The Surfer

D Ranganathan—for that is his full name—was a cocky little fellow, all muscle and sinew, very fit, a fiercely combative cricketer quite unlike the gentle Madras stereotype of his time. A competent, workmanlike but always positive opening batsman, he was aggression personified as a wicket keeper, not afraid to stand up to fast bowlers, and capable of the most convincing histrionics while appealing to the umpire. He was also a more than useful medium pacer, a facet of his cricket he never let us forget, resorting as he invariably did to the discarding of his gloves and pads to have a go at the batsman. His supreme confidence usually resulted in the breaking up of a troublesome partnership, enabling Rangan to crow over his success where others had failed. He always had a chip on his shoulder about being ignored as a player by officialdom and running his own club like a prince was his way of challenging the establishment. He not only scored tons of runs and won most of his matches, but made sure these victories were made possible by stellar contributions from other players the official selectors had overlooked. He was an original, not an imitation of some Test cricketer he admired. If there was anyone he hero-worshipped, it had to be Rangan himself. Virtually unbeatable in the lower divisions of the TNCA league, his team was a dark horse capable of toppling the best in the senior division, once it was promoted to that level of combat.

It’s player power, we are told, that is the real problem. Almost any crisis can be blamed on the modern players, with their big egos and eye on the big bucks, the precious stars who only look after number one and don’t leave home without their entourage of agents and hangers-on. Which begs the real question: if players are so untrustworthy and selfish, why are they pandered to by executives, boards and owners?

Sure, I'd imagine sponsorship and broadcasting deals around the twenty20 fixture would be in place and block the road but I'd imagine where ever that final game was played it would have pulled a huge crowd and I don't think Sydney twenty20-goers would have felt cheated had they been given an extra 60 overs of cricket to watch. And, frankly, this series deserved a winner and that winner found over 100 overs of cricket.

International cricket teams do not simply turn up on the morning of the first day of a Test match and find that the venue is wholly atrocious for any level of cricket. There are several standard checks and assessments which should have been put in place by the WICB to ensure that exactly what transpired at the Sir Viv Richards Stadium this morning never occur. There must have been a series of diabolical failures and gross neglect on the part of the assigned officer for it to have reached the stage where the Caribbean is left to suffer the utter humiliation now being rightfully dished out. What should have been those checks and balances? And who, specifically, was responsible?

This is the time for the IPL and BCCI to show how large their heart is; to throw a lifeline and say “come on, young men, come back and play cricket”. If the ICL decides that it is getting unviable to continue, will these cricketers never play cricket again? Wouldn’t that be inhuman? Other players in the past have romanced with apartheid regimes, no less, and returned.
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he establishment has to take care of them in the larger interest of Cricket in India. Children take their own decisions but parents can never shut their door on them forever. This is the time for the victor to be magnanimous, to offer a hand of support, to allow them to feel the excitement and earn a living.

"For Owais the turning point was in early 2004, when he took himself off to work with Mohammad Azharuddin in Hyderabad," Gatting suggests. "He worked on his technique and now he is very settled and very happy with it. That hasn't just made him a better player, it's helped him mature as a person. He knows himself a lot better." Shah attributes his transition from a "1,000-runs-a-season to a 15, 16, 1,700-runs-a-season batsman" to his work with Azharuddin. "I decided that if I had to sacrifice flair and become unorthodox, then I would do it."

On the eve of today's match, the draw was best at 10–11 (general), with England 11–4 (general) and West Indies 3–1 (general). England's fragility means they cannot be backed, while the draw price looks too short as it will almost certainly trade bigger at some stage during the match. If pushed for a selection it would have to be West Indies. There are, though, far better punts to be had outside the match betting.