Triumph’s individuality

Individuals will continue to rule Indian sport, including cricket, marked as it is by episodes of record-breaking triumph amidst pervasive mediocrity

N Chandra Mohan Delhi

Individuals matter more than objective forces in making history. The force of this truth was evident when India triumphed in the World Cup way back in 1983 and its subsequent victories, including the most recent one over Sri Lanka in the one-day international (ODI) series. Who were the architects of this last-mentioned victory? None other than former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, who made a stirring comeback with the bat. So, too, did, medium pacer Zaheer Khan. All-rounder Yuvraj Singh recovered from injury.

Stellar performances from such individuals single-handedly decided the outcome of the ODI series with Sri Lanka — strengthening the popular impression that Indians shine only as individuals in sport while their achievement in team events is, at best, spotty. Consider, for example, the excellence of Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in shooting, Jeev Milkha Singh in golf or PT Usha of yesteryear fame in athletics or Michael Ferreira in billiards. By contrast, our track record is hardly worth mentioning in team events like football.

Back to cricket, a debutant Sunil Gavaskar’s exploits contributed to India’s triumph in the West Indies in the early 1970s. Together with GR Vishwanath, he dominated Indian batting for a couple of decades. During the 1960s and early 1970s, it was the spin quartet of BS Chandrasekhar, EAS Prasanna, Bishen Singh Bedi and S Venkataraghavan. Individual rather than team effort mattered even when we won the 1983 World Cup: K Srikkanth’s batting, Mohinder Amarnath’s all-round play and Kapil Dev’s fielding.

This state of affairs is unlikely to change in the future. Individuals will continue to rule Indian sport, marked as it is by episodes of record-breaking triumph amidst pervasive mediocrity. This will be sadly true of Indian cricket as well and has a major bearing on any realistic assessment of India’s prospects in the World Cup of 2007. While there is a surge in national enthusiasm that the Men in Blue are ready to calypso in the Caribbean, cricket buffs seriously wonder whether we can reach the semi-finals of this event.

What accounts for this dismal prognosis of India’s prospects in a version of a game that is best known for its glorious uncertainties? Look no further than our track record against the leading contenders like South Africa and Australia. Pundits like to factor in the complete record of team performance in every ODI over the last five years to stick their necks out. On this basis, the good news is that India has played 154 matches and won 80 of them. Furthermore, it was even-stevens in matches played at home and abroad.

The bad news, however, is that this performance was rather dismal against the three-time World Cup champions, Australia and South Africa. India played 12 matches against the Aussies and the loss percentage was as high as 75 per cent. Against the South Africans, the new leaders of the ICC ODI rankings, the loss percentage was 58 per cent. Against other top contenders like New Zealand, which most recently trounced Australia in the Chappell -Hadlee series, it was only marginally lower at 57 per cent. Against Pakistan, it was 52 per cent.

India’s consistent success against only the minnows of one-day cricket like Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Kenya is hardly a good augury of its chances in the 2007 World Cup. If past performance is considered a yardstick to judge future prospects, it should therefore have no problem in dealing with Bangladesh, Bermuda and Sri Lanka in its Group B matches starting March 17. The big problem is when it reaches the Super 8 and faces competition from the much more accomplished teams like Australia and South Africa.