CLUES AMID THE ASHES

The Ashes was probably the most-watched cricket series not involving India. It reduced the Tri-series in Zimbabwe to an irrelevance and prov...

The Ashes was probably the most-watched cricket series not involving India. It reduced the Tri-series in Zimbabwe to an irrelevance and proved such a hard act to follow that the Bulawayo Test gave up without even trying or maybe it did, we8217;d stopped caring by then.

Yet for us in India 8212; fans, media, cricketers, administrators 8212; the 25 days of cricket was worth more than just entertainment value. Here, in no particular order, are four things our cricket could learn from the game8217;s oldest contest:

THE POWER OF ONE
The best team is not a collection of the most talented players but 11 people playing as one. From the very first ball of the series at Lord8217;s, right through till bad light stopped play at The Oval, England8217;s cricket was all about unity. In our minds, Flintoff was the star; in his own mind he was the same as his teammates. And in that unity lay England8217;s best weapon.

TEST IS BEST
This was cricket as it was meant to be played: A five-day game of chess, with enough time to think and analyse, plot, regroup, a test of each team8217;s powers of attack and counter, demanding as much of brain as of brawn. Glorious, gritty Test cricket, which our money-centric, short-sighted cricket administrators and narrow-minded, star-gazing public have rudely elbowed aside.

SPECTATORS, SPORT!
Even on an anodyne TV screen thousands of miles away, one thing was clear: This Ashes would have been half a contest without the spectators. It wasn8217;t just bums on seats, though even that would be a message for the Indian Test centres unable to fill even half a concrete bowl. It was the way the fans lifted the players, becoming almost a part of the matches. It underscored the belief that English cricket fans are the best in the world the same weary acceptance of inevitability makes Manchester City fans among the most humorous and resilient in the English Premier League. Symbolised by the lone bugler who belted out the Flintstones theme every time Flintoff bowled on that last day at Edgbaston. And at the base of it all, this fact: If our cricket stadiums were more hospitable, if watching a match was fun, there would be people in the stands.

TIME FOR THE AXE
This one8217;s still in the works: How will Australia respond to losing the Ashes? They showed the world how to build a team, by giving players repeated chances till they finally succeeded. They8217;ve also shown they aren8217;t averse to the occasional shooting of a star, as Messrs Taylor and Waugh will testify. Now comes the tough part: To tread the balance between what needs to be done and what the public wants done.

8212; Jayaditya Gupta