Sports India

Apples and oranges can’t be compared, but my heroes over a dramatic weekend shared some sterling similarities, though one plays football and the other cricket. Brazil were undone by Zizou’s superb technique, control and unflappable temperament in the World Cup, and Rahul Dravid displayed much the same qualities in leading India to victory over the West Indies on a Kingston wicket that was patently wicked.

Both go about their business with unsmiling grimness on the field, but that is no index to their finesse or the extraordinary ability to adapt to different situations quickly. Even more remarkably, when the Difficulty Quotient (DQ) is higher, both Zidane and Dravid seem to perform better.

Success in football is less tangibly measured than in cricket, but there is unanimity that Zidane made the difference between victory and defeat for France that memorable evening though he didn’t score a goal. Even the great Pele was compelled to declare that, “Zidane was the magician in the game, we (Brazil) had only two shots at the goal and that just isn’t good enough.”

In fact, Zidane’s midfield generalship, and his imaginative ball distribution reduced Brazil to panting underdogs rather than raging champions very early in the first half — and the tenor of the game never changed for the full 90 minutes. Made to play largely in their own half, Brazil looked like a Rolls Royce without wheels, with the highly vaunted Ronaldinho reduced to Clark Kent from Superman.

If France regains the World Cup, Zidane would likely win the popular vote to be president. Dravid is not quite in the same ‘cult’ league yet, but has surely inspired serious debate whether or not he is the best-ever Indian batsman. His remarkable influence over team performance comes across clearly in the stats given below.

While batting averages are not necessarily the index to greatness, Dravid has clearly forced his way into such reckoning alongside Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar. It’s not a two-horse race any more. And what’s more, Dravid could just be peaking.

His innings’ of 81 and 68 on a pitch of variable bounce and pace will be talked about for decades. Remember, the Test ended within three days, which shows the dominance of ball over bat. Of all the innings I have seen, for sheer technical brilliance in adverse conditions, Dravid’s effort at Kingston ranks alongside Gavaskar’s 96 against Pakistan on a Bangalore dustbowl in 1987, and Tendulkar’s 114 on a Perth flier in 1991-92.

India, of course, lost at Bangalore in 1987 and at Perth in 1991, but won at Kingston in 2006, which makes Dravid’s performance that much more significant — and not just for the record book. After a roller-coaster 10 months since he took over as captain, does this signal the way up, up, up for Indian cricket?