Magical skipper has a chance to lead India to their first Test series win in New Zealand since 1967-68
Magical skipper M S Dhoni has a chance to lead India to their first Test series win in New Zealand since 1967-68
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There won't be too many selectorial headaches when the wise heads of Indian cricket meet in Chennai to pick the Test, Twenty-20 and one-day teams for New Zealand today. But Mahendra Singh Dhoni is in for the most challenging time of his captaincy stint.
Dhoni will feel better when he realises that other captains have had to cope with frustration in New Zealand too. And those include some very successful leaders.
New Zealand have a history of being a very hard place to win at cricket. Clive Lloyd captained one of the most successful teams in the history of the game but when it came to a series win in New Zealand, he couldn't achieve one. To be fair, he only got one opportunity in 1979-80, a series which ended 1-0 in the Geoff Howarth-led team's favour. And the umpiring was reportedly abysmal something which caused Michael Holding to kick the stumps at the bowler's end inCarisbrook, 1980.
Viv Richards is known as a captain, who never lost a Test series. He nearly got his revenge for the 1979-80 loss in 1987 when his team trounced a strong New Zealand side in Auckland.
But Kiwis have claws and they came back to win the Christchurch Test, where Ewen Chatfield and Richard Hadlee combined to bowl West Indies out for 100.
Ian Chappell, one of Australia's most successful skippers couldn't return from New Zealand in 1973-74 with a series win.
Mohammed Azharuddin is another highly successful captain, who never won in New Zealand. Sourav Ganguly (won a Test on every tour except 2001 in SA and NZ in 2002-03) will go down as a captain, who put a refreshing emphasis on winning Test matches abroad. But a Test win in New Zealand did not come his way in 2002-03. The hosts prepared quick wickets for both Tests and Shane Bond became an overnight hero. Only Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar could manage a 50 plus score not the best preparation for a team whose next stop was going to be the World Cup in South Africa.
Dhoni has enjoyed the touch of magic, but winning in New Zealand will go beyond cricketing skill. He has a handicap of not having first hand knowledge of the conditions.
Talking about the fact that there is no tour game before the action begins, Sachin Tendulkar stayed away from controversy yesterday and put it down to the ways of the cricket world.
It's funny how administrators never learn from past experiences. In India's case, one has to look back only to last season to find out how an additional tour game would have helped on the tour of Australia where India lost the first two Tests.
Task
An argument that may be put forward by the rulers of the game is that the NZ Tests come after the limited overs matches. But trying to get acclimatised in the heat of the battle is different from a tour game.
It is to be seen whether Dhoni and coach Gary Kirsten can pull this off. Ideally, the Board should have used their good offices to rope in a New Zealand expert to help the team with inputs just like Ganguly and John Wright did in Australia and the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.
Wright, who is New Zealand Cricket's High Performance manager would have been only willing to suggest a name, but India doesn't like a heavy entourage.
Hope that does not result in missing out on the weighty silverware.
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