Side lines

South Africa's Cup?

NADEEM A. KHAN

The Titan Cup, at the time of this trickling over the wires, has been a mixed bag for everyone in the program--except the South Africans who are pleased to have made the trip. It's been five years since the team went global and you'd swear they've been at it for a hundred. These days all they do is put the finger on the dotted line and the game is in the pocket.

South Africa hasn't become the benchmark overnight. Its first series--after a 22 year exile--was, coincidentally, in India and the hosts displayed tough love. Then Ravi Shastri, leading for Azharuddin in game 3, started them off. Wessels gave reins to his more promiscuous side; they made the 288 and departed on an upbeat note. A couple of months later, they infiltrated into the semis of the '92 World Cup and were quite understanding when rain and an eccentric equation did everything to assure them they were not welcome. They are still not--especially in India.

In the advanced stages of this rather extended competition, the Indians and Australia had clasped them with vigor--to learn that since they last met, the men in green had doubled their virility. After an infuriating search the two squads have stopped looking for South African chinks, a task made more difficult by the Springboks not having landed with any. Instead, Taylor and Sachin have scrambled together an unusual contest to see who blows more to this immensely gifted enemy. Thus far they are tied.

Despite their sublime standing, Cronje's lawless breed is not offering any rebates. "We want to win the Cup without dropping a game...," the chief said after they unfrocked Australia--second time in as many meetings. This is a team that knows little about mercy and I wouldn't be surprised if someone discovered its members have cloven hooves.

Where the South Africans have the bulge on ordinary cricketers is in their ability to focus--intensely. On clocking in at the stadium, they are impervious to lost luggage, agonizing traffic, riots, unruly wickets and exotic virii--a team touring the sub-continent has already notched up two points if it can get past the last.

In contrast, the Australians have been roughened up by a variety of external factors-- they'll never be convincing as World Champions, unofficial or otherwise, if they do not cease being uneasy in their minds about Indian surfaces. For a well stacked outfit, they are frequently thrown off by superficial trappings and in each of their three games the batters have displayed groundless trepidation.

India's problems run deeper and only a voluminous treatise can dissect what it is that keeps our ragamuffins away from the winner's pedestal. It's not led a very healthy existence, this Indian side. Bangalore fixed them with a burning eye and nearly pulled the plug. Strangely, they responded by winning. A game later, in front of the less censorious people of Jaipur, they lay in a slovenly heap. If threats to their lives are what it takes.........

Sachin's wafting in and out of form has not helped the issue. It's an almost perfect picture when the ace hangs around. However, Indian supporters have learnt the benefits of looking away the minute Tendulkar drops--it's not pretty when they come crashing around.

For Christmas, preferably before that, the Indians need an opener. Let me adjust that-- they need a REAL opener. Enough of that off-colored stuff. Rathore and Somasunder probed the slot like zombies while the various part-timers--Jadeja, Mongia, and Ganguly have given Sachin no less grief, begging the question, ".... is that it? Has India no openers?" Looks like it. No hold the line. Word on the streets is that Navjoth Singh Sidhu has finished his sentence. Found guilty as charged of abandoning ship and reading too much into a benching, he is also understood to have a point or two to thrash out with Mohammed Azharuddin, skipper when the thing happened. Rightly, his impressive credentials overshadowed the personal sketch and for the selectors, who had done everything short of advertising in the Express for one opener, his re-insertion was a no brainer.

After Mohinder Amarnath, no other post-war cricketer has epitomized The Comeback more than this somewhat turbulent Sikh--since his introduction in 1983, he has seen all of 36 Tests and 104 ODIs. With an average in the nether forties and six hundreds, Navjoth is a big kahuna with more than a mere smattering of the opener's post--reason enough for the frightful privations he caused the team (in England) to be swept under the carpet.

Sidhu's return to the fold is perceived as the only scrap of blue in a dark Indian sky.

Since the trophy is to display all the proper nouns, the engravers are boning up solidly on the more complex South African names.