The Chesterfield Files

What you see is what you don’t always get
 

Harbhajan

Remember that old cliché? The one suggesting you should not judge a book by its cover.

Well, Yahaluweni, the last two Tests at the Motera venue, Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad, were played 28 months apart and the results were totally different for a variety of reasons.

In late December 2005, the spin mix of Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble with 17 wickets between them, bowled Sri Lanka to defeat by 259 runs and this after India’s first innings totalled 398. It was Bhajji’s first innings haul of seven wickets which did the trick for India.

Fast forward to April 2008; Anil Kumble won the toss and batted first on something that looked hard with a hint of green. Twenty overs later, Kumble and the rest of India were counting the ‘fang bites’ wondering what green mamba had hit them. South Africapace trio of Makhaya Ntini, Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel sent India packing for an embarrassing first innings total of 76.

This South Africa wiped off by the middle of the 16th over and went on to build a 418 run lead, with young AB de Villiers scoring his first double century. Compared to the 2005 December Test against Sri Lanka, the spin threat of Harbhajan and Kumble was about as threatening as the occasional mist you get at Motera. South Africa went on to win by an innings and 90 runs. For the South Africans, it evened up the score as India had won at a hot, dry and dusty Motera in 1996, before the venue was reconstructed.

In you recall, 1996 was long before Harbhajan announced himself and it was a mix of seam (largely cutters) and pace which won it for India as Javagal Srinath and Kumble collected most of the wickets between them in the second innings as South Africa crumbled. The pitch had deteriorated throughout the game. For some arcane reason, Gujarat officials were not too happy with several South Africa supporters waving their national flag.

Anyway, Steyn, who collected his five wickets for only 23 in that first innings, told the media how he preferred the Indian made and developed SG (Sansparels Greenlands) ball with the higher seam than that of the Australian produced Kookaburra. This has often been used as a reason why Sri Lanka’s spinners, Muttiah Muralitharan, as an example, have rarely done so well in Indian conditions.

In the South African fast bowler’s view, the SG ball helped him more than the Australian and British produced balls as the seam is much tighter, although Sir Richard Hadlee would argue that he found the (UK produced) Dukes ball better as they had more seam stitches.

Anyway, the point is, how seriously can you take pitch conditions as a guide if the last two Tests at the Motera venue gives you two opposing results of what might give the side the edge in the first game of the series, which is always an important guide to the remainder of the Test tour. You need bowlers to win Tests and while the views of Kumar Sangakkara and coach Trevor Bayliss are that Sri Lanka have their best balanced attack, a side also requires runs on the board to win games.

If Test centuries in India are a rarity for Sri Lanka batsmen, there will need to be a turn around. To win Tests not only requires solid batting and top technique, it also requires to bat through with patience. So far, at Motera, the century cupboard is empty enough for Sri Lanka and no matter how much is said about the team’s success in India or lack of it, if you do not have a three-figure total in your innings, winning is going to be that much tougher. There were none on the last tour and that was why the 2-0 result heavily favoured India with VVS Laxman scoring 104 at Motera in 2005.

One question to be asked is whether Bhajji is going to be the threat he was four years ago. He is such a cunning bowler and has a good record at the venue, although his form in this last limited overs international series with Australia suffered as much as has Muttiah Muralitharan has on tours of India.

After four visits to Ahmedabad – the first for a wedding in 1962 – the city grows on you, despite the usual concerns over its earthquake record. What is interesting is a visit along what they call Law Garden, an inner city street where there is an impressive market that sells all types of linen and where there are examples of finely crafted work. As you don’t find this quality in Sri Lanka, it requires more than a few minutes walking and examining the goods.

On the way to the venue at Motera, there are the usual sights of gypsies going about their daily trade and camels pulling loaded vegetable carts and cows lying about the place. It is about as rural as you are going to get as the city, as it has grown, has spread beyond its normal limits.

As for the Sardar Patel Stadium in the Motera village, it is vast and now rates, from personal experience, among the top stadiums in South Asia. It’s not an idle boast either, but it also shows how the game is prospering in this region of the county that was once the home of Mahatma Gandhi.

Okay, enough of the tourist guide and back to the Test and news that what is called the Decision Review System (DRS), better know by the fancy euphemism ‘referral system’ has been scrapped for this series. Rumours this is likely to happen have floated since it was also trialled in the New Zealand Tests with the West Indies earlier this year.

Both captains didn’t like it, with Daniel Vettori suggesting it needed work to get it right as there are certain grey areas of concern. Here you have to sympathise with the players. If they feel that it is not fully accurate and requires certain modifications, the ICC should listen to their criticism and examine the reasons of doubt. It is one thing for the critics and television viewers to comment on its uses and usefulness. But the crux comes if the players are unhappy with it because they feel that the technology is not right, the ICC need to get this area sorted out to benefit accurate decision making.

The Indian players have not been enamoured with it at all, citing any variety of reasons, other than they were at the receiving end in Sri Lanka last July and August. The challenges allowed have been lessened from three to two. There is also the argument that the technology is expensive and the host nations are now lumbered with the bill that is part of what is called ‘hidden costs’ factor. Or a form of Value Added Tax and which the guys pumping the referral system as the answer to all decision making errors gloss over in their promotional excitement.

Not always top of the popularity poll with some boards who are heavily reliant on the television package available, paying out extra for such technology is always going to be a problem, as it requires an extra cameraman as well as a replay system different to those already available.

Fifty-four years ago, an editor once told me that if you repeated something often enough people would start to believe it. It is a more subtle form of propaganda. Also, those who are involved in the game often get caught up with such nebulous theories as well. This is why the game at Test level is in danger. Television and other electronic media along with certain newspapers have been peddling this philosophy as well.

It was said TV would kill radio and the web and websites as well as the internet would kill newspapers. You can still buy newspapers and listen to the radio. Test tours will be around for a lot longer than those prophesying their doom.

As for the next World Cup, its draw in Mumbai sparked a flurry of interests. A venue yet to be named at Hambantota is to be gifted a couple of games in the 2011 CWC. The venue, it is said, is to cost US$7.86 million and will be ready in time for the February 20 game against Canada. No doubt, the outfield and pitch will be laid well beforehand, so that it can settle in.

Three days later, Pakistan face Kenya at the same Hambantota venue – that works out to US$3.92 million a game; on March 8, the 24th game will see the opening of Pallekele near Kandy, a venue whose controversial development has long been a topic of interest in the island for several years as its building has been a stop-start routine.

While Kandy has a thriving cricket culture, what of Hambantota? Is there something similar in that area? In fact, what is the local cricket infrastructure and what will become of the venue when the World Cup ends?

And while all this development is going on, what is happening in Kalutara and the turfing of the tsunami-funded Magonna cricket site? The story is how the contractor delivered poor quality soil and because of the rain, there is now an added delay. How the contractor delivering the soil in the first place was given this job, and whether there were any checks on what he was delivering made are questions that need to be asked.