Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Lakshman should take the next few months off.
This will never be accepted by those concerned, but the Fab Four — a richly-deserved term for the quartet of Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Lakshman — will do well to take the next few months off. They should choose a period that has a lot of Tests.
Thankfully, they are not playing the current ODI series against Sri Lanka, though only Tendulkar is out with an injury and the rest because they have not been selected. But, despite the poor showing in Tests in the emerald island, to displace them from the Test team would be akin to moving a small mountain.
We have seen what the much-touted, young, fresh bodies have done in the two matches played at the time of writing this column. In fact, the young big-mouth, Uthappa, has failed to save his place in the team. The Fab Four couldn’t have done worse than setting a target of less than 150 (and losing by eight wickets) or losing seven wickets in chasing a similar target. But they would have been summarily ridiculed for a similar showing — that, too, on the flimsy ground of age, which has not prevented Jayasuriya or Murali from being Sri Lanka’s mainstays.
It’s time for the Fab Four to make a point. Let the team make do without them. Far too often, the value of a prized possession is realised only in its absence (most mothers would nod in agreement).
Taking time off won’t be easy. The last time they skipped a tournament — the T20 World Cup — India won it and Indian cricket roared back from the debris of the Fifty50 World Cup. That would have drilled insecurity into the ageing minds, who are aware that Father Time has wound their body clocks one last time for the rigour of international cricket. Secondly, the game is no longer about only bat and ball; it translates into a lot of money. They may want to make what is still to be made.
Chances are that they will be persuaded to come back to the team. None of the young, fresh, athletic bodies have the skill to achieve sustained success. Even if they are not, these guys have earned a lot of money. Lakshman would be the worst off of the lot, but still very well off. Tendulkar will struggle to be a media professional; to put it mildly, he won’t be a worthy successor to Gavaskar. But he has made enough to last a few generations. The other three will be as successful off the field as they were on it.
And then they can don blue shirts, hold a mike and tell their sorry replacements how sorry they really are.
