A rickety-crickety analysis

By Sanket ‘trying to gain his form back’ Kambli

Our cricket team will embark on a new tour, which is just like other tours. And as usual they are carrying a huge baggage of ambitions on their shoulders. The tour to Lanka was disappointing to be modest, and it is hoped that we are able to, at least beat Zimbabweans convincingly.

But both the tours have a point in common, a point which is the most ignored one.

That common point between both the series is that, in the preceding tour, the lankans and windies had played a test series, similarly here the Kiwis and Zimbabweans have played a test series.

And like in the last one-day series, India is again directly playing a limited over series without playing a test series.

And those who think that it is enough for our team to play some practice matches with some local/amateur sides, then all of you may still remember their performances in the matches that followed some practice matches in the last tour.

So here we can clearly see the importance of playing a test series.

Being on the pitch for hours at end for 3-4 consecutive days, playing for a victory for which you have to wait for a few days. The grind of the tests helps a cricketer, to bolster his mental/physical prowess, so after a test series, where he has been able to find out what is wrong/right with him, he is able to perform more to his ability and this rubbish about form is debunked.

Whether he is on the losing/winning side, a test series is always helpful, as it triggers introspection at a personal level, whose effects are clearly seen when these cricketers take to field in a 50-over match.

These tests are much better than practice matches against reserve sides, and we can draw analogy from the concept of holding preliminary exams.

But this is driving us towards another thing called form. And this is where all the rubbish starts.

It is hard to find out; from where, this lame excuse to hide the player’s inability to perform at the highest level has come.

But it also shows how lucky our cricketers are, because if we go down at a student’s level, we as students cannot score low, and during an interview for a job, say that we were out of form.

But that is something we cannot change, so it gets added to my list of ‘things I cannot change’.

And if anyone found my write up, really dim-witted, then I would say I am just out of form.