Verge

Sometimes watching cricket isn’t even about hope. It’s purely about love. On Sunday evening – or Night, I should be saying – of 23rd June 2013, it was exactly because of love towards the game, even after being dead certain that India has no chance of winning this Champ Trophy Final, that I continued to watch the match.. I even asked my father in the mid-innings break, "Why am I watching this?? To win a match after only scoring 129 in an ODI -turned -Twenty20 is impossible". My father just smiled and continued to watch. And I followed him … without moving an inch from my chair for next two and half hours. Ohh dear ! Exactly how much my cricket-love weighs ?? I celebrated every bit of the match – cursing almost all Ishant Sharma deliveries (barring THOSE two), admiring the ultra-perfect reverse sweeps by Bells and Morgans, wondering how far ‘Sir’ has come. And as final 4 overs unfolded and the Indians pulled the victory from the jaws of defeat, I could actually hear my heart beats (the ones before last ball were almost as loud as Daya's bangs on closed door to burst it open). And then the joy followed. The sense of being on top of the world!! I watched it all… the post-match interviews, the Gangnam styles, the push-ups, the drilling analysis of irrelevant things like who pitched maximum deliveries on good-length while bowling to an opening batsman and which left hander scored most runs against  an off-spinner between 8 to 16 overs …. Not a single moment was to be missed.

All the players jumped and hugged and shouted, and then, finally, donning the odd-for-the-occasion white coats grabbed the trophy and posed for the Championship photo. It was exactly THAT precise moment a feeling spread all over my senses, however delightful this victory may be, this is not MY team. I felt like being at a distance from almost all these team members. There’s almost no-one there from the team that I grew up with. I suddenly felt old – much older than I actually am. So much so that I could start uttering a beloved phrase by an oldie, "Things were different then"

One by one everyone’s gone. With Laxman, Ganguly , Dravid long gone, Sachin’s departure last year, Zaheer’s ever-unfit body having a final say over his desire to play again, Sehwag and Bhajji almost certainly on the no-return-back road, only Yuvraj and Gambhir having an outside chance of coming back, given Selectors and Dhoni allow them to. I feel harder to connect with the current Indian players. This is not to say that I don’t like them or I don’t want to watch their matches – it will only happen after my last breath. But it’s something like admiring a hot new ultra sleek Audi but not wanting to ride it.

Often, at most satisfying moment in a man’s twilight of life, his memories just flood with all the moments of hope from his past life. Similarly for a scholar conquering every hurdle of exam, moments from first few exams - mixture of anxiety, will, faltering and succeeding - always hold a special space in heart. They might not be all perfect success moments but those have given a cause, a reason to live for. Exactly such was the case here. Dhoni is most successful and most-intelligent-on-field captain for India. Not a single feather is missing from his cap. Yet I feel Ganguli bound the team together like never before. Disputes between players, groupism based on regional influences were almost gone under his captaincy. When Dhoni was an undefeated captain for first two years, it was often said, and rightly so, that "Ganguly was a good captain of a team and Dhoni is a captain of a good team".  (Though, after this Champ Trophy triumph, I must admit that Dhoni has built a very good team of not-yet-great players… just like Ganguly did).  

Time and again, I can’t stop thinking of Romantic Era of first decade of this millennium. Until then victories on foreign soils were as alien as acting is to Arjun Rampal. The Golden Gang changed that. Laxman- Dravid were the pioneers of it in Kolkata with Ganguly and John Wright accompanying as guardians. The captain-coach duo pushed Bhajji, Yuvi, Zaheer and Sehwag  to greatness.  Foreign tours began to become fruitful. On the tour Downunder in 2003-04, they were supposed to run for shelters against the mighty Australians. Ganguly was considered to be most prone to failure on fast pitches. Instead, at The Gabba he turned the table with the probably the best series-defining century on fthe oreign soil. This led Indians to draw the series 1-1 with mighty Aussies. (If only Parthiv Sloppy Patel hadn’t missed the opportunity of dismissing Steve Waugh and Gillespie). With the Fab Five (Viru, Sachin, Dravid, Laxman and Kumble) - which any team in any time period will die for - Ganguly composed such a tune and everyone contributed with such a perfect lyrics of their own style, that an unforgettable beautiful song was born. And that will certainly be remembered like a SD Burman classic.

Interestingly this success story was written with not-so-great fast bowling stock. Barring Zaheer, no one was consistent enough to get a long run. Yet Multan, Rawalpindi, Headingly, Galle, Jo’burg, Durban, Perth, Jamaica, Napier, Trent Bridge happened.  Many of the seamers played cameos. Many times, whenever the team needed to punch above the head, someone stood up. Zaheer succumbed to injury at the start of the series v/s Aus in 2003-04 but Agarkar bowled the spell of his life in Adelaide to make sure Dravid’s efforts weren’t going in vain 2007. Again in when Zaheer had another injury RP Singh and Ishant Sharma carried the burden brilliantly. Sreesanth did it twice in two tours of South Africa. Even Munaf bowled superbly to get rid of Lara to give decisive blow to Windies in 2006 series. In the meantime they were almost unbeatable at home. Kumble and Harbhajan were enough to destroy every team that toured India. Ohh dear God, So much stories to tell, so little time. Afterall you just can’t get enough of fairy tales.

Everything was not so sweet each time though. Shameful loss against England in Mumbai where the Indians were 100 all out, dust biting downfall from 100/1 at lunch to 200-odd all out by the evening against Pak at Bangalore, the Guru-Greig  saga, Gone-in-60-secondesque exit from 2007 World Cup (which completely spoiled my B’day on the next day), surrender against the duo of Murali-Mendis were absolutely disheartening. But yet, those were sensing like punctuation marks in the statement that Team India was making strongly. It was more of a reminder that they were, afterall , humans climbing the mountain unlike rude inhumans like Australians, who failed to attract any kind of love from any corner of the world. After all who loves butcher over a painter.

The good thing was that even while the baton continued to pass from Ganguly to Dravid to Kumble to Dhoni the Indians kept on winning. Victories were accompanied by some best back-against-the-wall displays in Draws. In 2002, Sachin-Dravid-Ganguly , Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh of Indian Cricket, secured the improbable draw against England at Trent Bridge. In 2008-09 at Napier, at the end of the third day the Indians were batting second with 300-odd run deficit. But then came the marathons by Gambhir and Laxman along with almost everyone's contribution and this test was saved miraculously. In Last test on the SA tour in 2011 the Indians had whole day to survive against devils like Steyn and Morkel, and they did it by losing just 3 wickets. Given India’s some previous record, last day collapse was always at a stone’s throw away. Yet they saved it. Comprehensively.

All through the decade the core of Team India in was same. Fab Five, plus Harbhajan, Yuvraj, Zaheer and Gambhir. It was an interesting blend of personalities. On one side, there were thorough gentlemen like Sachin, Kumble, Dravid, Laxman and on the other hand, there were fire brands like Bhajji, Yuvraj and Zaheer who would refuse to wince when they looked into eyes of the opposition. This brand of controlled aggression was pioneered by their T-Shirt Twirling, Toss Delaying captain 'Dada'. He transformed a team from 'home tigers' to 'warrior travelers'. The ODI performances were somewhere between very good and great. They kept entering every single tournament-final but kept losing all but one of them (That glorious exception was Yuvraj-Kaif fame Natwest Trophy Final in 2002).

And then suddenly, out of nowhere, wheels came off. The train not just derailed but crashed so heavily that the passengers like Dravid and Laxman (who were actually drivers, until then) had to depart to the point of no return. Sehwag and Gambhir - the best test opening pair of India - were pushed from the train, fairly so because they were travelling with expired tickets. Yuvraj was already travelling standing because he never had confirmed reservation for Tests, so no efforts were needed to push him. Only The God is remaining now. That too in tests, not in ODI.  The enitire 0-8 thing outside India and 1-2 loss in home conditions against England were blow beyond tolerance. I sensed the beginning of the end when Dravid retired. Until then I had saved my tears for Sachin’s retirement. I even managed to hold them back while I read entire coverage of 'Dravid Dasvidaniya' press conference. But all it took to nudge them to start rolling was a Harsha Bhogale article on cricinfo. I couldn’t imagine Test cricket without THE WALL. I was upset for few weeks after that.

Then just before NZ series Very Very Special Batsman waved towards fans. I was outraged.  For all his heroics and fifties with tail and silky drives and an affair with Aussie bowling, he deserved a far better farewell. I was cursing Dhoni like never before, whose lack of approachability was believed to be behind his departure. With Kumble and Ganguly long gone, remaining soldiers, one-by-one, started to call it a day. Look of Indian team became raw one, but it did some fabulous things too. New guys are sprinting between the wicket like a hare, fielding has become jaw-droppingly sensational and they are not carrying the burden of being gentlemen on the field. If there was any proof needed of changing guards, I think it was this Champ Trophy. As a true admirer of cricket, this new team gave me tremendous joy mixed with absolute thrill, but it's the team between 2001 and 2012 that gave me Goosebumps actually. I like current Team India very much but the previous one felt like family I grew up with. It is, you know, like Love. However much you love your successful married life, you will have a special place in the heart for your first love affair.

Few weeks ago, while staring at myself in a mirror, I noticed several gray hair. "It's because of pollution and my carelessness to condition them. I am not an old guy yet", I consoled myself. But the moment Team Young India the lifted the trophy and erupted in the midnight, a sudden strong (and disturbing) feeling told me that hair weren't lying after all.