Subcontinental Headlines No More

By Q

Despite the English and the Australians holding the claim for bringing the game to the globe, the subcontinent seemed to make the game their own.

The exciting occurrences of a new young player making the headlines, a thrilling run chase with last ball wins, all bowled hatricks, reverse swinging demolitions of oppositions to snatch victories from impossible positions were always associated with the Pakistans and Indias of the world.

All this while the English and the Australians went about their business with expected calm and composure.

The Australians winning everything in clinical fashion and the English losing everything.

With the pulsating positives came the dark negatives as well.

Revolts against the captain, dressing room rifts among team mates, player-management arguements, factions within the team, fixing matches, relationship with bookies, ball tampering, visits to the match referee, fines, bans, you name it and the subcontinental players were in the limelight for everything wrong.

As much as they were for 16 year old debuts, 10 wicket hauls on debuts, youngest to score centuries, fastest 50s and 100s, first to 10,000 test runs, most 6s, first to 500 ODI wickets, and a whole lot more.

Then something changed.

Indians, Lankans, Pakistanis went into the background and the non-Asians, for lack of a better word, started to emerge.

Emerge with a bang to put it aptly.

The calendar changed from 2008 to 2009 and within 11 days the headlines seemed like lightning bolts.

A captain asked for the removal of the coach, while the coach remained quiet.

An emergency board meeting later the captain and coach were both gone, apparently resigned, and a new captain was put in charge.

News of rifts, factions, dressing room arguements surfaced.

The outgoing captain finally spoke and said that he was forced to leave, unlike we were told initially by the board.

All this and it did not involve a team from the subcontinent. In fact, the entire drama unfolded faster and with more twists and turns than any subcontinental drama in the past.

Elsewhere, another cricketer was forced to miss a match because he had one too many the night before, and was "inadequately prepared".

Night out partying and that too not for the first time and facing disciplinary measures sounds like a cricketer from the subcontinent outskirts suddenly exposed to the big bad world of international cricket.

Not quite right, as yet again the headlines were splashed by a non-Indian, non-Pakistani, non-Lankan cricketer.

His replacement for the match was a young 22 year old whom not many had heard of.

Had you? I hadn't.

He grabbed the opportunity with both hands and turned out to open in place of his drunk-and-dumped mate and smashed a debut ton.

It wasn't long ago when young players from India and Pakistan, whom not many had heard of, were being thrust on to the big stage.

Yet again, not this time.

This one wasn't even the most scintillating debut of the year, which is a mere 11 days old.

Nearby, another 22 year old was elevated to the international stage against arguably the best pace attack in the world today.

Awesome would be an understatement for what the young kid produced.

Here was another young cricketer, whom not many had heard of. Whats more is that he became the first ever cricketer in the country's century a bit old cricket history to play an international match without ever having played a first class game.

There was a time when such things were the order of the day for India and Pakistan. In their history, there have been numerous instances of boys spotted in the streets and thrust into international action with no first class experience whatsoever.

This time this headline belonged to no one from the Subcontinent.

It has taken the non-Asians 11 days this year to turn the tables and deliver headlines of the subcontinental nature.

Is the world a changed place? Are the Australians and the English and the Kiwis taking over? I haven't even mentioned the South Africans whose captain walked out at the fall of the 9th wicket to try and save the match with literally one hand!

If the first few days of 2009 are anything to go by, the year ahead will see a lot more drama, both on and off the field, and for a change it will not involve anyone from the Subcontinent.