Major ‘issues’ in Australian cricket

If Wisden is widely accepted as the Bible of cricket diehard cricket fans in Australia and elsewhere treat the ABC Cricket Bookmdashpublished by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation season after seasonmdashas a fine companion while indulging in their sporting adorationFirst published in 1934 the latest one for the 202425 season features Pat Cummins and Rohit Sharma on the cover above the words SHOWDOWNmdashAustralia and India to settle score across 5 epic Tests Indian cricket followers too used to lap up tour brochures but that has become a thing of the pastThe 194748 edition had a glowing tribute paid to Indian cricket by SP Foenander before Lala Amarnathrsquos men began their fiveTest series Down Under ldquoA country that can produce a Ranji a Duleep a CK Nayudu a Pataudi Sr and a VM Merchant with its vast population many of them as crazy about the game as the most enthusiastic in England and Australia is bound sooner or later to challenge the supremacy of the older cricket nationsrdquo How prophetic That said India didnrsquot win a Test series in Australia till 201819 although there were Test wins in Melbourne and Sydney in 197778 at Melbourne in 198081 at Adelaide in 200304 and the 200708 Perth win The closest India came to winning the silverware called the BorderGavaskar Trophy since 1996 before the 201819 triumph was in 197778 and 200304 Both teams arrived in Adelaide in 1978 with two wins apiece and Australia led by Bob Simpson clinched an exciting victory While Bedi and BS Chandrasekhar were the bowling stars Sunil Gavaskar scored 450 runs embellished with three centuries in the first three Tests at Brisbane Perth and Melbourne His 197778 exploits were highlighted in his profile for the 198081 edition of the ABC Cricket Book ldquoGavaskarrsquos approach to the game is built on the pillars of technical competence and a shrewd cricketing brain Capable of a pleasing array of strokes remarkable for their technical excellence his greatness is inherent in his capacity to mould his innings to the requirements of the situationrdquoTest cricketrsquos top century scorer from 1983 to 2005 did not score a century on that 11 tour but there were two tons on the nextmdashthe 198585 battle which ended 00That summer witnessed the presence of Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee and the anticipation of watching two champions in the oneday triangular series was understandableldquoCold statistics do not always give the measure of a man In the case of Hadlee and Kapil Dev however the figures alone are remarkably eloquent Kapil Dev has played 68 Tests for India reaping 2788 runs and 258 wickets Hadlee has played 57 Tests for 2088 runs and 266 wicketsrdquo wrote Norman Tasker in the 198586 ABC BookThe 199192 tour of Australia was Indiarsquos first since Gavaskar bid goodbye to cricket and the first one for Sachin Tendulkar Harsha Bhogle wrote a piece on Indiarsquos tour prospects and the player profiles While Bhogle waxed eloquent on Mohammed Azharuddin he wrote that Tendulkar has ldquoa most charming freshness has remarkable maturity and mental strength A naturally aggressive player with massive forearms Tendulkar has the ability to turn a match around in no timerdquo When it came to stating the probable ldquotrue inheritor of the Gavaskar legacyrdquo Bhogle named Sanjay ManjrekarAustralia were the out and out world champions of cricket by the time India visited them again In my copy bought from a convenience store in Brisbane where the 19992000 triangular series kicked off cricket writer and historian Gulu Ezekiel quoted Bishan Singh Bedi saying that Tendulkar was ldquothe greatest living IndianrdquoIndia didnrsquot compete well with Australia on that 19992000 tour but the next one in 200304 had even Australian cricket fans raving about Sourav Gangulyrsquos team even though the preview writers didnrsquot seem too optimisticFor the 200708 guide they asked me to write a piece on Sachin Tendulkar on what could be his last tour to Australia ldquoThis summer Australiarsquos cricketloving public has a chance to bid farewell to another heavy batwielding great when Sachin Tendulkar plays his last Test series Down Underrdquo I was wrong for Tendulkar was also on the 201112 tour Before the Mumbai master no Indian player had undertaken five Test trips to Australia Kohli has just joined Tendulkar for Test tour No 5And while we can see that the Aussie newspapers have gone to town over the Indian batting great I learn that the 202425 Season Guide has a onepager on Kohli in which writer Callum Hill has called him ldquothe Picasso of getting underneath his opposite numberrsquos skinrdquoJim Maxwell 74 has been the enduring tour guidersquos editor since 1988 That was before Tendulkar put on an India cap before Shane Warne bowled his first ball in Test cricket before Mark Waughrsquos sparkling 199091 debut before the present India captain Rohit Sharma turned one and before Pat Cummins was bornIn a way the ABC Season Guide is one for all seasonsmiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper