Column

Chris Gayle has touched such a raw nerve with his derisive comments about Test cricket that former West Indies captain Viv Richards termed it a “betrayal.” I share Richards’ sense of outrage because Gayle has dismissed the wonderful legacy of Calypso cricket with one brusque statement. Yet, if a current international captain believes that Test cricket does not matter, the sentiment may be far more widespread than just a graceless outburst by an angry player.

Instant gratification for fans and unprecedented wealth for players could make Twenty20 overwhelm Test cricket within no time.

From a cricketer’s point of view, if he can make more money in six weeks of T20 than in almost six years of Test cricket, what his priorities will be is a no-brainer: unless, of course, Test cricket is redefined to bring in the fans, who in turn will bring in the moolah.

Tests could be played at night, as mooted by the ICC recently, perhaps reduced to three days or even played on uncovered wickets to ensure more results. More than anything else, perhaps, it needs loyalists. In Mumbai the other day, celebrated novelist Jeffrey Archer explained it best when he said that Test cricket was all about “VVS Laxman batting all day with Rahul Dravid (at Kolkata in 2001), and India going on to beat Australia from an impossible situation.”

To understand the challenges, drama and nuances that make Test cricket so magical requires not just time, but heart and head too. Sadly, these virtues become casualties at the altar of mammon in any walk of life. Even more sadly, as Chris Gayle has shown, this may be lost on cricketers too.
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It doesn’t take the ‘Fake IPL Player’blog — entertaining as it has been — to tell us that Kolkata Knight Riders have messed up badly. Performances speak for themselves, and the manner in which the match against Bangalore was lost was perhaps the nadir; it showed the utter lack of belief in the team.

Unless players are secure, even the best will harbour self-doubt. Professional sport can be as cruel as it is enthralling. A split second is all a player has to make a decision, and then live or die by it. This requires a peculiar mindset that needs to be free of needless pressures for peak performance.

I believe that KKR have been hit badly by absenteeism, but only in a relative sense. They were still better off than say Rajasthan Royals who lost three of their best players from the previous year – Shane Watson, Sohail Tanvir and Kamran Akmal. If Rajasthan have still done well, it is in no small measure to having a genius like Shane Warne at the helm.

Even so, a smart captain and a clear line of command are not the only ingredients to succeed else there wouldn’t be only one winner. Good talent and some luck can be as important. But it can safely be said that a happy dressing room will perform above potential.

KKR’s disaster throws up the most relevant theory: best keep the game simple.
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Incidentally, Warne is not the only non-conformist leg-spinner to have played for Australia. On the 1926 tour of England, it is told, Arthur Mailey reached the ground for the final Ashes Test in the white and tails that he had worn while dancing all night. Before he could change, he was ‘caught’ by his grim-faced manager.

“Don’t say anything till after stumps,’’ requested Mailey, buying time for himself, hoping that skipper would lose the toss, Australia would field and he would take six wickets. Five wickets wasn’t bad, but no manager could say anything to a bowler who took six.
In the event, Mailey took six (including Sir Jack Hobbs) and spent the following night dancing. Whether he was accompanied this time by the manager is not known.