Cinderellas Come To The Party

Excess of passion, lack of moderation, absence of balance--cricket in Australia, over the last two months, has been marred by too many causes that really should notaffect the game.

And on a thriller of a Tuesday evening, cricket became almost incidental--despite the fact that it was the best game of the CB Series, ensuring a famous trophy for the young Indians.

For a game India and Australia wanted to win desperately, curiously, it became more about personalities. Harbhajan Singh, in the eye of a storm, mainly raised by the local media,had been demonised into a hate figure--the crowds, even the aged and the infirm, tiny tots andgreybeards, seemed to take a perverse pleasure in spitting invective at him.

It was more than--perhaps less than--cricket that had been played before Tuesday.A stimulating contest between the two foes turned into mortal combat almost. Andthe Indians were the ones who were dancing, shouting and singing at the end of an evening lit up by the Gabba lights.

The game's bigger than them all, but the eminence of the personages involved, especially two men who were going to take a last bow at the ground, ensured that men overshadowed the game.

Adam Gilchrist is a quiet hero in an age of brash upstarts; Sachin Tendulkar would be a hero in any age, a masterful batsman for the ages. The two had contrasting last games at the Gabba.

Gilchrist exited after playing three balls in his final innings for Australia--he seemed nervous, and his jab at the ball hesitant. Praveen Kumar, as youngas Gilchrist is old to the game, celebrated the (thus far) biggest wicket of his career.

For India, Tendulkar orchestrated the Indian innings for the second time in twosuccessive games--he had done that with greater force and violence 10 years ago against the same opponents at Sharjah; the master has aged finely, he's managed to evolve into a much more cerebral batsman, given to lesser acts of violence. But he retains the ability to kill the foe, only more softly than ever before.