I read many Indian cricket fans applauding Tim Paine for declaring the Australian innings when David Warner had a realistic chance to beat the highest individual of 400 not out by Brian Lara.
I did not hear Warner expressing disappointment, nor former Australian cricketers in the media or the Australians cricket writers criticising Paine for his decision. Even the Australian cricket fans took the declaration as captain’s prerogative and did not attach conspiracy theories to the decision. It was Australian culture all the way. Once the declaration came, the focus was on the Australian bowlers and the team victory.
The Australians don’t care for personal milestones over team’s interests.
One cannot ever forget skipper Mark Taylor deciding not to score the one run he needed to overtake Sir Don Bradman’s 334 to become the highest individual scorer in Tests by declaring the innings at the overnight score.
Taylor later explained the thinking behind his decision, “I think ideally I would have batted on for 20 minutes just to put their Pakistan) openers out in the field for 20 more minutes before we declared. But I thought if I did that I would then end up on 340 not out, or something like that, and people would have assumed that I’d batted on just for my own glory. I didn’t want to send that message. The more I thought about it, I came to the decision that the best thing I can do is declare (and) end up on the same score as Sir Donald, which I’m more than delighted with.” Taylor added that to him what mattered most was an Australian victory.
Then there was Michael Clarke who declared when he was on 329 against India at Sydney in the 2011-12 series.
In 1971, captain Bill Lawry declared the innings when Rod Marsh, playing just his fourth Test, was eight runs short of becoming the first Australian wicketkeeper to score a hundred. That too against the old enemy, England.
When we talk of Indian cricket, we talk of the amazing records and milestones by our players. Which is fine. Juxtapose this with the times Indian captains delayed declarations and, in the bargain, made the possibility of an Indian victory difficult, for the sake of individual glory.
Imagine the national outrage that would follow if Virat Kohli were to declare the innings when Rohit Sharma was on 335 when plenty of time was left in the game. Kohli would become a pariah in an instant, motives attached to his decision and the entire body of his work as a captain over several years would be in rubble. That’s THE key and critical difference in the Australian mindset as opposed to the Indian mindset.
If you think I am indulging in hypothesis, recall the time when Rahul Dravid declared the Indian innings with Tendulkar on 194 to give India a chance to win the 2004 Multan Test against Pakistan. The bad blood that resulted following Dravid’s decision was evident in the copious space given to the incident in Tendulkar’s autobiography.
Milestones and records are meaningful if it comes seamlessly, while the primary focus remains the team’s victory. Maybe some day a captain like Sourav Ganguly may bring about that revolution in Indian cricket to put things in proper perspective.
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