Sourav Ganguly’s team may be under intense pressure from a billion cricket-crazy fans, but the four junior batsmen in the Indian team have been told to play without fear of failure.
The senior players have taken the pressure off four batsmen — Virender Sehwag, Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Mongia — allowing them to indulge in aggressive strokeplay.
The enthusiasm of the youngsters has helped transform India into a genuine World Cup contender. ”It’s the backing that we’re getting from the captain and the senior players that’s put the fear of failure out of our mind,” says Yuvraj Singh, the middle-order batsman whose 50s against Pakistan and Kenya played a big part in two of India’s recent victories.
Crowe backs Kiwis
Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe was born in New Zealand, lives in Australia and carries an Australian passport. He usually supports Aussie teams, but he’s getting behind the Kiwis at the cricket World Cup, at least since his mate Shane Warne departed to face doping charges.
Crowe’s cousins Jeff and Martin were both former New Zealand cricket captains and Jeff is the manager of New Zealand’s World Cup team.
Crowe, the star of Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind, sent the New Zealanders a message of encouragement ahead of the crucial Super Six against the Australians at Port Elizabeth. ”He and I had a quick chat and he’s wished us all the best,” Jeff Crowe was quoted saying by the New Zealand Press Association.
Jeff Crowe said that if champion legspinner Warne — who is serving a 12-month ban after testing positive to a banned diuretic — isn’t in the Australian cricket team, his Russell cousin supports the New Zealanders.
Indian outcry
Indian cricketers felt the ire of fans during an unconvincing start to the World Cup. Newsbreakers haven’t been spared either, if fans think their reports will unsettle the Cup campaign.
A website that broke the story about star batsman Sachin Tendulkar asking for a bunch of lighter, seasoned bats from a clubmate in Bombay came in for abuse from the fans.
Tendulkar usually uses a heavy bat, but this time the request was for bats which weighed slightly less, considering the pitches in South Africa are fast and he wanted to be on top of the deliveries when playing horizontal shots.
Tendulkar, the leading century-maker in limited-overs internationals and No. 1 batsmen in World Cups, had previously only used lighter bats on a doctor’s suggestion when recovering from a severe back problem.
The difference in the weight was just 50 grams — the heavier ones weighed 1 300 grams — but the mere suggestion of Tendulkar changing his winning methods incensed Indian fans.
The website www.rediff.com says it was bombarded with e-mails accusing it of ”spreading needless panic and confusion in the Indian team.”
Australian coach John Buchanan said Tendulkar’s lighter bat had allowed him to cope with the South African conditions, but the batting maestro’s form might be masking a problem for India.
Tendulkar has scored 571 runs from eight matches, improving on the tournament record 523 he set in 1996. ”Obviously India are going all right and part of that success is due to Tendulkar,” Buchanan said. ”He excites their team, excites their fans and gets their batting off to a good start.
”He’s obviously an extremely dangerous player but there’s a question mark there about how they will go if he doesn’t bat (well) or if he isn’t allowed to.”
A form slump for the opener could derail India’s entire campaign. ”That’s a significant factor for India, I think. Tendulkar has the ability to get them on their way. But without him making runs, you have to wonder what happens next.
Australia beat India by nine wickets in the first round, when Tendulkar scored 36 runs from 59 balls. Tendulkar was out for five as the Indian top order crumbled against Kenya, but skipper Sourav Ganguly salvaged the innings and a win with an unbeaten century.
Million dollar men
Glenn McGrath should be the first Australian cricketer to burst through the million-dollar barrier in playing payments for a season if the world champions can retain the World Cup. Under a deal struck between the cricketers’ union in the Australian Cricket Board, the players will split the $2-million prize money if they win the March 23 final at Wanderers.
The players also get bonuses for touring, incentives for winning and match fees for each test and limited-overs international. There’s also a tiered system for base salaries, with McGrath on the top rung.
He earns an estimated 440 000 Australian dollars ($270 000) a year for his base contract. Australian Cricketers Association chief executive Tim May said the advent of the first million-dollar players was a significant milestone for cricket in Australia.
”When you are the best 10 or an 11 in an industry in Australia that commands over 100 million (Australian) dollars per annum, you deserve to reap those sort of rewards,” May told the Courier-Mail newspaper in Brisbane, Australia.
The World Cup deal is the most lucrative incentive offer ever offered to Australian cricketers and is part of an overall increase in sponsorship revenues for the World Cup.
Apart from the $2-million winners’ check, the runners-up get $800 000 and the losing semifinalists get $400 000. On top of that, teams get $40 000 for winning each Super Six match and $10 000 for winning group matches. – Sapa-AP