Six sixes are thirty six and it's Yuvraj's hour

Befitting his name, Yuvraj Singh was truly a prince on a mission to conquer. The India-England contest at the ICC Twenty20 Championship saw Yuvraj being coronated amid his flurry of six "sixers" as India's new pinch-hitting prince.

The coronation was preceded by some corrosive sledging England all-rounder (or we call him England's struggling all-rounder) Andrew Flintoff, which egged the prince of Punjab to a superlative display with the willow.

Poor Stuart Board, who once got away after sledging Sourav Ganguly, was Yuvraj target practice. All the deliveries hurled by Board were fittingly dispatched by the Indian vice-captain into the dark skies and over the ropes.

The six sixes will no longer leave Yuvraj to live under the shadow of Sourav Ganguly, whose seniority has helped keep the Punjab batsman on the substitute bench. The scintillating would help Yuvraj keep his place in the test team as regular member.

The southpaw's proud body language and aggressive demeanour had had an impact on the opposition -- they tend to respect him (only Flintoff made a fool of himself). The Australians know it and the South Africans, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans agree on it -- never hurt Yuvraj's ego. A bruised Yuvraj is a beast of a batsman. He is transformed into a batting colossus the moment he is challenged.

Let's always have a Yuvraj in this state of affairs -- that's advantage India!

Bringing up champions

"I thought all my pantyhoses would be safe since i had four boys. But they all would vanish in a flash. The boys would hang them down the garage roof with cricket balls inside," says Beverly Waugh (above, alongside the posters of her sons), 54.
But Bev, who is in the league of Maratha Grace (mother of W G Grace and E M Grace) and Amir Bee (mother of Wazir, Hanif, Mushthaq and Sadiq Mohammed) never scolded them. She knew her sons Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh were different from most other children in Bankstown, a lower middle class suburb of Sydney.
Sports was in their genes. Bev was the South Australian under-14 women's singles tennis champion. It was love-all for her and Rodger Waugh, who used to play with Australian greats like Tony Roche and Allan Stone, when they first met a tennis court in Sydney.
They were 18 when they got married, and a year later, Bev gave up tennis to look after their newborn twins. Steve was born four minutes earlier than Mark on June 2, 1965. By a coincidence the date of birth matched the last four digits of Bev phone number, XXXX2665.
Hadn't Bev given birth to the boys, the Waugh surname would have ended with Rodger. "We always did the correct thing," jokes Bev. Two more boys, Dean and Danny, followed before she separated from Rodger.
Employed at the eduction department, Bev still lives in Bankstown, where her boys learnt the basics of cricket. Like Steve, who cares for children afflicted by leprosy in India, she displays fellow feeling and teaches handicapped children how to swim. "I don't keep thinking that my boys have done well. Their cricket is just a gift," she says. "I have got these little handicapped children who, if they swim one metre, deserve the same acknowledgement."
The sons have not disappointed her. But the former sensitive skipper of Australia has his mother in him more than his siblings. Just as he cares for his teammates, he feels for the downtrodden and the have nots.
The story of Steve and mark was scripted on the banks of the Georges river where they grew up. Today they have identical houses on the river banks hidden by bushes for privacy. They attended East Hill boys school in Panania, where they now have the cricket nets named after them.
Steve, who has motivated his teammates to a superlative show in the World Cups has also changed the lives of many unfortunate people. One of them is the handicapped Johnna whom he had met eight years ago. Amazed that Johnna who had no legs, could throw a cricket ball far, Steve used to give him tickets cricket matches and a peep into Australian dressing room.
Bev is glad that Steve motivated Johnna into public life. Today, Johnna does a lot of inspirational speaking, writes books, and comes on radio programmes. "Johnna said to me Stephen is the one who inspired him to do it," says Bev.
Steve once took Johnna to the West Indies and he stayed with the team. It was fun times. "Stephen one day carried him to the beach. When the locals stared, Stephen told them, 'A shark has taken his legs'," says Bev. "They would bury Johnna in the sand and get the kids around to dig him out. When they got him out of the sand, Stephen would tell them, 'Hey you have lost his legs, they are still in the sand!'" Steve once put Johnna into David Boons playing kit. Boon had a shock when he opened his coffin-like kit and saw Johnna springing out of it.
Steve always had a sense of humour though he was brought up the hard way. "It was not all easy because there were four children and we had to repay the loan for the house;" says Bev." I knew when they were 15 that they had something special and that if they had the right break they would at least play for New South Wales state team."
She found it difficult to meet their expenses."They wanted only branded bats like Gray Nicolls. And, each time I was buying two of everything," says Bev. So, she took them around looking for sponsorships or at least a price concession. But the manager of bat shop curly told her, "Lady, come back to me when they are playing for the state team."
Finally, a good family friend, Harry Soloman, gave the twins some work -- 15-year-old umpires for indoor cricket. "They took all the abuse from people twice their age who played indoor cricket. They would be there from 6 pm to 12 am in the freezing cold. You know with four boys around the one who got up first was the best dressed. Since Stephen was a little shorter than the rest he would use chewing gum to stick up the folded pants. Sometimes they were not the best dressed cricketers."
While Mark took care in his personal grooming, Steve was casual. They had beaten-up secondhand car to go to school, and every morning Stephen would be slow in getting ready with no hair done. Mark, on the other hand, would be sitting in the car with his hair done and teeth clean," says Bev.
But Steve was more mischievous. "Stephen would get an inspiration to do something and Mark would follow along. But then Mark would just look as guilty as Stephen," says Bev. "Stephen always had a lot of fun and never had any fear. But if a dog was out there Mark would be frightened. If they went on a merry-go-around, Mark would hold on to me."
Once at an amusement part a 6-year -old Mark had climbed up a cliff and stood petrified. "I knew that he was scared," says Bev, who raced to the top in her leather petty-coat, which got torn.
The mother dismiss all talk Steve being a stuck-up person. "When it comes to leading the team or helping children, he just blocks everything else. People say he never smiles but it is not true. He says to me that when he gets down there, 'I have to focus', therefore he comes across as a very serious person," says Bev.
People used to tell Bev that Steve didn't care, he didn't know how to talk. "I used to tell them that you don't have to speak to prove yourself. Your actions will speak for you. He does a lot of work which he never tells any one about."
Once a little boy who was dying of cancer, wanted to meet Steve and also be with his little ginger cat. Ignoring net practice, Steve went to see the boy in the hospital. The boys parents had flown in the cat from South Australia. "Stephen told me that he never felt so proud to be in the company of a cat," says Bev. Steve gave a signed hat which the parents kept on the boy's coffin. "But he never said one word about it to anyone outside."
After the 1998 tour of India, Steve called Bev and others in the family to show the slides he had shot at the village of lepers in Calcutta. "It was 9 pm. He made us sit in his living room and explained the slides one by one," says Bev. Then he said, 'I don't want anyone in this room to complain not having anything material ever again in life'. He was very emotional."
Stephen leads a spartan life and wants children to grow up as a compassionate people. "He doesn't like getting too many material things for himself. That is what draws him to India. India is different for him," says Bev. "He has got stumps with dirt from India. He doesn't want them washed and wants the dirt on it to be left free. He owes his world cup victory to the blessings of the children of the Udyan foundation whom he looks after."
Bev says that his lifting the World Cup was a message for everybody that it is possible for one to be down and out and then lift oneself to impossible heights. "All those children back in India can now celebrate because they had prayed for him to win it. They had sent faxes to him that he can now help them more. His ultimate goal is to eradicate leprosy. And I would want to be with him in India helping him out," says one of cricket's best mothers.

Note: This is an article that I wrote in 2000, when I covered the India-Australia Test series Down Under and later the triangular series involving India-Australia-Pakistan. So it is dated. Thought it's still interesting to read the old stuff!

Aussies! respect this game

It is understandable if you don't respect your opposition, but not respecting the game is a cardinal sin.

Australia, the current world champions, have paid the price for this folly of theirs.

The loss to Zimbabwe in the ICC Twenty20 Championship on Wednesday, reflected a lot on the attitude of the cricketing Wizards of Oz towards the Twenty20 version.

No doubt it was a stunning victory for the Zimbabweans, who never in their wildest dreams would have thought that they could have defeated the Australians.

Had the Australians shown some reverence to this brand of cricket, may be they could have put up a much more spirited performance against one of the minnows of the game.

One felt pity for the Australians, who had taken the field in designer cricket wears boasting of temperature control and aerodynamic properties. Star bowlers like Brett Lee and Nathan Bracken were treated with disdain by the Zimbabwean batters.

This match proved that the Aussies are beatable -- all it requires is some quantity of gumption. The Zimbabweans had that character in huge quantity.

For the Zimbabweans, the victory over Australia -- one of the biggest upsets in cricket history -- has helped score a few political brownie points, too.

All is not well between the two nations and relations between the two hit a low in May when Zimbabwe accused Australia of funding "terrorist activities after Canberra cancelled tour of its cricket team to the African country.

Defending the move then, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he took the decision to avoid giving a propaganda victory to "grubby dictator" President Robert Mugabe.

But a game of Twenty20 saw Zimbabwe having the last laugh. The Australian cricket team -- known for its bullying image -- is now on the verge of a humiliating exit if it loses to England, which defeated Zimbabwe on Thursday.

Thus Twenty20 is a great leveller. Hope the Aussies have learnt a few lessons from not holding this version of cricket in high esteem. For a cricketing nation that prides itself as the best team in the world, it would have to show its mettle in this brand of the game, too.

Twenty20 is "momentary cricket", not instant cricket

The first match of the ICC World Twenty20 championship between home team South Africa and West Indies at the New Wanderers stadium in Johannesburg yesterday proved one thing -- cricket has evolved into a speedy game keeping up with the ethos of the digital world.
If 50-over One Day Internationals can be called "instant cricket", Twenty20 could be christened "momentary cricket". For, you got to play this brand of cricket like a man possessed. You don't take a breather in cricket's new avatar -- or rather you won't be given a chance to catch up with your breath -- where speed and belligerence is the essence and name of the game.
Yesterday's match saw two teams putting together more than 400 runs in 40 overs. Scoring close to 10 runs in an over has been unprecedented so far in the history of cricket -- a game where style and substance matters over results.
When West Indies opener Chris Gayle and Devon Smith walked into bat after South Africa opted to field on winning the toss, soon one realised that this brand of cricket is not for the puritanical souls.
Gayle was soon at his swashbuckling best -- he began to maraud the Proteas bowling with some lusty hitting. The end result was 57-ball century, which included 10 sixes and seven fours.
However, Gayle's high octane 117 wasn't enough to contain the South Africans, when they began to chase the Windies score of 205.
This was to be expected in this game, where bowlers are shown scant respect.
Proteas captain Graeme Smith and his opening partner, the attacking Herschelle Gibbs, replicated the same intentions as exhibited by the Windies openers. They were on the offensive from the word go.
The South African were able to cruise home in only 17.5 overs with the loss of just two wickets, and partly aided by some shoddy bowling and fielding by the Windies.
More than the result of this game, what was interesting to note was the way this type of cricket has been packaged. The concept is total entertainment for the spectators as well as TV viewers.
The ambiance felt was akin to watching a World Cup football match or an English Premier League play-off. There was music with dancers gyrating to provide entertainment to the masses after a four or a six and in between overs. The show was worth the buck they paid for.
The fact that the game gets over in just under four hours proves that this is a spectator friendly and adrenalin pumping affair.
To play this mode of cricket, players need to show a different mental approach. Aggression and flamboyance is an attribute that is required in immense quantity.
The opening match of the ICC Twenty20 tournament tells us that this concept is here to stay. If 1975, when the first limited overs World Cup was played in England, laid the foundation for the popularity of instant cricket, then the 2007 edition of the Twenty20 World Championship will take cricket to a totally different level of entertainment. Howzaat!

Men in Baggy Green play for pride

By Pradeep Rajan

Australian cricket has always fascinated me.
Although I am a lover of the copybook cricket style, I admire the Australians, not for their clinical approach, but for their staunch respect for the game.
It is their reverence for the game that has taken the Australian cricket to stratospheric levels.
One would hardly find a great Australian player trying to portray a “larger-than-game-image”.
I was able to see that for myself when I met former greats like Richie Benaud, Ian Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Mark Taylor, while covering a Test and triangular one-day series involving Australia, India and Pakistan in 2000.
Strike up a conversation with one of these legendary players, they would speak of their achievements only after giving due credit to the game.
I have not seen any other team respecting its official cap like the Australians, who take pride in donning the Baggy Green (the coveted cap of the national team).
There’s an interesting anecdote that explains the spirit of the Baggy Green.
When Australia lost the Adelaide Test in 2003 against India, home coach John Buchanan sent an open letter to his players, telling them that their loss was “unbaggygreen”.
Such is the pride associated with the coveted Baggy Green.In fact, all that Australian captain Ricky Ponting needs to do is to stare at his men’s Baggy Green to perk up their game.
The man, who most recently, waxed eloquent about the prized cap was Justin Langer, who retired at the end of Australia’s 5-0 win against England in the Ashes series.
Announcing his retirement, Langer said: “You know what? It’s not just a game to me. I’ve had the same cap for 13 years. It’s the greatest game in the world. I love it, and I’ll be involved in it until my last breath.
“But it’s not just a game to me. It’s been a vehicle. I’ve learned how to handle success, how to handle criticism, how to handle failure, how to fight back from adversity. I’ve learned about mateship, leadership. It’s all because of the baggy green cap.”
The pride is the tonic for victory. The Aussie cricketers may be aggressive, chatty and bully, but they can be pardoned because they do it in their pursuit of victory.
Says Ravi Shastri, India’s new coach-cum-manager: “This is a sport and it has to be aggressive. Otherwise you wear bangles and play.
“I never had any problems playing against Australia. I played my best cricket against them.”
Shastri, in nine Tests against Australia, with six of them played Down Under, averages 77.75.
A keen watcher of Australian cricket, Shastri said that the Aussie have set high standards that is difficult to emulate.
“There is a constant supply line happening, which is good. What they do better than any other cricketing country is they realise when they should tell a guy to move on in life,” said Shastri.
He said this helps Australia to blood younger players at the right time instead making them sit on the bench.
“Otherwise a guy like Steve Waugh (former Australian captain) would have played till he is 45.”
Waugh retired in 2004 at the age of 37, even though many felt that he had some more cricket left.
Waugh’s team which dominated Test and one-day international matches from 1998 was called the “indomitables” and was almost in the same league of great Don Bradman’s “invincibles” team of the 1940s.
In fact, there is no prouder wearer of the Baggy Green than Waugh, whose 18-year-old cap looked tattered, frayed and faded when he called quits.
Waugh captaincy reflected his personality: aggressive, determined and a never-say-die attitude.
His mother Beverly Waugh told me: “When it comes to leading the team, he just blocks everything else. People say he never smiles but that is not true.
“He says to me that when he gets down there, ‘I have to focus’.”
Waugh’s brand of leadership revolutionised captaincy, leaving a strong blueprint, with emphasis on task awareness, for his successor Ricky Ponting.
Says Sandy Gordon, former Australian team psychologist: “We never talk about winning games but what we have to do to play well.”
With that kind of attitude, sky is the limit for Australian cricket.

Men in Baggy Green play for pride

By Pradeep Rajan

Australian cricket has always fascinated me.
Although I am a lover of the copybook cricket style, I admire the Australians, not for their clinical approach, but for their staunch respect for the game.It is their reverence for the game that has taken the Australian cricket to stratospheric levels.
One would hardly find a great Australian player trying to portray a “larger-than-game-image”.
I was able to see that for myself when I met former greats like Richie Benaud, Ian Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Mark Taylor, while covering a Test and triangular one-day series involving Australia, India and Pakistan in 2000.Strike up a conversation with one of these legendary players, they would speak of their achievements only after giving due credit to the game.
I have not seen any other team respecting its official cap like the Australians, who take pride in donning the Baggy Green (the coveted cap of the national team).
There’s an interesting anecdote that explains the spirit of the Baggy Green.
When Australia lost the Adelaide Test in 2003 against India, coach John Buchanan sent an open letter to his players, telling them that their loss was “unbaggygreen”.
Such is the pride associated with the coveted Baggy Green.
In fact, all that Australian captain Ricky Ponting needs to do is to stare at his men’s Baggy Green to perk up their game.
The man, who most recently, waxed eloquent about the prized cap was Justin Langer, who retired at the end of Australia’s 5-0 win against England in the Ashes series.
Announcing his retirement, Langer said: “You know what? It’s not just a game to me. I’ve had the same cap for 13 years. It’s the greatest game in the world. I love it, and I’ll be involved in it until my last breath. “But it’s not just a game to me. It’s been a vehicle. I’ve learned how to handle success, how to handle criticism, how to handle failure, how to fight back from adversity. I’ve learned about mateship, leadership. It’s all because of the baggy green cap.”
The pride is the tonic for victory. The Aussie cricketers may be aggressive, chatty and bully, but they can be pardoned because they do it in their pursuit of victory.
Said Ravi Shastri, India’s new coach-cum-manager: “This is a sport and it has to be aggressive. Otherwise you wear bangles and play.
“I never had any problems playing against Australia. I played my best cricket against them.”
Shastri, in nine Tests against Australia, with six of them played Down Under, averages 77.75.
A keen watcher of Australian cricket, Shastri said that the Aussie have set high standards that is difficult to emulate.
“There is a constant supply line happening, which is good. What they do better than any other cricketing country is they realise when they should tell a guy to move on in life,” said Shastri.
He said this helps Australia to blood younger players at the right time instead making them sit on the bench.
“Otherwise a guy like Steve Waugh (former Australian captain) would have played till he is 45.”
Waugh retired in 2004 at the age of 37, even though many felt that he had some more cricket left.Waugh’s team which dominated Test and one-day international matches from 1998 was called the “indomitables” and was almost in the same league of great Don Bradman’s “invincibles” team of the 1940s.
In fact, there is no prouder wearer of the Baggy Green than Waugh, whose 18-year-old cap looked tattered, frayed and faded when he called quits.Waugh captaincy reflected his personality: aggressive, determined and a never-say-die attitude.
His mother Beverly Waugh told me: “When it comes to leading the team, he just blocks everything else. People say he never smiles but that is not true.
“He says to me that when he gets down there, ‘I have to focus’.”
Waugh’s brand of leadership revolutionised captaincy, leaving a strong blueprint, with emphasis on task awareness, for his successor Ricky Ponting.
Explained Sandy Gordon, former Australian team psychologist: “We never talk about winning games but what we have to do to play well.”
With that kind of attitude, sky is the limit for Australian cricket.

Fallen idols: can they rise from the ashes

By Pradeep Rajan

Fans hold their breath every time their cricket idols walk into the field to bat or bowl.
They pray for yet another century, a flood of fours and a shower of sixers – even a dropped catch, if their heroes happen to be the batsmen.
For bowlers, they would exhort the men, who charge in with the cherry in their hand, to hit the three erect timbers to scare the daylight out of the batsmen.
Expectations are sky-high on these players, who are considered the game’s gods. And all that is required for the cricketing idols to fall from grace is just one defeat or an act of misdemeanour.Cricket is a capricious game and it can be cruel to its demi-gods. The 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean has seen a few reputations being tarnished.
Sachin Tendulkar, the reigning deity of Indian cricket, is one of the biggest idols of the game, who brutally failed to weave his magic in the West Indies by scoring 7, 54 and 0 in three matches.
Short boyish-looking Tendulkar, who got into the Indian team at the age of 16 in 1989, is the only cricketer whom the Australian great, late Sir Don Bradman, compared to himself.If West Indian batting legend Viv Richards talked about his admiration for the batting genius, former ace Australian leg spinner Shane Warne spoke of his nightmarish experience bowling to him.
Tendulkar, who has bound a cricket mad nation, has dominated the sport in a way no other sportsman has done in India's history.In a tribute to his cricketing prowess, The Week magazine once wrote: “Sachin Tendulkar’s persona has an inspiring incandescence: it lends hope and meaning in life for millions of Indians who rejoice in his triumphs and console themselves – whenever he fails - that he would surely do better next time. It is a cathartic experience for them.”
With a string of poor performances in recent times, he is facing a censure from fans, who booed him during a match in his hometown Mumbai last year.
It may be difficult to fathom how fans discount the abilities of a man who has scored more 25,000 runs and hit 59 centuries in both Test and one-day games.
Cricket has been like this: star-value or past laurels don’t count. The edict is simple: Perform or Perish.
In the case of Tendulkar it was his cricketing performance that has brought down his stock value, but another idol and former England captain, Andrew Flintoff, as fallen from repute for his love for the spirit.
Allrounder Flintoff's drunken night out at the World Cup saw Unicef dropping him from a charity visit to school children in St. Lucia in the Caribbean.
Flintoff, who was England’s hero in their Ashes campaign against Australia in 2005, was stripped of his vice-captaincy, dropped from the group stage game against Canada and also fined.
Flintoff later said that his actions were “completely wrong” and will “accept the punishment”.
Considered the talisman of the English team, “Freddie” Flintoff has tossed away that marquee status.
Former England great Bob Willis lashed out at him. “I think Freddie has been making a fool of himself since the celebrations of the 2005 Ashes. This is not the first time it has happened and I fear it might not be the last. He can't behave like that,” warned Willis.
Cricket being the game of “glorious uncertainties”, idols such as Indian wicket-keeper Mahender Singh Dhoni have learnt that stardom cannot guarantee airtight insulation from reality.
Dhoni, who earns more than US$1 million from brand endorsements, had fans destroying his under contruction house after he scored two ducks against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
With a string of poor performances in recent times, he is facing a censure from fans, who booed him during a match in his hometown Mumbai last year.
It may be difficult to fathom how fans discount the abilities of a man who has scored more 25,000 runs and hit 59 centuries in both Test and one-day games.
Cricket has been like this: star-value or past laurels don’t count. The edict is simple: Perform or Perish.In the case of Tendulkar it was his cricketing performance that has brought down his stock value, but another idol and former England captain, Andrew Flintoff, as fallen from repute for his love for the spirit.
Allrounder Flintoff's drunken night out at the World Cup saw Unicef dropping him from a charity visit to school children in St. Lucia in the Caribbean.
Flintoff, who was England’s hero in their Ashes campaign against Australia in 2005, was stripped of his vice-captaincy, dropped from the group stage game against Canada and also fined.
Flintoff later said that his actions were “completely wrong” and will “accept the punishment”.Considered the talisman of the English team, “Freddie” Flintoff has tossed away that marquee status.Former England great Bob Willis lashed out at him.
“I think Freddie has been making a fool of himself since the celebrations of the 2005 Ashes. This is not the first time it has happened and I fear it might not be the last. He can't behave like that,” warned Willis.
Cricket being the game of “glorious uncertainties”, idols such as Indian wicket-keeper Mahender Singh Dhoni have learnt that stardom cannot guarantee airtight insulation from reality.Dhoni, who earns more than US$1 million from brand endorsements, had fans destroying his under contruction house after he scored two ducks (zeroes) against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Fans also tore and smeared paint on billboards depicting him, forcing advertisers to pull back all their campaigns.
The World Cup in the Caribbean saw Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq end his one-day career quite unceremoniously.
He announced his retirement after Pakistan, like India, crashed out of the tournament in the group stage. The Pakistani run machine’s retirement was overshadowed by coach Bob Woolmer’s death. Also, his retirement didn’t stop the criticism being hurled against him.
Many former Pakistan players said that Inzamam should have quit before the World Cup.
In the run up to the World Cup, the Pakistan team had its share of embarassing controversies.
Dope-tainted Star Fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were dropped just before the start of the tournament.
In 2003, it was a failed drug test that saw Australia’s bowling genius Warne being sent home in disgrace from the World Cup in Johannesburg.
Warne, after a 12 month ban, however, went on to become the World’s highest wicket taker.
In cricket it is said that form is temporary, while class is permanent. This belief should be enough for some of the idols to rise like a sphinx from the ashes.
Fans also tore and smeared paint on billboards depicting him, forcing advertisers to pull back all their campaigns.
The World Cup in the Caribbean saw Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq end his one-day career quite unceremoniously.
He announced his retirement after Pakistan, like India, crashed out of the tournament in the group stage.
The Pakistani run machine’s retirement was overshadowed by coach Bob Woolmer’s death. Also, his retirement didn’t stop the criticism being hurled against him.
Many former Pakistan players said that Inzamam should have quit before the World Cup.In the run up to the World Cup, the Pakistan team had its share of embarassing controversies.
Dope-tainted Star Fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were dropped just before the start of the tournament.
In 2003, it was a failed drug test that saw Australia’s bowling genius Warne being sent home in disgrace from the World Cup in Johannesburg.
Warne, after a 12 month ban, however, went on to become the World’s highest wicket taker.
In cricket it is said that form is temporary, while class is permanent.
This belief should be enough for some of the idols to rise like a sphinx from the ashes.