Where Are The Stylists?

Style. The very term has a sweet ring to it. Style is the man, itis said. Everybody loves style even though many of us may not possess it. Style,like beauty, lies in the eyes of the beholder. A stylist can alwaysdistinguish himself from others in any field of human activity.They usually attract like a magnet. 

Cricket is probably the best of all ball games when it comes to expressing stylein all its glory and splendour. It depends on the situation and thecharacters involved in the on-field action. But there is no denying cricketgives the greatest scope for expression through one's style. The game hasalways prided itself on its great stylists. Beginning with K.S. Ranjitsinhji,cricket has witnessed several stylists who added lustre to it withtheir unmistakable styles. 

Unfortunately, the game has been continuously on the decline as far as stylistsare concerned. To find a true stylist today in a game completely engulfed bycrass commercialism and in the vortex of the match-fixing scandal, is akin to findinga needle in a haystack. This maybe the high noon of the shorter version of the game, but it is not difficult to seethat despite all its thrills and frills, one-day cricket is the bane of modern age. It has brought many ills in the game and robbed it of much of itsstyle and stylists.

India, of course, has produced many noticeable stylists. Lala Amarnath, VijayManjrekar, Salim Durrani, Surinder Amarnath and Ashok Malhotra, for instance.And Gundappa Viswanath, of course. Indian batsmen are known not only for theirstyle but also their amazing wrist-work. Across the border we had Zaheer Abbas,Majid Khan and Salim Malik who gave joy to the cognoscenti withtheir stylish presence at the wicket. Sri Lanka, too, has had its share ofeminent stylists like Duleep Mendis (he was invariably called the Viswanath ofSri Lanka), Roy Dias, Ranjan Madugalle and Roshan Mahanama. 

While Australia had Victor Trumper, Neil Harvey, Greg Chappell, Kim Hughes andMark Waugh who batted stylishly, England had maestros like Frank Woolley, PeterMay, Tom Graveney and, of course, David Gower. Martin Crowe was arguably thebest and the last stylist from New Zealand. Zimbabwe has had no one who could becalled a stylist. 

West Indies, like India, has given several stylish batsmen to the world. FrankWorrell, Rohan Kanhai, Basil Butcher, Gary Sobers, Alvin Kallicharan andLawrence Rowe immediately come to mind. The natural flair of theWest Indian players was such that one is tempted to bracket even dynamic batsmenlike Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, Clive Lloyd, Roy Fredericks and VivianRichards in the same category, even though their batting was not all grace andstyle. 

Batting can be very subtle and delicate when an elegant, wristy batsman is athis best. Viswanath was a classic example of how a wristy batsman could producethe same devastating effect as did powerful willow-wielders like Graeme Pollockand Barry Richards. When Viswanath unfolded his art, he was a picture of aperfect stylist.  It was a sight for the gods when he was at his vintage bestand bringing out the very nuances of artistic batsmanship.

Viswanath was not just a high quality stylist but a rare artist in the truesense of the word. While he was incomparable as an artist, he has had fewpeers and no superiors as a stylist in the entire history of cricket. In fact,it is no exaggeration to say he was style personified. It is 17 years sinceViswanath called it a day but cricket is yet to come across a batsman who canresemble him even in second place. Mohammed Azharuddin appeared to be a goodstylist when in full swing. But whenever he performed his customary war-danceagainst hostile fast bowlers on the green tops, the same Azharuddin presented apathetic, even ugly, sight.

Among the present lot, V.V.S. Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Brian Lara,Jacques Kallis, Graham Thorpe and Mahela Jayawardene – to name some – mayappear to be representing style. But only in a limited sense. Thesame can be said about Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and a few others oftheir ilk. Whatever their style, they are certainly no artists. So Viswanath must remain nonpareil. It must, however, be accepted that there are fewbetter sights in contemporary than a Laxman or a Lara on song. 

Besides their elegance, naturalness and poise when armed with the willow, it wasthat nebulous something called personality which also lent style to thebatsmen. Most of the stylists who graced cricket were endowed with goodpersonalities, too. The game, which is fast losing its charm, colour, glitz and romance, badly needs a few good stylists.