India is number one in Test Cricket..

India is Numero Uno..

India achieved what seemed to have alluded them over last 77 years of ytheir test cricket history.. I am proud of the achievement would be an under-statement.. I am really proud of their feat given the way they started this test series on the brink of a defeat or rather an innings defeat in the very first test at Motera.. that they did commendable job to turn the tables by not only saving the first test but also winning the next two at Kanpur and Mumbai by an innings.. how many times a team would have achieved such level of great performance.. even if India had not been adjudged number one in the test rankings.. this fact alone gives a great satisfaction..

Contrary to popular belief this team has not achieved something as big as India had achieved when it first beat West Indies in West Indies when Sunil Gavaskar arrived on the Indian cricket scene or India under Kapil Dev got better of the then cricketing giants West Indes in the 1983 World cup.. No, No, I am not taking away any credits from these set of palyers who have amongst them some of the best in the Test cricket History that India has played for 77 years.. India has not been at the bottom of the tables for last four or five years in test cricket in fact they have been always enjoyed being number two or three many a times.. so this escalation is not as good as the channels have been trying to tell us..

No doubt.. India under Dhoni has been doing well.. no doubt Indi has Sehwag and Gambhir as probably the best opening pair in the world.. nno dubt that India has had Sacin Tendulkar amongst them for 20 years.. No doubt India has had the services of wall the Dravid and Mr. Dependable in Lalshman.. No doubt India has been having far more medium pace options that Nehra and RP Singh do not even get a look in.. no doubt even after the departure of the Jumbo Kumble we still have the services of Harbhajan Singh.. yet I would suggest that if with the best eleven men available if India did not reach the mark a few years ago under Saurav Ganguly it has to be credited to Dhoni to get the best out of his star players under the circumstances..

Cricket in all its formats in the recent past has become overtly dependent upon batting skills and that is where team India has been bestowed with some big names.. as Kapil dev said India has nearly five batsman with averages above 50 in test cricket so they are definitely the best batting side at present.. the ranking does not appeal too much to me..I would have far loved Virender Sehwag to have achieved his third triple hundred as such opportunities do not knock at your doorstep every other day.. it is all right.. he plays his game the way he plays.. he is not to be blamed but I have right to feel upset about it.. even if he is not.. I have been following cricket more seriously since 1971 as a school boy at Kendriya Vidyalaya Port Blair where we used to play book cricket in the class.. sometimes even during the ongoing lessons.. I had always wanted to bat as Viswanath ahead of Gavaskar.. I know Gavaskar was far more talented than his later to be brother-in-law Gundappa Viswanath yet I had far more respect for the stocky Viswanath for his square cuts and cover-drives.. I know there have been many batsman in India and world who play better than him.. yet I would rate vishy the very best for me.. no, no, it has nothing to do with the meeting with him at Kotla dressing room prior to Australia tour..

I would not mind sharing a few thoughts about the present team.. Sehwag was very nearly not considered amongst even thirty players for an Australian tour.. not in very distant past.. when not because of me but for Ian Chappell and Imran Khan the selectors had included him at the very last minute.. such behaviour hurts me even if Sehwag says it is all right.. how could you not consider someone who had a triple hundred in Test cricket against Pakistan.. form is one thing and class completely another.. especially in test cricket.. There have been many cases of unfair selection policies in past .. who could be a better example of explicitly defining the wrong acts of Indian selection process than the man of series at the 1983 world cup.. Mohinder Amaranth was arguably the best hooker and probably had a strong defence against world’s best pace bowlers yet he had been in and out of the team several times.. Could Vengsarkar and Patil explain away their apathy towards Sehwag who was about to emerge the soul player to score three triple centuries.. and has maximum double centuries by an Indian.. I would like to ask Mr Bishan Singh Bedi taking a dig at his mother when talking of his cricketing abilities.. would they come forward and say in as many words what the feel of the batsman now.. it was quite ironic that Dilip handed him the man of the match or man of the series award.. what must have been going n in his mind thinking of his past assumptions of the mercurial opener.. it is all right.. let bygones be bygones.. but I know let Sehwag fail in couple of games over a year and their swords would again be dangling at his head..

No, no, I am not blaming BCCI for not playing too much of test cricket.. they did play lot of cricket though.. I see no logic in holding an away and home games for the IPL teams in the league stage other than for making money.. otherwise how does one explain that India has only played only 18 T20 Internationals..

And to all the test supporting cricketers who say that they have far too little of Test cricket fo them in the coming days.. they should compare themselves with some of the world’s top teams about the number of test matches each would have played in the last two years.. India would definitely be ahead of many of them if not all..

I would love to see that India does give proper opportunities to the youngsters at the right time otherwise they should not complain about the slump that may arise when Sachin, Dravid and Lakshman disappear from world cricket which is very close on time scale.. I know that there is no dearth of pace bowlers in the country at present a fact that Nehra and to some extent even RP Singh do not find a place in their Test squad.. that is a healthy situation so to say.. every one is out to prove better than the other.. India talks of lack of genuine all-rounders yet Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan are sidelined without any serious consideration.. if you do not provide opportunities and express faith in the ones that are available where is the question of new all-rounders to emerge on the horizon..

I know few would take my writings as faithful and sincere and label me anti-BCCI or whatever better names they may get to.. yet the fact is that India has had good players all along yet because of the unfair selection process India had not been able to achieve the ranking which has come their way after 77 years.. Ask anyone India has been playing just too much of cricket.. if they have achieved it now it is a result of last three four years of commitment that the players have been displaying on the field..

I would rather want the team to do better in Twenty20 and even ODI than in test cricket. I do not agree with either Kapil, Sachin or even Sehwag that Test cricket is the best form of cricket.. with less than 10 countries playing test matches it is nt a big deal.. I know for sure that in 2012 if this earth survives then Twenty20 may have some 20 or 30 strong teams vying for supremacy in the world of cricket.. a format where India failed miserably under their most able and most talented players available in the world championship that was held in England..

If some ranking system is in place for T20 Internationals India would not be in top 3 despite the fact tha they were champions in the first edition of the world championship.. Wake up India and win the two t20 games on 9th and 12th of December and more importantly play the format more often at the international level than at premier level where money is the only criteria and glory of the country comes second.. IPL should definitely have more teams and a new competitive format that is not aimed at making money but promoting the sport at national and international level.. I do not like that IPL teams should represent India in champions league tournament.. where other countries did better than all the three IPL teams as probably they were more united by their nationalistic configuration.. Should we not have a national trophy for T20 where state teams could then go on to take part in world chamion’s T20 league.

I hope no one takes my comments as biased against anyone in the country.. I love India and I shall continue to love India.. take as much pride in the test rankings though I would rather prefer to have the similar feat being achieved in the other two formats of the game which according to me are far more popular amongst the cricket lovers as is evident by the gate money..

I wish Virender Sehwag has heard my plea to achieve something miraculous in ODIs.. there has no one who has scored a double hundred.. being an opener and given his style of batting he is far more capable Indian to achieve that.. if he also happens to be World’s first would be an icing on the cake.. So what are you waiting about Viru.. go ahead and smack those 200 runs in one of the five games and take India to number one position in the one day version as well..

Congratulations to team India.. I felt the money that has been distributed to these test players should have also been awarded to some of those who did contribute to India’s supremacy in the last three years if not last five years.. Important names that should have definitely been considered to be included in the list are Saurav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Irfan Pathan and Ashish Nehra if not more..

Abhaya Sharma
December 7 2009 10:30 AM IST