So, India suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of South Africa by an innings and 90 runs. This is the biggest loss on the home turf in the last 49 years (Australia led by Richie Benaud, beat India by an innings, and 127 runs in 1959). But there is hardly any surprise in the upshot. If you could not predict this result, then you are not a good follower of Indian cricket. When you hand a green top with lot of moisture on a silver platter to your enemy, who has a lethal fast bowling attack, this is the only outcome that could have resulted. I predicted the result with the precision of pointing an innings defeat from the very beginning of the match to my friends. Admitting the facts that our over-hyped batting line up could not live up to its reputation, our team management made a blunder by electing to bat first, and our bowlers lacked sharpness and zeal, I have to blame the pitch curator as the main culprit behind this shameful defeat. The following are the main reasons:
1.Treachery of the curator: Treachery is nothing new in India. In 1192, Indians could not resist the invading Turks, led by Muhammad Ghuri, because of treachery of one of the very powerful ruler of an Indian state, Jaichand of Kannauj. In 1757, the British could conquer Bengal in the battle of Plassey because of the treachery of Mirzafar, the most senior General of the then Nawab Siraz-ud-Daulla. There are plenty more such examples. Before the freedom struggle began against the British from the late 19th century, the concept of a united Indian nation was missing. But slowly the concept of nationalism began to found a strong base. We are aware of the role played by Sardar Patel in uniting the princely states after India obtained Independence. Since then we never looked back, and grew stronger and stronger as a powerful nation. Anyway, let us come back to the issue and examine whether the curator is indeed a traitor or not. In my opinion, the curator, who has been given full support by the Gujarat Cricket Association, is a traitor, because he presented the visiting team a green pitch as an early X-mass gift, which ultimately resulted in an innings defeat for the home team. There can be mainly two possibilities for keeping a green top, ignoring the requests from the selectors and the team management: either the curator might have thought that it would not harm India, or he might have done it intentionally to humiliate India. Not only the curator, but also anyone who had thought that India could cope with South Africa on such a green top must be an idiot of the highest order. Some foreign commentators were intentionally overestimating Indian's ability to play on a green top, so that the fool administrators fall into their trap. It is almost certain that the curator did it intentionally knowing fully well about the consequences. Now the point is why did he do it? There maybe several reasons for that. Firstly, the curator might have been under the influence of some external betting agencies, which wanted to fix the result of the match in an indirect way, without involving the cricketers. Those who knew what the conditions were going to be must have made huge amount of money. Secondly, there could have been some politics involved here. In the Dalmiya era, we saw how his opponents provided a green top in Nagpur against Australia in 2004-05, or how a green pitch was gifted to South Africa at the Eden Gardens by the sympathisers of Ganguly in the ODI series in 2005. So, it is nothing new in Indian cricket to settle personal scores at the cost of the nation's loss. Here in this case this particular possibility is very thin, though. Thirdly, the curator might have wanted to earn some praise from the foreign press. Some Indians, even after 61 years after independence, could not shake off the colonial hangover, and still today they are beggars of some kind words from the "gora sahibs". Fourthly, some people might have wanted to discredit Anil Kumble so that he could be removed from captaincy early. Fifthly, the curator might have had some personal grudges (see his profile at http://www.cricketfundas.com/dhirajparsana.html), which he settled in this manner. There maybe some other reasons too, but my gut feeling says, it is the first reason that was instrumental behind making such a deadly pitch against Indians.
2.Wrong decision of the team management: The decision to bat first on a green top, having moisture underneath it, and against the world's best bowling line up, is not at all a good decision, especially from the experienced person like Anil Kumble who had seen the team's performance on such lethal tracks over the years. In this regard, who can forget India's miserable surrender against Simon Doull's swing bowling in New Zealand in 1998-99? In that match too, the first two hours proved decisive. On such a grassy track, Indian batters have always struggled. There are plenty more examples. Here it will be interesting to note that in Australia, there was not a single grassy pitch in the last series. The decision cannot be backed up by saying that India wanted to exploit the spinning conditions in the 4th innings. Because in that case India would have had a third spinner instead of Irfan Pathan. Indian pacers could have also wrecked havoc, if they were given the opportunity to ball first. South African captain G. Smith, supporting Kumble's decision, at the post match conference, said that he would have batted, too. I think he is diplomatic here, because with the resource of such an ineffective spinner Harris, while having 3 great quickies, no body would have liked to waste an opportunity to go at the fragile batting line up of the opponent in such a pacer friendly condition.
For Kumble, neither playing with 4 bowlers in a placid track, nor playing with an extra bowler in a fast green wicket is a good idea.
3. Failure of the batters: It was indeed disappointing to find our batters having no answer to the excellent bowling of Stein, Ntini and Morkel. For the Indian batters, there were some technical drawbacks, e.g., the footwork was missing, but most importantly, it appeared to me from the highlights that they got nervous and afraid in front of great pace attack. Indians batters forgot Gabbar Singh's famous quote, " Jo daar gaya, samjho uoh maar gaya (The moment fear enters you, you are gone)" in the Hindi film Shole. Sachin's absence also denied the middle order the much needed resistance and stability. Though recently Rahul Dravid scored a century, I think he is no longer the dependable wall as he used to be. As far as Wasim Jafar is concerned, I don’t know on which extra-cricketing ground he is in the team, while Goutam Gambhir, who was in splendid form in Australia, is languishing in the dressing room!
4.Disappointing performance of the bowlers: Unfortunately, our pace attack could not live up to the expectation. Though Irfan did well with the bat, his performance with the ball was not at all satisfactory. The attitude was good for Sreesanth, but he lacked discipline in his line and length. RP's performance was lacklustre. Having said that, I must emphasise that I never expected them to match the South African bowlers, as they are far superior. At the moment, I suppose Stein is the best bowler in the world, supported by another two brilliant bowlers Ntini and Morkel. I cannot understand why our stupid cricket administrators do not understand this. If we are to beat them, we have to beat them by spin.
Recently, in an article the South African coach Mickey Arthur warned the Indian that their fast bowlers could prove equally deadly in an under-prepared spinning track, too. Though preparing an under-prepared track does not arise as per the guidelines of the ICC, I agree with him that there is always something for the pacers, even in the most spinner-friendly tracks. We saw how J. Srinath devastated South Africa in the same venue in the second innings in 1996. So, I suppose the South Africans will not fret, if they are given a spinning track. Finally, as far as pitch issue is concerned, I would suggest to prepare such green tops for the domestic competitions, or against weaker teams, in terms of fast bowling, such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, England etc, but not against a formidable team like South Africa or for that matter Australia.
