The Australian Cricket Board, the cricketers and the cricket crazy spectators would have heaved a sigh of relief now that former captain Steve Smith is once again eligible to captain Australia.
Smith along with his vice captain David Warner had to leave the cricket scene for awhile in disgrace after they were found guilty of ball tampering during a tour of South Africa and were disgracefully shunted out of the game.
Both Smith and Warner after serving their sentences were eligible to sport the baggy green cap again. But their highly esteemed posts of captain and vice captain were ingloriously stripped from them.
But once they regretted and recovered and so did the Aussie Cricket Board where the twosome were found indispensable in the Aussie line up. The Australian selectors lost no time in including them in the team.
When Smith and Warner got opening batsman Bancroft to perform this shameful act it was inexplicable that they had forgotten the golden rule that is hammered into every youngster who is knee high to a bat. The old adage lives forever in that it is not the wining or the losing that matters, but how one played the game.
The threesome had egg on their faces and captain of that time Smith was seen doing the cry baby act at a press briefing. But the damage had been done and Aussie cricket suffered damage that they had never ever experienced before.
Before this ugly incident Smith and Warner were their batting run scoring machines and with their big run making where they pulverized all opposing bowling attacks helped them regain their lost prestige in the game after the retirements of their greats.
But with the dreaded Coronavirus calling a halt not only to cricket but all sport internationally and when, God willing, things return to normal, and sport gets back on the rails the cynosure of all eyes will be on the Australian selectors.
The question every Aussie would be asking is: will the Aussie Selectors install Smith into the position he held before the sordid ball tampering issue and that is being captain or will they persist with stop gap captain Tim Paine?
As for the writer it must be stated that Paine bestowed with great responsibility of leading the team did an admirable job, although he could have performed better.
It is not an easy job to do two jobs that of having to excel behind the stumps and also keep an eye and concentrate on what is happening around him, considering that every Aussie would be watching how he goes as a leader. It is rarely that a wicket keeper is made captain.
But two captains who excelled as wicket keeper captains who come to mind among the many are the peerless Mahendra Singh Dhoni of India and Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka. Both were par excellence in their jobs.
It must be remembered that Dhoni and Sangakkara were wicket keeper captains in the 2008 World Cup won by India in India. This is probably the first time that cricket had seen two wicket keeper captains in any form of cricket, especially the World Cup.
It is not for me to dwell on the achievements of Dhoni and Sangakkara here. May be there will come an opportunity later. One can’t also forget Asia’s best before the country attained Test status in Dr. H.I.K. Fernando who was a Sri Lankan captain/wicket keeper better than the best known.
Back to Aussie Paine and it must be said that not many countries would plonk for wk/captains, although it is advantageous to have one. That is because the wk is the best out of the eleven on the field to watch how the wicket is playing and switch his bowlers accordingly.
It will be interesting to see whether the Aussie Selectors will stick with Paine, although former captain Steve Smith will be breathing down his neck.
In international cricket the most looked forward to series is without doubt the Ashes series between the two oldest cricket playing countries England and Australia. Winning that series is everything to the two countries.
To Paine’s credit it must be said that he did a marvelous job as captain in the recent Ashes series in England where he led his team to share the Ashes. We are not trying to be unfair by England’s dashing batsman Ben Stokes for his dream three figure score which helped England level the series
But had Nathan Lyon not missed running out last man Jack Leach and had the umpire been more alert and given Stokes lbw off Lyon, Paine would have had the distinction of being in the rare bracket of Aussie captains who have led the green baggy caps to an Ashes series victory.
The Aussies had exhausted their quota of the DRS. Had they a review, the third umpire would have ruled Stokes LBW. That’s how the game goes and that is why it is called a funny game studded with the glorious uncertainties. [email protected]