Monday, October 8, 2001 When there's a Kirsten in the South African side, India's batsmen would be well-advised not to score two centuries against them in a one-day match. It's simply not worth the effort, and perhaps even a bad omen. Ravi Shastri and Sanjay Manjrekar were undone by Peter Kirsten at Delhi in 1991, and at Johannesburg last Friday, it was his half-brother Gary who showed the Indians how one can be better than two.

Just before the Indian tour of South Africa began, Bob Woolmer awarded South Africa 9 out of 10 on skills to India's 7.5 in a newspaper interview. A few sniggers were heard in India. Indians are quite willing to accept that South Africa are a better cricket team, but are loath to concede them superiority in pure skills. And that is the beginning of a major problem.

The Indian comprehension of cricket skills is quite of out synch with the modern game. We have seen our pre-dominance in field hockey vanish in the last two decades - and learnt nothing from it. We still make the mistake of associating skill solely with beauty and grace, artistry and dazzle, flash and flamboyance. We tend to view skill as something pleasing to the eye, and are easily spellbound by the delicacy of a flick of the wrist or the audacity of a last-second late-cut. Which is fine as long as we are not blind to the other side of skill. Sport is as much about romance and grandeur as it is about competition and success; it is as much about giving joy as it is about waging attrition.

Now what about broadening the definition of skill? What about adding a few words like efficient, effective, dogged, purposeful, fit, and agile? Modern cricket is much more than majestic strokeplay. There is a World Cup to compete for in two years' time, and there is a lot India's cricketers could learn from Gary Kirsten.

Not many people would choose Kirsten in their dream one-day XI. For most, he might be the seventh choice for the opener's slot after Tendulkar, Gilchrist, Jayasuriya, Saeed Anwar, Mark Waugh or Ganguly. He is yet to play an innings that might, in ten years' time, make you reach out for a video on a rainy Sunday afternoon - but ask Shaun Pollock and he would have Kirsten batting for him every time.

Three centuries were scored last Friday, but since Ganguly and Kirsten are left-handers and played the more dominating knocks, let's compare those two. Ganguly's century took 110 balls, though it seemed to be much quicker. Kirsten's century took 114 balls - and seemed to have taken many more. Ganguly's innings was a mixture of breathtaking strokes and adventurous and ungainly hoicks. For him, it was all or nothing, and he took plenty of risks. Just watching him bat you would have been fooled into believing that India were galloping away at eight an over, although they were at just over five most of the time.

In comparison Kirsten, who was hit on the body three times as he turned his back on short-pitched balls, looked pedestrian. Yet, the South Africans scored at higher rate throughout, and Kirsten was there till the end, still hitting the ball into the gaps and running hard. It's difficult to remember a particular stroke, but he hit 13 fours and ran 62 singles. And he ran plenty more for his partners. As the anchorman said at the presentation ceremony, Kirsten is 33 and getting younger.

Yes, every team would love a Tendulkar or a Ganguly. A great one-day side must have at least a couple of great strokemakers. But Bobby Simpson reinvented one-day cricket in 1987 with the simple theory that the side that runs the most singles will win, and no-one has absorbed this better than South Africa.

Most Indian batsmen still play one-day cricket the old-fashioned way. When the sun shines on them, there will be an orgy of boundaries and a mountain of runs. But when they fall, they will fall in a sorry heap. This glory-or-death approach will still win them plenty of matches, but to be as consistent as South Africa and Australia, they will have to learn to walk the middle path.

Sambit Bal is editor of Wisden.com India.

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