap years.Test matches are being played on make shift pitches on beaches and like the proverbial cherry on the cake,we have the referral system being used by the 3rd umpires who need to have to carry the rule book along and still not being able to tackle the "conclusive" evidence part.

We already have enough on our plates so far as knowing what things are to be sorted out to carry the legend of the game ahead.Adding in newer and bitterly confusing methods to an already struggling form of the game is like actually telling the handful of audience to make sure they surf through live broadcasts,acting as if a match never really was in progress.

Put an end to this now.At least it'll be a beginning away from the end.

Ah! How the mighty bow!

What began less than couple of weeks ago as a mere puff of dust of the then discreet brawls inside the English dressing room,ended with a tornado wiping off the posts of two of the most important people in the England and Wales cricket unit.

Articles will be written and ground to chowder of how Kevin Pietersen-one of the greatest wielders of the Cricket bat of the modern era,was humiliated beyond what would seem allowable for the most prolific run scorer in any invented form of a particular game for his country in the last couple of years.

Pietersen's "I've never felt more loved" after the Lords applause to his century,the "We did what had to be done.We had to come back to India", his "I shall lead you hounds into the field and take you back as 10 gentlemen" demeanor might have all been parts of James Cameroon's most romantic epic as yet,his switch hitting might well be the invention of the century,the madly highlighted Mohawks replaced by tonsured,more civilized crops might all have been the signal he so desperately wanted to send out to the cricketing fraternity since he permanently took the road from Pietermaritzburg to Johannesburg and there-on to Heathrow more than half a decade ago,that the toughest,bravest and the most flamboyant boy in the cricket field had arrived and god help those who dare to take him look him in the eye.

Unfortunately,what started off as one of Leonardo-di Caprio's magical paintings sank just as suddenly as the Titanic.The only difference being that Pietersen's Kevlar-certified vest of principles took the form of a trillion ton iceberg and took along with him someone else doing just as good a job-Peter Moores.Moores in his prime,single-handedly built and structured and gelled together a domestic team that couldn't even pull of a single county championship when he took things in his hands.Pietersen was probably trying to figure out the cheapest flight deal on the Johannesburg-London sector while Moores sent out high-air catching practices with his baseball-gloved,one handed swings.

Right from the time the flamboyance came to the fore on an otherwise gloomy day at The Oval way back in 2005,one thing was certain about the man.Kevin Pietersen wanted to impress.The methods-he didn't care of.15 test hundreds in 45 tests is a phenomenal record.Even by Sehwag's blitzkrieg standards,it's humongous,although the latter probably has another 15 hidden in each of his massive 100s.Every day at the field was a different hair-do,with a different color,all bright and flashy.Blue,Blond,Red.Hell,KP might have well been a peacock up Shane Warne's and McGrath's you know where.The boundaries travelled all over and around Vauxhall main-land area and not even the London Eye could've provided a spectator with a wider horizon of entertainment.

Pietersen was always known to be a man to show an overwhelming sense of wanting to immediately turn himself "totally British" and with every passing test and with his ever growing indispensability,it only cemented in his brain,a lie he had been telling himself for a long time.The cheers,the adulation soaked in and Kevin Pietersen led himself to believe that the three lions stood proud as a result of him and not the reverse.Tattoos of the queen herself on his 16" bicep instead of the three lions couldn't have made this lie a reality.Pietersen was digging himself a pit and filling it himself with the very best of pit-mines,created unnecessarily as a result of an ever lasting desire to show case that his principles and his beliefs wilted under no one.Not even himself.Pietersen had,without his own knowing,dug himself a grave,fit for the bravest of knights.

To think that only 3 months ago,a chapter waiting to be written by the best of biographers with his own bat,would see before it such a humiliating and sudden full-stop is not just tragic.It's heart-breaking.Pietersen was touted to be the bravest captain the country had seen.Or even the world,had a certain Mr.Smith not been secretly devising and executing plans to be Napoleon Bonaparte of the kingdom with his custom manufactured GM 2 pound 10 oz weapon for a long time-slowly but surely.The irony being that the famous words which could've been Smith's own was patented by Pietersen-He came,He barely saw,he Switch hit,he lost his job.Not that Smith would be complaining but the world surely would.

If all goes even remotely well and Pietersen manages to somehow regain the trust of his dressing room mates and co-operates with a man who only a month ago wasn't sure of his own place in the team plane to the Carribean,and the same someone who had suddenly been thrust a job,which should've rightfully been his to start off with,England can even start daring to think of having a feel of the urn again.At the background of all the turmoil back home,Chris Gayle and company would've already started rubbing their palms and smacking their lips at the prospect of winning a major series home and make up for some points lost in the table last year.Shivnaraine Chanderpaul's hunger looks insatiable and the signs look ominous for the men,who would only weeks from now be checking in at the very airport where Pietersen arrived yesterday after an "un-relaxing" vacation at his other home.

Andrew Flintoff is the one man whom the English can rest their hopes on to deliver.Kevin Pietersen will be expected to play his level best cuz whatever the situation be,his massive ego wouldn't let anything dent his career figures.He usually has his level best reserved for the worst of "street fight" battles and the Aussie battle will surely be one of them.

Pietersen might not fight the battle on behalf of the governing body which might pay him his wages at the end of the match but he will in all possibilities bludgeon the in-experienced attack just for the heck of it anyway.We can expect him to turn up black-eyed as a result of an overnight altercation with the ECB chief himself and yet tear apart Peter Siddle's 145 kmph 'canon-balls' to such an extent that might make him wonder if he was still well off bowling beamers at senior college kids with captain Cameron White laughing all the way to the tea-break and gawking at what the whole Pietersen Vs Moores Vs ECB fuss was all about.

Kevin Pietersen was and will in all likelihood live on as the Achilles of world cricket.He may be the most diplomatic and the most accommodative of post match speakers.But at the end of whatever his career may be,people will know,to his mis-fortune that he played for only one person-Kevin Pietersen himself.A boy forced to abandon his place of birth in search of people better ready and equipped to appreciate his physical talents.A man who kept telling people that he's one amongst them now,but deep inside he was one amongst no one.Ah!The irony!

There is every chance in the world that if Andrew Strauss fails to deliver in the Carribean,the board will be resigned to hand over the captaincy back to KP.At the end of all the drama,he may still remove his gloves,put his bat under his armpit and walk off with the "i was right all the while" grin.But all that might prove to be too costly a price to pay for a heavy loss in front of a struggling team so far away or an impending disaster,immediately back home.If not,a captaincy record of 3 tests,1 win,1 loss,1 draw and a 4-0 and 0-5 ODI record would only show to the world,a good 50 years from now,the tale of a brave man who could've died leaving a legacy of un-parelled successes and adulations behind,knowing he was second to none and yet knowing that very fact ultimately brought him his downfall.

If only switch hits worked in real life too.

Untamed bravado.

Willpower:

Pronunciation:'wil-?pau?(-?)r\
Function:noun
Origin:1858

-The unwavering strength of character to carry out one's wishes.

Graeme Smith born.1st February,1981 will have gone to sleep on 2nd August,2008,perhaps with the most satisfied smile on the face of a test captain ever.No,not to permanently leave a legacy with many a void yet to fill,but with the knowledge of the fact that he will perhaps be remembered as the bravest skipper to have ever lead his nation on a cricket field.

In the process of leading his side to be the first South African team to have registered a series victory in England after 4 long decades,Smith has minted a new synonym in the dictionary right next to the word 'willpower'.That of his own name.Resolution of such irrepressible proportions was never before witnessed in test cricket and will take more than a special outing to ever surpass.Arguments may fall out of that particular assumption of abundant magnitudes,but the truth will remain.Graeme Smith has led his team in a battle not of the mind,of soul,of character,of power or of pride.He has finally been able to make peace with his own self and achieved for his team what no one else has before in their long and contentious past and has made immortal sound frugal inside 341 minutes of taking to the field with a bat,in a scenario of pressure which would have made a chowder of most batting captains in present day cricket.

Pain is associated with mortals if Smith was to be believed on the day of the triumph.To think of it,he was actually contemplating pulling out of the match for a back strain and yet stayed on the crease for more than 6 hours at a stretch and when most of his peers would have wanted to come back afresh and finish the game a day later,Smith remained glued to his resolve of finishing the task at hand by taking the extra half hour to complete the formality within 30 balls.Procrastination and Graeme Smith are two sides of a magnet.And if it was ever possible for victory to be more satisfying,the winning runs came off Kevin Pietersen.

This is not a story about the journey of a 22 year old hefty lad being the youngest man to ever lead his nation.This is not about an individual striking unremitting back to back double centuries not fully aware of the politics of international cricket in a land which refused to admit his ancestors into the realms of normal civilization.This is certainly not just about the man holding on to otherwise humane factors like hope but obstinate resolve and a imperiously stanch drive to set himself and his team apart from the world.This is about the making of a test cricketer,a leader,an extra ordinary sportsman of nerve wrecking patience and fortitude who has succeeded in not merely overcoming but superseding his demons and murdering with frightening fatality,a legend kept alive for almost half a century.

South Africa's evolution since the post apartheid era has been overwhelmingly harrowing to say the least.People have put on the skipper's cap and have worked their soul off to make a team out of 10 other men unsure of landing themselves in controversies in issues least pertaining to cricket.It is not to say that Smith is the greatest cricketer the country has ever produced.No.That would not only be unjust,it would be ridiculing the stature of greats like Shaun Pollock,Cronje or Kepler Wessels.Just like Smith,every one of them or for that matter any other captain of a team at the highest level has displayed the size of their hearts at various stages of their cricketing lives.But Graeme Smith does not set himself apart as a class batsman or just an emotional and passionate team man.

What does set him apart is his aptitude to have been able to construct a team which refuses to die down under circumstances least known to the human mind as cataclysmic.Smith has been able to make each one of his team mates deliver at some or the other stage of them being part of the team,whether it be the cool headed Amla,the ever dependable Kallis,sucking out the best possible from the hastily evaporating sting of Ntini,the bone shattering pace of Dale Steyn or the ambiguous talent of the Morkel brothers.Smith has been able to sap every ounce of the resources handed out to him and the recent victory over the Englishmen in spite of the absence of the unswerving and the defiantly consistent Steyn only reinforces that fact.His knack of excavating the best talent in the country was manifest in his decision to support the return of his opening partner Mckenzie,previously considered to be a superfluous blockage in the squad and using his comeback to aid his team time and again with double century partnerships manufactured at considerable ease.

With chapters that have haunted him and his country men for decades been finally closed and sealed for good measure,Smith's next assignment is the upcoming encounter with the Aussies in December.A month which will see many cricket lovers consuming all of their sick leaves to catch up on a duel which promises the best the world has seen in recent times.It is sure to be bigger than an Indo-Pak encounter or for that matter an India-Aussie clash or even the Ashes.The cause for intrigue is not how Smith and his team respond to what is expected of them.Because the Protea's attitude,quite simply,is going to be,play to win.

What does interest the world is how soon are the mighty Australians going to have a run for their money in the ICC rankings?If the prospect of Nadal taking over the emperor's crown this month has brought a few frowns on the faces of tennis lovers worldwide,Smith and company are only going to be applauded and cheered on to the throne if ever such a likely situation does arise.The reason for that is not awfully complex.

Success has always won friends.Failure-only enemies.And Graeme Craig Smith has never needed to make friends.They have always created themselves for him.South Africa is a team on a roll.On a roll to be the best in the world.And for the man who has taught them to dream and then achieve,it must be anything but lonely being on top of the world.

A team of 10 cricketers and one individual.

Statistics can be compelling.Statistics can be misleading.Statistics may lead one to
form biased opinions.Statistics can be agonizingly untrue.Statistics may only describe a very small part of a real character of a test cricketer.But sometimes,even statistics cannot take away from a person the approbation he might deserve.Virender Sehwag is one of such rare paradigms.

Virender Sehwag's time has come.Not just as a batsman in a team of over achieving batting geniuses,but as a person the captain could hand a bat and go to sleep peacefully on the last day of a test match,assured that at the end of the 90 overs of the day,the result would either be a match saved if need be so,or ultimately giving him a standing ovation along with every single person present at the stadium to receive him back into the dressing room,after watching him reach a triple century inside those same 90 overs.If his stoic veneer towards reaching milestones,very few other batsmen would dare to give up,fails to touch your heart;his inability to run for a single being a run short of a double hundred batting with a number 11 batsman,2 balls into an over,is sure to make you stand up and salute him.Yes.Virender Sehwag's time has come.And how.

Far from just taking over the mantle of being the backbone of the Indian batting order in Test cricket for the last many months from the ever dependable Rahul Dravid,Sehwag has come back to the top level after a prolonged slump in his form,a renewed person.A person,with a mission on his mind.A cricketer who doesn't just rashly bully the opposition bowlers into succumbing to his demands anymore.A cricketer who doesn't only entertain people with stroke-making of such extra terrestrial abilities,that it sometimes becomes difficult to digest that someone can make a bowler with more than half a thousand wickets in test cricket break down on his knees and beg for mercy. A human being who believes in his abilities to turn a match on its head,and one who could achieve it with nonchalance of inhumane proportions.

Sehwag has come to be the mainstay of the Indian batting line up in a manner in which only he can.Absolute belligerence packed with sophisticated artistry.A man who sometimes single handedly scores 3/5th of his team's score and walks away from the field completely oblivious of being only the second Indian to watch all 10 wickets fall in front of his eyes while he scores a double ton at a strike rate which would ashame Gilchrist and Jayasuriya on their best days.This is not about the 1st innings of a test match at Galle,the first day of August,2008.This is about the maturing of a cricketer from a flamboyant but effective gully cricketer into a test batsman.A title held by owners with alarming desperation.Sehwag knows when to score.When to stay.When to tighten the noose.And when to kill.And he has learnt to do it in a manner in which the opposition cannot decide whether to hail his laurels or pass out in utter disbelief.

It also seems a matter of disgrace or inopportune co-incidences that whenever Sehwag goes on to make a huge score(and that is every time he has hit a ton consecutively the last 11 times),India fail to cash in on a destroyed opposition and make the most out of it.That is probably the reason why only 2 of his 15 brilliant tons have resulted in victories.Sehwag may not be a match winner in test match cricket.But that is only because of the few terrible ironies of life.Or in this case merely a painstakingly bundled up pack of statistics.So out of some of the times that figures do snatch away magnificence,Sehwag has had to give up on his dreams of seeing his genius put to constructive purposes and see all his hard work being donated generously. Statistics-1,Sehwag-well, he has already won.

There is also the verdict on people arguing about Sehwag's penchant for throwing away wickets and playing brash,abrasive shots when things were only about to get better.If certain cases such as having scored the most number of double tons for your country in the least number of matches at sickening paces with two triple centuries also gets to be included in that argument,then Sehwag could rather well break Lara's record tomorrow and be crucified in the market square of Najafgarh for doing so.It takes more than just flamboyance to carve out the shots that Viru manages to manufacture out of his amazing "crictionary". Besides flair,such shots need amazing cricket acumen and thinking.And he has more of it than all of his mates combined when he gets going.But if his innings coincides with the other members ensuring that he doesn't run away with the match by playing poor cricket themselves,Virender Sehwag has no one to blame but life itself,which has given him more than he could have dreamt of.Such is the irony of test match cricket.

His attitude today of not going for the easily available single to reach his double ton exemplified the human being that Virender Sehwag has forced himself to become.A team man who refuses to see anything but the bigger picture.A man with grit,determination and nerves made of titanium and cased with carbon fibers.A character which cannot be explained with a pen or a keyboard for that matter.

It would be a matter of great sorrow and regret the day when Anil Kumble would have to step down as captain of the Indian test team.But it would be the entire country's loss if anyone but a man wearing the Indian tricolor on his sleeve,heart and soul is made to step into his shoes.

The legend of the modern Indian batting line-up.

529 international test matches
105 hundreds
40000 runs
average of close to 50

These statistics are not of a fictitious warrior cricketer born in a planet far away.These are the combined factual data of only the top 5 batsman of the Indian batting line up.The Indian batting order is considered to be the best,and i make no half measures in saying this-the very best in the world today.No other country can boast of a record so prolific and no other team has been able to garner half the praise or criticism that the Indian batting line up has accumulated in the last decade.The praise-I won't elaborate.I say criticism beacause of certain debacles that the team has encountered in not only recent times but ever since a certain Titan cup was played or a team boasting of humongous magnitudes of talent was sent back by the aussies in 99 with their tails between their legs.That and cases like being the No.3 team in the world,conceding 600 first innings runs,following on and losing a match to a couple of spinners.One of them a debutant with an experience of 19 B-grade first class matches.

Ajantha Mendis.The name has hooped up so much of newsprint in the last month or so,I can't remember if remember if Lara was given half of it when he became the highest run-getter in the history of the game.India continued to prove the jinx right time and again in the second half of the year in the shorter version of the game starting with the Kitply cup and then then following it up with a almost stomping march to the finals of the Asia cup,only to lose their way miserably ultimately,folding up like a pack of high-school kids appearing for the district team selection before rushing out to audition for a play.It would've all been forgotten as just another final debacle for the mighty team if it wasn't for the presence of one man who single handedly took it away from India with 6 wickets.Ajantha mendis destroyed India's hopes of winning an Asia cup yet again.If the Indians believed the final was nothing more than a one-off incident and it couldn't happen again,they couldn't have been more wrong.The team vying for the No.2 spot in the world with 3 other countries at present was made to follow on humiliatingly after 5 years of International cricket and it was defeated,in fact debilitated,by Lanka's most depleted bowling attacks in recent times(at least on paper)by an innings and 239 runs inside 3 full days(the first day was a mere formality with only one session being played).Did some one say invincible batting line up?I don't think so.

Right.Murali sent 11 guys of the Indian team single handedly back to the dressing room during the course of the match,and was man of the match.How many times have we heard of that happening before?Probably everytime Sri Lanka goes on to win a match.Murali has been part of the mainstay bowing attack of Sri Lankan cricket since one can remember.It's not for nothing that you get to be the highest wicket taker in the world.Ever since I understood the rules of cricket,i remember switching on the TV to watch an India V Lanka match,and if Lanka fielded, till before this very match,I can recollect only two bowlers bowling in tandom.Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas.So either the oppostition batsmen got tired of negotiating the wizard for half the day's play or it just got too boring to defend an off cutting seamer at nothing more than a 120 case that a batsman simply knocked his own stumps down with a punch.

This time it was different.Lanka had taken to the field with two seamers.Not the usual Fernando or Malinga or Maharoof.All of their front line seamers were missing from action cooling their heels at the hospital.So in came Vaas' partner in crime-a totally inexperienced test cricketer in Nuwan Kulasekara.Not that it mattered much as Vaas and him bowled not more than 30 overs between them in the second innings.What must be pinching the Indian batsmen the most is that in their quest to unravel the mystery and hype that has surrounded Mendis in the lead up to the test,they probably took their mind off the main threat of the Sri Lankan artillery-that of Muralitharan himself.Not to take credit away from Mendis' splendid debut performance;but the question that still pokes my mind even when i watch the highlights of the match is whether Mendis actually took all of the wickets or were most of them offered to him out of sheer fright of deception?
Except Laxman and Tendulkar,neither of the other batsmen seemed to have any answers to Mendis's finger flicks and while the others seemed overly cautious in trying to thwart off Mendis with a strategy that seemed to say "lets keep blocking him out till he injures himself or till the match is called off for rain",Tendulkar and VVS seemed to be the only two batsmen to still remember the sole purpose of the match being played-that of winning by putting up runs on the board.Dravid and Ganguly seemed clueless after a BCCI enforced 2 month exile and seemed completely out of sorts to gift their wickets to the Lankans with shot making of such dismal quality that simply wouldn't go with stalwarts of impeccable records.And Dinesh Karthik remained only a pale shadow of himself from England,where he promised so much more.And although Tendulkar really didn't last long to stand apart from the other batsmen's flawed approach,he could atleast take heart front the fact that one of his dismissals was a genuine Murali nipper while Sehwag's was a stark reminder of why technology still can't promise the best.

India has struggled in the bowling department for many years now,and even though Harbhajan Singh has been around for close to 10 years now,he himself has no real impact or prescence in the line up.The punch and the air that was clearly visible in his deliveries when he made the aussies weep 7 years ago,are today,merely items of the cricket lover's museum and in spite of bagging the man of the match series award against South Africa only recently,thanks largely to a Vietnamese mine field in Kanpur,Harbhajan Singh is seen as nothing more than a loyal aide to the aging skipper,who himself seems to be struggling to find rhythm after the famous Perth victory with only 5 wickets in 4 matches.With only contenders like Piyush Chawla,Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra in the reckoning,India's spin future appears to be in the dark and it looks like at least one of the half billion women in the country need to produce another Bedi,Solkar or a modern day Chandrasekhar.And really fast!The Indians are running out of time quickly with more than half of the team pushing the not so helpful part of their 30s.

Unless Kirsten and the think tank decide to do something about the approach of the Indian players soon,or unless Mahendra Singh Dhoni decides he has got himself enough time off and returns to deliver a repeat of Faisalabad(which would suffice to say Laxman gets a five-fer in each innnings,but anyone seems to be better than Karthik),the signs look ominous.Team India need to tie their laces tight and get rid of their inhibitions and apprehensions.And if players who average around a decade of cricket at the highest level between themselves aren't able to comprehend that soon,god help the gentleman's game.