Every sport has it’s own version of rivalries. Rivalries that enable competitors to raise their game by a few notches. Rivalries that teams relish and dread at the same time. Loving the chance the compete but dread failure.
The world’s best known game, soccer, has quite a few. Be it Brazil vs Argentina or Real Madrid vs Barcelona, matches between them evoke more passion than any other. Closer home a Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal match is considered to be most watched.
Cricket too has it’s own share of rivalries mostly shared between Australia vs England or India vs Pakistan. Whenever these teams face each other, it’s more than just a game. For the administrators, players and the fans alike.
But few rivalries are unique in nature. They don’t help raise the game level but have a more teasing attitude about it. The will to win exists but with a difference. And sometimes they involve usage of articles that are outside of the cricket arena.
The India vs England, cricket series is one such rivalry that not only evokes strong passion amongst its cricket mad population but also has had some notable incidents that have had a bearing over the cricketing relationship between the two countries.
During the MCC tour of India in 1976-77, after heavy defeats in Delhi and Kolkata, John Lever resorted to using Vaseline to maintain the shine on one side of the ball that caused it to swing. It delivered results too as he returned with figures of 7-46, which also happened to be the best by an English debutant. While the Indian team did report this, Lever was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Who can forget the famous shirtless celebration by Saurav Ganguly in 2002 as a response to Andrew Flintoff’s celebratory run a series earlier??
The Nottingham Test of the 2007 series, saw Zaheer Khan being treated to jelly beans while batting. He removed them with the help of his bat, but the next ball saw some more jelly beans being chucked onto the wicket. Apparently, the England slip fielders were upto some mischief and Paul Collingwood remarked in a post- match conference “I think he prefers the blue ones to the pink ones, to be honest”.
Vaseline returned to haunt India again, when commentator, Micheal Vaughan, tweeted that VVS Laxman applied it to his bat to escape edges off his bat shown by hotspot. Got pilloried by twitterati in return. And VVS, a gentleman that he is, refused to comment on the point.
The rivalry turned personal when Kevin Pietersen called Yuvraj Singh a pie-chucker and Yuvraj responded in his own inimitable fashion. Since then Yuvraj’s dismissed KP quite a few times, the last being in a preparatory match preceding the upcoming Test series. To their credit, both played it down and took it sportingly.
Rivalries are good for any sport, till such time they encourage that the game is played in the right spirit and set a positive example for the fans and juniors. It turns ugly, when teams or individuals resort to methods, out of the rule book, to win at any cost.
As India gets ready to face England tomorrow, to avenge their humiliating 0-4 defeat during their visit last year, we can only hope that the spirit of the game is maintained and also hope that the fans get to see some good and positive cricket.
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