Indian team leaves for the Caribbean

Prem Panicker

"If every member of the team plays to his potential and is consistent, then we can achieve the goal of winning against the West Indies on their home soil," said Indian cricket captain Sachin Tendulkar late night Monday.

Tendulkar was speaking shortly before the 16-member Indian side took off for the three-month tour of the West Indies, which will span five Tests and four ODIs, besides a number of tour games.

Tendulkar, at 23, is the second youngest skipper to take a team to the West Indies - the record is held by Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi who, at age 21, took over the captaincy of the team after incumbent Nari Contractor was felled by a bouncer.

The Indian skipper reacted strongly to suggestions that this side would be going in as underdogs. "Both sides will be attempting to prove a point - the West Indies will want to win a series at home, and the Indians are keen to win one away from home," he countered. "I think the contest will be pretty even."

Asked for an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the Windies, Tendulkar named Curtley Ambrose and Brian Lara as the two players most likely to prove match-winners. "Ambrose and Walsh are world class bowlers, Bishop and Benjamin are not far behind. When you play against them, you have to be always on your toes," said Tendulkar. "At the team meeting, we decided that our best course was to go there in a positive frame of mind, and play our normal game with confidence."

Asked about his personal batting form, Tendulkar shrugged: "I would prefer to let my bat answer that question - my focus is on doing well for the side."

A contentious addition to the squad is Navjot Singh Sidhu - who, incidentally, has received permission from the Patiala court to travel to the West Indies. District and Sessions Judge K K Garg exempted Sidhu from attending the hearing on March 15, when the court hears pleas from the concerned parties with regard to a murder case pending against the Indian opener.

More to the cricketing point, Sidhu had created waves with a dramatic exit from the Indian team that toured England in early 1996. At the time, he had protested his "unfair treatment" at the hands of then captain Mohammad Azharuddin, and declared that he was quitting international cricket.

A BCCI enquiry subsequently found the charges baseless, and suspended Sidhu for 50 days from international cricket by way of punishment. Today he is back, and will form a part of the team that also has - who else? - Azharuddin in the ranks. Will this not cause friction?

Coach Madan Lal and captain Sachin Tendulkar both preferred to duck the question. "I am happy that Sidhu is back in the squad," said Lal. "He is a very experienced batsman, and will form a good opening combination with either Ajay Jadeja or VVS Laxman." Tendulkar backed up his coach when he said, "Sidhu is a solid player, on his last tour of the West Indies he had hit a brilliant century. As for the other question, it is my role to ensure that there is no lack of communication between Sidhu and the rest of the team members - we have to stick together, and play together, in order to enhance our performances," the Indian captain said.

Another major worry for the Indians relates to spearhead Javagal Srinath. As diagnosed, the premier paceman is suffering from an impingement syndrome in his right shoulder - akin to what South Africa's Allan Donald suffered a while back. Donald took two months of total rest to recover - Srinath, on the other hand, has played with the injury through the third Test of the recent South African series and the one-dayers, and will need to continue playing through the West Indies tour.

"We can't afford to let Srinath have such a long rest," said team physio Dr Ali Irani. "What we can do is rest him for the tour games, have him bowl less in the nets, and use him only in the Tests."

Adding his comments, Sachin said that this was one reason why he had asked for five fast bowlers in the squad. "I wanted to be able to rest Prasad and Srinath for the tour games, and only use them in the Tests. Since we have only four bowlers, I guess I will have to bowl Prasad in the tour games as well, and ensure that Srinath's shoulder is rested as much as possible."

Will this put a crimp in the team's bowling effort? "Well, yes, good fast bowlers make a difference, and I am happy Abey Kuruvilla has been picked - he will bowl first change after Srinath and Prasad."

Given the possibility that the West Indies will use pace as its major weapon, despite the fact that both Walsh and Ambrose are ageing and also suffering from injuries, Tendulkar said it was not something to cause undue concern. "Sure, they will use pace, and yes, we might have to face quite a bit of short-pitched bowling. I personally would like to see our fast bowlers concentrating not on giving their batsmen the short stuff back, but on seeing them back in the pavilion with aggressive, wicket-taking bowling."

Talking of wickets, of course, brings up the question of support bowling - Kuruvilla is on his first tour and as yet untested in international waters, and Kumble's form hasn't been exactly formidable of late. Besides, the Indian team does not have a single off spinner, even though the West Indies side is packed with left-handers. "As for Kumble, I am pretty sure that he will find form on the West Indies wickets, which while fast are different from the ones in South Africa," the Indian captain analysed. "True, we do not have an off-spinner, I will have to give some thought to using Laxman and Dravid in that role. Having said that, it is very difficult to experiment in Test matches," Tendulkar pointed out.

Prior to departure, the Indian team was given a pep talk by BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur. Present on the occasion was D V Subba Rao, former president of the Andhra Pradesh Cricket Association and India's administrative manager for the West Indies tour.

Indian coach Madan Lal, meanwhile, in a marked departure from his mood prior to the South African tour, confessed himself quite happy with the team that has been picked. "This time," Lal said, "there will be no excuses offered for not winning, our goal is to win both the Test and ODI series. The team is good, it is now up to the boys to go out there and perform to their potential. We will not give anybody any excuses for bad performances."

The Indian itinerary to the Windies mirrors the one to South Africa, insofar as the touring side gets just one practise game, against Jamaica on February 27, before the first Test. Asked if this would result in a similar situation to the one at Durban, where India found itself totally unprepared to face S'African pace on a fast wicket, Madan Lal said that the reverse was true. "We went from slow Indian wickets to South Africa, played one practise game on a slow wicket there and straightaway found ourselves at Durban, one of the fastest wickets in the world. And that caused the problem," Madan Lal said. "This time it is different - the boys have been playing top quality pace on the fast South African pitches for over two months now, so they won't need to adjust to playing pace again. And one tour game will give them just enough time to adjust to the different weather and light conditions, without tiring them out ahead of the Test."

Lal's statement, that India will not have excuses to offer for poor performance in the first Test, is interesting. And valid. In South Africa, the practise game was played on the slowest track in the country, which left the team totally unprepared for the Durban experience. In the West Indies, however, the practise game will be played at Sabina Park, in Kingston, Jamaica - which is the venue of the first Test as well. Which means that the team will have an opportunity to find its feet on the very ground on which the Test campaign begins - and that is a major plus.

Various fitness problems - Srinath's injury excepted - have also been cleared up thanks to the brief stopover in India. Thus, Laxman's fractured fourth metacarpel has fully healed, as has Saurav Ganguly's injured ligament. Prasad, who was noticeably feverish and listless during the third Test and showed signs of extreme fatigue towards the fag end of the tour, has also reportedly come back to prime fitness.

All of which leaves the onus very firmly on Sachin Tendulkar himself. On the South African tour, though the Indian captain showed a willingness to shoulder more than his fair share of the workload with the bat, that very willingness had a negative side to it as well.

As coach Madan Lal pointed out at the end of the tour, "Sachin has a habit of taking the team's defeats as a personal failure and that in turn affects him. I had to keep pointing out that there are eleven players in the side, not just one!"

True - that is a dictum Tendulkar will have to keep in mind. His performance is very important to the side, for very few batsmen can dominate rival bowling attacks as he does. But if the team is to do well in the Windies, then Tendulkar will need to shed his good-guy image and crack the whip.

On the South African tour, that whip was very much left coiled at the bottom of his kitbag - with the result that some members of the team got away with murder. There seemed, at least among sections of the side, a tendency to treat the whole tour of South Africa as a big picnic - with the result that they gave of less than their best on the field.

On a long tour of the West Indies, such attitudes will only increase the burden on the more productive members of the side - and that is why it is imperative for Tendulkar to read the riot act to his predominantly young side, and to ensure that young or old, experienced or raw, each member contributes his 100 per cent to the team effort, and then some.

For it is not on batting strength or bowling abilities, as on attitude, commitment and determination, that this team will stand or fall.