‘Aus tour will show if India learnt from failures’
KOLKATA: Given who he is and because Perth is where he is headed to, what Graeme Smith didn’t say perhaps mattered as much as what he did.
Sandpaper, Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith, David Warner, the Longstaff review report and its ramifications were things he omitted even while speaking about world cricket. Yet, at the second chapter of the Jagmohan Dalmiya annual conclave, the former South Africa captain didn’t flinch from citing some home truths.
Such as leaving out Ajinkya Rahane in Cape Town cost India a chance to win a Test series in South Africa; Kookaburra balls don’t pass his standards of quality control and Virat Kohli’s enthusiasm for Tests augurs well for the game’s longest version.
“Cricket doesn’t have a huge amount of superstars now,” said Smith, looking at an audience of which Mohammad Azharuddin, Carl Hooper and Sourav Ganguly were a part and where Rohit Sharma looked like a mortal because he was sat next to Brian Lara. “Virat is such a guy (who is a superstar). The fact that he loves Test cricket, wants to do well in it and keeps Tests relevant in a country that loves the IPL…IT is huge for the game. As long as Virat keeps promoting Test cricket, we all have a chance to keep the game relevant,” he said.
The Kookaburra balls too need to change for the sake of Test cricket. “The Kookaburra balls are letting people down. They go soft very quickly, don’t swing and the last thing Test cricket needs are boring draws,” said Smith.
Smith did speak about Australia but it was in the context of India going there. “They now have a great seam attack and would be disappointed not to have won a Test series in South Africa or England. But if they take the right lessons to Australia, India can be very successful.” Among the lessons, Smith mentioned Rahane not playing at Newlands.
November rain delayed the start of the evening by 42 minutes and when it did Ganguly, president of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), spoke of the greats in the audience before making a special mention for Lara. “Brian was one of my heroes. If anybody knew how to bat left-handed, it was him,” he said.
Next in the batting order, Smith felt it was his duty to correct the anomaly. “Sourav, it was humble of you to not include yourself in the echelon of greats,” he said. By way of a compliment, from one left-hander to another, from captain to another, from one opener to another, it couldn’t have been more appropriate.