Waiting Like Vultures

I log on to MSN Messenger and happen to glance at the MSN Today thing (one thing whose purpose I have never really understood) and am irritated but not totally surprised (nor sad) to read a feature titled "Battle Ahead". It alludes to that great artist Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman and says that there will be no great tears shed if Laxman is dropped.

OK. It is fashionable in Indian cricketing circles to demand that Laxman be dropped. Just as it is fashionable to say that Agarkar is useless, that Kaif has no class, that Dravid cannot lead and until recently that Yuvraj is just a overhyped superstar who never delivers. Apparently when you say such things you are considered "mod".

So cricket fans from all cross-sections of Indian society say these things. In particular they allude to the fact that Laxman should be dropped either directly (in informal face-to-face meetings) or suggest that although he is making decent scores he is looking completely out of sorts (Prem Panicker on his rediff blog) ** I would have provided the link but that extremely annoying interface on rediff is so user-unfriendly that it takes an age to search for a post, so you go figure.

And then there are the Gangulians who are waiting for another big fish - here too I sense 2 categories - one who feel that by dropping Laxman somehow they will feel less bad about Ganguly's dropping. The others feel that by dropping Laxman more Indian fans will be antagonised against the GC-RD combo and hence their pro-SG stand will gather further strength.

Such is the pathetic state of affairs. That people are waiting with bated breath like vultures for the fall from grace of God himself. Hence no surprise on that diabolical MSN Today Headline. Irritation yes, because despite awareness of this underlying pessimisti, ill-wishing current for a site to come up with a statement that says no tears are likely to be shed if he is dropped even before the poor guy has come in to bat is downright deplorable.

However I am not too sad because I have full faith in VVS as well as the RD/GC combo. RD knows that VVS is too good a player to be sacrificed just like that. What I am not sure about is how much mental strength VVS has to cope with this extremely cruel pressure put on him. If it was RD himself I would have been confident that he would come up with a performance that would slap the critics bang in the face. But VVSs forte is not his mental strength - it is his God-given skill with the bat - it lies in his wrists, his eyes, his instincts, not in his feet or his mind.

Note that up until now I have not even tried to defend VVS simply because he does not need any defense. In fact if you just look at his recent performances, he has really only failed in Karachi where all batsmen except Yuvraj failed (and I stress ALL, I consider Ganguly's two thirties as failures). Prior to that he has had a fine 90 at Faisalabad, a superb backs-to-the-wall hundred in Ahmedabad and a lovely breezy 69 at Delhi. So basically in his last 4 tests that he got a chance to bat he has at least scored 69+ in one innings of 3 of them. Of course there is no point in defence because if someone's arguement is that yes, he is making the scores but he is looking like a fish out of water what can I say ? (again arguement of Prem Panicker)

So now consider this - back in the early 2000s when he was making scores of 30-70 which were extremely pretty he was being slammed for writing a beautiful short piece of poetry where a serious dissertation was needed. Now that he has decided to knuckle down people accuse him of "not quite being VVS and being a pain to watch".

Hell, just forget it. I ask you people to just clear your poisoned minds for a second. OK. Now go back to March 2001 and relive that innings of 281 - that innings which prompted writers to term it as a Laxmanayan, that innings which ensured that VVS would be immortalized in history books even if he had retired the next day - just let your head get the fact that the person you are talking about is not some average test batsman like Sourav Ganguly - he is one of the greatest artists India has produced in the last decade along with AR Rehman.

Enjoy his art while it lasts. Do not try to quantify it in terms of averages please. Please, pretty please, do not hope for and rejoice in his fall - a fall which is existent merely in your corrupt minds.