Without Sachin, India neither score nor scare

Across playing fields in cricket and football, the Fear Factor — or lack of it — has made its presence felt over the past weeks.

Once upon a time, the Indian cricket team too had the Fear Factor: It was called Sachin Tendulkar. Even in his poorest form, Tendulkar, so long as he was in the team, had the ability to put the opposition on the back foot. When he walked out to bat, there would be a frisson of fear running through the bowler’s mind, the field would instinctively take a step or two back.

It’s not so much what he did as what he was capable of doing. What he brings to field when he walks in to bat is a Reputation: 37 tons in 339 ODIs and an average of 45.01; 33 tons in 114 Tests and an average of 57.39.

When India walked out at Edgbaston yesterday, and during their recent dismal run, all the opposition had to worry about was whether Sehwag would choose to fire and who would keep Dravid company for his limpet-like stay at the crease.

Fear figured nowhere in the mindset.

Other players play more important roles in the team, are more consistent, but none captures the imagination as much as Tendulkar. Other emotions are evoked but none has the power of sweat-inducing, stomach-churning Fear.

Dravid inspires respect, admiration, adulation, but not fear; you know he won’t carve you up and anyway it’s a matter of time before he runs out of partners. Irfan inspires wariness, circumspection but even that pales once you realise there’s no supporting cast in the bowling department. Ganguly can’t seem to inspire even his own team.

And though Rana Naved-ul said on Sunday that Sehwag’s wicket was the one he prized the most, the Delhi batsman evokes not so much fear as uncertainty, and equally among teammates and opponents.

With the Australians due in a fortnight, India will need to do better than this. Or they can look at two giant football clubs currently resembling defanged lions: Real Madrid and Manchester United, once all-conquering, whose swagger stemmed from the knowledge that the weight of talent on the team-sheet was worth a goal or two.

Today, opponents smell the fear in Real, they smell the sweat brought on by frayed nerves struggling to justify bloated wages. Zidane still has his moments of genius; once upon a time it was the icing on the cake, today there is no cake to ice. Not one player is big enough to chill the hearts of opponents; the Galacticos are now mere earthlings.

Real thought they had taken the first step towards re-making that cake by appointing Jose Antonio Camacho as coach; his resignation on Monday, two weeks into the new season, means the recipe hasn’t been very successful.

Manchester United, similarly lacking a Very Big Player, have a deeper fear: the fear of ending up like Liverpool, a decade and counting out of the Premiership reckoning and without a return in sight. The fear is compounded by the fact that, barring a spectacular current season, the balance of power will be deemed to have shifted to London. And it will be years — if ever, given the economic and cultural pull of the national capital — before it can be tipped back.

On Monday night, against Liverpool (isn’t sport full of delicious irony), United can take their first big step towards recovery. And the Fear Factor will be complete if a certain Wayne Rooney is on the bench.

For India, having Tendulkar on the bench isn’t good enough. The future isn’t as bleak as for the football teams — it can’t be, cricket is pursued seriously by half a dozen countries — but they need him out there, scoring runs and scaring the opposition.