Who dares wins

Rajeev Pai

So the Australians have won another Test. For some, it may not be much of a surprise. But for all Indians, including the eleven whose misfortune it was to play the match, it was a huge, huge disappointment.

So what is it that the Australians have that the Indians don't? Man for man, many of the Indians are the equal, if not better, of their Aussie counterparts. And, to top it, they have Sachin Tendulkar, who not even Steve Waugh can touch, never mind a senile old resident of a cricket club, who, some of you may remember, used to be India's chairman of jokers (and no, I am NOT referring here to Shri Jaywant Lele.)

Then, why is it that the Australians won, that too with such ridiculous ease, inside three days, making Sourav Ganguly and his team look like West Indians?

Those who don't know the answer to such a simple question should simply recollect the performance of M/s Rahul Dravid, Nayan Mongia and J Srinath on what proved to be the final day of the match.

Dravid's increasing resemblance to a former India batsman who also used to be hailed, like him, as the master of technical perfection; Mongia's eagerness to return to the pavilion when even the opposition thought he was not out, and Srinath's plain and abject lack of stomach for a fight -- these three instances tell the whole story.

The Australians were the better side, true, but not necessarily in cricketing terms. Where they were better was in the mind. They all believed they could win. They worked unitedly towards that end. They made the most of the chances that came their way. And they achieved their goal of a sixteenth Test victory on the trot.

The Indians, on the other hand, for all the gas that skipper Ganguly expelled before the match, were clearly a side that did not believe in itself -- with the honourable exception of one man. Come to think of it, that tells the tale. Australia put 11 men on the field; India sent one man and 10 'boys'.

What the Indians need is not a coach, whether desi or videsi, teaching them how to dive on the field and giving them catching practice. They need someone who can make them believe in themselves, believe in their own abilities and talents, and back themselves to win. They need someone who can weld them together as a solid unit and ignite a desire among them to grow up from 'boys' to men.

It's amazing how few of even our experienced cricketers understand the importance of mental toughness. One former captain doing television commentary for the match remarked when the Dravid-Slater incident took place that it was surprising how Dravid gets into such scraps so often since he is "such a decent gentleman".

Any school kid would know that a bully always picks on the meek. Besides, being a gentleman is quite different from being a sissy.

'Gentleman' Dravid, of course, later went to the Australian dressing room where Slater, reports say, apologised to him "over a beer". And boors like me used to think the person who committed a wrong should be the one to call on the wronged party!

Actually, if we were to get right to the root of the problem, the Indian team probably needs to have been born in a different country. Its lack of self-confidence is but a mirror of the utter lack of self-confidence of Indians as a whole. Which is why, soon as one wicket is down, that too in the first innings, you can hear all the pundits -- and in India, everyone is a pundit on cricket and politics -- around you grumbling and moaning that the match is lost. In fact, many of them do it even before the match begins. Remember the BCCI's current joker?

They, of course, will tell you that it is not lack of confidence, but simple, practical commonsense that tells them this. Better to field Bombay against the Australians, they will tell you. Conveniently forgetting that just a few months ago, when Sachin Tendulkar asked for Sameer Dighe -- yes, the same man who blasted Bombay out of trouble in the three-day match against Australia -- they were also the first to disparage him for 'regional favouritism'.

What does Sameer Dighe have that Nayan Mongia doesn't? All the experts say Mongia is the better keeper, even the better batsman. But Dighe is still the better player. Because he has something that Mongia doesn't. Dighe has guts. He has a fighting spirit.

This team needs people with fighting spirit, even if they are slightly less skilled. This team needs people like Robin Singh. No amount of skill and perfection can help a coward. But a fighter, even if he doesn't have all the tricks in the book, will fight his way out of trouble.

Steve Waugh is the best example of this. We see him before us, some of us, like the 'prince' of Dungarpur (when will we ever be rid of these royal pains?), even think it's their duty to pay obeisance to him and call him the world's greatest, but none of us bothers to learn anything from his example.

In terms of technique or talent, Waugh will not rank even among the top 25 batsmen in the world today. In fact, his own twin Mark is widely acknowledged by the experts (that word again!) to be the more gifted of the two. Yet, if Steve's made his way up to no 1 or 2 or whatever, while Mark lags behind, it's solely on account of his dogged determination, his never-say-die spirit.

Throw out the Dravids and the Mongias. Bring in the Badanis and Dighes and Robin Singhs... and see the difference. India may still lose. No one can guarantee victory. Not even Steve Waugh. But you can be sure of one thing: they will not give up without a fight, a solid fight. That Aussie TV programme title says it well: who dares wins.

PS: Why doesn't someone give match referee Cammie Smith a good, hard scrub and wash? If we can just get that black paint off him, we are sure to find underneath, if not a white man, an Indian 'prince' in awe of white skin. A pity that such Uncle Toms continue to exist in the 21st century.

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