CRICKET is an exciting sport. What makes it special to many people, however, is not the sweet sound of bat hitting ball, a majestic cover drive, or a brilliant, diving catch in the slips.What makes cricket special to so many is the glorious uncertainty of the game - the fact that anything can happen at any time, that a great batsman can fall without scoring, probably first ball, and that a No. 11 can smash a top-class bowler for a scintillating boundary.
That is why in assessing situations and players, in making predictions, so many experts on the game, including people who have played at the highest level for a long time and those who have studied it well, can be wrong, dead wrong, so many times while others with just a passing acquaintance can some times be spot on.
the opening day of the Test match now in progress at Queen's Park Oval, West Indies captain Carl Hooper won the toss, sent India to bat, and the discussion was hot. Some people, including experts, backed him fully, some, again including experts, did not, and regardless of what happened on the first two days, only when it is over will the argument stop.
Only then will it be proven whether Hooper was right or wrong in winning the toss and bowling first.
The truth, however, is that he can win and still be wrong, he can lose and still be right, and whatever the result, the argument will continue long afterwards.
Most times there is no right or wrong in cricket. Some times a bad move pays off because the opposition is weak, and some times a good move fails because the opposition is superior. That is cricket.
Win, lose or draw, it was surprising that Hooper won the toss and fielded - even though, after selecting four pace bowlers, he probably had to bowl first in order to make the best use of a pitch that so many said would assist pace bowlers more than slow bowlers.
Apart from giving away his luck and thereby frowning on the gods, it was surprising because in bowling first he sentenced his batsmen to bat last on a pitch which, if only because of normal wear and tear, would be more difficult than it was at the start of the match.
It is also a pitch with a history of the ball bouncing awkwardly, sometimes not at all, during the last two days.
In the good old days, captains who won the toss seldom bowled first. In the good old days the advice, except in rare cases, was this: when you win the toss, think once, think twice, and then decide to bat.
Times have changed - no question about that. In most cases, however, it is for better, and maybe in this case Hooper's decision to bowl first was for better.
Contrary to one opinion at the Oval, maybe it was not a timid move. Mabe it was not because Hooper and the West Indies fear Sachin Tendulkar and company and did not want to bat before them.
It may well have been a positive move. Maybe they simply do not fear India's bowlers.
If that is the case, if the decision to bowl first followed their assessment of the pitch, of the strengths and weaknesses of both teams, if it was a demonstration of confidence in their batsmen, then all is well - even if it was not the right decision, even if it does not prove successful.
The regularity with which teams are electing to bowl first these days, however, the many instances, at all levels, of top batsmen batting down the order and younger, less skilled and less experienced batsman batting up the order, and of fast bowlers bowling after medium-fast bowlers, suggest that something strange is going on in cricket these days.
The game, it seems, is being played upside-down - certainly when compared to the days of old.
Maybe that is why India dropped leg spinner Anil Kumble for the Test match even though he boasts a record of 318 wickets in Test matches, five wickets in an innings 19 times - including twice against the West Indies and once on his last appearance at Queen's Park Oval, 10 wickets in a match four times, and is only one of two men to have taken all 10 wickets in an innings.
In the old days, teams picked their best bowlers and their best batsmen, there is no question that Kumble, offspinner Harbhajan Singh and pacer Javagal Srinath are India's best bowlers, and unless the game has changed, all three should have been selected regardless of the reading of the pitch.
Many times a pitch is good or bad depending on who is batting on it and who is bowling on it.
