IT was quite an eventful year. This was one season when we saw some excellent cricket and also witnessed some ugly happenings off the field. All because of one poor Match Referee and, of course, the spineless International Cricket Council, which is guilty of allowing things to reach such a stage.
I am not going to discuss this subject because we have gone through it enough with comments from every possible quarter. I will stick to cricket on the field in this column and what better subject than the area in which I was involved.
Pardon me if I have a soft corner for openers and I have lots of reasons to support my stand. I was an opener and that becomes one reason, but to tell you the truth, opening the innings is an extremely demanding job and needs utmost concentration. I am not for a moment suggesting that it is easy to bat in the middle order. Some of the greatest batsmen in the game have not been openers, but I am sure even they would agree that being an opener is something special.
A sound opening stand gives shape to the course of the innings and also gives the latter half the confidence. Openers are like bullets, they go farthest when they are smoothest. Here I shall pick my best opening pairs of Tests and one-day internationals for the year 2001. It can create a debate because opinion will differ. As far as I am concerned, I am being driven by nothing else but the value of the pair to the team.
I shall begin by picking Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly as the best opening pair in one-day internationals. For years they have proved to be the most lethal combination at the top and have won India plenty of matches with their attacking batting. Most of the opposing teams would share my opinion, simply because they would have suffered at the hands of Sachin and Sourav.
What strikes me the most about Sachin and Sourav is their consistency. It is the hallmark of their class that they have rarely allowed the bowlers - from any nation for that matter - to dictate. From Australia to Zimbabwe, all teams have come to realise that the Indian team's strength in one-day cricket is their opening pair.
To begin with, the left-right combination of Sachin and Sourav makes it difficult for the bowlers. Just as it would when Adam Gilchrist and Mark Waugh open or when Saeed Anwar and Shahid Afridi begin an innings or Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten. It becomes tough for the bowlers to stick to a consistent line and I have seen Sachin and Sourav exploit the situation adeptly against bowlers who are not able to adapt quickly.
The first 15 overs can decide the course of the match and we have known this lethal Indian pair to give the team an explosive start most consistently. We don't need the help of statistics to understand the importance of Sachin and Sourav at the top. They are universally acknowledged as matchwinners in this brand of cricket.
The field restrictions are best capitalised on by Sachin and Sourav. Even when the restrictions are off, they adapt very quickly and that in my opinion is their strongest point. They excel in clearing the field and are superb timers of the ball. Timing of the ball is very important and I have seen some sensational play by these two, absolutely effortless strokeplay.
Sachin and Sourav also have this great gift of pacing their innings. They accelerate when it matters because they have the right technique. This quality of judging the situation is the difference between great and average players.
For India, it means a lot even if one of them clicks. If both score heavily, India rarely loses the match. Their success at the top eases the pressure on the middle-order and the team benefits a lot from the brisk start.
There are some other good opening pairs on the circuit too. Sanath Jayasuriya and Avishka Gunawardene have the potential to become an effective pair but then they have not shown the consistency for it so far. I know bowlers dread the sight of Sanath, but then his partner has not been able to provide the same thrust at the other end. That is the reason I can't rate them as the best because they have not been consistent.
The pair of Anwar and Afridi too has produced some sensational starts for Pakistan. But it is Anwar who emerges the lone warrior often because Afridi lacks the technique and is very inconsistent. He may destroy the bowling on his day but then such days have been rare. No team can afford the luxury of supporting an opener who does well once in seven or eight innings.
If I have to pick a pair which could push Sachin and Sourav for the top slot, it would be Australia's exciting combination of Mark Waugh and Gilchrist. To a certain degree, they match the matchwinning abilities of the Indian pair and complement each other very strongly. If Gilchrist is explosive, Waugh is steady. When Gilchrist gets going, Waugh ensures he gets most of the strike and then takes over in phases. They have a fantastic understanding when running between the wickets, a quality which Sachin and Sourav still need to develop.
Coming to Test cricket, I have no doubt in picking Kirsten and Gibbs as the best opening pair. They have grown in stature this year with some splendid shows against the best of the attacks and stand tall because of their consistency.
Gibbs had this tendency earlier to throw his wicket away, but has now developed into a reliable batsman and his maturity reflects in the solid foundation he lays for South Africa in the company of Kirsten. There is a price tag for Gibbs' wicket and he has an equally determined partner in Kirsten. Their right-left combination also contributes a lot towards making the bowlers struggle to maintain a steady line.
What I admire about Gibbs and Kirsten is how quickly they adapt to the conditions. They are adept in making the most of a bad ball and quickly identify the bowlers to attack that particular session, if not that particular day. As openers, they know very well how to survive because they have the will to survive. And one must remember that Gibbs and Kirsten have the skills to handle pace and spin competently.
The South African opening pair is very good at blunting the new ball. Their ability to dominate, scoring briskly regardless of the situation, demoralises the bowlers. And what I like is that they do their job without being reckless.
The advantage of having batsmen like Gibbs and Kirsten as openers is that they make even an ordinary middle-order line-up look good. A bad opening pair can spoil the stage for the middle-order, as has been the case with the Indians.
I just fail to understand why India cannot find a decent pair of openers in Test cricket. I will not accept that there is no good opener around to partner Shiv Sundar Das. The Indians have only been making compromises when it comes to picking quality openers. Why are the selectors not blooding Vinayak Mane or Ravneet Ricky instead of making adjustments by asking Deep Dasgupta to open? In my opinion, the domestic openers are like swans who turn into geese when playing international cricket.
The problem with India is that it cannot fall back on the domestic system to get quality openers. We all know how someone who does well in domestic cricket cannot guarantee even half of that quality in Test cricket. Why else would the team management keep Connor Williams out despite the fact that he happens to be a specialist opener with loads of runs in Ranji Trophy. It is a shame that the Indians do not even merit a discussion here. The fault lies with the administrators. They must realise that money is like manure and is no good if it is not spread. The Board should invest in youth tours and groom openers for the future instead of making compromises like Dasgupta, Dravid, Laxman...
The Australian pair of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer would come next to Gibbs and Kirsten, but then here too the latter happens to be a makeshift opener filling in for Michael Slater, who has fallen on bad times. It is sad that the tide has turned against Slater who never curbed his natural instincts to attack. I always thought that he was a quality opener.
This then is my selection for 2001 - Sachin and Sourav in one-day cricket and Gibbs and Kirsten in Tests. I would conclude by wishing all the readers a Happy New Year and hope you get to watch more and more quality cricket in 2002.
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