'Inexperience, Lack Of Application Did Us In'

As the eighth World Cup draws near, I am reminded of the first one-dayinternational cricket match that India played in the summer of 1974. It was adismal summer for us in England. After we lost the three-Test series squarelyunder Ajit Wadekar, we played two one-day games against England for thePrudential Trophy at Leeds.

In the first match on July 14, 1974, batting first, we scored a praiseworthy265 with Wadekar (67), Brijesh Patel (82) and Farokh Engineer (32) being theprincipal scorers after Sunil Gavaskar (28) and Sudhir Naik (18) gave India agood start. But we did not last the full quota of 55 overs.

The innings came to an end in the 53rd over as sheer inexperience saw uslosing five wickets in 13 deliveries. Our inexperience was much more visiblewhen England started their reply against a defensive field setting. Englandchased the target without much ado making the required runs in 51 overs.

In the second match, India's decision to pack the side with batsmen proveddisastrous as our innings folded up for a mere 171 runs. From 40 for one, Indiacollapsed to 94 for six, before Gundappa Viswanath (32) and Ashok Mankad (44)got together to improve things a bit. England, who were better equipped as anone-day team, coasted to victory in the 49th over.

Inside 12 months, we were back in England for the inaugural World Cup in1975. We were considered novices at that time. Farokh Engineer, Bishen Bedi andmyself had the experience of having played in the English counties and one-daygames. But experience at the one-day level for other Indian team members wasvery limited.

Thus, the team was basically picked on performances in the Deodhar Trophyone-day tournament introduced in 1974. The Indian players at that point of timewere short in experience, which was mainly due to lack of international exposurein the shorter version of the game.

The format was also against us as we had only three matches before thesemi-finals. We were pitted against

England, New Zealand and East Africa. We had the talent but there was notmuch of preparation. Except myself and Bishen, who is a master in both types ofcricket, others did not bowl to their potential.

The reality was harsh. In the opening match at Lord's, England took the firststrike and raced to 334 for 4 in 60 overs. Dennis Amiss (137), Keith Fletcher(68) and Chris Old (51 off only 28 deliveries) dominated the proceedings. Allthe medium pacers came in for severe punishment and they were carted all over.

However, Bishen, who bowled well, and myself (12 overs for 41 runs) revealedthat quality spinners can always hold their own in any type of the game.

Faced with such a daunting task, our reply was pathetic. Just 132 runs camefrom 60 overs. This was the match which ruffled the feathers of one of India'sgreatest opening batsmen. The anti-climax was the batting performance of SunilGavaskar who batted through the 60 overs to make 36 runs.

I dare say that inspite of reminders he did injustice to the viewing public.The wicket was pretty good and I do not know what was going on in his mind. Henever heeded to the reminders sent to him. Endless debate can go on as to whatthe others did but the fact remains that India was comprehensively outplayed inevery department of the game by England.

In the following game we registered our first victory in limited-overscricket. Actually it was a mis-match. East Africa had no clue whatsoever to theguiles of Bishen, who gave away just six runs from 12 overs with one wicket.This remains one of the most economical bowling figures in limited-overs game.

In this match, Farokh opened with Gavaskar and India raced to a 10-wicketvictory by scoring 123 runs in 30 overs. Gavaskar scored 64 runs as againstFarokh's 54 and I must say that his batting practice against England was notwasted.

However, the euphoria of our emphatic win over East Africa evaporated as NewZealand managed to defeat us in the next match, which sealed our chances ofprogressing further.

We did post a respectable total of 230 in 60 overs with Anshuman Gaekward(57) and Abid Ali (70) being the main contributors. But the experienced GlennTurner, who slammed a superb 171 against East Africa came up with yet anotherbatting feat. He made an unbeaten 114 to guide his team to a four-wicket victorywith only seven balls to spare.

Bishen proved his abilities once again conceding only 28 runs in 12 overs ascompared to my figures of 39 runs in 12 overs. The other bowlers failed to checkthe flow of runs yet again.

As captain of the team, I had to take the brunt. Nevertheless, I had playedenough cricket at the higher level and knew what winning and losing was. We gotinto the wrong foot in the first match. We needed to beat New Zealand but ourprogress was halted by Glenn Turner who was in tremendous form. New Zealandcould win only in the last but one over as they had the experience to carry themthrough, which our team

lacked.

As I said earlier, I am not blaming my players because we lost. I am blamingthem because they lacked the application and temperament that goes with one-daygames. And, there was no proper planning to pace up the innings for the first 15overs, the next and so on.

From the Board's point of view, I would say that they had done well byintroducing the Deodhar Trophy for preparing the team for the World Cup. Butplaying in sub-continent wickets in early June and the tracks in England areentirely different propositions.

We had flat or spin-aided wickets in India. Apart from the difference in dayand night temperatures in England, the moisture in the atmosphere helped swingbowlers with lateral movement of the ball. Moreover, the water content on thepitch and the moisture ratio used to be more in northern England as compared tothe south of England.

Also, we did not acquit ourselves as well as we were expected to. We had all-roundersand had the experience in the spin bowling department. I felt that if we had thechance to play some more matches -- as was the case in the later World Cups --we could have qualifed for the semi-finals.

Again, I have to harp on the point that the West Indies won the title mainlybecause most of their players were permanent in English county cricket --something which our players lacked.

I do not think that the balance in the team was lacking. We had the balance.Our team had three medium-pacers and two spinners. Amongst our batsmen Sunny hadfour years and Vishy six years of Test cricket. But one has to accept the factthat England that time were considered the better and superior side.

Mind you, if I had won the toss and batted first it might have been adifferent situation altogether. Such things always happen in one-day cricket.

One has to credit us that those days we never had a coach or a physio orsystematic training. We did all that

individually. I had no problem as far as fitness was concerned but thefeedback information as to what was happening was lacking. Even when you sitback to review a match or a tournament, we never had any back-up material.

Considering all these factors, warm-up matches would have given the otherplayers some exposure and helped them acclimatise to the conditions. Warm-upmatches would have gone a long way in our preparation for success.

PTI