A game of glorious uncertainties, literally

From the editor’s desk

The cricket World Cup 2023 in India has brought to the fore quite a few surprises. And this is not for the first time that the cricket World Cup does something to teams not known for great exploits on a cricket field. Therefore major upsets are always on the cards and now no team can take the other lightly, no matter how inexperienced the side may be. After all, as the legends of world cricket say that cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties. On a day, even a lesser known team may get conducive conditions, and with no expectation of harming its reputation whatsoever, it may perform to its unknown potential and force the very best team in the world to go down on their knees. In fact, sometimes not knowing a team’s talent can hit a reputed team. The pitch may allow the spinners to bowl brilliant deliveries; a pacer may get the bowl to dart to the batsmen sharply, hastening them to play shots they do not want to play. It all happens on a day in the game of cricket. Going down memory lane, the 1983 World Cup in England could well have seen the first real upset of the tournament with the then minnows of the gameZimbabwe- now conspicuous by its absence in this World Cup, almost did the unthinkable and was about to defeat India. What separated India from defeat that day was the brilliant innings of the then Indian skipper Kapil Dev, who smashed to every side of the park to score 175 runs under difficult English conditions. When Kapil Dev had entered the ground then, India was tottering, and not many of its fans would have had the patience to listen to the radio commentary, as the match was not telecast live on television because employees of the BBC were on strike. It is a different story that history was meant to be scripted and India won the World cup in 1983 defeating the mighty West Indies against all odds.

The trend for an unlikely victory of a lesser team has continued in subsequent world cups. Teams like Ireland have defeated strong nations, though they have not managed to qualify in other World Cups. So this phenomenon of a lesser known team, barely qualifying for the World Cup, to churn up match-winning performances trouncing mighty teams in world cricket, is difficult to explain, except perhaps for the fact that the more accomplished teams tend to become complacent while playing these teams who are yet to make a mark in the international arena.

In the current World Cup in India, surprises have come in large quantities. The first major surprise was when the Netherlands defeated the mighty South Africa. How do you explain that? Big names playing for South Africa who have played like lions against stronger opposition, wilted under pressure created by some impeccable pace and spin bowling from the Netherlands. Not many experts would have given even a whiff of a chance to the Netherlands that they would get the better of the South Africans so easily. The South African side did not look their real self as they played in a manner that showed a lack of confidence. Some of the shots played by their batters were tentative, and the Netherlands totally dominated the proceedings. But the performance of world champion England has surprised many experts of the game. How can a champion side, which was playing brilliant cricket till now, suddenly start playing shabbily? The English side has outstanding match winners in Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Bairstow and Butler. They have depth in their batting, and have a formidable bowling attack. Despite being a champion side that it is, the English side played a sort of cricket you won’t normally associate with a team that has no dearth of talent. Yet the team played without the spark it needed so much. It is not as if the players were not familiar with the conditions in India. Many of their top players play for one or the other IPL side. Some of the players may have been playing in India for the first time. Even so, international players are trained to acclimatize themselves to conditions abroad. This is what makes them professional cricketers. The downfall of the English side, which has been sliding down on the points table for this World Cup, has been wrought by some of the irresponsible shots they have chosen to play, unwittingly perhaps. When the conditions required the team to play cautiously, the English side chose to play aggressively and lost wickets in regular intervals unnecessarily. One would expect players of the caliber of Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Bairstow and Butler to play a good hand when the situation demanded them to do so. They are too good to miss out for long.