Sunil Gavaskar has said that India have enough tournaments before the World cup to strike a balance in the one-day side
Jamie Alter in Mumbai29-Sep-2006
Piyush Chawla, the legspinner, won the Castrol Junior Cricketer of the Year award. © ICC
With a dramatic slump in one-day form, India have come under widespreadcriticism for shuffling the batting order andfailing to chase even small targets. Sunil Gavaskar, however, hascautioned against hitting the panic button and believed there were enoughopportunities before next year’s World Cup for the side to find thecorrect groove.”There will be lots of tournaments to go before the World Cup, and I thinkIndia can find that right balance,” Gavaskar said at the eighthannual Castrol Awards for Cricketing Excellence in Mumbai. “There’s theChampions Trophy, the tour to South Africa, and some one-dayinternationals in January-February. There’s plenty of scope for the coreof the team as well as the little pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to fall intoplace.”In Gavaskar’s opinion, one of the most important aspects to India’ssuccess during the Champions Trophy and next year in the Caribbean wasspin. “I would imagine that the spinners have always been our strength.Spinners have won many more matches for India than have the seam bowlers,”he said. “That said, having good quality seam bowlers who can use the newball is always a big plus. If they can get the first two or three batsmenout, it makes it easier for the other bowlers to come through. HarbhajanSingh has shown in Kuala Lumpur recently how well he bowls. He’s even donethat in the West Indies, and in the past. Spin would have to play a keyrole in our plans in any future events.”Gavaskar cited Piyush Chawla, the gifted Uttar Pradesh legspinner andCastrol Junior Cricketer of the Year winner, as a prime example of India’sspin tradition. “Piyush Chawla is a young cricketer. He seems to be a verygood learner,” he said. “His attitude, his hunger for success is a bigplus. We know that [Anil] Kumble is not going to be around forever, andPiyush has age on his side, so it makes it that much more crucial that wenurture someone like Chawla.””It [legspin] is a very difficult art and we have to therefore be alittle patient with him, nurture him, and probably even play himalongside Kumble, not necessarily in Test matches but in some form of amatch,” Gavaskar added. “Or at least be in the same dressing room. Ithink he’ll learn a lot being around someone like Kumble – attitude,bowling to different batsmen, conditions, different pitches andsituations. These are best learnt in the dressing room.”
Jhulan Goswami, the first Indian woman to take ten wickets in a Test in England, bagged the Castrol Special award © Getty Images
Gavaskar revealed how he himself learnt from his seniors and said it is a must foryoung aspirants to the Indian side. “I used to see the way [Erapalli] Prasanna wouldbowl to Ajit Wadekar and Dilip Sardesai. Just watching the way Sardesaiused to handle him was an incredible lesson. Using your feet, being verylight on the feet, trying to convert flighted deliveries intohalf-volleys. Wadekar staying put in his crease and then cutting andpulling anything short. It was fantastic, and any young cricketer gettingthe chance to be around top players and being able to see top qualitybowling and batting, will only benefit.”EAS Prasanna, India’s greatest offspinner, was felicitated with theCastrol Lifetime Achievement Award. Chawla, whose consistency at thedomestic and junior levels won him a place in the Indian Test side for thehome series against England earlier this year, pipped other notable talentsto bag his award. Jhulan Goswami, the fastest bowler in women’s cricket,received the Castrol Special Award for her outstanding bowling on therecent England tour. During the successful tour, Goswami became only thesecond Indian, and first woman, to take ten wickets in a Test on Englishsoil.”It’s fantastic to be in the presence of many of my former colleagues, whohave contributed so much to Indian cricket,” Gavaskar said. “We need tocompliment Castrol for recognising the contributions of former Indianplayers. At the end of the day, it’s the legacy left by the former playersthat keeps the game going.”