Sachin fact and the Laxman factor

Published : Oct 06, 2001 00:00 IST

RAJU BHARATAN

HE is viewed as the "actor's actor" by the literati and the glitterati alike in our cinema. Naseeruddin Shah is the artist with the sharpest insights into the finer points of the game, his knowledge of cricket's exponents extending, in span, from Hanif Mohammad down to Sachin Tendulkar. Naseer was the total professional as Girija Rajendran interviewed him for Friday Features in The Hindu. At the end of it all, Naseer permitted himself a rare show of emotion as he enquired: "Do I hear right, are you Raju Bharatan's wife?" Upon the lady pleading guilty to the charge, said Naseer: "Lucky you!" Let that pass - until I find out, from that no less super actress, Ratna Pathak-Shah, how lucky she views herself to be in the matter of having such a crickety votary as Naseer for husband. Viewers first got an idea of how thinkingly Naseer vibed with the game as he briefly appeared on ESPN-STAR during the telecast from Toronto (where he was shooting). Now Naseeruddin Shah reveals his gut feel for cricket as he writes:

"In fact, my greatest treasure was my photo collection, made out of clippings from Sport & Pastime (predecessor of The Sportstar). I used to spend one rupee from my allowance, every month, on the magazine and, by the time I was 10, I had filled up an entire journal!" There you have what qualifies Naseeruddin Shah to anchor Super Selector on TV. As a Pestonjee performer touching the subtleties of our silver-screen imagination, Naseer proceeds to tell us how he switched from being a cricketer to an actor. "I took the easier way out," says this thespian. "As an actor, you can fake it all through your life and still be one of the 'greats'. As a cricketer, that is impossible. In cricket, there are no retakes! You get out and that's it." Perceptively, Naseer adds: "There is one little thing I am a little worried about though - cricket (like tennis and hockey) is becoming too much of a power game."

So long as the power generated is by the MRFluent bat of Sachin, Naseer is not one to worry too much. As a stage stalwart, Naseer is a voracious reader, so that you could not possibly ask him: "Who the Dickens wrote Great Expectations?" Great expectations of Sachin, as a run-prospector in the Veldt, Naseer now has. All the more so as this cineaste would not like to view Indian cricket "knee-deep" in trouble in the enforced absence of that non-power player: V.V.S. Laxman. So what if there was a distinctly chancy look to Laxman as he went into the one-day series against Steve Waugh's Australia - following that India-rubber dream sequence of 20 & 12; 59 & 281; 65 & 66. Laxman was then on a TV camera-roll, so that, after a Pepsi hiccup or two, VVS delivered in the ODIs against Australia, too, with a punchline of 45, 51, 83, 11 & 101. Laxman's record in this form of cricket preceding March-April 2001 (just 86 runs from 13 ODIs) spoke volumes for his areas of failure. Yet who cared to entertain any thought of Laxman ever failing India after that golden run stretching from Eden 281 to Goa 101? Not until we had a second look at Laxman in "wobbly" Zimbabwe - as he fell (when well-TV-set) for 28 & 38 in the Bulawayo Test, then 15 & 20 in the Harare Test - did we divine that VVS had flattered at home only to deceive abroad.

Then came the first doubts about Laxman's sustained athleticism as he missed the first four one-dayers in the West Indies-India-Zimbabwe triangular that followed those two Tests in Zimbabwe. Laxman gingerly returned to the middle only as the West Indies (until then looking a piece of black cake) all but ran away with the Harare decider in raising 290 from 50 overs. How carpingly critical viewers were of Sachin's falling for a Packer duck here - in the wake an enviable scoreline of 70 & 9 vs Zimbabwe, 81 not out and 122 not out vs the West Indies! No thought spared, even in tele-hindsight, for the fact that Sachin had made bold to present the full face of his bat in the immediate aftermath of that toe injury! Cricket, Tele Cricket! Viewers expect Sachin to be the picture of power even after he has passed 80, for India, in three ODI innings running.

Should telewatchers, by the same token, not have been measuring Laxman by the Sachin yardstick? The yardstick of "final" Coca-Cola Cup match failure when, upon VVS's following Sachin to the crease in the Harare clincher, this rangy stylist cast away his wicket? After having had, mind you, a fair look at the Windies bowling during the 22 balls VVS stayed exemplarily put to reach 18? Laxman's "soft dismissal" after that (58 for three) all but sealed, as lost, yet another one-day rubber in the case of India. This touch-and-go artist's soft-parachute descent, at such a nosediving point for India, only served to underscore how much Rahul Dravid (30 off 32 balls as a follow-up) had done to rejuvenate his batting since yielding pride of one-down place to the Hyderabad high-flyer. True, Laxman was back centrestage after a four-match injury lay-off. But did that give the well-read Laxman the freedom of expression to gift away his wicket? A cardinal sin it is only if Sachin fails to "toe' the line in the zero hour!

At least by the time he came round to the one-dayers in Sri Lanka, Laxman had discerned that, in international cricket, a slapdash approach could take him thus far and no further. Laxman now got his aristocratic head down to come up with a Sri Lankan ODI sequence of 60, 17, 1, 87 not out, 10, 0 and 37. If still wayward, Laxman did look set for big things in that "final" 37. Only to lapse in concentration (neither for the first time nor the last) and end up as a "soft" victim all over again. This is the point to remember about Laxman as our heart is bound to hanker, in run-laden South Africa, for his free-stroking presence. "Presence of mind" is what top-level batting boils down to in the end-result, so that, even if Laxman were there now in South Africa, you never could be certain of his performing. It would, therefore, save us viewers no end of heartburn if we languidly accepted the harsh reality that consistency will be the first casualty in Laxman's willowy virtuosity.

Herein you have the definitive difference between Laxman and Sachin - Wisdent or no Wisdent. Such was the Laxman factor that VVS's Steve Waugh-inspired equation with Sachin had already begun to register on viewers, as they had the rare opportunity to watch the two together, in rousing combat, in that "accountable" March 31, 2001 Indore one-dayer. An ODI in which Sachin, all razzledazzle, breathtakingly breasted the 10,000 ticker-tape. To now crashland in South Africa with 10,461 runs from 273 ODIs in 266 innings (ave. 43.40 - 29 hundreds, 53 fifties, highest 186 not out). Laxman, at C.K. Nayudu's Indore, did bravely endeavour to keep stroke-making pace with Sachin for a fair while, the Hyderabad Blue contributing a pedigree 83 to the duo's Kangaroo back-breaking 199-run second-wicket partnership. But even as VVS neared his 100, you could sense that Laxman was "running" out of steam in contention with the thoroughbred Sachin. So that it came as no surprise when pacemaker VVS was run out for 83 to make India 231 for two. This while Sachin paused to get his second wind and "record" his 28th one-day 100, serenely going on to 139 off 125 balls (19 fours struck with the sweetmeat of the bat). Laxman, for his polished part, had looked almost grateful to "run out" of ideas while on 83. Laxman evidently felt that, by that stage, the personal milestone of 100 could as easily be reached with four fours and a strike-rotating single! Laxman just had not bargained, in the Indore basement, for running out of breath, as Sachin compulsively had him converting singles into twos, twos into threes! It is in this third-eye light I would have loved to see Sachin and Laxman make a stand during the one-day series on whose thrilling threshold we are in South Africa. For the ODI scores to put up now are all about running for one's life. Laxman (viewing distance as the better part of valour) opted not to risk his playing-up knee on the whetstone of one-day cricketing experience in ultra-nimble South Africa. In laidback Test cricket, it is purely a matter of individual choice whether you seek to enlarge your Sydney 167 to 200 or your Eden 281 to 300 - via swifter take-offs after placing the ball, Azhar-wristily, into those gaps. Laxman, where it comes to running loose-limbed Azhar-like singles, has miles to go between wickets. While Sachin, even without Laxman there now in South Africa, is Wisden-powered as never before.

But let us move away from Sachin's being there and Laxman's not being there. Let us not lose telesight of the fact that Rahul, in South Africa, has already shown his bloodlines. Recall how it was against "White Lightning" Allan Donald that fresher Rahul came of age as an international-calibre player with 148 and 81 in that January 1997 third and final Test of temperament at Johannesburg? That time Donald had the visual-verbal drop on Rahul. But Rahul, since, has just waved Warne away during that masterful 181 in the March 2001 Eden Test. Here, in fact, is a Godsend of an opportunity for Rahul to stabilise himself, anew, at No. 3 through six ODIs. Rahul now must so excel as to make it ultra-tough for Laxman to find his way back (to one-down) during the three Tests in South Africa. With the one-day dinners over by the time Laxman gets to South Africa, there should be no "free lunches" for VVS in the Tests. Laxman must pay for his Test passage back via the same kind of grind he initially went through against Steve Waugh's Australia. International cricket is a rough ride for one and all, not excluding Sachin. In fact, the first South African hurdle for Sachin to overcome is the "toe-crusher yorker" - bound to be aimed at him to see if he still has both his feet on the ground, starting with the October 5 Friday ODI itself. On how Sachin comes to clenched-fist terms with this ordeal by fire depends his future in a game in which The Elfin One has such an eventful past. Conclusion - Laxman stands Wisden tall only up to the point Sachin makes short work of Barry Richards' quality quicks as he encounters them, afresh, in South Africa.

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