The ‘home truth’ about Kolkata

MS Dhoni it seems perpetrated the most horrendous, barbaric and grizzly crime since August 15 1947 against his own beloved country when India mercilessly thumped South Africa in Eden Gardens, Kolkata to joyfully avenge it’s equally mortifying defeat in Nagpur in the first Test just a few days earlier. At the time of writing though, the Shiv Sena had not yet resorted to asking Dhoni for a public apology for the anti-national act of winning a Test match at home. But a quick synopsis of the emphatic victory first. 

It is indeed rare that a team that loses a Test match by an innings and 57 runs still ends up winning the Man of the Match award. Hashim Amla, the South African number three batsman must have had strange, difficult feelings after Morne Morkel was declared out LBW to the treacherous guile of Harbhajan Singh, furiously celebrating his much-awaited resuscitation after a brief hiatus. Amla’s predicament and heart-burn is understandable as he stood a lonely figure amidst collapsing pillars of the Proteas , accumulating into mountainous ruins. India won the second Test match by a massive margin thus leveling the short series 1-1 and tenaciously holding onto it’s newly acquired no 1 ICC ranking in Test cricket. Four centurions, effective bowling and inspired captaincy makes for a potent threat and a deadly force for any team. South Africa was no exception to the Indian assault. They caved in despite late rearguard resistance.

The Kolkata triumph has to be reviewed in it’s contextual relevance post-the brouhaha that was caused by the Nagpur rout . The continued injury of senior batsmen like Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh certainly aggravated Dhoni’s woes. But more importantly the colossal damage caused to self-confidence and team morale after an unexpected white-wash could have been fairly debilitating even for those with a hard hide. The win is therefore worth it’s weight in gold biscuits. Also, India was up against a determined adversary. But even as the uncorking of champagne bottles seemed germane there were may chronic cynics who were already pouring unfiltered cold water over it. Big deal, they said.

An argument that several cricket analysts and deep-seated pundits often make with great relish since the time the dinosaurs chose extinction over George Bush Jr is that India continues to decimate opponents only at home. It is an endless monologue uttered with half-baked conviction , a peculiarly distorted theory but one which finds plenty of popular acceptance. It is of course true to a large extent , but I have a simple answer—-SO WHAT? Would they rather that we lose these matches at home? Will that satiate their craving for neutral , same -as -everywhere level-playing field environment whatever that is? By the way, wasn’t Dhoni’s request for a spinner-friendly wicket turned down by the Kolkata curators ,anyway?

Incidentally, can weather conditions, nature of soil and pitch behavior , heavy dew and blowing dust , slant of the sunshine, excess humidity, crowd conduct, the nature of balls causing reverse swing, even the sight-screen and playing hours be homogenized amongst cricket-playing nations? Would not cricket be a boring predictable fare if every venue offered you standardized fare, if at all that was possible ? Is it not the thrill of playing in different, diverse and even deceitful conditions which really tests the best and encompasses the beauty of the game? Would we have still not called Roger Federer the greatest ever for his mind-numbing acquisition of grand slams even if he had not won a solitary French Open, albeit the latter truly made it even more memorable ? Was not Steve Waugh all charged up to pulverize the Final Frontier because of it’s historical duplicitous inaccessibility to them over many decades? Diversity applies to all, and is not just India’s monkey.

By the way, did not the same Graeme Smith’s team send us howling after the hammering in the BCCI chief’s home-town only a week ago , right ? And Nagpur is in India, no?? And didn’t the final frontier finally crack, crumble and collapse against the Australians in 2004, , co-incidentally in Nagpur itself? While a victory abroad is certainly laudable, how is it really different from a hard-earned win or a casual walk-over at home?

If you have been following things other than the senseless IPL-related imbroglio which grabs sustained headlines from one meaningless controversy to another meaningful triviality, you will find that Australia has discourteously if not with altogether extreme vulgarity sent Pakistan and West Indies packing in death-defying hurry from the comfort of their familiar home-living room. Did not England win back-to-back Ashes series while having fried fish and chips in the good ole’English weather ? . Does that in any way diminish their superlative show?

Cricket analysts are recommended to kindly follow the Davis Cup tournament format to understand why Spain ( with Rafa Nadal , Fernanado Verdasco and David Ferrer) is unlikely to provide the USA (Andy Roddick, Sam Querry and John Isner) with fast hard-courts instead of it’s famous red clay at a home encounter. And vice versa. Why does Leander Paes always sport a sly grin when playing on green grass? When you call someone home for a meal do you check with the guests their preferred menu ? You know what, I don’t. And frankly, we always end up offering the same meal for our unsuspecting friends what we usually like ourselves the most. That is frankly the ” home truth”.

I think this “winning abroad” obsession is a mind-set issue. A win is a win, period! Will the Aussies ever make Perth into a deceptive deluding turner just because Harbhajan Singh might want to tease them with a tweak? Never ! Yet, against all bleak forecasts of preordained doom, we won there right ? Therefore if we feast on them like crunchy salad in our dust-bowls, so be it. It is quid pro quo. Frankly, it evens out. Just as much as we harangue our boys about winning abroad, shouldn’t the overseas teams be equally challenged to topple us on our turf? In fact, the best thing about playing in different conditions is that it compels global players to become adaptive to new environments even as they must preserve their stranglehold on domestic terrains. Each is as important as the other. I think it is about time we discarded the bad habit of attaching a premium to an overseas win , even as we discount our domestic reveling. It is a heads you win, tails I lose proposition.

There is an old Indian saying that apne ghar me chooha bhi sher hota hai (in one’s own home even the rat is like a lion). At least after the Kolkata win, India is ahead in the rat-race. At home!