Only time will tell if he is good enough to inherit the throne that SMG, SRT and Dravid handed down to Kohli, but Australia
Prithvi Shaw
Australians will soon be treated to Indian royalty, the King and the Prince. Inevitably, Virat Kohli will stride out to join Prithvi Shaw one day soon in the Border Gavaskar Trophy and it will herald the culmination of a dynasty that has no doubt been cultivated in a royal household (BCCI) that is by no means perfect, but is nonetheless a palace that knows how to breed blue blood.
Australia's own claims to lineage are slightly more dubious. Mitch Marsh was recently appointed as the new vice-captain, to the astonishment of most local observers who hold on to this quaint but outdated notion that performance actually matters when choosing teams (let alone leaders). In his justification, Court Jester (sorry, chief selector) Trevor Hohns talked about Marsh's lineage as being one of the factors in that decision, an admission that was admirable only in so far as he finally admitted that in Australian cricket, it is no longer a secret why the Marsh brothers find it almost impossible to be dropped, despite under-whelming the selectors for years. It's down to lineage!
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I cannot say for sure if Shaw's likely ascension to the throne is because he earned the right or was born into privilege. His debut innings, albeit against modest opposition, was breathtaking for its audacity but also for its purity. He looked like he belonged, a prince born to rule. Only time will tell if he is good enough to inherit the throne that Gavaskar, Tendulkar and Dravid handed down to Kohli but Australia cannot wait to see if he is the real thing. It sends a shiver down our spine when we remember a wee slip of a lad — Sachin Tendulkar — carving up an Aussie attack in Perth in 1992. Or Kohli's fire-breathing century on his first tour in 2011-12. Surely, we could not be blessed again.
Shaw's debut is in stark contrast to the shambolic pathway system that exists in Australia. It is indeed a miracle that despite the perceptions of nepotism and cronyism, we can still produce good cricketers. I suppose it's a numbers game. We'll never know which diamonds we never discovered. The cubic zirconias will always be outshone by the occasional gem.
Perhaps, it happens in India too. Perhaps there are 50 young men even better than Kohli who are now bus conductors or university lecturers or office clerks because the system simply missed them at junior carnivals. Perhaps, those who have watched Shaw come through the ranks can point to others more deserving. But at least Kohli and Shaw and others of their ilk actually deserve their spot in the team based on tangible performance measures. Old fashioned things like scoring runs!
We are so excited about seeing Shaw next month, standing alongside King Kohli and showing us that there is another way, another method, another kingdom that is based on a meritocracy and not an ancestral patriarchy. Perhaps, we don't see what goes on behind the scenes in India, in those laneways and maidans and backyards where dreams are being crushed everyday by a system that is just as cruel. When we watch the artistry of the Indian batsmen this summer, we want to believe that they are the best that India has produced. It will be a poignant reminder to us that we are stuck in a quicksand which is loosely defined as, "a deep wet sand that yields easily to pressure and sucks in anything that resting on it." Sounds suspiciously like a marsh to me!
Michael Jeh is a Brisbane-based former first-class player
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