Great expectations

Cricket’s centre of gravity may have shifted to South Asia, but most fans would probably agree that the English season is still very much the international cricket calendar’s showpiece.

You can appreciate it in the character of the grounds and the eye-soothing quality of the manicured turf. You can feel it in the attentive silence of the crowds and the stately aura of activities on the field. There is neither the cacophony of Asia nor the festive buzz of Australia and South Africa. And unlike in the West Indies, there are no empty stands. In the back of the mind, there is also the warm and fuzzy sentiment about England being the original home of the game.

With this delightful setting, the cricket can become intensely enjoyable. This is probably one of the key reasons that Oval 1954 casts a longer shadow over Pakistan cricket than, say, Lucknow 1952, Karachi 1956, or even Bridgetown 1958. Zaheer Abbas’ 274 in only his second Test would probably not have emblazoned such an imprint had it not been made in England.

Indeed, Javed Miandad says that he values his 260 at the Oval above his five other double-hundreds because there is always the sense that you haven’t succeeded unless you’ve succeeded in England. Bowling is no different: reverse swing was an old practice in Pakistan but became an international sensation only after Wasim Akram and Waqar Younus blew away the home team in England in 1992.

Of course after the forfeiture fiasco of Oval 2006 and the spot-fixing mess last summer, Pakistani fans no longer anticipate an English tour the way they used to in decades past. But leave that aside for a moment and look at the cricket feast that awaits us in the current English season.

England at present are third in the ICC Test rankings and India are first. If England wins the four-Test series between the two teams with a margin of at least two Tests, they will dethrone India at the top of the table. On the other hand, if India emerges victorious, they will take a long and definitive stride towards true greatness. Even if the series is drawn there will be much to savour, because in cricket drawn contests can often pack more drama than victories and defeats.

For Pakistani fans, a tense India-England Test series is really a kind of win-win. The cricket is bound to be spectacular, and since Pakistan isn’t playing, you don’t have to worry about getting too emotionally involved. If India loses, well then we would’ve just seen our old rival vanquished.
It would be a guilty pleasure, but that only makes it sweeter. And if India wins, well then, we’d be happy for them. India and Pakistan may not be the best of friends, but we are neighbours after all, and cultural kindred. An Indian series victory would also put our neighbour in a good mood, auguring well for a resumption of Indo-Pak cricket ties.

Perhaps the best part about this series is that you really can’t say who will win. India’s assets include superior batsmen and an awesome captain, but their bowling lacks bite and could end up becoming over-reliant on off-spin. England’s strengths are also in batting, captaincy, and off-spin bowling, with an extra edge in seam bowling. As for England’s home advantage, vocal crowd support from the Indian immigrant community in England could offset that quite a bit. Man for man, both sides appear rather evenly matched. I would not be surprised if the entire series boils down to an off-spinning rivalry between India’s Harbhajan Singh and his English counterpart, Graeme Swann.

It is interesting to observe Indian fans and media handle their surging cricketing brilliance. Since October 2008, they have been unbeaten in a Test series. Of 30 Tests during this period, India has won 15 and lost only three. Their series record over this span includes wins at home over Australia, England, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka; wins overseas in New Zealand, Bangladesh and West Indies; two drawn series with South Africa (the second-ranked Test team) both home and away; and a drawn series in Sri Lanka last summer. In limited-overs, they have recently won the ODI world cup, cricket’s most prestigious tournament. On top of all this, India has created the world’s most lucrative domestic league in the form of the Indian Premier League, and with huge markets and enormous resources wields great influence in international cricket politics.

You would think that with such an embarrassment of cricket riches, Indian fans would regard their team as doing no wrong. Yet, India’s cricketers seem to get a more critical reception from the media now, than in the days when the team used to struggle. Even Mahendra Singh Dhoni, a man who will probably be regarded after retirement as India’s greatest-ever captain, does not get spared, as demonstrated by his recent skewering over allowing the third Test against West Indies to be drawn. It seems strange to hear fans being disappointed by a winning team, but perhaps this is just an expression of the human condition, which always wants more.

Up until the first half of the last decade, Pakistan was a dominant world team and India was mediocre. At one point in 2004, for example, Pakistan was the third-ranked Test team and India was sixth. Today, India is first and Pakistan is sixth. The former is enjoying an exponential boon in its economy and global prestige, with naturally beneficial consequences for identity and self-belief. Indian cricket has been swept up by this rising tide. It is inspiring to see, and it makes for a breathtaking summer spectacle

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