The Forgotten Magician

A sizeable crowd had gathered to watch the Indian team’s net practice on the eve of their tour game against Victoria. Behind the queue of net bowlers eagerly willing to show off their skills against Tendulkar, stood a man who is almost completely forgotten in Australian cricket today. A man who had, for a brief period, captured the imagination of a cricket crazy nation, stood there in near-anonymity now. But one man in the stadium recognized him and he wasn’t an Australian. Sachin walked up to him and had a chat with him at the end of his batting session.

EI caught up with the forgotten magician for a chat:

“It still feels like yesterday, you know….the last time I bowled to this lad, Sachin Tendulkar”

“I ran through a very strong WI batting line up in the fourth innings of the Melbourne test to win it for Australia. That was just my fifth test.”

“Everyone thought I was the most exciting cricketer at that time. Benaud thought I was better than Grimmett and O’Reilly. Chappell thought I was the best thing to have happened to Cricket at a time when there was a serious dearth of quality spinners in the game.”

“In fact, I had a poor start to my career. In hindsight, I thought my selection was rushed up a bit. I played my first test against possibly the best players of spin in the world. Indians took me apart. I thought I would never play another test.”

“But my captain stood behind me. Border was a dream to play under. He assured me that I wouldn’t be judged on one performance and that I would be a given a fair run and he stuck to his word”

“It took me some time to get used to international cricket. I struggled a bit in Sri Lanka after that. But against West Indies here at my home ground, it all came together. It was magical. The ball did everything I wanted it to do.”

“I don’t know…I was a bit cursed I guess!…I mean…in my first match I had to bowl to Tendulkar and when I just about managed to find my rhythm, I ran into a rampaging Lara. He was in breathtaking form in Sydney. At that time I didn’t know that I was bowling against two of the finest batsmen of this era. But boy, it was a task!”

“I had a very good series in NZ after that. It was a drawn series and I got about 17 wickets or so…It was all falling in place just in time for the Ashes”

“It was my first Ashes. The hype was unbelievable. Everyone thought I would single-handedly win the Ashes…It wasn’t just the general public who thought so but even some of the former Australian cricketers.”

“I don’t know if I got carried away by the hype, but the tour was a disaster from the beginning. I couldn’t play the tour matches because of an infection. Then I played the first test directly, and was sent on a leather hunt all match. It was almost as if some of the Indians had turned up for England!”

“The end was rather hurried. One terrible match at Old Trafford followed by another at Lord’s. My confidence was absolutely shattered. I could never get my rhythm back again. Not at international level. I went back to play for Victoria. But I couldn’t rediscover my rhythm in Sheffield Shield either. It was inexplicable. It was painful.”

“It took me two years to move on. I wasn’t even selected for Victoria from the next season. I could neither give up Cricket nor could I get my form back. Eventually I moved on to things beyond Cricket. I got a job with a bank and I didn’t get back to much Cricket after that.”

“Looking back at it, my fate was sealed with the first ball I bowled in Old Trafford. My first Ashes ball. I got carried away by the hype. Surely. Nothing else explains it. I wanted to bowl the million dollar ball. I wanted to flummox the batsman straightaway. I thought I was a magician capable of pulling tricks at will. I gave the ball an almighty flick, tossed it up hoping it swerves in the air at three-quarters length, grips the pitch on the batsman’s blind spot, and has Gatting play all over it – a delivery that I knew I was capable of producing.”

“….But it ended up as a rather loopy little full toss on leg stump and Gatting came down and whacked it over mid-wicket. That was that.”