The good news, as everyone knows, is that the matches are high-scoring. The ease with which the teams have managed to cross 300 has shattered a few myths and ideas about the game. Which hasn’t surprised Ian Chappell one bit. ‘‘It is the nature of wickets being used that has changed the way the teams have been played. Wickets have been really flat, shorn of grass and life and so the teams have found it easy to make runs and big ones at that.’’ The bad news is that it’s shown up a paucity of ideas in both camps. India especially seems to be hitting the same notes each time they encounter a flat batting track. Whereas Pakistan the hosts have just not been able to channelise their awesome bowling talents. It just continues to thrive in mediocrity, which is a shame really because if they are more disciplined, Pakistan can really hurt most world teams. If you take out any Indian performance over the last couple of years and you will see more 300 plus scores than ever before. This is because the Indian team lacks as always bowlers who can bowl on a flat track and even injuries to key bowlers hamper the team. But what is surprising though that there has been no study or no planning being done by the support staff on the team’s bowling strategies. The same is true with Pakistanis, they have a captain who is just settling down and cannot be seen as taking tough decisions. Says former great Mushtaq Mohammed: ‘‘Inzamam is not one who will be a go-getter. If he was, he wouldn’t have chosen to field at Karachi, would he?’’ Coach Javed Miandad himself claimed he was doing it because he was dealing with an inexperienced side. ‘‘When your team is not matured and young, you need to do such things,’’ said Miandad in self-defence. But former Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam jumps to the defence of both the warring teams and claims it is more the nature of wickets that has made the teams looked clueless. ‘‘You cannot blame the teams, we have had some of the flattest wickets ever. And so naturally there have been some really brilliant performances with the bat.’’ This is an old card trick of the cricket administrators in the subcontinent where flat wickets have been the way to go for one-day cricket. It has worked to date, but how will it help in sustaining the interest of the fans is a matter of debate.
