By Anil - 13 October 2003
October 13 2003

Although the result of the first India-New Zealand Test at Motera will officially be recorded as a draw, cricket was the loser. When the people entrusted to handle the logistics don't do their job -- people like the groundsman and the umpires -- then cricket loses. All the buzz leading up to the first Test between India and the Kiwis was about revenge for the underprepared shockers encountered in NZ by the Indians visiting them last winter. Most fans, and certainly the Black Caps, expected to encounter square turners and an innings defeat in 3 days to avenge the substandard wickets, which were accepted by one and all -- including their own players and administrators -- as falling well short of internationally accepted norms.

Imagine their surprise when, instead, the New Zealanders were presented with a slow, lifeless pitch that got flatter as time went on, and is capable of producing only one result for even the most mismatched teams that play there: an inevitable draw. The infantile curator of the ground, Nadeem Memon, boasted that Fleming had praised his efforts in preparing this pitch. Could there be any doubt why the NZ captain was so appreciative of his efforts?

Curators ought not be given carte blanche in the preparation of pitches in Test cricket -- the Ahmedabad groundsman should have been instructed by the BCCI to prepare a vicious turner.

When the New Zealanders last visited Ahmedabad for a Test, they faced a followon but eventually saved the Test due to the placid nature of the track. History repeated itself here, and showed why Ahmedabad may be almost as unfit as the Kiwi gardens, albeit for very different reasons.

Some conquered the conditions

Lion-hearted individual efforts from Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Nathan Astle, and Craig McMillan did little to redeem the essential dullness of this match. It was precisely the sort of affair which will accelerate the inevitable death of Test cricket.

New Zealand bowlers were toothless on this pitch, with the only Indian wickets to fall more frequently than once a session coming during a period when Indian batsmen went on a rampage on an impossibly slow track where the ball simply did not come on to bat. Zaheer Khan bowled brilliantly to send New Zealand crashing at the start of their first innings, but was indifferent later. Anil Kumble was destructive, and was denied some good LBW shouts. Nothwithstanding Lakshmipathy Balaji's big-hearted effort as he bent his back to register the speediest readings of bowlers on either side, the inexperienced paceman was largely ineffective in his debut Test. The New Zealanders would do well to prepare for a backlash from Sachin Tendulkar in Mohali after the world's best batsman was unable to find his form returning to the game soon after a hand operation during the summer.

From a batting standpoint, there were successes for most of India's frontline batsmen, and failure for most of the best-known Kiwi batsmen other than Astle. Disappointingly, after a very sporting declaration by Ganguly, Fleming and his men made no attempt to chase the gettable total to win the match, instead preferring to play out a draw. However their tailenders did an admirable job in both innings, holding the fort after the upper order had caved in. Astle and McMillan toiled manfully on the final day to save what appeared a lost cause at lunch time.

The Silence of the Crowd

The crowd was silent for more reasons than one. Apart from the fact that there was little to applaud during the match, there was in fact hardly any crowd present in the Motera stadium which is one of the biggest in the world, capable of accomodating 60,000 spectators. The record low turnout was a reflection not just of the tedious, interminable struggle out in the middle, but also the stringent, almost inhuman, rules imposed by the GCA at the behest of the ICC, including a ban on food and water brought in, even in paper or plastic containers. What they got was precisely what they deserved: a much smaller turnout than was present for the Irani Trophy domestic match, or even the Challenger Trophy.

Ire of the Umpires

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly appeared to be openly targetted by umpires David Shepherd of England and Rudi Koertzen of South Africa.

First, they marked him out for checking of bat width just before he came out: a disrespectful, irregular procedure that ought to first have been cleared by him and the BCCI. The suspicious umpires found nothing to complain about, but their action was symptomatic of a bizarre attention continually focussed on the Indian captain by clearly hostile officials.

The New Zealand pacemen targetted him with bouncers intended to rattle him: a common tactic these days against Ganguly. However, the laws are clear on this: in Test cricket, the umpire shall allow no more than 2 bouncers an over, and any more should result in a warning to the bowler. If he persists in constant short pitched bowling, the bowler should be warned again and then removed from the attack for the rest of the innings.

Despite these laws, both Shepherd and Koertzen stood by disinterestedly as bowlers sent down 4 or more bouncers an over at Ganguly, often going down leg. A disbelieving Ganguly eventually forced the Kiwi medium-pacers out of the tactic on this flat track with some aggressive strokemaking, but scoring opportunities remained limited as they sent down short-pitched leg side deliveries designed not only to rattle, but also prevent him from getting bat to ball.

What took the cake was an unprecedented action by South African Rudi Koertzen, who penalized Ganguly two runs when he ran on the pitch.Questioned later, Koertzen's excuse was that Shepherd had already warned Ganguly for running on the pitch. However, in this day and age, umpires rarely even notice this sort of thing, far from penalizing batsmen for it. In addition, Koertzen was seen constantly talking to Ganguly after the incident, almost holding a grudge against the Indian captain. From the same umpires who allowed the Kiwi bowlers to send down far more than the legal number of bouncers an over, this was a strangely uncharacteristic enforcement of a little-known law, to be sure. Shall we just call it "inconsistency"?

Problems to be addressed

A lack of killer instinct showed as the infamous "droop" in Indian shoulders showed up late on the final day when Astle and McMillan grimly defied the Indian bowlers on a dead, unhelpful track.

For the next match, the bowling ranks will be strengthened by Agarkar, who will likely replace Balaji. Besides, the Mohali track is known to be one of the most sporting in the country, offering assistance to pacemen, batsmen, and spinners at various stages of the 5-day game.

Opener problems appear to persist, with debutant Akash Chopra batting at a tortuously low strike rate even during the second innings when quick runs were the need of the hour. Sehwag at the other end suffered from an opposite problem: aggression to the point of unreliability.

Shepherd, Koertzen and LBWs

When Shepherd gave Sehwag out in the first hour of the match, off a short-pitched delivery missing leg stump by a good foot or more, Indian fans were dismayed but also had reason to be optimistic, expecting a rash of Kiwi wickets when LBW specialist Kumble, with his famed flipper, showed up.

Shockingly, but in retrospect not surprisingly, Shepherd as well as Koertzen turned down several confident LBW appeals as Kumble had the New Zealand batsmen repeatedly groping, missing, and allowing deliveries to hit their pads, as they came well forward to every ball he bowled, in blind faith they would be saved by the umpires. That faith was not misplaced as Shepherd, who had given a shocker of an LBW decision to send Sehwag back, refused to give the plumbest of LBWs against the Kiwis. Who will evaluate, shall we again just label it, this "inconsistent" performance by the two umpires?

Cricket the loser

Both BCCI and ICC need to step up and do their job: in the case of BCCI, either correct the pitch or prevent it from being used for an international match again; and in the case of ICC, ensure that the two umpires are disciplined for their lack of consistency. Unless such glaring problems are handled by the administrators, Test cricket will become an endangered species. Who wants to follow a 5-day marathon marred by bungling from the officials?