Lambs to the slaughter. That was what the Namibians must have felt after being on the wrong side of Tendulkar’s bat so to say. The Namibians had a good match against the Englishmen just the other day, but found the Tendulkar-Ganguly duo too hot to handle. Sehwag must have felt left out as Sachin and Sourav feasted on the ordinary Namibian attack. The hapless Namibians were carted mercilessly all round the park. And runs are runs, whether they are scored against Namibia or Australia. They go down in the record books. Besides, runs against one’s name do help to restore the confidence of the batsman who goes through a rough patch. As such, Ganguly must have thanked his stars for losing the toss, for had he won it, he possibly wouldn’t have got as many overs to bat as he did after he promoted himself in the batting order. The captain of the team does enjoy that prerogative to change his batting number. I hope he stays put at No. 3, at least for sometime to come. It’s sometimes very difficult to concentrate against a lowly team, for the bowlers are so unpredictable that the batsman has to work harder to stay focused. There is always a possibility of a bowler producing an unplayable delivery all of a sudden. Besides, it’s harder to raise one’s game if the attack is not up to the mark, and when there is no challenge. For all the teams in the competition, every point is important, and it will matter if there is a tie as far as points are concerned. Besides, there is always the possibility of inclement weather and points being shared. Thankfully for India, they got full points against Holland, Zimbabwe and Namibia. As a team, Namibia is as good as any club team in India, and it has a long way to go to attain international recognition. The ICC has programmes chalked out for such countries, and has employed coaches to train these teams. India’s World Cup hero, Roger Binny, has been in charge of cricket in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Namibia for the last couple of years or so. It must be a lot of hard work for Roger, for the locals over there do not have as much interest in the game of cricket as they have, say, for soccer and for other outdoor sports.
