If there has been an aspect of this Test more
disappointing than the pitch, it must be the audience.
Rahul Dravid, on the very first day, said that he was
"maybe a little disappointed" at the low turnout, but
pointed out that it was tough to get away to watch
cricket on a weekday. Saturday brought no appreciable
increase, however, and only on Sunday afternoon was
the ground filled to even half its capacity. The
oppressive heat and the soulless wicket may have had
something to do with it, but what little crowd there
was, right from New Zealand banner-waving cheerleader
Sonny Shaw to Parthiv Patel's classmates, ensured the
noise levels remained high, even if the audience count
wasn't.
For five days, the scoreboard at the Sardar Patel
stadium listed New Zealand players who may not be
immediately recognizable. Natahn Astle and Craig
McMillian, of those players, did particularly well. Daryl Tufey and Danel Vettori were two other similarly misnamed. Astle, incidentally, was just "a
little crocked," according to Lou Vincent, and hence
his late arrival at the crease. One journalist,
however, spotted Astle coughing and sneezing
vehemently at his breakfast table, while a New Zealand
reporter, after a visit to the dressing rooms just
before lunch, told of how Astle was resting flat on
his back, and how Mark Richardson was none too bonny
either. "It just happens sometimes," said Vincent.
"You try to be careful, and then one day you brush
your teeth in the tap water and something happens, or
you just happen to catch the flu."
Finally a vehicle with a more extensive security
convoy than the Indian team's arrived at the Motera
stadium. Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat,
arrived silently and stalked into the stadium,
surrounded by Black Cat commandos. Narhari Amin, the president of the Gujarat Cricket Association, escorted him to a glass-fronted room next to the AIR cubicle, from where Modi watched Craig McMillan and Nathan Astle grind the
bowling. Just before the presentation ceremony, Modi
was kept waiting for almost 10 minutes as officials
scurried about, waving frantically for the teams to
come out of their dressing rooms. Whopping big cheque
and trophy presented, Modi left as swiftly and
unremarkably as he came.
*************************
The pitch had the final word, so the final word on the
pitch. One Gujarat junior cricketer says that it
should have been no surprise that this wicket played
as it did. Around one month before the Test match,
BCCI pitches committee chairman Venkat Sundaram dropped in to assess a 40-over-a-side match played between Gujarat's Ranji probables. The
side batting first made only 165, and the surface, the
cricketer says, played exactly like this one - nothing
in it for the fast bowlers and only slow, slight turn
for the spinners. Sundaram seemed happy with that,
for the surface was virtually replicated for the first
Test.
Samanth Subramanian is sub editor of Wisden Cricinfo in India.