A Correct Decision

There is a lot of debate on whether Rahul Dravid did the right thing in notenforcing the follow-on in the third Test against England but I feel it was thecorrect decision under the circumstances.

Winning a series in England is always a difficult proposition and Dravid musthave kept India's past record in mind while taking the decision. It is not oftenthat India win a series in England and to have played it safe was quiteunderstandable.

A 2-0 margin would have been definitely better and I think the Indian teamcould have won the Test at the Oval with one extra bowler -- spinner RameshPowar. If with seven batsmen they could make 664, I feel with one less theycould have still made 600!

Powar would have utilised the turn on the pitch. Sachin Tendulkar was turningthe ball a mile with his off breaks, and Kevin Pietersen too was able to spinthe ball. India certainly missed a second spinner.

But to win against England in England is a difficult proposition and that isthe reason I rate this Test series victory by the Indian team quite high on mycard.

The difficulty of winning in England is because their players are capable ofexploiting the conditions better than the visitors.

The victory is doubly sweet because Test cricket is the genuine form of thesport and it is a game of thinkers. You have to think before every ball and fromsession to session with constantly changing conditions -- weatherwise andpitchwise.

Obviously, there will be a comparison between this 1-0 series victory andours in 1971 by the same margin. Ours was obtained basically through spinbowling while this has come about due to swing and seam bowling though Anil (Kumble)also performed admirably.

Compared to this team, which I feel needs to pep up in the fieldingdepartment, ours was a better fielding outfit. We hardly dropped a catch!

Rahul Dravid's team, however, is much stronger in batting with the Fab Four -the captain, Sachin (Tendulkar), Sourav (Ganguly) and (VVS) Laxman - forming thefulcrum who guided youngsters (Dinesh) Kaarthick and the rest.

In one area this team was blessed - in the opening partnerships betweenKaarthick and Wasim Jaffer - as compared to ours in 1971.

Harking back to our triumph in 1971 I must say that when we set out to theWest Indies we were considered the weakest team and even when we won people saidit was a flash in the pan, and the real test awaited us in England.

The then Test series win over England was also remarkable in that almostevery team member contributed to it, unlike in the West Indies when Sunil (Gavaskar)and Dilip (Sardesai) played lead roles.

The present victory, in the middle part of the English summer as compared toours in the most dry part, too can be attributed to the team playing as one unitwith almost every member contributing to it. They showed tremendous team spiritand single-mindedness.

The weather gods were kind to us in the build-up to the '71 series. All ourpractice matches against the various counties were unaffected by weather. Ithelped us get acclimatised.

We also played very positively, even in the first Test at Lord's when westrove hard for victory even when the chips were down.

Chandra (Shekhar) bowled exceptionally well when we won at the Oval in thefinal Test. And there was the close-in brilliance on the field of Eknath Solkar.

I remember an anecdote about Ekki. England wicket keeper Alan Knott used tomark his guard by lifting the bail and using it like Shivnarine Chanderpaul doesnow. Ekki had noticed it and when Knott came to bat in the second innings, hefound the bails missing.

Ekki, after seeing Knott's discomfiture as most cricketers are superstitious,took them out of his pocket and placed the bails on the stumps and Knotty markedhis guard.

But he was out second ball, caught brilliantly by Solkar off Venkat (araghvan).Knotty was certainly disturbed by Ekki's prank. And this was a very crucialwicket.

John Price came out to bat and after seeing him play Bedi comfortably Idecided to bring back Chandra into the attack and he trapped Price leg before.These are just two instances where everything clicked.

Talking about the present, this team needs to improve its fielding andcatching. But I am happy to see it being openly aggressive and not averse togiving it back to the rivals.

We used to do it discreetly but present day players adopt the in-your-facestyle opposition even if its all captured by the TV cameras. You can't take itlying down, can you?

The victory was very important especially for the five seniors who areunlikely to be around when India visits England next. With the current hecticschedule one cannot visualise them being around five years later.

They should be preserved and not used in Twenty20 events and against minoropposition like Zimbabwe which are ideal to field youngsters with an eye on thefuture. The seniors need to be used against stronger teams like Australia,Pakistan, South Africa and England.

PTI