Charlie Austin previews the forthcoming Indian Oil Cup
Preview by Charlie Austin27-Jul-2005
Mahela Jayawardene practises at Dambulla ahead of the Indian Oil Cup © Getty Images
At first glance, the Indian Oil Cup may appear an irrelevance in comparisonto the last India-Pakistan face-off or the (what we thought might be)classic 2005 Ashes contest underway in England. For starters, there will beno Sachin Tendulkar and no Brian Lara. Worse, because of the West Indiesplayer dispute, barring a sudden and miraculous flowering of batting talent,there will be little competition. The first six ‘group’ matches will lead toone sadly inevitable knockout and then Sri Lanka and India will play their82nd match against each other in the final. The winner of the toss will batfirst and then, according to the statistics, have a 75% chance of carryingaway a trophy that will gather dust in a cricket board storeroom. Theorganisers have even denied us the innovation of Super Subs and Power Plays because the tournament starts 48 hours before the rules become mandatory: but perhaps that’s wise considering their now-obvious flaws.Dig a little deeper and you can, thankfully, shelve some yourcynicism. India’s arrival in Dambulla, a central town famous for itsBuddhist Cave temples and bustling vegetable markets, has been accompanied by ahuge India media contingent. Journalists, commentators, photographers and TVinterviewers have helped fill up the hotels and will leave the press boxoverflowing. They are travelling becausethis Indian Oil Cup, for its likely predictability, marks the start of a20-month road to the 2007 World Cup. Moreover, for both India and Sri Lanka,it heralds the beginning of new eras under their new high-profile Australiancoaches, Greg Chappell and Tom Moody.For several months this year we all witnessed one of the most publicised andfarcical processes in the history of recruiting cricket coaches. WhileIndia and Sri Lanka’s players put their feet up for a well-deserved rest,the administrators swung into the limelight with considerable pomposityto find replacements for John Wright and John Dyson. Both boards shortlisted the same men; happily, after a host of headline-grabbinginterviews in June, both got the man they wanted most. After all the pressconferences and interviews and news-bites the action starts for real andpeople in both countries are anxious to know whether their new man has gotwhat it takes to turn their team into world champions.The Indian Oil Cup could provide fascinating insights into each team’s newdirection: will Sri Lanka shuffle around the batting order? Will Moodydiscover the seam bowling allrounder that Sri Lanka coaches have been praying forover the last five years? Will India’s new star, MS Dhoni, open the batting inTendulkar’s absence, forming an explosive alliance with Virender Sehwag – orwill VVS Laxman be used as a steadying influence up top? Will Chappell’stenure herald an era of greater flexibility with the batting? Will Indiastop losing finals? Will Chappell insist his players drink Soya milk forbreakfast? Answers to these questions, and a few more besides, are eagerly awaited.For India, there are other matters of significance, the most important ofwhich is the future of their captain, Sourav Ganguly. His team’s slow over-rates during the Pakistan series could have the severest consequences,speeding up his exit from the leadership and, conceivably for all those notliving in Kolkata, even the one-day team. The Indian cricket board failed in their renewed appeal to quash his ICC ban. Ganguly will now miss at least India’s first two matchesand that means handing over the reins to Rahul Dravid, the heir apparent, and, more dangerously, giving one of India’s young guns his place in the batting order.Ganguly has clearly played an instrumental part in India’s rising fortunesthis decade. His sharp mind, passion and steely determination have rubbedoff on his players. With John Wright organising, encouraging and polishingin the background, Ganguly has lifted the team upwards and made them aserious force in international cricket. No longer can they be ridiculed forbeing soft-bellied and weak-kneed abroad. They are stronger, tougher andeven more crazily idolised by their fans back home. But every journey has anending and Ganguly, now 33, appears to have reached a crucial juncture inhis career. His batting form has dipped and, unless he can bounce back soon,then his place in the side may become unjustifiable.Chappell has backed the captain to return, but he’s also been looking ahead:”If we can put the building blocks in place here [Sri Lanka] to build somesuccess over the next couple of years then we will put ourselves in a betterposition come 2007,” he told reporters on Thursday. And in the absence ofGanguly and Tendulkar his mantra is “flexibility”. “The more flexibility youhave the more options you have available to you under all circumstances. Weare in a situation now where we have two key players out and if you don’thave flexibility you run into problems. If we can build a squad that is15-20 strong then we will have a lot less problems when we have key playersout of form or out of action.”
MS Dhoni: thrill-seekers will be keen for him to be included © Getty Images
India are being so flexible that everyone is still guessing about theirbatting line-up. Thrill-seekers are desperate to see Dhoni given the nod asSehwag’s opening partner. Old wags in the press corps, though, predictLaxman to be called up as an interim opener. The presence of Yuvraj Singh atNo. 3 in both practice games has also caused a stir, but Chappell merelystands in front of the cameras and says “we are looking at all options” and”nothing has been decided”.Ganguly’s counterpart, Marvan Atapattu, has no such problems. AlthoughAtapattu’s natural accession to the full captaincy after the resignation ofSanath Jayasuriya in 2003 was surprisingly delayed, slowed by shadowy butpowerful detractors within the establishment, he has now cemented hisleadership at least until the 2007 World Cup. If Arjuna Ranatunga’sleadership was dictatorial and Jayasuriya’s consensual, Atapattu’s stylefits somewhere in between, being both strong and egalitarian. Atapattu hasbrushed away the last vestiges of feudalism within the dressing-room andcommunicates his expectations clearly. On the field, unlike Jayasuriya, heremains calm, relaxed and in control.The result is a happy and settled squad anxious to start a long year on asuccessful note. During the last nine months they have playedjust one ODI, a game in New Zealand that was swiftly followed by tragedy onan unprecedented scale. The Asian tsunami forced the cancellation of thattour and then a short ODI tour to India was axed, in part owing to the cricket board crisis in March, when the government launched a takeover of the cricket administration. A Mickey Mouse tournament washeld in Abu Dhabi and a few of the players have been involved intsunami-related charity matches or county cricket, but most have playedprecious little. The break from non-stop touring will leave the players,like the Indians, a little ring-rusty but at least they should be refreshedand ready for the action-packed year ahead.During the Indian Oil Cup Atapattu and Moody will hopefully unveil someclues to their early World Cup thinking but, in truth, few great changes areanticipated. Sri Lanka already have a mightily effective formula for winningmatches on slow subcontinental pitches, a strategy that revolves aroundtheir top order piling up runs and their spinners, the specialists and thepart-timers, slowly strangling the run chase. The team is vastly experiencedand there are not many places up for grabs before the 2007 World Cup. Themain issues to be resolved are the batting order, especially the openers andthe identity of the allrounders.The selectors have made significant changes at the top, axingAvishka Gunawardene and Saman Jayantha, good-but-not-great batsmen that havebeen rotated in-and-out during the past few years. Both have been givenchances, but have positively influenced or won too few matches as Jayasuriya’s opening partner, especially overseas. Yet, in ODIs, the top fourpositions in the order are prime real estate, offering quality batters thebest opportunity of playing themselves in and positively influencing theoutcome of the match. Sri Lanka, though, have for far too long been wastingprecious overs on run-of-the-mill openers.Moody has identified Jayasuriya’s partner as an urgent issue: “We need todevelop some stability at the top of the order,” he told Cricinfo. “In thepast couple of years we have had a lot of players occupying that openingposition and I would like to think that with time we could get somestability there. I don’t want to shake-up the order as it has been asuccessful formula, but the opening position has been a revolving door – Iwould like to close it so we all know what roles we are playing.”
Upul Tharanga: chance to make a name for himself © Getty Images
Upul Tharanga, a 20-year-old, has been given the opportunity to stake hisclaim during the tournament. Marvan Atapattu has made it clear that he likesthe balance created by him at No 3 and also someone with the quality andexperience of Mahela Jayawardene at No 5 in the middle order. This rules outthe option of Sri Lanka reverting to their Test line-up in ODIs. SoTharanga, a left-hander with sweet timing, is set to open throughout thetournament.Moody is also keen, like Dav Whatmore and John Dyson before him, to find theelusive seam-bowling allrounder that will balance the team. “I would like tothink that we can produce a world class seam bowling allrounder; anallrounder that can be relied on with bat and ball. It is good to havespinning allrounders in the sub-continent but they are not the players thatwin or influence matches as much as seam-bowling allrounders outside thesubcontinent.”Sadly, for non-cricketing reasons, West Indies are the firm underdogs. Aridiculous and sad sponsorship dispute – an obvious problem that should havebeen identified well before the signing away of exclusive player imagerights to Digicel by the West Indies Cricket Board – has led to 10 leadingplayers refusing to sign tour contracts, meaning a whole raft of freshershave been polevaulted into the senior team. The result is a West Indies teamthat contains some promising bowlers, but a crippling shortage of battingtalent. Unless Shivnarine Chanderpaul, their captain, stars in each andevery outing their qualification to the final is inconceivable.Hopefully, in a game that is famous for its glorious uncertainties, they candefy the predictions of cynical pundits. Certainly, the Indian Oil Cup needsthem to rise to the occasion. All the intrigue about the new Chappell andMoody regimes will only be able to sustain our interest so long.