Testing time

Sujata Prakash

In less than a month the ICC World Championship will be officially on it's way when Pakistan and England meet for the first Test at Lord's. Long overdue, the World Championship will ensure a heightened interest in the five-day game as every Test will have a bearing on one's own team in the ratings chart, plus a greater determination to win on the players' part.

Perhaps fittingly, the two teams who will face each other on the 17th of May exemplify in their own way the many moods that cricket is famous for. The word mercurial was coined for Pakistan. Brilliant, self destructive, frequently imaginitive and never predictable they have brought to the game a colour uniquely their own. When they win it's with an ease that belies any hard work, and when they lose it's with the compulsion of desperate fireflies hurling themselves against the light.

In contrast there is England, who until four series back, was as predictable as the blue in the sky. Even now, astride it's ascendancy plane, it has little of the erratic dazzle of it's opponents. But the English team have shown that a little talent can go a long way when combined with the right attitude and a good captain. Now we have to see if Nasser Hussain -- country cousin to many Pakistanis and perhaps the only common denominator between the two teams -- can counter Pakistan with the same determination he did a few months back.

For India the championship league could not have started at a better time. Until the siege at Kolkota it had seemed as if the inexorable slide down the ratings table would continue till it landed with a bump at the bottom. Now it can wipe the slate clean and start on a new foot. Having beaten the world’s best Test team it will next face Zimbabwe, the worst Test team, and flag off it's own campaign for the trophy.

Of course the problem, as always, which will face the Indians is that when it comes to playing outside the country there is no best and worst -- only foreign pitches and foreign crowds. Our captain has shown that he has the tough hide needed to bounce off the verbal arrows, but his real test comes in June, and he will have to dig deeper than an oil rig to find the flair and strength needed to lead his side to triumphs like Hussain.

As a passing thought, those who have read up on the points system of the ICC World Championship will know that 2 points are awarded for a win and 1 for a draw. Surely it would have been better to have made that 3 for a win and 1 for a draw? The soccer league follows the 3 and 1 points system and if it works for them it should work as well for cricket.

At the present moment two draws make a win. Rather than take the risk of preparing result oriented pitches some teams might opt for placid ones and go for a draw, taking their 3 points from a three-Test series. Or, if the home team wins the first Test it will try to at least draw the others. Is that the spirit of the championship? Can you see strong teams visiting India and finding dead pitches conducive only for batting?

Even if 3 points were awarded for a win the above could still happen, no doubt, but at least the margin of winning as per drawing is big enough to enduce teams to try for more wins, and play harder to avoid losing.