Shouldering South Africa

The whole of cricketing fraternity might have zeroed-in on to the India – Pakistan One day series, where India already secured an unbeatable 3-1 lead or might watch Aussies bulldoze the Lankans on their way to 14^th test match victory in a row under Ricky Ponting’s captaincy; two short of Steve Waugh’s 16 consecutive wins. However on the other part of the world there is a gentleman cricketer piling on agony on his opponents match after match, series after series by scoring centuries one after the other.

Jacques Henry Kallis has just completed his 29^th test century, fifth this season in just four matches with an innings to go, unless otherwise South Africa complete an innings win over New Zealand. His last seven test innings reads 155, 100*, 59, 107*, 29, 186 and 131. He has been an unsung hero when compared to the likes of Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrict, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid or Brian Lara.

The start to his international career was an ordinary one, but Kallis blossomed into arguably one of the world’s leading batsmen with sound defensive technique, and array of cricket book stroke play under his armor. His all round ability with bat and ball and his catching as a specialist slip fielder is a metaphor to eagle’s eye. He is second to none in terms of consistency and rightly so he is trusted with the responsibility of walking in at the all crucial number three position after South African team management tried out various options.

Docile and unemotional in nature, he nailed down the No. 3 position in the South African batting order, and his quality of strokes scaled new highs since then. He has scored over 9000 test runs at a staggering average of 57.74 and also has 219 victims to his name.

A Kallis century tastes a sour flavor, tends to be a soulless affair with mileage taking primacy over bang-bang style, and he has never shown up that he is a selfish cricketer, has covered it up nicely by brining in balance between his interest in his average and his team's position. But whatever might be the case, he has propelled himself to the top of the all-time South African Test batting list.

Kallis until the emergence of Andrew Flintoff, was by some distance the leading all-rounder in the world game along side Sri Lanka’s veteran cricketer Sanath Jayasuria.

His competence with the ball is as good as his with the bat. He is capable of swinging the ball sharply at surprising pace off a relaxed run-up. He can easily clock 140Kmph taking the batsman by surprise and is very reliable in providing breakthroughs.

At the 2007 World Cup Kallis was South Africa’s leading scorer with 475 runs but was sacked for the Twenty20 World Championship later in the year for his style of play. He stood in as captain when Graeme smith was injured and lead the team to whitewash over Zimbabwe but lost the Future Cup against India 1-2. He has played some match winning and match saving knocks for his team over the years. Earlier this year he came to the party when the test series against Pakistan was tied 1-1 with the third test played at Newlands Capetown, he scored a crucial half century after South Africa was four down for 36 runs chasing a target of 161. Not just that, he bolstered his team’s attack in the absence of Shaun Pollock, picked up a match haul of 6 wickets also grabbing the Man-of-the-match award.

His consistency was aptly rewarded as he emerged ICC Test player of the Year 2005 and ICC Player of the Year 2006.

Kallis off the field is a humble person. He has established the Jacques Kallis Scholarship Foundation with the aim to combine the academic and life skills programmes of existing school structures with funding and mentoring support from him. In so doing, the Foundation will provide talented youngsters from all walks of life the opportunity to reach their full sporting and academic potential.

Jumbo Power

For once in the blue moon the selection committee of Indian cricket team has managed to save their faces by appointing veteran Anil Kumble as India’s Test captain. After lots of speculation doing the rounds following Sachin Tendulkar’s refusal to lead the Indian test team, the responsibility of a smooth transition of Indian cricket from older generation to the younger lot falls on the man who has a never say die attitude. The selectors made the right move honoring India’s highest wicket taker ahead of present ODI and T20 captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who was tipped to be the front runner.

“Better late than never” said Kumble and exactly so, every Indian fan will welcome the decision with big smiles as we all know that he has won more matches for India than anyone else. Kumble highest wicket taker for India in both versions of the game was always under the shades of the big three of Indian cricket when it comes to leadership role. Kumble has cool headed shoulders, his feet firmly on the ground and he is a shrewd thinker of the game.

His determination and will power is unmatched. With broken jaws and plastered all over his face he came out to bowl 14 overs picking the priced wicket of Brian Lara for just four runs in the fourth test match played at St. John’s, Antigua in 2002. That was a heartening sight, a sight of a soldier taking the bullet blow still continuing to fight in the battle field. I still remember, the whole of India was speechless and sleepless as everyone was awaken that night to see Kumble battling it out in what was a drawn encounter.

Though the cricket fraternity seems to be happy with his appointment as captain, I must confess that the appointment for just a series is not a healthy signal. What does that mean? Are the selectors putting Anil Kumble on trial as captain or is that they think only one series is enough to groom Dhoni? It makes no sense to put someone of Kumble’s experience as captain for just one series. Instead, the selectors should have given the nod for the whole season, till home series against South Africa.

Kumble has an impressive record with ball in hand against the Pakistan and Australia. His strike rate against these two nations is slightly better at 58 compared to his overall strike rate of 65. He also commands respect from his fellow players and the youngsters in the team. He appears to be a silent guy but he is a great motivator and can have a calming influence over his team members.

Now while Kumble is happy about captaincy, Dhoni need not fuss over it. The leg spinner has retired from the One-dayers means he is no competitor for Dhoni to lead the One-day side. This will allow Dhoni to concentrate more on his test career as a player and lead the team in the shorter formats with a vision in mind. Kumble - Dhoni combo will be an interesting one as both of them are never short of positive energy and positive thinking.

Kumble and challenges go hand in hand; this time the challenge is to achieve equilibrium between past glory and the future hopes. Captaincy for Kumble also means, he will try and enhance his test career without doubt.

Now that Kumble has been trusted with responsibility, it is time to support him. It is clear that Dhoni will takeover from Rahul Dravid in the long run and Kumble, an ideal nominee, approaching the end of his career has one last but the tricky job on hands to engineer the transition.

Intense Encounter, Not for Weak Hearts

“Bigger than the Ashes” says former Australian pacer and present Pakistan Cricket team coach Geoff Lawson. Hearing that from an Australian who played a part in six Ashes encounters will tell you how intense India-Pakistan Clash is all about. Termed as ‘Mother of all encounters’, ‘Clash of two titans’ and more recently ‘Cricket war with no weapons,’ Indo-Pak series will make every heart beat to its rhythm.

The resumption of bilateral ties between the two rivals in 2004 and the frequency of playing against each other, certainly will not take away the prominence of this series. Try drawing a graph between emotions of the fans and tides in the Indian Ocean, you will not find any variation when the series is on.

India-Pakistan series has always been a defining and deciding series for many cricketers. And this series will be very much the same, especially from India’s point of view. The Indian team has been at the apex and nadir on world cricket at different times this year. They have managed to do the unthinkable twice; first, the first round exit in the World Cup and secondly, winning the Twenty20 World Championship at South Africa. Since the T20 triumph, there has been a huge debate over who should be in and out of the team. The senior pros have been under tremendous pressure to score big to keep their places in the team and the youngsters are ready to make every single chance count.

Last few months Indian cricket has been clouded by uncertainty with selection committee going nowhere with their vision. The players are feeling insecure and its growing rapidly with every sitting of the selection panel. The recently concluded Australian series has provoked the situation even more with the team lacking to put up a fight.

In such a situation, Pakistan tour will be of much importance in constructing the road ahead. With Rahul Dravid already in the sidelines for the first two ODIs there will be enormous pressure on Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar. On the other hand, there are the likes of Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma and S Badrinath waiting to grab their slots in the ODI team.

Sachin Tendulkar who made a mark in international cricket against the same opposition nearly two decades back will once again have to depend on this series to regain supremacy and silence his critics. Ironically, in 1989 he was drafted into the team at the expense of experienced Mohinder Amarnath. Once dropped Amarnath never played a test again for India. This time around Sachin might find himself in such a situation. Same will be the case of his opening partner Sourav Ganguly for whom fitness has always been a question.

Every time these two teams lock horns, it has been a battle between India’s batsmen and Pakistan’s bowlers. It will be no different this time. Pakistan will definitely miss the service of Mohammad Asif. Asif with his wily bowling has always troubled Indian batsmen ever since he made a comeback into the national side when India toured Pakistan last year. His four for in the second innings at Karachi settled the match for Pakistan as well as the series 1-0 in their favor. Since then, Asif leads the Pakistan’s pace attack.

That tour also defined a match winner in India’s RP Singh. Singh who made his test debut in Faisalabad bowled with good pace and bounce and control in a dead pitch, managed to climb four wickets in the first innings and five in the match ultimately earning the man of the match award.

Shoaib Akhtar, though doesn’t deserves to be in the team for his attitude, might be the difference between the two teams with his extra pace. Pakistan also has a decent batting line-up with Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik bolstering the middle order. Salman Butt who has been in and out of the team has always been a certainty when playing against India. Butt has three centuries in his career and all of them have come against their rival team.

On the other hand, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his deputy Yuvraj Singh will be leading batting charts this time. Yuvraj has been in sublime form since the T20 show and will be the backbone of Indian middle order in the absence of Rahul Dravid. Dhoni is another example of players who defined their careers in an India-Pakistan series. In 2004-05, after scores of 0, 12, 7 and 3, he became an overnight hero when he was promoted to number three, smashed the Pakistan bowlers around the park for his 148 in just 123 balls. His average against the rivals is also very healthy compared to his overall average.

Virender Shewag making a comeback into the team also serves special when it comes to playing Pakistan. He is the only Indian to score a triple ton in test cricket and that came against Pakistan. He also has another score of above 250 against them in the longer version and he is in long due for a big one yet again.

India and Pakistan have so much in common, the culture, language, food, and the passion for the game. The battle between the two teams had always been intense and the history says it all. How can one dare to forget the Javed Miandad frog jump, Amair Sohail – Venkatesh Prasad encounter in 1996 World Cup Quarterfinal, Miandad’s last ball six of Chetan Sharma, the bat and ball contest between Sachin Tendulak and Abdul Qadir in 1989 or even the most recent T20 bowl-out as well as Misbah-ul-Haq’s miscue at the hands of Sreesanth in the final.

A history, which has seen epic battles setting one nation in frenzy while the other morns. No doubt, cricket fans across the two nations will be glued to the television sets throughout the series. It doesn’t get any bigger than this!