The tall and short of it

Ricky Ponting thinks giants will claim future cricket, but it is the dimunitive who have seized the pitch.

In the middle of the 1980s, Boris Becker's serves began to boom, racket technology moved several notches up, and numerous tournaments deserted grass to embrace hardcourts. John McEnroe took a break of a few months and returned only to discover that his artistry was no longer sufficient to win. Tennis had changed.

If Ricky Ponting is to be believed, cricket is undergoing a similar transition; the days of pint-sized batting maestros like himself are over as hulks like Kevin Pietersen and Matthew Hayden redefine batting with their sheer power. "It will be the same with the bowlers," he says.

Fortunately, Ponting is not to be believed. The change in cricket playing conditions is negligible, compared with how tennis changed 20 years ago. Pitches vary from country to country and ground to ground, as they always have.

The big change is that they are covered when play is not on, but this change took place decades ago. The material and dimensions of the ball and bat remain unchanged. And it remains true that you need not pulverise the ball to score runs; you can caress it beyond the boundary.

Hayden and Pietersen are not the first hulks to play cricket. Warwick Armstrong and W G Grace, two famous cricketers in the 19th century, were big blokes.

But the best ever, Don Bradman, was only 5'7". Tendulkar, who the Don thought batted just like him, is even shorter. The original little masters, Gavaskar and Vishwanath, were 5'4" and less. Umpire's Post's favourite, Brian Lara, is 5'8".

Ponting has perhaps already forgotten the just-retired Langer, the other half of the formidable opening partnership that Hayden formed in Test cricket. Although he never grew over 5'8", Langer unleashed the fiercest of leg-side shots.

Diminutive is the word that precedes nearly every mention of Mohammad Ashraful, the new Bangladesh captain. The fellow scored a belligerent century to record his country's first one-day win over Australia. Besides, Hayden, before this year's World Cup, was not sure of a place in Australia's one-day team.

The most feared of the West Indies quicks, Malcolm Marshall, at 5'10", was also among the shortest. Brett Lee and Shane Bond, among the three fastest at present, can hardly intimidate with their bodies. India's own Ramakant Desai, a genuine quicky in his era, was only 5'6". In contrast, Abey Kuruvilla was 6'6", but only bowled medium pace.

Besides, Umpire's Post is only 5'5", 59 kg, but, on his day, has hit the ball a long way on Mumbai's maidans. Perhaps Ponting, 5'10", was just desperate to associate his name with the likes of us.