Batting paradise or weak bowling?

Tony Becca, Gleaner Writer

In the recent Test series between neighbours India and Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, in a three-match series which ended in a 1-1 draw, India's veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh finished with two wickets for 304 runs off 87.5 overs at an average of 152, and like bowlers and captains, some writers and commentators, and sometimes administrators around the world these days, promptly blamed the pitches for his fruitless toil.

Not so, however, says Bishen Bedi, a former great Indian left-arm spin bowler who, in an obvious swipe at Harbhajan, said loud and clear for all to hear a few days after the second Test match at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground in Colombo that Virender Sehwaq, the swashbuckling opening batsman who sometimes bowls gentle off spin, is now the best spin bowler in India.

And based on his boast, not so also said a big-name Indian actor who, after practising a few days bowling spin in preparation for his part in a cricket-based movie, announced a few days after the Test match in Colombo that he was ready to represent the Indian Test team.

The hint, according to both men, is that India's problem in Sri Lanka, and especially so during the drawn second Test in Colombo, was not the pitch.

No joking

The problem, according to the cricketer and the actor, was their bowling, and especially so their spin bowling.

Who is right, is it Harbhajan and company, or is it Bedi and the actor?

While both Bedi and the actor may have been joking, there was one man, the national curator in Sri Lanka who, based on his experience, knows what he is about, who obviously was not joking, and whose reasoning I accept.

His reasoning was so good that I wish I was in Colombo to shake his hand.

In a broadside attack on Harbhajan and all who blamed the pitch in Colombo for producing scores of 642 for four declared, 707, and 129 for three with Sri Lanka batting first, Anurudda Polomowita said, for all to hear, that he was quite happy with the pitch.

First off, he asked a simple question: "Why don't you talk about bowling rather than about the pitch?"

And then the man who played first-class cricket, managed the first Sri Lankan team to go on tour, served as a selector for 15 years, served as vice-president of the Sri Lankan board, and who chaired many umpires committees and many tour organising committees, really opened up.

After saying that captains have nothing to say except to talk about batting pitches and that bowlers have no chance, Polomowita went on to say that the problem for captains is not that their bowlers have no chance but that they "just do not have the bowlers to have a chance".

According to the curator, who reminded that Sachin Tendulkar was dropped early in his innings and went on to score 203 before he was finally dismissed at 592 for six, if Sri Lanka had taken their catches they probably would have won the match in Colombo, and if they still had bowlers like Muttiah Muralitheran and Chaminda Vaas, they would have won the match.

According to Polomowita, and I agree with him, the problem is not so much pitches prepared for batsmen but the presence of weak bowling and sometimes poor fielding.

With the exception of a few, bowlers around the world today, and especially so in the West Indies, do not possess the skill, the guile, to dismiss batsmen on pitches or in conditions which are not tailor-made for them.

And but for a very few, for a Daniel Vettori, a Graham Swann, one like Ajantha Mendis, and probably two others like Danish Kaneira and Saeed Ajmal, it is even more pronounced with spin bowlers.

Spin bowlers these days have forgotten, it appears, how to 'work out' a batsman - how to flight the ball, how to get the ball to dip how to get the ball to drift one way or the other, and most importantly, how to spin the ball and to conceal the type of spin on the ball.

Bowlers, these days, it appears, seem to practise less than those of yesteryear. Because of that, they lack the skills of many of those of earlier days, and most importantly, today they seem too willing to sit back and wait for the day when conditions are ideal when they can preen themselves.

Unreliable

On top of that, and although fielding is generally better today than it was years ago, catching today is unreliable.

On many of those occasions when large totals are posted and the pitches are blamed for the batsman's comfort, the culprits, apart from bowlers who give up the ghost too early and simply go through the motions while waiting for another day, are fielders who drop a catch, or two, or three and in so doing prolong the agony of the bowlers.

While it is true that large totals, such as the third-wicket partnership of 624 between Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene was posted at the SSC, that scores such as Brian Lara's 221 and 130 were posted at the SSC, and that there is no question that there are pitches which are prepared too much in favour of the batsman, there is also no question that pitches, good or bad, for batting or for bowling, sometimes, most times, depends on the quality not only of the batsmen but also of the bowlers, and of the fielders.

Vaas, a left-arm pacer, for example, once took as many as 14 wickets in a Test match at the SSC, and Muralitheran, the off-spinner with the controversial action, the man many call the magician, has bamboozled batsmen on many occasions on the so-called batting paradise.

In fact, with figures of eight for 59 against India, six for 36 against the West Indies, eight for 46 against the West Indies, and six for 26 against India numbered among his many outstanding performances at the SSC, Muralitheran has been almost as devastating there as he has been anywhere.

There are pitches more suitable for batsmen, there are pitches more suitable for bowlers, but on a number of occasions the quality bowler will perform on the pitches made for batsmen and the quality batsman will do likewise on the pitches made for bowlers.

On many occasions, the cry of batting pitches is simply an excuse for weak bowling.

In the West Indies, for example, whenever the West Indies are batting and wickets are falling, it is common to hear that the pitch is slow, that the ball is not coming on, that the bounce is uneven, and that the batsmen can't play their strokes.

Whenever the West Indies are bowling, wickets are difficult to come by, and runs are flowing; however, it is not the same pitch.

Suddenly the pitch has become so easy paced one would be forgiven if he believes that it is a different pitch.

Rating

When it comes to his rating of Sehwaq as India's best spin bowler, Bedi obviously was joking, and when it comes to the actor's belief in his own skill as a bowler that, again obviously, must be the figment of his imagination.

As far as I am concerned, however, Anurruda Potomowita may be totally right.

There are indeed some pitches which are so kind to batsmen, it really seems unfair to bowlers. Most of the time, however, it is bowling of quality, and catching, that is lacking, and there is no doubt about that.

Good spin bowlers, said Potomowita in Colombo, can turn the ball on any pitch, and while I do not believe that they would get a handful of wickets every match and on every pitch, I believe that bowlers who can bowl, those with sheer pace, those who can swing the ball and those who can flight the ball, those who can get the ball to drift, those who can spin the ball, and those who can outfox the batsman can bowl well and get wickets on any pitch.

It is as simple as that.