The start of something Sunny

When Australian cricket writer Mike Coward landed in Mumbai for his Tied Testfamous 1986 tour of India the immigration officer in Cowardrsquos words ldquoignoring the Australian coat of arms on the cover of the passportrdquo asked him from which country he was coming fromldquoAllan Borderrsquos countryrdquo replied Coward The immigration officer may or may not have been impressed with Cowardrsquos way of saying Australia but little did the fine cricket writer from Down Under realise that his future tours to India a decade later would be for the BorderGavaskar Trophy which has added much sparkle to AustraliaIndia cricket rivalryTwentyfive Octobers ago the first BorderGavaskar Trophy was played at the Kotla in New Delhi It was a game Australia will not recall in glee with Mark Taylorrsquos Australians losing the October 1014 scheduled Test inside four days Taylor had no hesitation in batting first in the oneoff Test and in no time his team were struggling to cope with the turning ball Anil Kumble Aashish Kapoor and Sunil Joshi formed the spin trio while Venkatesh Prasad opened the bowling with Test debutant David Johnson who was in the side in place of Javagal SrinathAustralia too had a highprofile player out through injurymdashShane Warnemdashwho withdrew from the tour due to a finger injury Fellow leggie Peter McIntyre took his place on the basis of his fine 199596 Sheffield Shieldwinning season for South Australia Taylor told reporters at the start of the tour in Mumbai that McIntyre ldquowill surprise a few blokesrdquo He did surprise spectators at the Kotla when he got a dangerouslooking Tendulkar to edge one to Mark Waugh at first slip off a delivery that turned a fair bitEarlier Australia were bowled out for 182 on Day One with Michael Slater topscoring with 44 Steve Waughrsquos start to BorderGavaskar Tests was a blob caught behind off Kapoor Journalist Malcolm Knox came up with an interesting story in his book Taylor and Beyond where he wrote about Ian Chappell part of the commentary team for that Test telling Glenn McGrath over a drink that he was batting better than his NSW batting stalwart McGrath duly conveyed Chappellrsquos thoughts to Waugh at breakfast the following morning and Waugh has been quoted in the book as saying ldquofg hell Irsquoll show himrdquo Chappell couldnrsquot remember his conversation with McGrath when we spoke yesterday but said it would surely have been a ldquotongueincheekrdquo utteranceAnyway Waugh took it seriously and refused to be dismissed in the second innings ldquoHis Chappellrsquos sarcasm added fuel to the fire and heightened my desire to stand up and be counted It culminated in one of my proudest works of unfaltering concentration and watertight defence as I scored 67 not out against the maestro of powdering surfaces and uneven bounce Anil Kumblerdquo wrote Waugh in Out of My Comfort ZoneIndiarsquos first innings total of 361 was punctuated with a fine 152 by Nayan Mongia as opener and Sourav Gangulyrsquos 66 Ganguly missed out on emulating his excaptain Mohammed Azharuddinrsquos feat of scoring three hundreds in his first three TestsKumble was the scourge of the Australians by bagging nine wickets in the Test which India won by seven wickets but Mongia got the manofthematch award for his ton ldquoI was told in advance that I would be opening the innings so I spent a lot of time practising I was physically and mentally preparedrdquo the Barodabased wicketkeeperbatsman told me on Tuesday His biggest challenge came in the form of ldquonippyrdquo Paul Reiffel who tested Mongia with his ldquoincutters and reverse swingrdquoTendulkar had the distinction of winning on his captaincy debut More joy was in store at the Titan Cup final in Mumbai where South Africa were conquered followed by the 21 home series win over the ProteasDespite the Aussies not having Warne and Craig McDermott they were still a formidable side But Tendulkar exuded confidence when I met him at Mumbairsquos domestic airport before he boarded the flight to Delhi for the oneoff Test ldquoYes theyrsquore a tough side but our bowlers are capable of bowling them out twice Our bowlers have so much talent and potential that if we click at the right time we will be a very hard side to beatrdquo Team India proved their captain rightMeanwhile the AustraliaIndia rivalry grew in strength and popularity with far more frequent series than before Players not only competed they fought like tigers and although there have been some overthetop moments the BorderGavaskar Trophy has reached the stage where it is comparable only to the Ashes urnAnd Irsquom sure immigration officers donrsquot ask Australian cricket personalities from where they come anymoremiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper