It was in early 2001 I remember, when I started comprehending the gentleman’s game. My father had always romanticized cricket throughout his life. India, at that point of time, was just coming out from the match fixing scandal and it had to be rebuilt. My very first fond memory of India doing good in foreign conditions was the win in Engalnd, in 2002. That Natwest Trophy final in Lord’s was one of the most defining moments of that particular era- the era that laid the foundation of ‘Fab 4’, but I would always say it was ‘Fab 5’; Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman and you would never keep Kumble out of the equation. I remember, that final was played on a Sunday and unlike the more realistic grey and gloomy conditions that one usually attaches with London it was bright blue skies and the sun was beaming. Naseer Hussain and Marcus Trescothick hammered their way through the Indian bowlers. Chasing a mammoth 326, (at that time it was a big deal) India began well enough just to lose the fizz with back to back wickets and left themselves reeling at 146/5. I might be a little fuzzy with the scores but am almost sure this was the score when they lost their 5th wicket before Yuvraj and Kaif joined forces to take the game away from the Britishers. A missed run out opportunity and ZaK and Kaif ran with their hearts in their mouth which was followed by that epic moment of our beloved Dada taking his jersey off to to give an answer back to Andrew Flintoff. India had gone on to play a few finals but that win was the second most famous after the ’83 World Cup win. That set the tone for the team.
In the coming year, they drew the Test series in Australia, the 2003 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 1-1! The series of retirement for the great Aussie giant Steve Waugh. A team that comprised of Virender Sehwag as an opener followed by Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman, alomost sent down shivers through the spine of any opposition. The outstanding feature of that team was the attitude of not giving up, much like the current crop of players! It had so happened specially in Australia where the conditions are a little more batting friendly as compared to other countries like South Africa/ England and New Zealand that the Indian teams had come close to almost beat them in the test series. It had actually happened for so long a time that it was almost presumed it was an impossible task. There have always been evidence to do so. India at that point of time did not perform well in South Africa and neither in New Zealand. It took India 5 (2010-11) tours to draw a test series in South Africa and give their best performance in the shortest format of the game losing the One day series by 3-2 and winning the sole T-20I. It was actually in the early part of Dhoni’s era where India had performed reasonably better than their previous visiting teams. They won their first tour in New Zealand since 67-68 in 2008-09 when, India won the test series 1-0 and the ODI series 3-1. This victory was preceded by their first CB series victory in Australia defeating the kangaroos for the first time in the tri -series. The success story began with the young Indian team winning the their maiden T20 World Cup in it’s first edition but the second half of the story is rather sad.
Dravid’s captaincy period for the Indian team and his partnership with Chappell was rather one unwanted period of controversy specially with the constant chopping and changing it comprised of. The win in Johannesburg in 2006, the 1-0 win England in the test series and the narrow series loss in that summer in England with a scoreline of 4-3 were one of the fewest high points under his captaincy. India started their trend of tagging themselves with more wins in home conditions which by the time Dhoni took charge had proliferated to an extent which rewarded themselves with the numero uno position in the game’s longest format for the first time in the history only to spiral themselves down in the early part of the present decade!
Just not the regular Guy! 