Gamble to win
By Ashwini Bhatnagar

THE Indian cricket team is leaving for England to participate in the World Cup in the next few hours but doubts persist. Should the selectors have acted quickly, and decisively gambled on Ajay Jadeja as the captain for the World Cup in place of Mohammed Azharuddin? Or was it too late in the day to bring about such a big change? After all, cricket is a game of chance. Therefore, would it have been appropriate if the "five wise men" had chanced their arm and given it a shot considering that they had very little to lose? As of date, anyway, not many pundits are willing to bet on India making it to the finals, much less than winning the Cup. So where lies the rub?

The clamour for Jadeja as captain started during the Sharjah tournament. So long as Azhar led his "boys", the showing was poor, to say the least. Cricket fans had the mortification of witnessing their team being beaten hollow in all departments of the game. It appeared as if the team was paralysed in body and mind, while the rivals belted them during the entire duration of the 100-odd overs. Then Azhar suffered an injury. Jadeja came in as a stand-in captain. The team was transformed. From bleating lambs being led to slaughter, they changed into battering rams. The stand-in captain won the two games on the trot. It seemed that there was hope yet for the Indians.

Of course, the turning points in both the games were a result of the initiatives taken by Jadeja. He brought himself to bowl during the match against England and scapled three wickets in just six balls. It is another matter that the man had not bowled even a single delivery in an international match in the last two years. The decision surprised even veteran players and commentators like Geoff Boycott. But it was a bold gamble and it paid off. After all, fortune favours the brave. Jadeja displayed his temperament for taking the situation by the horns once again when India played and won against Pakistan. His decisions and actions on the field are now part of Jadeja-lore.

Of course, a couple of initiatives here and there do not prove beyond doubt that Jadeja is a natural leader of men or a consummate strategist. But certainly they are pointers to the overall native skills of the player. The eight matches that he has captained in the last few years have all had the Jadeja stamp on them. If one looks at them carefully, the Jadeja characteristics are:

Nonchalance: Even in the worst of situations, Jadeja is a cool customer. Even as a number five or six bat, he can lift his innings according to the needs of the team. His one-day international average is about 37, which is pretty good for a player who comes in when there are not many overs left to play. He has always managed to rotate the strike when needed or tonked bowlers all over the ground in order to lift the pressure from his other colleagues. He approaches the batting crease without a care in the world and manages to stay unruffled, whatever the pressures.

Improviser: Jadeja is perhaps the only true improviser that we have in the Indian team. Most bowlers are perplexed by his innovative stroke play. One moment, Jadeja can be a typical copybook cricketer, and the next one he makes his own rules. Unlike Dravid, who at times has to make a conscious effort to get out of the straight- bat-behind-the-line-of-the-ball training, Jadeja is a natural player when it comes to devising ways and means of how the bat is going to meet the ball and where it goes after the meeting. He slips effortlessly from the orthodox to the flamboyant and back again to get the results he or his team wants.

Risk-taker: His batting style and the running between the wickets show that if there is even half a chance, Jadeja will take it smilingly. He knows intuitively what to take and what to avoid. It is perhaps this ability which has helped him to turn even the most difficult situation into a fluid one. In fact, cricket lovers sat up and took notice of Jadeja as captain because he took the risk of bringing himself to bowl when the going was tough against England in Sharjah.

Motivator: Jadeja got his team to perform in the two matches that he captained in Sharjah. Before he took over from an "injured" Azhar, the Indian camp had looked despirited and lacklustre. Television images brought the listlessness in the Indian squad to every home, and it was as clear as daylight that the team was not performing as a cohesive unit. The contrast was all the more stark when one watched the highly charged performance of the Pakistani team. As long as Azhar was on the field, the going was lacklustre. Jadeja came mid-match and changed everything. The same "boys" lifted themselves by their bootstraps and performed at near-peak levels. The level dipped again when Azhar returned as captain. A news agency report on the finals between India and Pakistan hit the nail right on the head when it reported, "Azharuddin returned as captain to lead India to a humiliating eight-wicket defeat at the hands of Pakistan in a one-sided final....ending his team’s string of successes under Ajay Jadeja’s stewardship."

Gregariousness: Unlike Azhar, Jadeja likes to interact with his fellow-players. Even when he is not the captain,Jadeja is always the one to offer a word of advice or encouragement to squad members. Most players find him easy to get along with as he has no hang-ups. Discussing strategies, strengths and weaknesses of team members on and off the field in an amiable manner makes the team stick together and pitch in with the extra effort that a particular situation or moment may require. An off-standish stance towards the team seldom helps.

Most cricket lovers are of the view that the Indian team is neither short on talent nor experience. What it needs right now are many of the things that Jadeja combines in his personality and are missing in the case of Azhar. His excellent rapport with "my team" is a telling commentary on Azhar’s own relationship with "the boys". It is this chemistry which is vital for an event which will see other teams bonding as virtual war machines. It was this spirit which propelled the 1983 Indian World Cup team to tear off the label of underdogs and emerge as Top Guns of one-day cricket. Then, out of a squad of 11 players, 12 performed. Bits and pieces players like Roger Binny, Madan Lal, Sandhu etc produced that extra bit which won the day for India from the round-robbin league to the knock-out stage. Gavaskar was, of course, there. But how many of us remember the 1983 Cup because of him? It was the others all the way, whether it was Mohinder Amarnath, Srikkant or the Big Devil—Kapil Dev.

Going by the current mood in the Indian camp, it does not look likely that the 11 players on the field will do the job of 12. We haven’t seen the extra bits and pieces being offered by the 11, which can combine to produce the effect of having an extra player on the field. Azhar, therefore, has a problem on his hands. He is not happy with the way the media has been praising Jadeja and asking for his scalp. He is not happy with some of the senior team members who, he feels, should motivate themselves in the interest of the team. Moreover, in the recent months, Azhar has taken to publicly blaming his colleagues. In his milder moods, he has muttered excuses such as "We did not bat well", or "Our bowlers let us down."

Azhar’s unhappiness, if one is to go by the dressing room grapevine, is more than equally reciprocated by his team-mates. Reportedly, Kumble was not on talking terms with his captain on the New Zealand tour because of an argument over his "poor" bowling. And this is not the first time that Azhar has not been exactly kind to his co-players. Remember the Sidhu episode?

Azhar, of course, is an old war horse. His success record as a captain is pretty enviable. Hence, when people point out the better success rate of Jadeja as a captain--62.5-- as against Azhar’s 52.1, they forget that Jadeja has only eight matches as captain to his credit. He has won five and lost three. Azhar, on the other hand, has captained India on 165 occasions, won 86 matches and lost 71. The others have either been tied or abandoned. In terms of volume,therefore, there can be no comparison. Similarly, Azhar’s track record as a batsman and a slip fielder is the envy of the best in the world.

Yet, there is a nagging feeling that the selectors could have taken a calculated risk. Propriety certainly demands that after a player has been named captain, he should be allowed to perform as such. But the stakes are too high. Critics do not give any chance to India under Azhar in the sweepstakes of the World Cup. Under Jadeja, they are willing to give the Indians half a chance. Are we willing to take that chance?