The Melbourne Cricket Ground celebrates it’s 100th Test Match. Like a batsman who’s century is in doubt because one of his “runs” may have actually been a leg bye, the MCG reaching three figures has been a matter of some dispute. The most consequential Test Match after the Second World War was rained off at Melbourne during the 1970-71 Ashes and different statisticians view this differently – a few think it was a Test which was rained off, a few others think it (more accurately) was never a Test.
The latter view is more accurate for the simple reason that Ray Illingworth and Bill Lawry never went out to toss for the Test Match. They did Toss for what became the first One Day International. Consequently, the 2007 Boxing day Test is the 100th Test to be played at the MCG. It is quite fitting that it should be an India v Australia contest and not the Ashes contest (which it would have been had Lawry and Illingworth tossed in 1970) of 2006. That was a dead rubber in the what was the most anticlimactic Test series in living memory.
This Melbourne Test features the two most successful Test teams of the year. Both sides are studded with enormously accomplished cricketers. India go in with three players having played 100 Tests. Sourav Ganguly will join the club at the MCG as he takes the field for the 100th time in Tests for India.
How much does India’s standing as a Test team of significant merit have to do with the influence of Sourav Ganguly? This Test team was formed during his tenure as captain and has been built around the accomplishment of the 4 hundred test men, VVS, Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh. It emerged from the debacle of match-fixing and Sourav Ganguly built this team in his image. Young players were encouraged to express themselves and along with Wright, Ganguly set about rebuilding the team in his own image. Ironically, his own game deteriorated alarmingly in the process. Ganguly’s team was at its peak between July 2002 and May 2004. This was the period when all the quality was translated into results consistently. India didn’t have a poor series in this period barring the misadventure on the under prepared wickets in New Zealand on the eve of the 2003 World Cup. Ganguly’s decline began after May 2004 and the 2004-05 season was a disaster. By then he had almost completely lost his fluent assertive capacity with the bat. His innings were usually attritional bouts consisting of large periods of shaky defense interspersed with staccato bursts of pre-meditated hitting. In Test cricket he was struggling, while in ODI cricket he got away with opening the batting. Even there, his results were fine against the minnows, but he struggled against good opposition.
The result was that he lost the captaincy as well as his place in the side. It was probably the best thing that happened to him. Rahul Dravid took over and carried on Ganguly’s good work. It was a difficult act to follow. Ganguly had been a popular captain and his shadow is still writ large on this side over two years after he was dismissed.
It would be fair to say that Sourav Ganguly has been the most inconsistent, unpredictable Indian middle order batsman in this decade. In this decade, Ganguly has averaged 39.93 in Tests compared to Tendulkar’s 53.41, Laxman’s 49.93, Dravid’s 58.69. He has played some of the most memorable innings by an Indian batsman in Test cricket. The numbers do not support the argument that he has struggled in fast bowler friendly conditions. He has made plenty of runs in England and Australia. His struggle has largely been in India, where his batting average drops to 36.50, and these numbers include his recent mammoth series at home against Pakistan. He has reached fifty 7 times in 45 innings and if you exclude the Pakistan series, he reached fifty 4 times in 39 outings in India in this decade. By comparison Dravid and Tendulkar make 50 or more once in 3 innings on average.
As he prepares to take the field in his 100th Test, in the 100th Test at one of the world’s great cricket grounds, as the in form batsman for his side, he will walk on to a stage that is tailor made that is ready made for yet another Ganguly special. He defined the 2003-04 tour for India with a brilliant 144 at Brisbane after Dravid, Sehwag and Tendulkar had fallen within 5 runs of each other.
It will be a great occasion. I suspect the Prince of Calcutta will make it his own…….
Kartikeyadate's Weblog 
December 25, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Series averages are quite misleading. In Aus tour 03, Sehwag had a success of 5/6 (2 inngs disregarded), yet his failure in 2nd at Melbourne was inexcusable but predictable. Sachin ‘failed’ in the first 3 tests, and had only one hugely signficant inngs at Sydney. Of the first 5 inngs, one was a very poor decision and another was a fighting 30+ (neither were failures as such).
Ganguly played a crucial part in two tests. At Brisbane, he made a mark by lifting the ball over slips and piercing the offside field. At Melbourne, he was pulling Brett Lee regularly. It was an example of how to go about the bowling. A wild shot in 4th test (only inngs) should be disregarded. His dismissal in first inngs at Melbourne triggered a collapse – VVS, Gangly and Partiv Patel the main culprits- but he made up for it in the second inngs. It was an unfortunate dismissal because the lower order was also wanting to make amends.
Ganguly’s mistake was with the captaincy. If he is honest, he should not have picked Zaheer at Melbourne. (He did that with Nehra, in prior ODIs, Balaji in later ODIs, overused Agarkar who then got injured in VB triseries). Zaheer was effectively a passenger. Australia went on the offensive, rattled off runs and went ahead in the morning of day 3. There was a chance to wrap up Australia early, but it is not clear whether India would have scored more runs in the 2nd inngs. There was some concern over the pitch, but IMHO, Australia would still have won by making an extra 50-100 runs.
The last test v Eng was an interesting match. It started in damp conditions. Warne took 5 for in the first innings, then nothing from spinners later. Pacers made the initial impact for Australia. Then England took 5 cheap wickets. Most of these dismissals were caught by keeper or slips, indicating significant seam movement. In the second inngs, Pacers came to the fore, but mainly with bowled and LBWs, indicating a lot of uneven bounce and poor techniques.
Issacn