India's cricketers are no strangers to storms in pieces of candy. By all evidence, they actually draw motivation and ingenuity from these incidents. So, India’s victory at Trent Bridge came on account of jelly beans strewn across the pitch when Zaheer Khan went out to bat. Zaheer was insulted at the sight. He waved his bat at the English fielder directly in his line of vision, and the rest is history. He made up for the atrocious behaviour of fellow opening bowler Sreesanth and tore into the English top order. Any wonder then that his captain, Rahul Dravid, laughed off the furore in the English media about the jelly-walk presented to his side, and hoped for many more such provocations for his bowlers. Don’t be misled by the sweet nonchalance; there is more to candy on the match floor than immediately meets the eye.Because: Dravid did not let on, but his mind must have gone back to a strange Brisbane day in January 2004. He was munching on some candy and shining the ball, when the goo tumbled on to the ball. Before you could stop saying yuck, the match referee had docked half his match fee for tampering. Not fair, protested his mates, Dravid, paragon of perfection, would never do this. And, besides, they added, he was ingesting a lozenge; that wouldn’t tamper with a ball. Now, they went on, if it had been a jelly baby, that would be a different matter. That’s a memory to chew on.Calorie consumption on the match floor has always added spice to the game. The Australians never leave for foreign shores before checking on their supplies of chewing gum. And a decade ago, as one English cricketer after another went down with Delhi belly, a novel explanation was offered. The Englishmen, inveterate nail-chewers, must have been gathering the local mud on their nails while fielding. Back at Trent Bridge this weekend, English skipper Michael Vaughan said his boys consumed jelly beans for energy. They may like to try cough lozenges.
