The start of something Sunny

India-Aus Test cricket was given impetus with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, whose inaugural edition was played 25 Octobers ago

When Australian cricket writer Mike Coward landed in Mumbai for his Tied Test-famous 1986 tour of India, the immigration officer, in Coward’s words, “ignoring the Australian coat of arms on the cover of the passport,” asked him from which country he was coming from.

“Allan Border’s country,” replied Coward. The immigration officer may or may not have been impressed with Coward’s way of saying Australia, but little did the fine cricket writer from Down Under realise that his future tours to India a decade later would be for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which has added much sparkle to Australia-India cricket rivalry.

Twenty-five Octobers ago, the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy was played at the Kotla in New Delhi.  It was a game Australia will not recall in glee with Mark Taylor’s Australians losing the October 10-14 scheduled Test inside four days. Taylor had no hesitation in batting first in the one-off Test and in no time, his team were struggling to cope with the turning ball. Anil Kumble, Aashish Kapoor and Sunil Joshi formed the spin trio while Venkatesh Prasad opened the bowling with Test debutant David Johnson, who was in the side in place of Javagal Srinath.

Australia too had a high-profile player out through injury—Shane Warne—who withdrew from the tour due to a finger injury. Fellow leggie Peter McIntyre took his place on the basis of his fine 1995-96 Sheffield Shield-winning season for South Australia. Taylor told reporters at the start of the tour in Mumbai that McIntyre “will surprise a few blokes.” He did surprise spectators at the Kotla when he got a dangerous-looking Tendulkar to edge one to Mark Waugh at first slip off a delivery that turned a fair bit.

Earlier, Australia were bowled out for 182 on Day One with Michael Slater top-scoring with 44. Steve Waugh’s start to Border-Gavaskar Tests was a blob, caught behind off Kapoor. Journalist Malcolm Knox came up with an interesting story in his book Taylor and Beyond where he wrote about Ian Chappell (part of the commentary team for that Test) telling Glenn McGrath over a drink that he was batting better than his NSW batting stalwart. McGrath duly conveyed Chappell’s thoughts to Waugh at breakfast the following morning and Waugh has been quoted in the book as saying, “f*****g hell, I’ll show him.” Chappell couldn’t remember his conversation with McGrath when we spoke yesterday, but said it would surely have been a “tongue-in-cheek” utterance.

Anyway, Waugh took it seriously and refused to be dismissed in the second innings. “His [Chappell’s] sarcasm added fuel to the fire and heightened my desire to stand up and be counted. It culminated in one of my proudest works of unfaltering concentration and watertight defence, as I scored 67 not out against the maestro of powdering surfaces and uneven bounce, Anil Kumble,” wrote Waugh in Out of My Comfort Zone.

India’s first innings total of 361 was punctuated with a fine 152 by Nayan Mongia as opener and Sourav Ganguly’s 66. Ganguly missed out on emulating his ex-captain Mohammed Azharuddin’s feat of scoring three hundreds in his first three Tests.

Kumble was the scourge of the Australians by bagging nine wickets in the Test, which India won by seven wickets but Mongia got the man-of-the-match award for his ton. “I was told in advance that I would be opening the innings, so I spent a lot of time practising. I was physically and mentally prepared,” the Baroda-based wicketkeeper-batsman told me on Tuesday. His biggest challenge came in the form of “nippy” Paul Reiffel, who tested Mongia with his “in-cutters and reverse swing.” 

Tendulkar had the distinction of winning on his captaincy debut. More joy was in store at the Titan Cup final in Mumbai, where South Africa were conquered, followed by the 2-1 home series win over the Proteas.

Despite the Aussies not having Warne and Craig McDermott, they were still a formidable side. But Tendulkar exuded confidence when I met him at Mumbai’s domestic airport before he boarded the flight to Delhi for the one-off Test. “Yes, they’re a tough side, but our bowlers are capable of bowling them out twice. Our bowlers have so much talent and potential that if we click at the right time, we will be a very hard side to beat.” Team India proved their captain right.

Meanwhile, the Australia-India rivalry grew in strength and popularity with far more frequent series than before. Players not only competed, they fought like tigers and although there have been some over-the-top moments, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy has reached the stage where it is comparable only to the Ashes urn.

And I’m sure immigration officers don’t ask Australian cricket personalities from where they come anymore.

mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello

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