A Bird's-Eye View

By Shankar Sengupta

Beamed from half-way across the world into my living room, at 4 am in the morning, was the live telecast of the first one-day international from Kolkata - Nasser Hussain's eleven against the Prince of Kolkata's eleven on the latter's home turf.

A long layoff between the Test series and the one-dayers had provided endless fodder for the gossip mill and the newspaper columns. It seemed that everyone had an opinion on everything - from Sourav Ganguly's plight to Darren Gough's newly earned millions, from Andrew Flintoff's disdain to the Cricket Association of Bengal's shenanigans with the English team's practice schedule, from the selectors' mercurial decisions to their equally shaky rationale for those decisions.

I imagined being in the shoes of one of those players making their debut at the Eden Gardens. The Eden Gardens - what an awesome feeling that must be. I also wondered what the fans would have done if Ashley Giles and Matthew Hoggard had pulled off a victory in the last few balls? I really did not want to find out. Kolkata is my hometown, and it has not made me proud in recent years.

It was nice to see Hemang Badani play well. I remember his innings in the series against Australia; amidst the heroics of VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh and Rahul Dravid, somehow Badani's century was the one that had stayed in my mind. It was good to see him back and do well. And welcome back after your hand injury, Dinesh Mongia.

But if we have the best opening pair in one-day internationals, why then did we pick six specialist batsmen? It almost looked as if the openers threw their wickets away so that the other batsmen could have a few overs to play and produce. Maybe we are really trying to evaluate talent for the next World Cup, but Sourav, did you really have to get out on 42? Don't you know that they are busy writing your obituary as I write this?

I also questioned the selectors' wisdom in dropping Deep Dasgupta from this one-day international. For heavens' sake, this was his home ground; Ajay Ratra could have debuted in Cuttack. And was Ratra's wicket-keeping really that much better?

One has to admire Ajit Agarkar; he gets dropped from the team at the slightest suspicion that there is some new tearaway from the Andamans who will take India to the next level. Yet the man fields like a demon and bowls intelligently whenever those prospects do not pan out and he is recalled.

The innings that Marcus Trescothick played will be in my memory for quite a while; thank you, Laxman, for dropping him on 2. Also, it was nice to see the smiling faces of Giles and Gough. I will soon forget Glenn McGrath's sullen muttering. Did Giles really blow a kiss at Badani? Now there is something the experts can write about, if they have the courage.

Over to the commentators. It seems like every ex-player in memory is now ensconced in the commentary box. I lost track of who was who as the Arun Lals and the Ian Bothams rubbed shoulders. Are some of these folks even qualified? They must have been reading some of the same articles on the Internet that I have been reading, as a part of their preparation. A conversation produced a commentary on how Sachin Tendulkar was the real captain, and how the younger players look up to him. The cameraman missed his cue at that point and should have cut to a lonely Ganguly looking helpless in the field.

The awards ceremony, at the end, took a long time to stage. The Jyoti Basus and sundry ministers and the district managers had to be gathered to form an imposing backdrop against which the captains and the Man of the Match could be interviewed. Hussain seemed grim, but he does wonders with the talent that he has under him. This must have been a hard one to lose. And thank heavens they did not ask Ganguly about his lack of form.

And finally, the umpiring. What about all those no-balls that were not no-balls, and what was up with that lbw decision against Trescothick? The late evening moisture must have misted the umpires' vision. But then again, as I said earlier, I really did not want to find out whether the Kolkatans had learned to graciously accept a defeat.

The views expressed above are solely those of the guest contributor and are carried as written, with only minor editing for grammar, to preserve the original voice. These contributed columns are solely personal opinion pieces and reflect only the feelings of the guest contributor. Their being published on CricInfo.com does not amount to an endorsement by CricInfo's editorial staff of the opinions expressed.
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