England set to be best in the world

The English are besides themselves: with the win against India in the First Test, they have broken the back of the Indian run to becoming the true World Champions in Cricket.

The resounding victory over India by 196 runs in the First Test which concluded at the holy land of cricket Lord’s on Monday is testament to this.

Another victory in one of the remaining Three Tests and England will have their dream come true . And if and when that happens, world cricket will have a new agenda of how to overcome the invincible English.

India was riding a crest of a wave of success after their memorable 2011 World Cup victory and their triumph in the recent Test series against the West Indies in the Caribbean.

Their cricketing heroes flew into the land where cricket all began, confident that they could roll over the Brits and maintain their hard won success. But they did not bargain for a well drilled home team who always take the field with a will to win.

World champions

With India the world champions in both formats of the game - Test and One-day cricket - and with the Brits determined to bring the Indians down from their perch, the stage was set for a block buster series.

But if the just concluded First Test told the story and if that is how the remaining Three Tests are going to end, then the Brits, at the end of the series will be singing that... perennial - We are the champs.

When Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and asked England to bat in overcast conditions, it was the right decision. Conditions were ideal for seam and swing bowling and the batsmen were going to have a torrid time in their effort to survive.

But instead of reveling in these conditions, the Indian pace trio of Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma were sadly found wanting. They either pitched short and were off line for most of the time. What they had to do was to keep the ball up and let the prevailing conditions to do the rest. But that they did not do.

Two sessions

True that only nearly two sessions of play was possible on the first day. Had the Indian seamers exploited the conditions, the time would have been sufficient for them to make inroad and capture more than the two wickets they had to show for their trouble.

On the second day the conditions were ideal for batting and did not the Brit batsmen revel, especially Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior. Pietersen made a rare double hundred and wicketkeeper Matt Prior who is turning out into being a top wicketkeeper batsman made merry and that was the beginning of the end for the Indians.

With the Brit seamers James Anderson, Chris Tremlett and Stuart Broad, making good use of the conditions and giving their Indian counterpart a lesson, the Brits remained on top and when victory finally came it was well deserved, because they played the better cricket.

True that Sachin Tendulkar was suffering from a viral infection. But he looked a sad sack the manner in which he batted in the second innings. It was painful watching the batsman who has been tagged the master and the greatest.

Pat ball cricket

He was poking and playing pat ball cricket and going strokeless and scoreless over after over, so much so that the Indians supporters who had outnumbered the Brit supporters in frustration began to boo and slow hand clap the great master. It would have been anathema to Tendulkar.

Had he been unfit, instead of sullying his exceptional reputation, he could have refused to bat. And in losing India could well have found an excuse saying that their losing was brought about because of the absence of Zaheer Khan and Sachin Tendulkar.

It was also a bit of a laugh and a mockery to watch captain Dhoni shedding his wicket keeping gloves and pads and roll his arm over. The excuse was that India were one bowler short because Khan was out with a hamstring strain. But Dhoni coming on did not make any difference. His up and downers helped the England batsmen get their eyes in.

If England’s convincing victory is an indication, then they will clean sweep the remaining Three Tests, unless India can raise their game and rise Phoenix like from the Ashes.

Glowing tributes

Last week in Parliament the vote of condolence was taken up on the late Foreign Minister Harold Herat and a precedence was created by the glowing tributes paid to his wife Gwen at the end of each and every magnanimous tribute paid to the late gentleman politician.

During the tributes paid to Harold, members from both the government and opposition were justifiably lavish in their praise and recognition of Gwen’s efforts where she helped women’s cricket from scratch to ICC level.

Nowhere in the world has a parliament paid accolades to a single cricket administrator. They all spoke about her efforts for cricket, especially in the Puttalam District and in the men’s game as well.

Popular cricket promoter and commentator and advisor to the President A.H.M. Azwer elaborated on the excellent work done by Gwen.

Dinesh Gunawardena, Karu Jayasuriya, John Ameratunge, Milroy Fernando and her former colleague at the Cricket Board, Thilanga Sumathipala all rose to the occasion to pay tribute to Gwen and to her late husband Harold who was a friend of theirs.

The ICC and the local women cricketers should be happy that women’s cricket here is what it is today because of Gwen’s honesty and hard work and it was a feather in her cap that glowing tributes to her was paid in parliament.

In 2009 Gwen was the recipient of the achievement award for her contribution to the game from the ICC.

Congratulations Gwen and also our heartfelt condolences on the passing away of your husband and sportsman Harold four years ago.

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