A batsman, struggling for form scratches around the crease, plays a couple of mistimed strokes and misses a few straight deliveries. Then boom! He middles one. Extra hours in the nets, training in the gym and long talks with the coach, all play their part. But what triggers him back into form is that one stroke that meets the middle of the bat, his hands ‘feeling’ the sweet sound of his willow. It is that moment that brings back the confidence and self belief in a batsman, the stroke that changes everything. Hundred, double hundred and the accolades that follow are etched in history, but the perfect drive that paved way for it is forgotten through assumed inconsequentiality.

Thinking about injecting a new cricket bat with oil and letting it dry over night makes me nostalgic, seems like it was almost in a another life. In the age of super-powered willows, it is also extremely difficult to explain my seven-year-old nephew, how at his age I would spend my afternoon with an old cricket ball in an even older sock hanging from the mango tree in our backyard, knocking the bat in.

But it was about at his age when I saw a man perform magic with a Slazenger V500 for the first time. As Viv Richards’ bottom hand left the handle of the bat in his follow through, a fast bowler was belted for a one-handed six over cover. “Only the King can do that,” my father declared. Those six runs may be immaterial to Viv, and the audacity of that shot will probably never be completely understood by my nephew, who is growing up watching AB de Villiers with a modern-day wand in his hand. But for me, that one moment transformed Sir Vivian Richards into the greatest cricketing wizard to have ever lived.

Similarly, the image of Wasim Akram standing up tall, eyeball-to-eyeball to Merv Hughes in a game that showed his skill with both bat and ball made me a boundless believer of the left-arm legend. While some moments can be traced back, most cannot. For example, for me, there has not been a better cricketing sight than watching Shane Warne casting a spell, or relishing Brian Lara on song.

Yet, I cannot recall the exact moment I had first fallen in love with them. It does not mean that moment did not exist. Perhaps, in the wee hours of a morning during an Ashes Test in the Southern Hemisphere or a flick off the hips that landed in the stands. I cannot be certain when, but I know it happened.

When Steve Waugh smashed Clive Lloyd’s record of eleven consecutive Test wins as captain, a lot of credit was given to his predecessor Mark Taylor. Pundits like Ian Chappell said that Allan Border had single-handedly carried the Australian team on his shoulders and Taylor turned the page in Australian cricket. A lot of teammates including Shane Warne insisted that Taylor was a better captain than Waugh. There was also a belief that Warne himself was the greatest captain Australia never had. Tactician, maybe yes, captain; highly debatable.

What really makes a great captain? While cricket acumen, calm nerves, intuition, creativity, controlled aggression and strategic excellence are basic ingredients, it is not the complete package. Leading by example on and off the field, the ability to inspire confidence and the absolute belief of winning can work wonders. And it was Steve Waugh’s own persona and the infinite desire to succeed against all odds that had transformed the Australian team into a ruthless unit. Mark Taylor might have done the groundwork, but it was Waugh who led his team into cricketing immortality.

Australian Test cricket captain Michael Clarke (2nd-R), vice-captain Brad Haddin (2nd-L), with former Australian Test captains Steve Waugh (L) and Mark Taylor (R). -Photo by AFP

One particular occurrence stands out during Steve Waugh’s time. "I hope you realize that you have just lost the game for your team," writes Waugh in his book Out of My Comfort Zone. The punch line popularized as “You have just dropped the World Cup” was later refuted by Herschelle Gibbs as he reiterated “I never heard him (Steve Waugh) say those words” when he dropped the Australian skipper on 56. Either way, from 48 – 3 in a do or die super six game, chasing 271 against South Africa, Waugh made a classic match-winning 120* and then led Australia to a World Cup win in 1999. This marked the start of one of the most dominating periods in all of sport, Australia begun its 16 Test match win streak that year and went onto win three consecutive World Cups. For the next decade and a half they were and truly ‘invincible’. Perhaps, till England’s glorious Ashes triumph in 2005.

Though, not even close to as much success, but parallels of the Australian story can also be found in the Pakistani team of the 80’s and the current Indian outfit.

While certain events alter the course of a cricketer, he has to continue walking on that path to achieve greatness. It is a process of evolution that leads to eternal distinction. The same can be said about a cricket team. Mushtaq Mohammad’s innovative and combative style of captaincy put Pakistan on track to compete with the best in the world, on a level playing field. But it was under Imran Khan’s fearless leadership that Pakistan became world beaters. Imran might not have been as shrewd a tactician as Mushtaq, but he had instilled his own winning psyche into his team. Direct products of which were players like Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis who remained match winners through the 90’s. The opposition, conditions, circumstances in the game and even the pitch was taken out of the equation when the two W’s turned a match on its head.

Pinpointing the exact moment when Mushtaq Mohammad’s team turned the leaf for Pakistan cricket is one of personal choice. People often reminisce about their own favourite incident from the twin tours of West Indies and Australia in 1976 -77 when Pakistan progressed from a mid level team to the upper most tier of Test cricket hierarchy. Sarfraz Nawaz sledging/cursing in Punjabi or Javed Miandad’s rant as a close in fielder. It could be Imran Khan’s transformation from a medium pacee into the first genuinely express bowler from Pakistan or Mushtaq Mohammad’s altercation with the umpires.

Pakistan travelled to Australia in December 1976 having a solitary Test match win outside Pakistan in the last 20 years, when a Mushtaq Mohammad double hundred in Dunedin had crushed New Zealand under the negative and uninspiring leadership of Intikhab Alam. Now, Mushtaq himself was on his first tour as captain. Pakistan managed to save the first Test by the skin of their teeth in Adelaide; Asif Iqbal scored a match-saving hundred while Iqbal Qasim and Javed Miandad bowled beautifully in tandem and Australia shut shop 24 runs short of a fifth day target with 4 wickets still in hand. Fiery Dennis Lillee routed Pakistan with ten wickets in the second Test, handing them a 348 run defeat in Melbourne.

Pakistan flew to Sydney with their back to the walls, but a different Pakistan showed up that morning of the Test. Mushtaq, Miandad, Imran write about it in their autobiographies as does Dennis Lillee in his book ‘Menace’, he says he faced a Pakistan with “a much tougher attitude, more aggressive in every area.” “We wanted to shake off our sense of inferiority,” says Imran Khan who had miraculously become 10kmh faster. Mushtaq wanted to bowl first, but Greg Chappell won the toss and batted first anyway, trying to avoid a fourth inning Adelaide repeat against Pakistani spinners.

Pakistan came out firing on all cylinders and seized the moment on the first day of the Test. Imran took six, Sarfraz got three and Australia was reduced to 198/9. Miandad trapped Lillee LBW next morning. Asif Iqbal got another hundred and Imran took another six wickets in the second innings while Sarfraz again chipped in with three. But my personal favorite defining moment of Pakistan’s resurgence was embraced by the elegance and class that was Majid Khan.

Chasing a target of 32 runs in the fourth innings of the fourth morning had a sense of inevitability, even with Lillee bowling with all his venom. Sadiq Mohammad and Zaheer Abbas had already fallen victim to him and lost their wickets cheap. Now it was Majid to face some chin music. Lillee soon hit Majid on the head; it clipped and floored his prodigious hat. Without the helmets and limitations on bouncers everyone including Majid was sure he would receive a follow up aimed between his ears. His choices; duck, weave or hook. He chose higher ground, picking it up from in front of his eyes and depositing it into the stands. He took of his hat and bowed in acknowledgement, the hat he later presented to Lillee for knocking off. It was a statement. Pakistan was not going to concede, be intimidated or crawl across the finish line. Pakistan was to register their first Test win on Australian soil in dramatic style.

The next decade was perhaps Pakistan cricket’s most successful. Winning a Test match in West Indies on the subsequent tour and then again in Australia two years later. In the space of almost twenty years from 1976, Pakistan was the only team to draw a series in West Indies, until Australia beat them at home under Mark Taylor in 1995. None other than Steve Waugh was man of the series, standing tall against some blood thirsty short pitch bowling from Curtly Ambrose, producing lasting moments of cricketing excellence.

The International Cricket Council ranking calculator did not exist at the time, but when mapped with historical records, it shows Pakistan tipping the mighty West Indies over as the number one team in the world for a brief period in 1988. Such was the success of the team led by Imran Khan. However, few would argue that Pakistan cricket reached its summit at the 1992 World Cup in the same country where it had all started, Australia.

The following generation had the talent and skill, but lacked unity under an undisputed leader. A generation of extra ordinary cricketers in Pakistan was lost to corruption, team politics and power groups that plagued them through the 90’s and haunted them in the following decade.
The Indian team too seems to have gone through similar transition en route to glory. While Sourav Ganguly is largely credited for the turnaround of Indian cricket, MS Dhoni has often been criticised about his tactical skills as captain, especially in the longer format. Ganguly has a better away record than Dhoni but was also blessed with the peak years of the holy trinity of Rahul Dravid , VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar. However, before making a judgment call, let’s consider Dhoni’s achievements that immediately come to mind; India won the ICC World T20, ICC Champions Trophy, the ICC World Cup and was ranked as the number one Test team in the world under his captaincy.

Like Mushtaq, Ganguly was a brave man who punched above his weight, but he captained a team that far too often cracked under pressure and lost many games that it should have won. The reverse can be said about team Dhoni. Like Imran, Dhoni has not just manufactured extremely good and talented cricketers; his faith has transformed them into genuine match winners. Players like Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja step onto the field with a spark in their eye that reflects Dhoni’s image; undeterred, dauntless and resolute. But, it is Virat Kohli who is the Kohinoor in Dhoni’s crown. And out of the sheer and absolute belief of winning, Dhoni has led his team to unprecedented cricket glory.

“It was all about sticking in there, believing in myself. I kept telling myself I am good enough to catch up later. No matter who is bowling to me I just back myself,” said the 25-year-old Virat Kohli after clinically chasing down a steep target against Dale Steyn and Co in the recemt World T20 semifinal contest. What may appear as brash and cocky to some, is actually the unadulterated confidence Virat has in his own ability. This steadfast belief amplifies his impeccable game play with the bat and subdues the opposition the second he steps up to the crease.

Interestingly, out of the three teams in conversation, it is India’s reversal of fortune that is perhaps most conspicuous. A bare bodied Indian captain was seen screaming and swinging his jersey on the balcony of the home of cricket. Eyebrows were raised in the Long Room at Lord’s, but the Eggs and Bacon ties, tailored suits and long flowing dresses could do little to change what had already happened. A few months earlier, a shirtless Freddie Flintoff had paraded the Wankhede Stadium after overpowering India in a series decider. Now, Ganguly had not just avenged a cricketing encounter, but had also reduced the Mecca of cricket to the same decorum displayed in Mumbai.

Suddenly, the Indians became equals to their colonial masters and Lord’s and Whankhede turned into just two ordinary cricket grounds in different countries.

In that single moment, Ganguly had laid foundation for a generation of Indian cricketers that would refuse to bow down or feel mental inferiority in a pressure environment. India had not won a single Test match outside the sub-continent in 16 years, between 1986 and 2002, barring a 1-2 loss record in Zimbabwe. By 2006/7 India recorded Test match wins in West Indies, England, Australia and South Africa. Six players from the side that won that magical final at Lord’s in 2002 were a part of the World Cup-winning squad in 2011, skippered by the most incisive Indian captain of them all, Dhoni.

Traces of the fortitude of Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh can still be found in Michael Clarke, but the Australian team is not the power house they once were. Even though they have returned to top of both Test and ODI rankings, that aura of invincibility is missing. With an entire team of greats departing at almost the same time, Clarke finds himself in a position that Allan Border did many years ago. It is an inevitable cycle of life; cricketers, captains, teams, countries, civilizations and you and I go through. Some bloom longer than others, but change remains the only constant.

How Kohli goes about managing his affairs as captain, if and when he gets the job, could mould the future of Indian cricket. -Photo by Reuters

The fairytale farewell for Dhoni would be a World Cup win in 2015. But playing in Australasian conditions will present a herculean challenge for the Indian team which recently seemed at sea in the alien environment. Irrespective, for now, it appears that Dhoni will leave Indian cricket in good assertive hands. How Kohli goes about managing his affairs as captain, if and when he gets the job, could mould the future of Indian cricket.

The attitude instilled by Mushtaq Mohammad and epitomized by Imran Khan ran its course in the Pakistani dressing room only to remain in the memory of those who were lucky enough to witness their marvels on a cricket field. Pakistan now needs a few moments not just of success but of magic; an occurrence that can redefine their character or an event that not just alters the course of this current team but more importantly the mindset of its players. When Pakistan chased 302 in the 3rd Test against Sri Lanka at Sharjah, it seemed, perhaps, that moment had come. But since then, the team has yet again descended into a state of uncertainty.

Life is a collection of moments, and while some play a larger part in shaping the world around us, each has its own place in the puzzle. Sometimes the magnitude of a single moment is so enormous that it leaves a permanent mark, but most times the defining moments of life are lost in assumed inconsequentiality. These events in forgotten dimensions of time and space constitute the actualization of an innings, a career, a cricket team or just life itself. Steve Waugh had his by taking blows on his body, I had mine while watching King Richards bat and each one of you are sure to have had your own.