No one remembers the oldies in cricket

The mother of all contests – “India vs Pakistan T20 world cup match” is soon to begin. I am sure the anxiety level of every cricket fan is increasing as every minute passes by. A loss here for India means it is almost “shutters down” for them. Irrespective of whether we prevail over Pakistan or not, we need not be much concerned about it.

So far Indians have a clean record over Pakistanis in all world cups, be it 50 overs cricket or T20s. A lone defeat is not going to bring the level of India down in any case. Cricket is a great leveller Sometimes it elevates you to the pinnacle and at times it pulls you down. There is no reason for us to worry about the results. There will be always time for us to get our revenge sometime later. The world cup T20 2012 is not going to be the end of the road for India.

This article is purposely intended to calm the nerves which many of you would be experiencing owing to the big match coming up. There have been many great players of the past who have achieved quite a lot before but have been subsequently ridiculed by the present set of cricketers, who have swept past their fame very brutally. So, please have the belief even if Pakistan beats India today, we can still inflict biggest of defeats on our arch rivals in the years to come. I am putting forward certain facts related to few of the players and also the game itself which nowadays are overlooked by us, because the milestones created by them have ceased to exist now.

Navjot Singh Siddhu:

This former Indian opening batsman was hailed by the name “Sixer Siddhu” during his playing days. Would you believe it? Yes, he was known by that name during the later part of 80s and the beginning of 90s, for the simple reason that he was a specialist in clearing the boundary lines. Seriously speaking, do we even think about him or correlate his playing days when anyone of the modern era hits half a dozen? Gone are those days of our great Sardarji. When you talk of ball sailing over the boundary ropes – we cannot think beyond Gayle, Afridi (at least four years back even if not now), De Villier, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Mccullum, Pietersen, Watson and the list goes on.

These guys can make the ball fly to the stands every ten balls. I had never seen or heard about Siddhu doing it. Coincidentally it was those days the batsmen adhered to intellectual rather than innovative batting during the regime of the controversial Indian opener. Since Siddhu used to do it a bit more often those days, he was nicknamed as Sixer Siddhu.

Siddhu can nowadays only be remembered for his Television expertise which is better known as Siddhuisms.

Krish Srikkanth:

This recently dropped chairman of selectors was once the most feared opener in India, especially in ODIs. He just used to go about pursuing his business right from the first ball he faced. Without bothering about the fast bowlers’ reputation, he took them to the cleaners, unconcerned about his technique. He never cared to give bowlers the due respect. Whether the ball was a loose delivery or not – it hardly ever mattered to him. He was forever unfazed by the circumstances of the game and he used to play according to his whims and fancies.

He was the first one in the history of cricket who was recognized for exploiting the field restrictions in the first 15 overs. Well that was then and no one remembers him nowadays for this special quality of batsmanship as an opener. No one cites him as an example for it anymore. In the current era, almost all opening batsmen are more ruthless than him. They can pulverize any sort of attack right from the word go. No leniency or clemency of any sort can be expected from them. It all started with Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana from Sri Lanka from 1995. Since then, every country has been continuously producing a couple of lethal batsmen at the top of the order who have been more dangerous than the batsman from Tamil Nadu.

Thus, Srikkanth, who once topped the batting chart among Indian batsmen in ODI cricket, is literally in no position to stake his claim as one of the fearsome openers of the game.

Mark Greatbatch:

It was the era when people had not come across the theories of make-shift openers and pinch-hitting. In 1992, Martin Crowe, the then captain of New Zealand thought differently and introduced the said theories. And the move did pay him big time. New Zealand eased past all their earlier rounds, barring a minor hiccup against Pakistan in the league stage, to reach to the semifinals of 1992 world cup down under.

The stylish middle-order batsman contemplated shifting his middle order player Mark Greatbatch to open the innings, with a purpose. The left handed Greatbatch just proved to be the perfect man for his captain as he grabbed the opportunity from both the hands very happily. He took pinch-hitting to another level and all the bowlers were caught unawares. They had no clue as to how to bowl at him and in the end he got into their mind and assaulted them all over the park.

Since then, the pinch hitting assumed a different form and every other captain started following it. In fact the idea of bringing Jayasuriya to open the innings for Srilanka in 1995 was all because of Greatbatch’s success at the top of the order. From then one day cricket underwent a tremendous change. Even tail enders are now preferred to do the role what Greatbatch used to do previously. Some of them have become more accomplished pinch hitters than the former left hander from New Zealand. As a result, we have conveniently forgotten the big New Zealander.

Likewise, we have many examples. Leave alone individuals, during old days, just scoring 250 or more was considered as a formidable score in ODIs to chase. Nowadays, the chasing teams find it rather easy chasing. Anything under 300 looks easily gettable. Not long ago, we saw even a score of over 400 was conveniently chased by South Africa. Even a score of 200 not out by Sachin Tendulkar was belittled by Sehwag in just over a year.

So, there seems to be no limitation nowadays in the game of cricket due to the intensity in which it is played. Anything can happen. So much so, even England has been dominating Australia in Ashes nowadays. Please stop worrying about today’s game folks. India vs Pakistan match is of course important. But the result is not in our hands. The tables can turn any time and we can have more number of matches to extract revenge on them even if the match today goes wrong.