The disaster at Adelaide
By Sushil Kapoor
THE Indian cricket team under the captaincy of Sachin Tendulkar were humbled by the Aussies by a huge margin of 285 runs before the first session was over on the fifth day of the first Test at the Adelaide Oval. This defeat is certainly going to have a psychological effect on the young Indian side. No doubt at the end of the day it would look like an abject surrender by the Indians but those who watched the proceedings on TV would certainly agree that our cricketers were done in by some dubious decisions by Australian umpire Daryl Harper, who was instrumental in Sachin’s dismissals in both innings.

Golfing boom in India
By Ravinder Chadha
The noble art of chasing a little white ball with a bag of hopelessly inadequate weapons is becoming a major sport in our country.

Steve crosses landmark
By S. Prevez Qaiser
AUSTRALIAN skipped Steve Waugh became the ninth batsman to score 8000 runs in Test cricket. He achieved this feat during his 150-run knock in Australia’s first innings in the first Test match against India at Adelaide. It was the 194th innings of his 123rd Test match.

Sport Mail

Cricketer who kept his honour
By Daljit Singh

Vinod Kambli peeped through the door and said; “What’s the celebration about? Tum log buri tarah se haar rahe ho par hangama aise kar rahe ho jaise match jeet rahe ho (you guys are losing badly but making such a noise as if you are winning the game).”

The occasion was the Ranji Trophy final of 1995 between Punjab and Bombay at the Wankhede Stadium and the scene was the Punjab dressing room on the fourth day of the game. Bombay were far ahead with a big first innings lead. They could have forced Punjab to follow on but instead chose to send them on a meaningless leather hunt and win on the basis of the first innings lead. Normally under such circumstances the fielding team players would be brooding and weary, waiting for the agony to be over. But not here as Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Punjab captain — known to his friends and teammates as Sherry — had everyone in splits with his unending jokes and anecdotes. And that’s how it always was with Sherry in the dressing room. There was never a dull moment whatever the state of the game or seriousness of the occasion.

Sherry has called it a day after nearly two decades of regaling his Punjab and Indian teammates in the dressing rooms. In between, he attended to some very serious business on the field of opening the innings for his country, especially against some fearsome fast bowlers like Andy Roberts, Malcom Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee, Ian Botham, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Alan Doland and others. Not many would know that he stands next only to Sunil Gavaskar in Test cricket for the number of runs he made as an opener for India in an era which has seen some of the all-time great fast as well as swing bowlers. The prankster Sherry had a very serious side to his cricket. From being a “strokeless wondeer” of the early 80s he developed into the explosive six hitting phenomenon, driving fears into the hearts of spinners all over the world. On one of his numerous comeback trails he hit the number one off-spinner in world cricket. Murlidharan for nine sixes at Lucknow, playing for the President’s XI against the visiting Sri Lankan in 1994. He had a special fondness for off-spinners and those of this breed who played against him always suffered. But not many gave him the credit for shattering Shane Warne’s confidence in the last home series against Australian in 1997 when people remember Sachin Tendulkar’s mauling of the famed leg-spinner. It took a shrewd judge of the game like Ian Chappell to realise that it was Sidhu who took on Warne straightaway once he had seen off the Australian new ball attack. In the first Test at Chennai he hit Warne for towering six in his first over into the stands and continuing on his follow through after the stroke ran up to the bowler to say: ‘Let’s see how good you really are!’ The rest is history and Warne was a shadow of himself in the remainder of the series being carved all over the park by Sidhu, Tendulkar and Co. India of course won the series comfortably.

Sherry’s cricket, like the man, went through changes over the years. In private conversation, he gave a lot of credit to Sunny Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath and Kapil Dev for helping him along with sound advice. However, it was his own application and single mindedness to succeed that drove him over the years. Everytime you met him, he was always “working” on his game in his own intelligent way. An articulate and well-read man he had the uncanny knack of making the adjustments required to succeed an different wickets and in all forms of cricket. He is one of the rarest international cricketers having an equally impressive average (over 40) in Tests as well as in one-day cricket. The sharp-minded Sherry knew his limitations and always worked to plug the gaps in his technique. I have not known any other Indian cricketer apart from Gavaskar who worked so consistently on his technique right from the basics like the grip stance etc. It is not a coincidence that during the two decades he played most of his runs off fast bowling came square of the wicket as he cleverly used the pace and swing of the delivery. He is a strong and well-built (6’-2”) man but always used a very light bat for decimating the fast men. On the other hand his towering sixes of spinners were mainly in the arc between wide mid on and the extra cover. I never saw him hit a cross batted six over mid wicket or square leg. Whereas he relied on sheer timing in putting the fast bowlers away, he hit the slow bowlers with the spin with an amazingly still head.

Though fun-loving, Sherry was never the one for parties and functions. It took a very pursuasive manager or a captain to drag him to a party where he would be one of the first ones to quitely slip away. But give Sherry the company if his teammates in the hotel room and he would go on and on with his jokes and pranks.

The fun loving Sherry had another side to his character which not many people knew about. He was a man of ‘honour’. God help the man who disturbed his honour and ‘crossed the limits’, If ‘disturbed’ by something done or said to him, he would give the offender a warning which if went unheaded would lead to some serious trouble. Gone was the joker Sherry and out came the ‘honourable Jat’ and the one who had aroused his wrath better run for cover. Honour was more dear to him than anything else in life.

His sudden departure from England leaving the Indian team midway during the tour in 1996 was like a cricketing suicide. It became such a contentious issue in the country and everyone wanted to ‘know’ what happened between him and his captain Azharuddin in the morning of the third one-day Trophy international Texaco which prompted him to foresake his cricketing career. Yet on his return Sidhu behaved in the most dignified manner never going public with the gory details. Even while facing the disciplinary committee set up by the cricket board he refused to divulge the details of the incident (even in camera) and simply said that he was ready to face whatever judgement was passed. The Chairman of the disciplinary penal said: ‘How can we make a judgement when Sidhu refuses to tell us his side of the story which prompted him to leave the team?”. When pressed by friends he would point to his turban and simply say; ‘Bas izzat bacha ke vapas aa gaye. Jo koi bhi ho, hum kissi ko apni izzat se khelne nahin de sakte’ (I just saved my honour and came back. I can not allow any one to play with my honour”. He accepted the cricket board’s punishment of a two-match suspension with a smile and never talked about it again.

Sherry the man with honour, also played cricket the same way. While many (team-mates and opponents alike) may have been fooled by his mannerism of seeing demons in pitches before a match, I have never seen or heard Sherry back off to any fast bowler or any pitch anywhere in the world. He would stand tall and face the thunderbolts after taking painful blows on his body. He would be seen telling his younger teammates. “Never wince or rub the spot where you have been hit by the fast bowler. That would be like handing over a moral victory to him. Instead stand erect and look him straight in the eye. That would be an even contest!”

Sherry eptomised the best of his native Punjab carrying its flag, high whereever he went. Its time for every state citizen and specially the Punjab Cricket Association to salute this greatson of the soil. Many before him migrated to greener pastures in order to play for India as it was said that no Punjab players could hold on to a place in the national side for long. But Sherry put at Patiala and ended up as one of the most successful Indian cricketer of all time.

The disaster at Adelaide
By Sushil Kapoor

THE Indian cricket team under the captaincy of Sachin Tendulkar were humbled by the Aussies by a huge margin of 285 runs before the first session was over on the fifth day of the first Test at the Adelaide Oval. This defeat is certainly going to have a psychological effect on the young Indian side. No doubt at the end of the day it would look like an abject surrender by the Indians but those who watched the proceedings on TV would certainly agree that our cricketers were done in by some dubious decisions by Australian umpire Daryl Harper, who was instrumental in Sachin’s dismissals in both innings.

A batsman of the class of Sachin Tendulkar who had on earlier occasions instilled mortal fear in the minds of the Australian bowlers, became a victim of a horrible umpiring decision when he was in full flight in the first innings as was evident from the three consecutive boundries that he hit in one over from Australian fast bowler Kasprowicz. The TV replays showed the folly of Daryl Harper’s decision and it was not just one simple slip but a blunder which finally had such a negative effect on the outcome of the encounter. As if the mistake in the first innings was not enough, Harper went on to harp on the same strain by ruling Sachin out to a ball which according to every expert would have gone over the stumps. The Harper decision left the Indian innings gasping for breath whereas a reprieve by umpire Steve Dunn to Ricky Ponting allowed the Australians to reconstruct their first innings from a tottering 52 for four to a sizable 441 runs which eventually proved to be a match-winning total.

The record books will show Australians as the winners and nobody is disputing that fact. The real issue which has cropped up during the Australian tour so far is whether there is need for neutral umpires to ensure a level-playing field for both teams. The Pakistanis who had toured before the Indians and lost 3-0 to Australia also left the shores with some bitter memories about the umpiring decisions which went against them. Apart from handing over harsh decisions to the visitors, the Australian umpires have been soft on the sledging by the home team, but have gone on record to report about the dissent shown by stand-in skipper Saurav Ganguly during India’s match against New South Wales when he stood in the middle watching replays on the giant screen. Umpire Darrel Hair also made a sweeping comment about the behaviour of Indian and Pakistani players.

The Australians have been quite reluctant to tour the sub-continent and whenever they have toured, they pick on one or the other thing to lambast the organisers. They refused to go to Sri Lanka for the 1996 World Cup. They were critical of Delhi as a cricketing centre where they would not like to play again becuase of pollution. They have always been demanding and yet critical of everything in the sub-continent, including the playing strips.

We have till today continued to dance to their tunes despite the fact the President of the International Cricket Council , the body responsible for regulating the game, is none other than Mr Jagmohan Dalmia of India.

The Indians should come out of the Adelaide trauma and be ready to take on the Aussies in the second Test. Indian coach Kapil Dev, optimistic as ever, is ready to forget the past and take the fight to the enemy’s camp by redesigning his team’s strategy. Skipper Sachin wants to forget the disappointment of having been wronged twice in the same Test match and would like to play his natural game.

by K. R. Wadhwaney
DGC witnesses keen elections

NEVER in the history of the Delhi Golf Club (DGC), have the annual elections been contested so keenly and vigorously as this year. Members, who had not visited the club for months, came out to exercise their franchise. Some of them came with the aid of a ‘walker’ to cast their votes. “I had no plans to cast my vote this time but I got an SOS from a senior friend”, said a voter, adding: “Here I am to exercise my vote for whatever it is worth”.

Bikram Singh, supported by an influential faction, scraped through as President. He defeated Kapil Bhatia by a narrow margin. Had Raj Bhargave no contested, the election might have been livelier, if held. Had Bhargave withdrawn, there might not have been election and the judiciary luminary would have become President without contesting the election. It is said that both Bikram and Bhatia were willing to stand down in his favour.

There was a lot of activity on the evening of the election. The atmosphere, however, remained congenial and dignified throughout the duration of the voting although there were minor whispers. Who won or who lost was of little consequence as long as the dignity of the prestigious club was maintained. This, in particular, spoke well of the contesting officials and members.

For the office of the captain, more drama unfolded. Prakash Bhandari was led up the garden path for this post. But the group that offered support to him, backed out for whatever compulsions. He was naturally hurt and upset. He voted against that faction’s nominee.

Manmohan Singh (Bibloo), an experienced official, became the new captain. The contest was razor-sharp. For the first time in the annals of the DGC, government nominees also exercised their votes which saw Bibloo win.

There were two schools of thought on government nominees exercising their votes. The diehard members felt that they should not have done so in accordance to traditions. But the young turks felt that they should have exercised their votes since in election, like in love and war, no quarter is given and none conceded.

Both Bibloo and Bikram Singh are golf addicts. They are aware of the needs of the club in particular and golf in general. Bibloo is articulate and has the gift of the gab. It will be great if they do something for the upliftment of golf which has started looking up. There is a plenty of talent which needs to be groomed.

Two veteran ‘A’ members were of the view that the time had come when ‘B’ members should be allowed to cast their votes. They use the club and course more often than ‘A’ members, numbering 750. They are entitled to have a feel of participation in the election instead of watching the proceedings from outside.

The general body had proposed to amend the age-old constitution. Why not? One of them was, however, quick enough to suggest that in the event of ‘B’ members being granted licence to vote, the strength of each ‘A’ member should be increased to two votes. “This way, ‘A’ members’ ego will stay intact”, he said.

The suggestion is not without logic and good sense. Maybe, the authorities at the helm can consider this suggestion as dispassionately as it has been made.

In the end, it will be great if Bikram and Bibloo are able to organise a championship bigger than the Indian Open or Hero Honda in the millennium year.

Golfing boom in India
By Ravinder Chadha

The noble art of chasing a little white ball with a bag of hopelessly inadequate weapons is becoming a major sport in our country.

Golf is on the verge of seeing a revolution in our country. Check out the city courses and you will find more people waiting than in a post office. These golfers comprise the full range of population as regards age, sex, wealth and varied dress sense. Golf really is the game of people and India with its massive population and abundant land, is ripe for a revolution.

The rush in the golf course at Chandigarh has increased with about 300 golfers teeing-off daily. A new golf course at Panchkula and a driving range at Chandigarh will still be insufficient in view of the increased following of this game. The Chandigarh Golf Club with its beautiful course of international standard has become a nursery of golfers and Jeev Milkha Singh , Amandeep Johl, Amritinder Singh, Harmeet Kahlon, Pranita Grewal and upcoming Irina Brar are already established name in the national/international circuits.

Cricket, the most popular game of this country, is in danger of sliding off the sporting map. Basically too much cricket around the year has started showing effects on the spectators especially in the Test matches. Secondly, it already has to be accepted that a number of international cricket matches have been rigged by some of their participants. Reports of Shane Warne, Mark Waugh and a couple of Pakistan players accepting money in return for information is a bit too much to bear. Such revelations have had a harmful effect in our country where mass following for cricket is there.

While other games struggle with codes of conduct, the world’s best golfers still safeguard the tradition of the game with their honourable approach. Golfers do not yell or shove, sledge opponents and the game remains free so far of fixing and drug allegations. Golf is free of patriotic hysteria. Cricket’s demise is coinciding with the golfing boom.

And of all sports, golf can maintain an extraordinary link with the public because fans of all ages and abilities can also be players.

Steve crosses landmark
By S. Prevez Qaiser

AUSTRALIAN skipped Steve Waugh became the ninth batsman to score 8000 runs in Test cricket. He achieved this feat during his 150-run knock in Australia’s first innings in the first Test match against India at Adelaide. It was the 194th innings of his 123rd Test match.

The first batsman to join the 8000 runs club in Test cricket was West Indian Gary Sobers. Sobers achieved this feat during his 57-run knock against England at Kingston in the 1973-97 series. It was his 157th innings of his 91st Test match.

England’s opening batsman Geoff Boycott was the second batsman to score 8000 runs in Test cricket. He achieved his feat during his 105-run knock against India at Delhi in the 1981-82 series. It was his 190th innings of his 107th Test match.

Sunil Gavaskar, who was the first batsman to cross the 10000-run mark in Test cricket, became the third batsman of this elite club. The Indian opening batsman achieved this when he reached 104 during his 121-run knock against the West Indies at Delhi in 1983-84. It was his 167th innings of his 95th Test match.

Australian middle order batsman Allan Border who holds the record of highest number of runs in Test cricket — 11,174 runs in 156 Test — was the fourth batsman to amass 8000 runs in Test cricket. Border completed his 8000 runs during his brief knock of 8 against England at Birminghan in the 1989 series. This left handed batsman played 105 Test matches to join this elite club.

Pakistan’s Javed Miandad became the fifth batsman to cross 8000-run mark in Test cricket. He achieved this feat during his 55-run knock against New Zealand at Faisalabad in 1990-91. Miandad played 104 Test match to attain this distinction.

The sixth member of the 8000 runs club was Englishman David Gower. Gower completed his 8000 rund during his 36-run knock against Australia at Sydney in 1990-91 series. It was his 112th Test match.

After Gower, West Indies master blaster Vivian Richards became the seventh member of 8000 runs club. Richards posted his 8000 runs during his unbeaten 52-run knock against Australia at Kingston in 1990-91 series. It was his 168 innings of his 112 Test match.

Before Steve Waugh, England’s grahman Gooch was the last batsman to score 8000 runs in Test cricket. Gooch reached this mileston during his 120-run knock against Australia at Nottingham in 1993 series. It was his 104th Test match.

Sport Mail

Umpire Hair’s remarks unfortunate
THE latest controversy arising out of Australian umpire Darrell Hair’s remarks about the Indian cricket team is another sad chapter in cricket. The episode speaks volumes about the conduct of umpires in the field. It also unfolds the impact of umpires on the psychology and performance of cricketers in particular and the spectators in general. Ironically, if a player objects to any decision, or in cricketing terms, if he shows dissent he is reprimanded and at times penalised. But when an umpire makes a wrong decision or in cricketing parlance a human error then it is something which has to be accepted even if it changes the complexion of the game! If electronic instruments help in taking better decisions, why are they not used in an era of science and technology?

HARSUKH MANJEET
Jagraon

II

The Indian cricket team is facing two rivals in Australia — the talented Australian team and the umpires. What is the use of playing with such a country where the umpires adopt a partial approch? Why doesn’t the ICC take some measures to check this partiality?

BALWANT GULERIA
Dehra Dun

Tour itinerary

It is surprising to see the itinerary prepared by Australian Cricket Board for visiting cricket teams. Take the current Indian tour. The tour started with a four-day game followed by another similar tie. This is just to disturb the temperament of the visiting sides.

HEM RAJ SHARMA
Hamirpur

Kudos to Aussies

Hats off to the unofficial champions of Test cricket Australia for beating the over-confident Pakistani team in the three-match Test series. It was really a commendable performance by the Aussies as in the second Test. At one stage they were in a deep trouble while chasing a huge total of 369 runs but thanks to Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist, things were back in favour of Australia. Finally, the Aussies won the match by four wickets. Before the match Pakistani skipper Wasim Akram had made some over-confident statements and he paid the penalty as Pakistan lost the match. I think Wasim has developed a habit of making such statements before the matches. In the World Cup before a crucial super-six encounter against India, he said it was just a practice match.

UMESH DEWAN
Ludhiana

Indian football

Indian football has not been showing an upward swing. According FIFA rankings, India are at the 114 th spot in the world. In the Asia Cup qualifiers in Abu Dhabi which concluded on December 3, India finished third. Last year India were ranked 110th.

Sunder Singh
Dialpura