Mountain came to Mohd

Before July 13th this year, the most memorable image connected with the Lord’s balcony for an Indian cricket fan was an euphoric Kapil ...

Before July 13th this year, the most memorable image connected with the Lord’s balcony for an Indian cricket fan was an euphoric Kapil Dev holding the World Cup trophy after that historic triumph in ’83.

But the Natwest Trophy final earlier this year added one more memorable frame to our collective mindset. A topless Saurav Ganguly madly waving his Indian blue T-shirt at the end of the tri-series final. It was something bizarre, one thought. But the happenings on the field that day were no different.

Lesson not learnt

Sadly, Indian cricket has forgotten the lesson learnt on that day at Lord’s. With the World Cup just months away, the Indian think-tank seems to have turned their backs on youth exuberance, which gave them that historic win. Dinosaurs like Javagal Srinath, Anil Kumble, Venkatesh Prasad, VVS Laxman are once again in contention for the trip to South Africa. The logic given is that for a event of this magnitude experience would be the key. Rewind the Natwest Trophy and see how the young turks coped with the pressure.

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FORGOTTEN GESTURE
Besides Ganguly’s shirt waving episode, there was one more unusual gesture at Lord’s that day. Nasser Hussain, who had never scored a century in ODI until that day, was facing criticism from former players and experts on his playing at No.3 position in the England line-up. The England skipper amply demonstrated his point after the ton: Not just happy to let his bat do the talking, Hussain showed a three-pronged gesture to his critics and pointed to the No.3 on his shirt. He certainly must have answered the sceptics in the press box, but later in the day Captain Grumpy was rendered speechless after the Kaif assault.

Chasing 326 for victory, India were 146/5 with rookies Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh staring at the monstrous target. Millions of cricket fans across the country glued to their television sets watching the live coverage from England changed to some of the movie channels showing their Saturday special Bollywood blockbuster.

At the Kaif household, too, the mood was on similar lines. In fact, Kaif’s parents opted to witness the then just-released classic tragedy of Devdas on silver screen rather than sit and suffer India’s sob-story on cricket field that was threatening to unfold.

However, there were a few optimists who stayed tuned in and were gifted with a miracle, courtesy Mohammad Kaif! While India scored a historic win, the die-hards got the story of a lifetime that they will relish to narrate to those who had missed out. But the biggest gainer that day was Kaif, who with his knock of an unbeaten 87 signalled his arrival on the international arena. In the years to come, Kaif may go on to score a number of tons, but he will always cherish that Lord’s knock in the summer of 2002. It was the day the Mountain came to Mohammad.

Brief score

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England: 325 (M Trescothick 109, N Hussain 115; A Nehra 1/66, Z Khan 3/62, A Kumble 1/54). India: 326 (V Sehwag 45, S Ganguly 60, Yuvraj Singh 69, M Kaif 87; Tudor 1/62, Flintoff 2/55, Irani 2/64).

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