WHEELING AWAY: Ajit Agarkar

Surveying his bowlers, Ganguly might echo the Duke of Wellington upon seeing his Irish troops—"I don't know if they frighten the enemy but by God they frighten me."

India cannot win the next World Cup. Indeed its hopes are the merest smoke and mirrors, a trick played upon the mind, a licence taken upon the emotions for India is bound to travel with expectations raised by fuss and the presence in the team of some mighty warriors. But a side is as strong as its weakest link and though India has some thick ropes there are also threadbare strands bound to break under the slightest strain.

Admittedly, World Cups are won by teams containing great players or else possessed or inspired strategy ahead of its times. India can take comfort from its powerful batting line-up besides which Sourav Ganguly might yet develop an idea so startling that the entire world will be temporarily dazzled. It is not all that hard: the fellow who invented the hula hoop and the frisbee died a rich man. Nonetheless, the waiting will be hard and the signs are ominous. Batting alone cannot win a tournament played on foreign pitches and spread over a month. Sooner or later the batting will fail and then it will be up to Ajit Agarkar and company to save the day. It is not exactly Robin Hood and the merry men of Sherwood Forest. How many of the Indian bowlers could secure a place in the Australian or Pakistani sides?

PROMISING WONDERS: Sehwag (left) and Yuvraj

Sehwag is clearly an audacious player and a joy to watch... Yuvraj has survived his early skirmish with fame, returning a better man.

Nor will it be any use trying to camouflage a lack of quality with numbers. Surveying his bowling resources Ganguly might echo the Duke of Wellington upon seeing his Irish troops-"I don't know if they frighten the enemy but by God they frighten me." Even the Australians have realised the foolishness of filling the side with fellows supposedly able to bat and bowl and actually competent in neither, not at this level anyhow. A team packed with allrounders can reassure a skipper till the match begins and then he realises he is as naked as the day he was born, and even more alarmed.

Pretty soon Shaun Pollock is sending down his humdingers or Brian Lara is swishing his willow around in the manner of an especially agitated Italian conductor whereupon the leader remembers that it is class alone that counts. Like a grand inquisitor, a 50-over team must keep asking the hard questions. It is all about pressure. Relax, send down a dorothy-dixer (as planted parliamentary questions are called Down Under) and the initiative will be lost, never to be recovered.

THE INDIANS OFF-DUTY

West End Boys Tendulkar with Kalidas The Indian cricket team IS enjoying the rare luxury of being relatively anonymous in England. Off-duty, they can wear their casuals and step out into the streets with no fear of being mobbed. The Indians turned out en masse for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s much-touted musical Bombay Dreams, letting others entertain them for a change. A special reception was held for the team at the Apollo Theatre in Victoria where they mingled with the lead cast of Dreams. Other than mutual curiosity, the cast and the team had little in common. The seniors were keen to watch the musical and the younger players came on their recommendation that it would be fun. Harbhajan Singh said, “Our seniors said the play is nice, so I have come along to watch. I have no idea what it is all about.” Then lead actor Raza Jaffery confessed sheepishly, “I am not into cricket. I really don’t know much about these guys but it is really good they have come to watch. We hope that they like it.” His leading lady Preeya Kalidas added, “I have heard my dad talk about the Indian team but I am really not into cricket.” The team’s next stop on the West End circuit is expected to be The Lion King. with Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar rather keen to see the musical. The Indians are, of course, sold on Bollywood too. There are plans for them to attend the UK premiere of the Shah Rukh Khan-Madhuri Dixit-Aishwarya Rai-starrer Devdas on July 12. Some like Harbhajan and Dinesh Mongia explored the more famous tourist spots; Mongia turned up at the Buckingham Palace gates but discovered it was closed to tourists while Harbhajan took in Big Ben and London Bridge. The team will also attend a cricket-related gala on July 23, when the legendary Sir Gary Sobers will give away the Wisden Indian Cricketer of the Century Award at the Wembley Stadium in London. —Ishara Bhasi

India can take some consolation from the emergence of several promising players in the last couple of seasons. Of course, we all get too excited about the first few appearances of a fresh talent and see in every flourish the unmistakable hallmark of greatness. Meanwhile the tried and trusted chuckle to themselves and go about their daily business of actually scoring runs and taking wickets. By and large the sceptics are right, as are the pessimists. Still, it is natural to wax lyrical about the newcomer. Sport, too, has its Nasdaq, its triumphs of hope over experience (someone put second marriages into this category also).

Happily the current crop of young Indian batsmen can really play, a point they are proving in damp and chilly England where the appearance of the sun is so rare that it provokes an immediate disrobing and a dash for the sensation of warm rays upon skin. Englishmen go out in the midday sun because it only emerges about once a month and is not to be spurned. These conditions test Indian batsmen in the same way that Kolkata streets test drivers used to the more tranquil pace of the Australian outback. Nonetheless Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh have made their marks with innings combining power, skill and temperament. Sehwag is clearly an audacious player and a bit of a rascal, excellent qualifications for opening the batting in these capers. He says he tries to bat like Sachin Tendulkar but, then, so does everyone else. The difference is that he can actually do it, now and then, more or less.

If he copies Tendulkar's game and retains his own character, after a little polishing, then he will be a fine player. Just because he has been badly treated by some nincompoop of a match referee and has scored a few runs does not make him either a hero or a champion. His injustice was not exactly the Dreyfus case and was used by the usual suspects to drum up support for their own still more dubious point of view. But he is a joy to watch at the crease and has the strength, boldness and licence given to youth, that precious time when failures are forgiven and successes praised to the skies.

Yuvraj has somehow survived his early skirmish with fame and has surely returned a better man and more accomplished player. His innings at Lord's against England was as timely as it was impressive as he laid about himself with the energy of a man released after a long confinement. Consistent scoring will be needed from him and his fellow greenhorns if India is to have any chance of reaching the semi-finals of the Cup.

Whenever a youngster scores 50 the world does go barmy. It is easily forgotten that Rahul Dravid played a crucial innings in India's first win and that Tendulkar was top scorer in the second victory. When Tendulkar falls for 40 we all pull long faces and wonder what has gone wrong with the blessed fellow. Sir Everton Weekes was right about him, pointing out that his chief problem is that he is made of flesh and blood. Everton deserved his title because he is a gentleman, which is more than can be said for Mick Jagger or Ian Botham whose cause is being pushed by numerous apologists.

It is right that Sehwag should open the batting, with Tendulkar in the middle order because it is important to give youth its head and let seasoned players pick up the pieces. Also this pair might not bat so well together apart from on a few explosive occasions. Better to have different sorts of batsmen at the crease to upset the bowlers, besides which it is not politic to put too many eggs in one basket. Tendulkar has been criticised for not finishing enough matches but he has hit 27 tons and India has won almost all those games. Moreover it is hard to open the batting and also execute the coup de grace. Risks must be taken in this form of the activity and batsmen tire as they go along so he cannot always be there at the end. Putting Tendulkar in the middle will help him to mature as a leader and as a player because it widens his experience. This might sound odd for a cricketer of his standing, but sometimes a man can lead from the front by moving down and putting himself amongst the deathly hushes and screams of the denouement. It is up to Tendulkar to give the innings its impetus. In the old days openers were taught to wear down the attack and soften the ball by attrition. Now it happens with a few lusty blows. Youth still reflects the optimism of the time before September 11.

India has started well in England and the team is settling down. At least there is a strategy in place. Ganguly would like to find a couple of top-class fast bowlers but time is tight. He is the right man to captain the team and must be supported till the campaign has been completed. Ganguly has his faults and numerous detractors, especially in Mumbai and amongst the television crowd, but his team plays with spirit.

After all he has presided over the greatest fightback known to cricket and his players promptly dipped into their own pockets to reward a young colleague for his hat-trick, a feat overlooked by the Cricket Association of Bengal. From anyone else these would be taken as signs of stirring leadership. Actually "Gangles" does a lot of stirring and is inclined to regard himself as some sort of post-colonial hero but he is harmless really and is scoring some runs. Ganguly is not the problem, nor is the batting or spin bowling, nor even the absence of Javagal Srinath who has looked hangdog since his seventh birthday. No, it is the pace bowling that will hold India back. Recently a tortoise lost a leg in deepest England and well-wishers duly attached a wheel in the appropriate place. Of course, the English are stark, staring bonkers, which was why Hamlet was sent there you may recall. Even so, the principle is right. India urgently needs to add some wheels to its attack because the batsmen will not always be able to save the day.

(Peter Roebuck, former Somerset captain, is among the world's leading cricket writers)