Playing It My Way: My Autobiography (24 page)

When I had my kids at the turn of the century, technology was not as advanced as now and there was no option to use Skype or FaceTime. Had the technology been available, I’m sure I would have asked Anjali to bring Sara and Arjun in front of the webcam so that I could at least see my kids when I was off in some other part of the world. It would have meant not missing out on so many of the changes they went through.

After a couple of weeks at home following Arjun’s birth, I was back on the field at Mohali on 10 October captaining India against New Zealand in the first of three Tests. Just like the first time, the start to my captaincy was not too bad, as we beat New Zealand in the series, though we made it hard for ourselves in the very first innings at Mohali when we were bowled out for 83, with Dion Nash taking six wickets. It was just one of those days when nothing worked and we collapsed for one of our lowest ever scores on home soil. It seemed as if the ghost of Barbados was back to haunt me. This time, however, our bowlers did a good job restricting the Kiwis to 215 and we batted with a lot more discipline in the second innings. We scored 505, losing just three wickets, with both Rahul and me scoring hundreds, and the game ended in a draw.

The second innings, however, was not without incident. Chris Cairns, the New Zealand all-rounder, bowled a spell of excellent reverse swing. Part of the problem for Rahul and me was that he concealed the shiny side of the ball so well that there was no way for the batsman to work out which way the ball would swing. That’s when I came up with a plan. I suggested to Rahul that while it was impossible for the striker, it was not so difficult for the non-striker to work it out as he was far closer to Cairns. It was decided that while standing at the non-striker’s end, I would spot the shiny side and if it was on the outside of the ball, I would hold my bat in my left hand to indicate to Rahul that the ball would swing away from him. If the shiny side was on the inside, I would hold my bat in my right hand to indicate that the ball would be coming in to him. And if I was not able to figure out which way the ball would swing, I would hold my bat in the middle.

The plan worked surprisingly well and soon we were able to attack Cairns, who ended up going for 76 runs in his twenty-four overs without picking up a wicket. It took a while for Cairns to work out what we were doing. To catch us unawares, he decided to bowl a cross-seam delivery, so I held my bat in the middle to indicate to Rahul that I didn’t know which way the ball would swing. Soon after delivering the ball, Cairns turned towards me to see what I was doing. He was angry and frustrated and wanted to know how I had reacted to him bowling a cross-seam delivery. Winning this battle against Chris Cairns definitely helped us save the match.

In the second Test match, at Kanpur, we beat New Zealand comprehensively, with Kumble picking up ten wickets in the game, and in the final Test at Ahmedabad I scored a double hundred in a drawn encounter. At Ahmedabad we scored a mammoth 583 runs in the first innings and, despite bowling the opposition out for 308, did not enforce the follow-on. This was a unanimous decision taken in consultation with the fast bowlers, who were tired after an exhausting first-innings effort and needed some rest before they bowled again. We won the series 1–0 and then went on to win the ODI series 3–2. It may not have been ideal preparation for the tour to Australia that started at the end of the month, but a series win never does any harm.

During my second stint as captain we had Kapil Dev as our coach. He is one of the finest cricketers to have played for India and one of the best all-rounders of all time, and I had great expectations of him in Australia. I have always maintained that the coach’s job is an important one, for he is in a position to play a key role in formulating team strategy. Who better than Kapil to come up with options for me during a tough tour of Australia? However, his method of involvement and his thought process was limited to leaving the running of the team to the captain, and hence he did not involve himself in strategic discussions that would help us on the field.

Things did not start badly for us in Australia. Unlike in South Africa in 1996–97, we reached Australia a good two weeks before the series started and played three practice games before the first Test. All in all, we weren’t underprepared when we walked onto the field at the Adelaide Oval on 10 December 1999, and if the first morning was anything to go by, we were in with a good chance against the best team in the world.

Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad bowled extremely well to reduce Australia to 52–4 before lunch and we needed just one more wicket to get into the Australian lower middle order. We almost had that wicket in the form of the always dangerous Ricky Ponting, but he was given not out to a very close lbw shout early in his innings. He escaped again when he clearly under-edged a ball from Ajit Agarkar to the wicketkeeper MSK Prasad when on 62 but was again not adjudged out. Australia were still not out of the woods at that stage and that could well have been the opening we were looking for. However, luck was with Ponting on the day and he and Steve Waugh both went on to make big hundreds.

When it was our turn to bat, I faced a probing spell from Glenn McGrath towards the end of the day’s play, playing out five or six maiden overs in the process. Some people may have wondered why I allowed McGrath to bowl those maidens and why I was not playing my natural game, but Test cricket is all about getting into the mind of the opposition. After that passage of play, the Australians changed their tactics, and later Shane Warne told me that I had forced them to make the change. The Australian plan, I was told, was to make me leave 70 per cent of the deliveries in each innings. But with me playing out the maiden overs, they realized that attempts to frustrate me wouldn’t work. The next morning, I changed my strategy and hit McGrath for two boundaries in the first over.

In this Test match we were at the receiving end of what seemed to us to be a howler from umpire Daryl Harper. Sourav and I had embarked on a good fightback and I had scored 61. The team score was at 215–4 and another hundred runs could have helped set up the match, but just as we were looking to consolidate, Daryl Harper gave me out bat-pad to Shane Warne, caught by Justin Langer at forward short leg. I was sure I hadn’t hit the ball. Warne had pitched the delivery on my legs and the ball simply hit the pad before being caught by Langer. In the second innings I felt I was unlucky again. Glenn McGrath tried to bounce one at me but the ball actually stayed low. I instinctively ducked and it hit me on my shoulder. To everyone’s surprise, umpire Harper declared me out lbw. It was a strange decision, because there was surely no way it would have gone on to hit the stumps.

While I’m not trying to excuse our under-par performance, there’s no doubt that those decisions played a huge role in such a hard-fought Test match. To Australia’s credit, they capitalized on the opportunities and went 1–0 up as a result. In the second and third Tests of the series, however, we were comprehensively outplayed. Even when VVS Laxman produced a magical 167 in Sydney in the third Test, something that prompted me to ask the selectors to keep him back for the ODI series that followed, the result was never in doubt. McGrath and Brett Lee, who made his debut in the series, were exceptional and had great back-up in Damien Fleming and Shane Warne. We were never allowed to take charge and there’s no harm in conceding that Steve Waugh’s Australian team in 1999 was one of the best teams I ever played against.

Personally I had a pretty good series and batted well for a hundred at the MCG in the Boxing Day Test. However, it counted for nothing because I was not able to change the fortunes of the team. A hundred in a losing cause is something of a bitter pill. Even in the second innings I scored 52 and while it was a personal milestone, it was not enough to save the game.

After the 3–0 defeat in the Test series we lost the ODI tri-series with Pakistan and Australia, failing even to make the final. The tour had gone from bad to worse and I was deeply frustrated. On my way back to India I was going through serious mental turmoil. I was finding it difficult to unwind. In the past I had been able to leave the disappointments of cricket behind and switch off. Not this time. Even when I was with my kids, my mind was still on the series. I was unable to figure out what I was doing wrong. I was failing to get the team to play to their potential and it was all starting to get to me.

As a batsman, I was accountable for my own mistakes and could do what was required to sort out my flaws and get back to form. As a captain it was not. As skipper, I was responsible for the actions of my team-mates, but I couldn’t control everything they did. For example, sometimes I carefully put a plan in place but it was simply not implemented, which I found hard to cope with.

The ODI against Pakistan in Brisbane on 10 January 2000 is a case in point. It was a low-scoring game and we had made 195 batting first in our fifty overs. Pakistan, docked an over for a slow over rate, were reduced to 71–6 at one point in their innings. Clearly, we should have closed out the match from that position. Eventually, however, Pakistan won the match off the last ball, with Saqlain Mushtaq and Waqar Younis taking the team over the line with an unbeaten 43-run stand for the ninth wicket.

The defeat particularly hurt me because I had predicted what the Pakistani batsmen were planning in the final stages of the innings. While fielding at mid off, I had repeatedly spoken to my fast bowlers and had specifically asked them not to bowl a slower ball without informing me. Despite my repeated warnings, one of them bowled a slower ball without the proper field in place and the Pakistan batsman promptly dispatched it to the boundary. Such incidents caused me immense frustration and I was finding it increasingly difficult to get them out of my mind.

Even before the start of the Australia series, I had spoken to the selectors about appointing Sourav Ganguly as my deputy. I had always felt he had the ability to lead the team in my absence. If I got injured in Australia or had to leave the field temporarily, I wanted Sourav to be in charge of the side.

Within weeks of coming back from Australia I had communicated to BCCI president AC Muthiah and the selection committee that I did not want to continue as captain. It was in the best interests of the team to pass the baton to Sourav and focus on my batting. At the same time, we did not want to spring the Indian captaincy on him and leave him unsettled. He needed a little time to come to terms with the pressures and it was my responsibility to ensure that the transition was smooth. So I informed the selectors that I was happy to lead the side in the two home Tests against South Africa in February 2000. It was agreed that Sourav would take over after the Test series and before the start of the five-match ODI series.

I had discussed my decision with my family in Lonavla, where we had gone for a break. They were all in agreement that the frustration of not achieving what I wanted with the team was affecting me badly and that I was pushing myself too hard. Anjali knew how I was feeling and I also spoke to Ajit at length about what I was going through.

After giving up the captaincy at the start of 2000, I never captained India again. That is not to say I wasn’t given the choice of captaining the team later in my career. I was actually offered the job quite a few times but was never tempted. One occasion was soon after Rahul Dravid stepped down after the tour of England in September 2007.

The final time I was offered the job was at the end of Anil’s captaincy in late 2008. We were in the middle of a home series against Australia and Anil’s retirement had left a huge void. This time I recommended MS Dhoni. Earlier I had recommended him as captain for the Twenty20 World Cup, and Test captaincy was a natural progression.

Dhoni had already captained the team with distinction in the Twenty20 format and had also done well in the fifty-over format. He was one of the few players who played all formats of the game and read the game well at critical times. Having discussed things with him when fielding in the slip cordon, I knew he was a good choice for the job and had little hesitation in putting his name forward. He had age on his side and would be able to guide Indian cricket into the future.

All of the people I recommended or played under after giving up the captaincy – Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble or MS Dhoni – I had a good relationship with, and when I felt it necessary I would give them my opinion and then leave it to them to take the final call. As a senior player in the side, I felt it was my job to give the captain options, as he had way too much on his plate and it was sometimes easy to miss things. I loved being involved and they all seemed to welcome my contributions. The final decision was always the captain’s, but I felt it was important for me to let them know what I thought was best for the team.

Every captain I played under had his respective strengths. Sourav was an excellent strategist and had a very good understanding of the game. He was an aggressive captain and wasn’t afraid to experiment in difficult situations. It was under Sourav that we started winning overseas Test matches consistently.

Anil Kumble was an excellent communicator and clearly explained to the players what he wanted from each of them. He was aggressive and trusted his instincts. Sourav and Anil were both great players and equally capable leaders.

Rahul, on the other hand, was more conventional. He was more methodical and his mental toughness was an added strength. He was committed to the job but stayed away from experimenting too much. Dhoni, in contrast, was impulsive and loved to back his instincts. He has a really good grasp of the game and is not afraid to try something different. He is never flustered and handles pressure well. Under these men India won some big series and tournaments and I enjoyed playing with them all.