Fittingly at Headingley

We have got used to the sight of our star players doing their star turn for so long that we have almost forgotten that cricket 8212; especi...

We have got used to the sight of our star players doing their star turn for so long that we have almost forgotten that cricket 8212; especially at the Test match level 8212; is very much a team game. There was ample reminder of that over five days at Headingley where the Indians played, as Nasser Hussain conceded, 8216;perfect cricket8217;. More so when you consider that the team went into the Test with the handicap of being embroiled in the controversy over the ICC contracts. So this was a win to savour. What was especially satisfying was that everyone contributed. The obvious stars were, of course, the centurions and the leading wicket-takers. Yet Sanjay Bangar did his bit; Sehwag took catches to compensate for his lack of runs; even Parthiv Patel, who didn8217;t exactly shine behind the stumps, stayed on the pitch with an injured knee.

There8217;s so obviously a buzz about the team, a spirit that runs through every member of the side. We saw it at Lord8217;s, when much the same side defied all the odds to rack up an incredible victory in the NatWest Trophy final. We saw it again yesterday in the little gestures that give team sports a human side. There was Tendulkar exhorting Patel to continue, despite terrific pain. Or Ganguly picking up the helmet and stationing himself at forward short-leg, a task normally assigned to the junior-most member of the side. But there are many intangibles that also help in building morale. After the win, the skipper credited the team coach, John Wright, who has given this team a core of typically Antipodean steel, first reflected in the amazing Kolkata Test against Australia. Digressing for a moment, this will hopefully lay to rest the debate over the merits of hiring foreign help.

At the centre of it all, though, is the skipper himself. He has his enemies, scattered over not only the western world but here in India, too. Yet, for all his callowness, for all the histrionics, he has led from the front 8212; proving to be the most successful Indian captain overseas thus far. His is a reign refreshingly unmarked by typical Indian regional biases; indeed, his brand of favouritism is founded on cricketing reasons. And, to his credit, he is prepared to stand by his men through thick and thin, or till they deliver. Ganguly8217;s speciality seems to be the ability to thrive in adversity, to turn a handicap into an advantage. No matter where India wins, or how, or against whom, there is always some criticism; the team recognises that and accepts it as part of the game. Alex Ferguson, manager of football club Manchester United, famously uses 8216;siege mentality8217; 8212; the notion that the entire outside world hates the team 8212; to provoke and inspire his players. Ganguly and India, it seems, have picked up this trait to their profit.