New India assurance

For a few seconds, the collective memories of a nation of cricket fanatics went back to 1986, when Chetan Sharma was readying to bowl to Javed Miandad.

Pakistan’s team had needed four runs off that last ball and Sharma had to contain the exuberant Pakistani player. What happened next is seared into the DNA of every fan and not surprisingly, on Monday, curses were being muttered as MS Dhoni selected Joginder Sharma to bowl the last over.

Joginder Sharma? Who is he? Where did he come from? Does he know how to bowl at all? Even the most die-hard India supporter began to have doubts, because six runs in four balls was hardly a daunting task. In the event, Pakistan did not get its Miandad Moment and the celebrations have not stopped since.

We are now applauding Dhoni’s cool attitude, the young team’s confidence and even Sharma’s slow bowling. Would we have been so charitable had the gamble failed?

Would we then have hailed the youthful spirit of this merry band of buccaneers, who were seen as a kind of B team to be dispatched to a B tournament? The Pooh-Bah’s of the Board of Cricket Control were not particularly excited about Twenty20 and chose not to send the stars; the stars themselves were quite comfortable to sit this one out.

Had the Big Three gone, the Joginder Sharmas of this world would not have made the cut and would have remained in cricketing oblivion for evermore.

Luck and opportunity does a play a part in achieving fame, but true greatness lies in taking the crumbs life throws at you and making a proper meal out of them.

Dhoni got crumbs, moulded them and gave his country its greatest international victory since 1983. For too long, our World Cup outings have been a case of flattering to deceive. This time we went with the lowest of expectations, and are returning triumphant.

Such is our delight at this team’s victory, that we have already started writing off the seniors who did not go to South Africa. This is a game for youngsters, not oldies, seems to be the general sentiment. Conveniently forgotten are their earlier achievements. But then,  fame is always about the here and now and past feats are mere historical footnotes.

Yet, it is worth conjecturing whether the presence of the seniors would have enhanced or diminished our performance.

Twenty20 is about striking the ball hard, running fast between the wickets and being quick on the field, virtues normally associated with young, fit players. But it’s also about tactics and thinking on one’s feet, which come with experience. How would Rahul Dravid have handled the situation?

He probably would have managed the show competently, but Dhoni showed one characteristic that Dravid, at least in recent times, has not demonstrated: a willingness to take chances. Dhoni remained cool and calm during each crisis, while we fans have grown accustomed to seeing Dravid on television, looking glum and depressed once the chips are down.

He has tended to play it safe and rely on the tried and tested. What would Dhoni have done in the third Test in England? Conversely, would Dravid have chosen a Joginder to bowl that last, crucial over, on which an entire generation’s dreams depended?

The gambling, all-or-nothing spirit suits the Twenty20 format, where each ball and each run count for much more than in a longer game, where early mistakes can be amended.

Dhoni and his young team, hungry and grateful for the opportunity, plunged into the spirit of the sport; a more sober and safety-conscious Dravid may not have. Rahul Dravid has the mindset of a solid, dependable and correct bank manager; Dhoni goes by gut instinct.

Most of the players in Dhoni’s team are, like him, from small towns where opportunities are few. But it is in the small towns of India that big changes are taking place; transitions that the big city takes for granted are revolutions in a Ranchi or a Rohtak.

These are places where the rules are more flexible and a more make-do spirit prevails and this has been distilled in a team that represents emergent India.

We do need both, the older guard and this younger arriviste to the table, of course, but, India — and not only the cricket fan — will now demand a bit more of the self-assuredness of the small town than before.

Playing it safe, a strong Indian characteristic, will no longer work; now we will have to develop chutzpah and attitude. Sreesanth’s behaviour may be frowned upon by the genteel classes, but then, he produces results. And so does Joginder Sharma — it is after all he who has finally buried the ghost of that awful last ball in Sharjah.