Keeness to win is fine, but desperation is not the solution

The home advantage works out for every cricketing country but perhaps it is most evident in India's case. That is, if one observes the dismal overseas record.

Backed by tailor made pitches, vociferous support from local crowds and familiar surroundings, Indian cricketers have been labelled tigers at home. But their abysmal record overseas has also led to them being ridiculed as lambs abroad. Faster and bouncier tracks, the inability to negotiate the mowing ball in a rarefied atmosphere and alien surroundings are some of the obvious reasons why Indian teams fail on a tour. In the past, the umpiring was also said to be a factor, though one supposes that visiting teams to India could also attribute their defeats to this. In any event, this factor may not be all that crucial these days with the formation of an ICC panel but the fact that one of the two umpires is still a home official can lead to allegations against biased umpiring.

Going by some of the recent utterances by the Indian team management, it would appear that there is going to be one more factor against the team doing well on the string of foreign trips coming up over the next few months. The record overseas is bad enough without team members putting pressure on themselves. "Our aim is to win a series abroad which will set right a lot of things," Sourav Ganguly is quoted to have said during the conditioning camp currently on in Bangalore. Star batsman VVS Laxman, in the course of a TV interview last week, said "for a long time now I have dreamt of being part of an Indian side that wins an overseas series," admitting that he was impatient to deliver on the coming tour of Zimbabwe. Even Indian coach John Wright has chimed in. According to him, the time is right for India to end a 15-year Test series drought outside the subcontinent. "The time is right to strike," Wright is quoted to have said in Bangalore. "We have proven to ourselves and the Indian public that we play good cricket. All we have to do now is to play to our full potential. I look to the Zimbabwe tour as a great opportunity to set things right."

It is well known that history is overwhelmingly against India. Take Zimbabwe itself. In two Tests there on two tours, India has lost one and drawn the other. And the drawn Test was the inaugural game that Zimbabwe played.

But then this is nothing new. The record is just in keeping with tradition. In England, India did not score their first victory till the 22nd Test they played there. In Australia, the first win by the Indians was in the 12th match they played `Down Under'. In the West Indies, they scored their maiden triumph in their 12th Test. In Pakistan, the record is the pits. After 20 Tests, spread over five tours from 1954-55 to 1989-90, India have yet to score a victory. In South Africa too, India have yet to break their duck after seven Tests.

Overall too, the Indians have a woeful record overseas. They have won only two rubbers in England and one each in West Indies, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. They have yet to win a rubber in South Africa, Australia and Pakistan. Their last series victory outside the sub continent was against England in 1986. With this kind of dubious record, is it any wonder that the Indians are ridiculed as lambs abroad?

But the Indian team management, by putting pressure on themselves, are not doing anything to help their cause. Being keen to win abroad is understandable but there seems to be a desperate ring about the Indian team's attitude towards the goal of doing well overseas. And this kind of approach will only put pressure on the team members. As it is, the record abroad is dismal. Performing under pressure is not the way to try and improve upon it. The Indians will have to take the tours of Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and South Africa as just another contest and not get unnerved by them or treat them like some sort of `Super Tests'. Calm, cool, methodical efficiency is what is required to do well abroad, not desperate measures that can only boomerang.