In Cricinfo, Mukul Kesavan says the Australia series marks the end of India’s great middle order, and even possibly, the primacy of Test cricket
Australia’s tour of India that begins with the first Test in Bangalore on the ninth of October brings with it a sense of an ending. It feels like a moment of transition between one cricketing era and the next.
This sense of an old order dissolving is reinforced by the dramatis personae. After he lost the Test series in Sri Lanka, Anil Kumble as captain seems more than ever part of an endangered old guard. Even when he was made captain in the wake of Rahul Dravid’s resignation, the appointment was seen as an interim one. The Australian tour was considered too difficult a tour on which to blood a young captain like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who already had the responsibility of captaining the one-day side. Kumble did a heroic job of leading the Test team through a controversial tour, but Dhoni’s outstanding record as a captain in limited-overs cricket, and Kumble’s poor form in the lost Test series in Sri Lanka, have heightened expectations that Dhoni will captain India in every form of the game sooner rather than later.
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In Cricinfo Peter English points out lessons for India and Australia following three months of controversy and drama that overshadowed some wonderful cricket
The comedian Billy Connolly jokes the Queen must think the world smells of fresh paint because everything is new wherever she visits. Until the first week in January, Australia also felt they were adored throughout their country. Crowds always roar when they play, spectators crowd them for autographs and they are pestered for interviews and corporate deals. So they were stunned when the opinions of many dissenters emerged after the dramatic and spectacular Sydney Test victory.
Following issues involving umpiring, race, catching, walking, ungracious celebrations and Anil Kumble’s claim only one side was playing in the spirit of the game, the shock self-analysis began. Australia thought about their behaviour and their results started stuttering. Ricky Ponting, who nobody seriously believed should have been sacked after the second Test, has a delicate period ahead as he balances a win-at-all-costs outlook with his desire for the universal acclaim of his nation.
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Kadambari Murli in the Hindustan Times gets her hands on a significant document that spells out Anil Kumble’s eight golden rules — from training to conflict resolution — for the Indian cricket team
You may have noticed that the Indian team has been playing and acting differently over the past couple of months. The team’s attitude during the Sydney controversy, the lack of rancour about who was picked or dropped in the XI, the camaraderie on and off the field — all this could be born from a code envisioned as a blueprint for the game, now and in the future.
The document would be a stated vision that would serve as a set of guidelines, which could be revised by future generations of Indian players. Meant to be Indian cricket’s vision document, sources said the eight-point draft was unveiled by Anil Kumble in the team’s hotel in Delhi late November. India’s new Test captain had put together a three-page note, detailing what had thus far been a mélange of ideas coming out of chats and loud thinking.
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In Cricinfo, Anil Kumble tells Sambit Bal how he deals with a side where players increasingly wear their attitude on their sleeve
The compulsion to provide sound bytes is so overwhelming that posturing has become a professional obligation for modern sportsmen. For cricket captains, it is almost a daily chore. But when I asked Anil Kumble a good three weeks after it was all over, if he really had believed India could win in Perth, he looked me in the eye and said without hesitation, “Yes, 100%. It [the belief] was there, and it was there even before we left for Australia.”
Kumble doesn’t mess about. It’s obvious that these are words spoken with a conviction not granted by hindsight. The Sydney saga is too fresh to warrant retelling, but it would not have been a surprise if India had disintegrated after that. In fact, nothing else was expected. From that low to fashion a win at a venue where India had been expected to be blown away took, of course, an immense amount of skill; and an even greater amount of strength of mind. And no one supplied it in a greater measure than the captain.
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Times of India
Swapan Dasgupta relates Indian aggression at the Sydney cricket ground to the rise in nationalism
There were two powerful images of India that came through from Sydney Cricket Ground last week. The first was a visibly irate Harbhajan Singh in a verbal altercation with Andrew Symonds. The second was a very composed but undeniably haughty Anil Kumble throwing a variant of Bill Woodfull’s legendary remark on Bodyline back at the Australians: “There are two teams out there; only one is playing cricket.”
Cricket, once a metaphor for life, has increasingly become associated with the national character. In the heydays of socialism and the shortage economy, it is unlikely an Indian player would have reacted to Australian sledging the way Harbhajan did. It is more inconceivable that the captain would have had the temerity to call the rival team a bunch of cheats – which is what Kumble did with all the imperiousness at his disposal.
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