I have been following India cricket since the early 1980s. The one day world cup was what caught my imagination and propelled me from an ordinary follower to a passionate fan. One-day following, soon shadowed into test cricket appraisals. One thing about test cricket is that it is the best test of the endurance of a player. How can anyone forget the Dean Jones innings in the tied test in 87, followed by Gavaskar’s unsuccessful marathon to save the test and series against Imran’s Pakistan in Bangalore.

 

However such moments were far and wide between. At the same time, we could not follow the Indian team overseas, except for the ODI format. So, a magnificent win by Kapil’s devils over England in the mid 80s was followed only through a half an hour highlights capsules.

 

Even the great 1989 series between India and Pakistan, which was the debut of Tendulkar and Waqar Younnis was given the miss by the only state broadcaster present in India. Again, what we saw live of that series was the one day format between the two fierce rivals.

 

The stark difference between the Indian and an English or Australian fan lies in the fact that he/she has witnessed test cricket which is fast, result oriented and aggressive. This is in stark contrast to the games dished out in the Indian subcontinent. Even former Indian and Pakistani captains have admitted that the fear of loss saw them play out for draws. Slow batting feather beds also helped their cause.

 

There is an ironical debate as to which is a greater rivalry - the Ashes or the Indo- Pak encounters. In terms of test cricket it is the ashes; while the one day format honours go to the Indo- Pak contest.

 

For us, the great Indo- Pak rivalry evolved at Sharjah in the one day format. It had all the modern greats: Gavaskar, Imran, Kapil, Miandad and Akram and Sachin, playing hard and fiercely to define the mother of all cricket battles. In the same corresponding period, India and Pakistan did not play each other in test cricket for over a decade and that is where the lack of interest in test cricket amongst subcontinent fans originates. The tragedy of test cricket in the subcontinent lies in the fact that Waqar Younnis and Wasim Akram never faced Sachin Tendulkar or Rahul Dravid in their prime.

 

The situation looks even more grim today. One major factor for the rapidly diminishing popularity of India test cricket lies in the retirement of Anil Kumble. Kumble was the champion cricketer for India in every home series in the past two decades. The Indian batsmen would pile up runs and Kumble would pick up wickets in the second innings to give India victory in most home series.

 

Today as we celebrate centuries and milestones of our batsmen; our bowling without Kumble just cannot pick up 20 wickets (a mandatory requirement for a test win). As I write this piece, Tendulkar gets another century, inconsequential and completely devoid of any chances of an Indian win. Though cricket is a team sport, defined as a battle between bat and ball, the fact that 1500 runs ate scored with neither side picking 20 wickets, seems just not the prescribed great game of cricket.