A Let Off For Lara

Brian Lara must count himself lucky. He might have had his reasons to getagitated but you can't show disrespect to the umpires in the middle.

In fact, I was surprised that the drama involving Mahendra Singh Dhoni's'catch' was allowed to linger for a good 15 minutes although somebody like SimonTaufel was on the field. Usually this man is spot on with his decisions.

Once the TV umpire is unable to make a decision because the pictures areinconclusive, it should be the job of the field umpires to make a call. I wassurprised that the matter lingered for that long.

In the days of match referees, usually such behaviour does not go unpunished.In the good old days, a lot of us could get away with a lot of things but thesedays the match supervisors are intolerant to insolent behaviour.

As for the match, the West Indies did not redeem their reputation althoughthey did that of the Antigua Recreation Ground in a way. The flattest pitch inthe Caribbean nearly produced a result and that says something about the presentWest Indies batting.

Nobody should have lost from the tea time position on the fifth day, not evenwhen they had the rough end of the stick from a field umpire.

Taufel is much respected around the world and for good reason. But on thefinal day, he gave Shivnarine Chanderpaul out caught in the slips when even thefieldsman Rahul Dravid had appeared only mildly interested.

Wasim Jaffer was the stand-out performer in the match as he first wiped outthe deficit and then placed his team in a winning position. He seems to have avery good technique and is at ease while executing strokes both off the frontand backfoot.

Much of whatever success India had in this decade - as it is with anysuccessful team in any era - was because its openers were delivering the goods.Jaffer could revive the good times in the company of Virender Sehwag.

Such a combination will make life still more difficult for the threadbareWest Indian bowling attack in the coming matches.

Most of the pitches on this tour will be slow as it always has been in theCaribbean. It is a misconception that pitches in the region have gone slow onlyrecently. It has always taken outstanding fast or spin bowling to throw up awinner. I am not one of those who would advocate redoing the pitches only tosuit mediocre bowling.

The ground (ARG) closed its innings with one of the greatest Tests everplayed. Along with Lara's two world records; the great finish against Australiain 2003 when the West Indies won chasing 418 runs; Viv Richards' hundred offjust 56 balls and now this match, the ARG can rightly claim to be a venue ofextreme historical importance in the Caribbean.

No wonder, Lara wants to keep a tuft of grass as memory for the good timesspent at the ARG. A matter of great cricketing irony though that his last knockat this venue was a duck.

The problems of Irfan Pathan is a malaise which seems to be affecting theIndian pacemen of late. I guess they are not strong enough to keep going in thetough international arena. They need to sort out if it is fitness, training ordiet issues which is causing them to lose their pace dramatically.

It is not a catastrophe if you miss a match or a series. It's not the end ofa career. But it would be a shame if Pathan's career was to be limited only tothe one-day arena. Every cricketer worth his salt wants to be known as anhonourable performer in the Test arena. I'm sure Pathan feels the same way.

In his absence, the likes of Munaf Patel, Sreesanth and VRV Singh bowledmanfully and tended to improve as the match went by. It's a good sign but wehave seen such moments in Indian cricket before too.

It Is important that undue expectations are not placed on young talents andtheir strengths and limitations are understood. It would save both the youngperformers and fans from being disappointed.

PTI