The Reverse Swing

One winter afternoon, as I sat in the company of old friend Kapse, surrounded by groundnut shells and no trace of the nuts - because they had been duly eaten, of course  - I found myself thinking of Jasu Patel from over half a century ago,  leading India’s fight in the Kanpur test.

February 1964, Green Park Stadium - When Bapu Nadkarni bowled maiden after maiden over, the advance of time could barely be noticed save for the advancing litter of peeled groundnut shells and packets of salt at the feet on the lookers on. Tens of thousands of spectators shelling groundnuts in the open public stands by the banks of Ganga - we may take some credit for nurturing the fertile Gangetic plain in our enthusiasm for cricket.

Those were the days when cricket in Kanpur, with the exception of a huge loss to West Indies in 1958 and a huge win over Australia in 1959, was known for its dreary draws. Whether a draw or win or loss, test cricket made great memories for many a school boy of the late 1950s, not to mention this one. Besides our own Indian heroes, Alexander’s West Indies, Richie Benaud’s and Bill Lawry’s Australia, Ted Dexter’s and MJK Smith’s England had so many heroes to mesmerise us. Sir Garfield Sobers’ masterly batting, Wesley Hall’s fearsome bowling, Allen Davidson’s calculated run-up, John Price’s stylish bowling action, Ted Dexter and Polly Umrigar’s grace, Vijay Manjrekar’s technique, Subhash Gupte’s and Jasu Patel’s web and Bapu Nadkarni’s miserly bowling accuracy have been etched in memory for ever. After bowling maiden overs, Bapu Nadkarni propped it up with his batting at 52 n.o. in the 1^st innings to follow on with a match saving 122 n.o. in the 2^nd innings!

Cricket used to be simple. The cherry swung one way, either in or out. Off spinners neither tried leg breaks (or carom ball) for variation nor bowled the doosra.  Only the leg spinners practiced genuine deception in the form of a googly. Perhaps this prompted to me to take on bowling leg breaks, not quite successfully, although I had my days as a bowler too.

Going back about fifty years from today, we get an interesting trail of changes in the game of Cricket. As it happens in every age, the current generation will like to see changes as improvements while some old timers will refuse to budge from established ways of the past. Not in the mood to risk being called an old timer by the young brigade and wary of being seen as siding with the youngsters in my camp of old timers, let me acknowledge that there being nothing absolutely black or white in this world, I am calling the change neither good nor bad.

Until mid ‘80s

Limited overs cricket had started in various countries in the ‘60s and ‘70s, albeit in a different form compared to the one we know today. We also played 30 overs a side league, but, with a difference – the two best bowlers in the side bowled 15 overs each. My chacha, Sharad Athawale, the state off spinner, did so for his prestigious club, “The Tilak Society”.

The first World Cup in ’75 really set the stage for limited overs cricket. While the World Cup was played in whites, coloured pyjamas were introduced by Kerry packer’s rebel World Series Cricket for channel 9 Australia, to be dubbed as Pyjama Cricket.

Technically a vital change of approach from test cricket, one day cricket provided an obvious advantage for the not-so-pure uppish driving batsmen and sans-flight-variations bowlers. This even prompted the purist Bishan Singh Bedi to call it a game of the mediocre. But much as there was opposition and apprehension, one day cricket began influencing the test version of the game. Sunil Gavaskar took time to accept it, to the extent that he lost his place as test captain to Kapil Dev, a naturally gifted one day player besides being a fine Test bowler.  Kapil Dev led India team to the first World Cup victory in ’83. Gavaskar, a tough competitor, later adjusted well to regain Test and One Day captaincy and brought back more laurels for India.

Mid ‘80s to the Turn of Century

Pakistan, masters of brazen ball tampering, invented the Reverse Swing. The invention of ‘Doosra’ also goes to the credit of their talented bunch.

By the mid ‘80s, Test cricket too had begun to see the unintended uppish drives going past fielders by luck more than by masterful batting technique. In time, this even came to be accepted. By the ‘90s, uncontrolled uppish drives came to be appreciated as great shots – the result mattered more than how it was achieved.

The fundamental principle stayed – one became an established player first by proving oneself in the longer format.

However, natural short game abilities (despite lack of technique and temperament for the longer version) influenced selectors while picking the Test side. In later years, Yuvraj Singh finding favour over VVS Laxman remains the finest example of this selection minsdet.

By now, the team of 11, instead of combining to synergise, unknowingly wanted everyone to be a sprinter. The best slip fielder could lose his place because replacements would run faster.

Bowlers began to trade off flight variations for simple tight bowling.

Lesser Test Cricket for accommodating more ODIs shifted glamour and focus off tests to adversely affect career opportunities for Pure Test Cricketers.

The 21^st Century

Sports writers and cricketers (past and present) all over the world call test cricket 'The Thing'. Surprisingly, that expression remains in fashion!

However, at the end of the Centurion Test in South Africa, I am brought to realise that the Reverse Swing in the game of cricket is now complete and is here to stay unless we take a few drastic measures (which I will save for the end of this piece).

Some paradoxes evident to old timers are:-

-    The art of saving a match has been totally lost by all teams in the world – Test matches regularly end within four days.

-     Test matches are like battles. Why can’t the Indian team touring South Africa decide that if they can't win, they will not lose either?

-       Earlier, a player had to first learn to hold the bat straight to get behind the ball, prove himself through Ranji Trophy into internationals if he was good. Now, players are getting into the Test side on the basis of their IPL (slogging) performances.

-      An ageing captain retired first from the limited version to play Test cricket for a while longer. Now, they leave the shortest (and most paying, no surprise!) version the last.

What Next?

If the whole world has lost the art of playing Test, that’s no consolation for us. Our Ashwins are capable of scoring many more runs in Tests. They have to be reminded about the art of playing within their limitations instead of trying to match Kohli for strokes. Ravi Shastri did that in his days to become a more successful opening batsman than many more talented competitors.

In home series’ wins, there have been many lessons – only that we don’t seem to have learnt any. Our approach in Tests is certainly getting affected by the limited overs glamour.

Do we want to do something? My thoughts:-

-       Isolate Tests from ODI/T-20 administration.

-      Separate captain for Tests and other formats - even if Kohli is the best, there certainly is another next best waiting to prove even better.

-    If Kohli opts to captain the limited overs version, pick someone else as the Test Captain (Pujara, say).

-       If separate captains don’t work well, consider appointing different coaches also. The idea may look absurd. But, absurd looking ideas can sometimes turn into winners.

-       Reward the team for saving a test in the face of a certain defeat.

Cricket shall survive – the purists may or may not. Reverse swings are a sign of changing times and swings will keep reversing, in that sense. It will be interesting to approach an ever-changing game with as much hindsight as foresight, with an eye on how and also how not we would like this beloved game to transform.

Cheers!!