Ponting’s jibe will surely fire up Kumble

When the Australians are not playing cricket, they play mind games. The Aussie media, too, join the team wholeheartedly, and are aided in no mean measure by an ever-obliging Indian media. That it continues to happen no longer surprises me, because for donkey’s years I’ve witnessed the Indian media totally in tune with the touring teams.

What’s more, touring captains and, at times, even the players write columns in Indian newspapers. That, needless to say, they use to their advantage. Makes me wonder whether any Indian player was ever asked to write for local newspapers abroad, while on tours.

Worse still, even during press briefings, the Indian media directs questions to the visiting captain coach about the Indian team. Tell me, does the overseas media ever ask India’s captain about the composition of their own team? Not a chance.

There’s no denying the fact that the visiting media always look upon themselves as the support staff of the team. Did they criticise their own team (bowlers/captain) for failing to win the first Test match? In fact, they went after Sourav Ganguly for pressurising the umpires to go off the field due to bad light and wasting time, even though Sourav was well within his right to appeal against the light.

And, if Sourav was indeed wasting time (as accused), the umpires and the match referee were very much there to pass judgement on his tactics, weren’t they? Any batsman in the world would have done the same. And the Indian media, rather unfortunately, lapped it all up by carrying headlines that read “Sourav slammed by Aussie media”. How sad!

Ricky Ponting, it seems, is more concerned about the composition of the Indian team rather than that of his own. He writes in his column that Harbhajan is bowling better than Kumble, and that he has a better record against the Aussies. The captain’s criticism, I’m pretty positive, will serve as a tonic for Anil and pep him up. Make no mistake, Anil is fiercely competitive, and now that Ponting has needled him, he’s sure to go out there determined to settle scores.

While the Indians, I am sure, would go in with the same composition as at Bangalore, they would do well to get their best close-in catchers in place. Mind you, Anil or Harbhajan would end up taking a load of wickets only if the close-in fielders are agile and convert half chances into catches. You’ll find they’re drastically different bowlers the moment the fielding sharpens. And that, in all probability, will be the key to the outcome of this Test.