A Mixed Bag!

Some exhilirating wins, and some inexplicable losses --this about sums up the Indian cricket team's topsy-turvy journey through theyear 2002, marked also by players' contract issue with the Indian cricketers atthe centre of the continuing row.

While the improbable victories in the NatWest Trophyand ICC Champions' Trophy gave the Indian fans much to cheer about, the meeksurrender to New Zealand on wickets tailor-made for seamers ended the year on adespairing note.

For the third year in a row, Indian cricket was miredin controversy. After the match-fixing scandal in 2000 and the Mike Dennessaffair last year, came the contracts issue which once again pitted the Indiancricket establishment against the International Cricket Council.

With the World Cup just round the corner, the finalshot in the latest stand-off between ICC and BCCI, that is centred aroundcertain restrictive commercial clauses in players' contracts for participatingin ICC events, is yet to be fired.

Outside the boardroom manouevrings, the Indian team hada reasonably satisfying year even though a Test series win outside thesub-continent remained elusive for the 17th consecutive season.

The victories in the NatWest series in England and themini World Cup in Sri Lanka marked one of the best years for India in one-daycricket in recent times. A narrow 2-3 loss to West Indies at home was the onlytournament defeat India suffered in an extremely busy year, a remarkableachievement by any means for a team that is known for its inconsistency.

There were significant performances in the Test arenatoo, most notably the victories in England and West Indies, but they wereovershadowed by the recent 0-2 loss to New Zealand on extra-ordinarily fast andbouncy pitches that many considered were not suitable for Test cricket.

The year began with England coming back for a six-matchone-day series after a Christmas break. The Indians ran to a 3-1 lead beforeNasser Hussain-led side came back to win the next two matches and square theseries.

The series almost cemented the place of Virender Sehwagin the opening slot after he played a couple of scintillating knocks at the topof the order as the Indians made a bold gamble by breaking the hugely successfulpartnership of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly and demoted the masterbatsman to provide more stability to the batting.

The third series within 18 months against Zimbabwe didnot tax the Indians much though the hosts did have to contend with some anxiousmoments in the one-day series.

After comfortably taking the two-match Test series 2-0,the Indians were stunned by a virtually unknown Douglas Marllier who played someunbelievable shots to anchor Zimbabwe to an improbable victory in the first one-dayerat Faridabad.

After trailing 1-2 in the series, the Indians won thelast two matches at Hyderabad and Guwahati to emerge a 3-2 winner. The finalwould be remembered for a memorable match- winning innings by Dinesh Mongia, his159 being the fourth highest one-day score by an Indian.

After a brief rest, the team flew to the West Indieswith a very good chance of ending the drought of an overseas Test seriesvictory. A 37-run win in the second Test at Port of Spain brightened thosechances but the hosts bounced back to win the next Test at Bridgetown and thefifth and final one at Kingston to win the series 2-1 and put paid to India'shopes.

India though had the consolation of winning the five-match one-day series 2-1 after the first two matches were washed out due torain.

From West Indies, the team moved to England for afour-match Test series and a triangular one-day tournament also involving SriLanka, which in many ways marked the transformation of the Indian side.

After comfortably winning all but one of their leaguematches, India allowed England to pile up 325 in the final and then collapsed to146 for five after a good start. The jinx of finals looked set to continue.

But Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh played the inningsof their life to make possible a miraculous victory that was not just India'sfirst win in ten tournament finals but also the second highest successful runchase ever.

That unbeaten innings of 87 under trying circumstancesturned Kaif, who until now was in and out of the team - never able to show histrue worth - into a big star overnight. He was to become India's new crisis man,a role he played to perfection in a couple of other matches in the ICC ChampionsTrophy in Sri Lanka.

Kaif was rewarded with a berth in the Test side thoughhe did not get to play any match. But his fighting qualities had rubbed on toother players too.

After a woeful batting display had cost India the firstTest at Lord's by 170 runs, the team improved its performance several notches inthe next three matches.

Faced with a back to the wall situation in the secondTest too, the Indian batsmen, led by 'The Wall' Rahul Dravid, fought backadmirably and not only forced a draw in that match but also led India to aseries-levelling innings victory in the third Test at Leeds. The fourth match atthe Oval ended in a draw.

The series also started the brilliant run of Dravid whowent on to score centuries in four consecutive innings - a feat achieved by onlythree other cricketers including Sir Everton Weekes who holds the world recordfor scoring hundreds in five successive innings.

Dravid scored 115 in the second innings of the secondTest and followed it up with 148 at Leeds and 217 at the Oval to finish theseries with 602 runs. He was then unbeaten on 100 in the first Test against WestIndies at home in October.

When in England, Dravid also became the first batsmanto complete 1,000 runs this year and after the second Test against New Zealandhe had aggregated 1357 runs with five centuries at an average of 59.

Riding high on their good performance in England, theIndians entered the ICC Champions Trophy as one of the favourites though theywere a bit distracted by the storm brewing around the contracts issue.

The Indians did not disappoint their fans and stormedinto the final with victories against Zimbabwe, England and South Africa. Butrain gods spoiled their party in the final against Sri Lanka and both thecountries had to be declared joint winners.

The victories in the NatWest Trophy and ChampionsTrophy showed India's preparation for the World Cup was moving on the righttrack. The team had achieved the right balance, thanks to Dravid's reasonablygood performance as a wicketkeeper.

But most important, the team no longer seemed totallydependant on individual performances to win matches. Everyone was contributingand it was a very healthy sign. Also the fact that India looked far morecomfortable chasing totals than they were a year ago.

The Indians carried their good show into the homeseries against West Indies too and comfortably won the first two Tests at Mumbaiand Chennai before the Caribbeans got their act together.

The West Indies fought back admirably in the third Testin Kolkata to prevent a whitewash and then achieved something which no othercountry had this year. They inflicted a 4-3 defeat on the home team in theone-day series, India's first limited-overs tournament loss of the year.

Still, the team was on a high as it set out for NewZealand for a two-Test and seven-match one-day series. But it was in for a rudeshock as the New Zealand pacemen ambushed the Indian batsmen on wicketstailor-made for fast bowlers and won both the Tests inside three days.

The defeats reopened the debate over India's ability tobat on fast and bouncy tracks as the world's most-formidable line-up couldmuster just 121, 161, 99 and 154 in the four innings in the series.

The Indians cried foul over the condition of thepitches but New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming was adamant and said if theIndian batsmen were the best in the world they should be able to score on allkinds of surfaces.

The Indians were not able to take the challenge in thefirst one-dayer too, scoring their lowest-ever total against the Kiwis to suffera three-wicket defeat.

With the remaining six one-dayers being their onlymatches before the World Cup starting on February 8, the Indians were runningagainst time to get their act together and regain their confidence that wasseverely dented in the first half of the New Zealand tour.

But their below-par performance was not the onlyconcern of the Indians. The contracts issue was yet to be resolved and going byprevious experience, it was expected to keep the players' minds engaged rightupto the start of the tournament.

The issue involves a few contentious clauses in thePlayers' Terms Form of the Participating Nations Agreement which every cricketertaking part in an ICC event is required to sign and abide by.

According to one of the clauses, the cricketers are notallowed to endorse their personal sponsors if those companies have a clash ofinterest with the official sponsors. Such restriction would be valid for aperiod of 30 days before the event, during the event and 30 days after it.Another clause allows the official sponsors to use the images of all playersparticipating in the event for a period of six months.

Such clauses hurt the Indians the most since they arethe ones with maximum sponsorship deals including with companies that have aconflict of interest with event sponsors. Though cricketers of other countriesalso opposed such restrictive clauses, they agreed to sign the contract aftertheir Boards offered them a compromise formula.

But the Indians were placed in a unique position andwere not ready to lose their lucrative sponsorship deals. After hecticnegotiations with ICC, the Indians had managed to bargain substantialconcessions for the Champions Trophy but such a compromise is still to be workedout for the World Cup.

The ICC has offered another set of major concessionsincluding reducing the restriction period after the event to five days and thevalidity of imaging clause to two months, but it seems the bitter wrangle wouldonce again go down to the wire.

PTI