Cricket’s new Test: Celebrity

But Test cricket is still more about attrition than it is about flamboyance. On the odd day when the sun is beating down, the bowler’s heart is elsewhere and the groundsman is as cruel to bowlers as moneylenders of yore, the odd moment of flamboyance can carry the day. But on most other days Test cricket mirrors life; you need to withstand the rough to savour the smooth, you need to knock on unrelenting doors to know the pleasure that accompanies one that opens.

At Nagpur, Pathan and Sreesunth got an unsympathetic pitch but, like the daughter-in-law in the movies, they eventually turned things on day one with patience and good intent. It was good to see. Sport is about a struggle, about deadlocks where little seems to happen in spite of much effort, that is why it tests character as much as it does skill.

It tested Alastair Cook too and it did Paul Collingwood and they grew immeasurably as cricketers.

Related to sport, and never too far away from it, is another big test for cricketers, young and old alike. As cricket grows in India, the media multiplies. It must feed its audience, leave it asking for more and let the spiral grow. The media draws all kinds for there are many roles to play.

Inevitably, cricketers and the media must get polarized in spite of the free intermingling of the two these days. But while cricketers are willing to understand that there will be no favours from opposition batsmen or bowlers, they seem to have a rather more vain relationship with the media. A contrary opinion in a newspaper or on a television channel bothers them no end, a favourable, if inaccurate, one is happily accepted.

And so, Irfan Pathan’s little outburst against former cricketers surprised me. Pathan is a lovely young man, down to earth and still largely immune to the distractions of stardom. He’s known what it is to struggle, and hence the extraordinary mature outlook towards results.

But suddenly he’s grown prickly. He could point towards the provocation, as he has, but that, like oxygen, is always going to be around him. The media has a job to do; some within it are conscientious, others mischievous, some are supportive, others provocative. There is much the media can do in shaping opinion but there is one thing it can never do. It cannot prevent a batsman from scoring runs or a bowler from taking wickets.

The more young men get infatuated with the media, the more vain they grow, the more it will sting them. Ian Chappell once told a belligerent young man to search for the mute button if he didn’t like what he was hearing and that is what every young player must know. Pathan will soon realize that this is a fight he cannot win. Ideally, he must think it is not a fight at all. As he learns to shut his ears to the sledging around him, so must he with the media; even if it is far more difficult. We cannot change his bowling figures in the end and indeed, that is a battle only he can win.

So too with Greg Chappell, who must realize by now that he is getting milked by the media over the Ganguly issue. A ball left alone might be a handy option for a champion strokeplayer.

But older, and supposedly wiser, men than Pathan take to the media like my son does to his grandmother’s laddoos. “He took our money” they will say and call a press conference. “I did not” the rival will thunder back and call for a press conference. “I’m a marketing man” says one, “No he isn’t” say his rivals. I hope you find this as disturbing as I do. Mature people solve difference quietly. If you have to shout it means you have something to hide. I hope, like me, some of you are looking for a little more class from the BCCI.