Steve Waugh famously called winning a Test Series in India as his final frontier. He was unable to conquer it. Some trophies even elude the greats. Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and VVS Laxman had a reciprocal feeling like Steve Waugh towards winning a Test Series in Australia. For over decades, winning in Australia has been the Indian Cricket Team’s final frontier. I am aware that the team hasn’t won in South Africa too, but the series against the Proteas was never as dramatic. The recently concluded series has a special place amongst people who have followed the Indian Cricket for that reason. This series is the equivalent of Australia winning the 2004 test series in India. There are many experts who can analyse the statistics and the technique way better than me, I want to focus on the pure spectator aspects of the series.

Let the Indian team enjoy the fruit

As a neutral cricket fan, I want to start by requesting the sceptics in India to enjoy the moment and allow the team to enjoy the moment. The Indian Cricket Team and it’s management has worked extremely hard for this series. It is never easy to win in Australia irrespective of whether they have 2 players missing. Let the team bask in the glory. They deserve it.

Healthy Rivalry

The series has its share of sparks, sledging, aggression and passion. The spectators were always kept engaged. There weren’t any dull moments. Then there were moments of extreme comradery between the members. The picture of Rishab Pant with Tim Paine’s kids, Virat Kohli in pink for the McGrath Foundation, Ricky Ponting calling for respect for Kohli and finally Kohli defending Mitchell Starc were some defining moments.

Preparation

Both teams prepared for this series extremely well. The quality of cricket was very high. We did not see either team give it easily without a fight. The effort which went behind the scenes shouldn’t be discounted based on the result. The quality of fielding and the speed at which the fast bowlers bowled under tough conditions reflected the effort that has gone into this series.

No one pulled a punch

The scoreline didn’t reflect the moments which were extremely intense and intriguing. Pujara’s batting, Nathan Lyon’s spell in the first two matches, Kohli’s hundred at Perth, opening day partnership between Harris and Finch at Perth, Bumrah’s spell in MCG, the opening partnership between Vihari and Agarwal on Boxing Day, the barrage of bouncers by Cummins and Starc on the opening day at SCG and finally Pant’s controlled hundred at SCG were game of highest quality. They made the ticket cost worth every cent. The scoreline doesn’t say how well the teams competed.

Don’t count the Australian team out

I haven’t seen a better Indian bowling unit in my 30 years of watching the sport. There was no weak link and the hunted as a pack of wolves. The Australia team just happened to face them at their peak and it should not be used to define their ability. Their bowling unit is definitely one of the best in the world. Marcus Harris, Usman Khawaja, Tim Paine and Pat Cummins are excellent with the bat.

I was 11 when Imran Khan lifted the Cricket World Cup in 1992. The sight of two of the greatest allrounders in the game competing in the finals was one to remember. It was followed by a decade of great admiration to the cricket played in the country. During those times, the biggest talking point was how the West Indies cricket has steadily fallen down. I feel the same about Cricket in Pakistan now. They will still win the odd game, trouble a few teams on their good days but structurally they are not the same.

Imran Khan is still considered to be a great leader in the sport. He was instrumental in identifying a crop of cricketers whom he coached to be greats in the sport. Apart from Mohammed Amir, there hasn’t been a cricketer since or there hasn’t been an Imran Khan since to identify the talent and nurture them. The approach used by Imran Khan has remained with Imran Khan. Since that time, it has taken two generations to the current crop of people. I consider it a failure on part of Imran to have not institutionalised this process.

Cricket is a sport but the future of the sport lies in the hands of its administrators. When Cricket in Pakistan was thriving and they were second only to an all-time great Australian team,  the administrators basked on the glory but failed miserably to create proper structures within the system which will take it few steps forward. They should have got the following signals from the team’s performance.

1. There were quite a few glory hogs in the team. The individuals wanted to see how to make themselves great. They backed it with a lot good performances which meant these flaws were ignored.
2. They failed to realise the transition going through in the game. Fielding and Fitness were beginning to gain more prominence than before. It was no more a question of having few good fielders but an entire team of great fielders.
3. The selection policies continued to remain directionless. The frequent changing of captains didn’t allow anyone to settle down. The lack of focus on how to integrate a new person into the team led to a lot of insecurities.
4. A major part of the board’s responsibility is to find ways to invest in the future of the Cricket in Pakistan. It never happened. The facilities were limited to few key centres and never spread beyond.

Another thing which happened with Pakistan was the massive influence of religion, which was started by Inzamam-ul-Haq. Pakistan cricket team always had faith but that didn’t drive cricket. Inzamam changed all that. There is a great article written by a Pakistani Journalist interviewing some officials in this regard. This was one of the reasons behind Yousuf Youhanna converting to Islam to become Mohammed Yusuf.

Lack of financial guidance to youngsters is another problem. A combination of poor selection policy and anxiety about their future has led many youngsters to make a lot of poor decisions. I can only imagine how Amir, Asif and Salman Bhatt could have contributed to the betterment of Pakistani cricket had they not been banned. Even the mature cricketers like Mohammed Yusuf at one point too the plunge with Indian Cricket League to safeguard their future.

All these points resulted in a team which lacked a fundamental understanding of the sport. The team can surprise us by winning odd matches but the underlying situation hasn’t changed.  However, I want the future generations to feel the excitement of Anwar’s flick, Inzamam’s pull, Yusuf’s cover drive, Shoaib’s pace, Waqar’s yorker or Akram’s swing. I would take one of them from Pakistan now. The sheer belligerence of the team is a big void in world cricket now.

As a kid, I loved waking up at 4:00 in the morning to watch cricket matches happening in Australia. More than the match itself, it was the voice of Richie Benaud that captivated me to wake up so early. Then there were Bill Lawry, Tony Greig, Geoff Boycott and Michael Holding and India’s Harsha Bhogle. However, if you look at the current crop ignoring the people left from the above list, it is abysmal. It is badly partisan, devoid of any analysis and insights that I feel like watching the matches on mute. I want to explain this using the latest India versus Australia series which is currently in progress.

Cricket is a spectator sport and spectators love to see passion. What the spectators also love to see is sportsmen get along well outside the field. The comradarie between Vivian Richards and Ian Botham, Sachin Tendulkar and Steve Waugh, Virat Kohli and Dale Steyn are few that come to my mind immediately. These are people who play with passion and leave everything on the field. The incident between Steven Smith and Virat Kohli is one such as well. It makes the game more exciting, passionate and driven. There is a clear line where members get physical or there is a case of cheating. No such incident actually happened.

As I say that about players no one wants to see commentators fighting over incidents like this. It is like going to a boxing match and end up watching the support staff fight. It is not interesting and doesn’t add any value to anyone. This is exactly what happened when Sunil Gavaskar and Ian Healy started talking. Both of them took sides of their respective home countries. The worse part of the defense was when they claimed their side to be totally innocent and the opponent totally corrupt. Firstly, both of them are well respected cricketers to behave in such childish fashion. Secondly, assuming they are paid to do this so that they can increase their ratings, it doesn’t work. It only drives people away.

I want to see non-partisan insights about the game. I know such commentators are few and far but the media outlets should at least try. Unless the intention is to kill the sport, they are not doing it right. Not all ex-cricketers are great commentators. Commentators should be non-partisan, have good understanding of the game and above all decent communication skill. Till this situation changes, I am going to watch the matches on mute.