By Saurabh Srivastav
December 24 2005

India idolizes its cricketers; cricket is like a religion in India and its best players are worshipped. Would you say that's true? Most fans would say yes. Keep in mind that when I say Indian I mean Indian subcontinent, as there is not much to choose between India and Pakistan (perhaps even Sri Lanka). But the question is: what is meant when we say that we idolize our team or players?

Recently I happened to come across an article on Marshall (Macko the Magnificent). As is my habit, I checked the article and clicked all relevant links within it. What I found grew more fascinating with every link. Please allow me to share it with you.

India beat the Windies in the 1983 World Cup. It was a classic case of David vs Goliath.

Or was it? India had beaten Windies at Berbice just a few months back, when they had toured Windies. A certain Kapil Dev had scored 72 off 38 deliveries, and took 2 wickets for 33. Kapil Dev's strike rate in that match, like most matches he played in, was way ahead of its time, but that's another story (as is the fact that many thought Kapil wasn't a match winner.)

In any case, India beat Windies in Windies, something that had not happened in a long time. In the World Cup, India met the Windies twice before the finals: one game was won by India, the other by the Windies. And, as we all know, India beat the mighty Windies in the finals again. That makes it 3 wins out of 5 matches. Not bad, eh? I have no hesitation in accepting that Windies were odds-on favorites in the finals, but to paint India as a minnow going into the finals was downright ridiculous.

That World Cup win brings me to my point.

Post-1983, a war was declared by the Windies. Egos had been hurt. The unbeatable Windies had been rendered second-best. They wanted to beat India at any cost, and beat them they did. Team India came second in the subsequent series, but let's take a look at individual performances.

The leading marauder from Windies was Marshall. He bowled 221 overs in 11 innings and took 33 wickets.

That was Marshall at his fiery best. He even knocked the bat out of Sunny Gavaskar's hands, supposedly the worst humilation of Sunny's career. Sunny responded with 505 runs at 50.50 with 2 centuries. This against arguably one of the best attacks of all time comprising Marshall, Holding, Roberts, Daniel, Davis. But guess what? It didn't count for much by the experts, since it was played at HOME.

Come again? Success against that kind of pace attack, with two of the all-time great bowlers at their peak (Holding took 30 wickets), with the backdrop of the history is rendered useless. Wow!

Well, what about Colonel Vengsarkar? He was Enemy Number 1 for Marshall, wasn't he?

I remember how Marshall wrote in his book 'Macko' that he wanted to bowl each time Vengsarkar came to bat. The wicket that gave him the greatest satisfaction in his entire career was when he dismissed Vengsarkar in his 90's in Windies.

I doubt any batsman would want to be the number 1 enemy of possibly the best fast bowler of all time. How did Vengsarkar fare in that series? A small matter of 425 runs in 8 innings at 53. I am still to find an article as to how Colonel took on the mighty Windies, although one does get to read many an account of Vengsarkar's inability to play fast bowling.

But then the game was played in India, which helps batsmen and makes the bowlers toil hard, hence the effort of Sunny and Dilip didn't count for much. It also shows why Marshall and Holding were all-time greats and amongst the best match winners of all time.

Remember Marshall's stats for the series? He bowled 221 overs in 11 innings and took 33 wickets. Awesome!

But wait a minute; there was another bowler who bowled 203 overs in 10 innings and ended with 29 wickets at 18.51 (best average from either side). That effort would surely be better than Holdings and as good as Marshall if not better, wouldn't it?

The bowler? A certain Kapil Dev. That was Kapil at his peak, the period between 1982 to 1987 before he was relegated to a stock bowler. But hey, how many times have I heard that Kapil was one of the best match-winning bowlers? Marshall had Holding as his partner who took 30 wickets in the same series, while Kapil had Roger Binny who took 7. In fact, the second highest number of wickets for the Indians after Kapil was Ravi Shastri (12 wickets at 47).

Does India idolize its cricketers? Yes.

Do we give them the respect they deserve? No.

We tend to judge our cricket players by what others (read England, Australia, etc.) want us to judge them.

To me an Indian player is just as great whether he performs well in India or abroad. But is that true of most Indian fans? I don't think so.

Just ask a certain Anil Kumble.