Laxman
was not just one of his kind, he was the only ONE
VVS Laxman got it
all wrong. He thought the cricket field was a large canvas, the bat a
brush and the ball a solidified form of paint. Instead of dogged
defence, he presented a light touch, instead of hitting the ball
hard, he caressed it, as if not to cause pain, and instead of placing
the delivery in the area of its arrival, like an artist does with a
paint brush, he simply changed direction and placed the ball where it
could find greater relevance to the divine cause of expression.
Laxman was more of
an artist, and less of a batsman. He simply expanded the vision of
being a painter to a dimension which required a vast space like a
cricket field. The artist in him needed a much larger canvas to pour
out the genius within. Fans like me did not watch Laxman bat just to
see him score runs or bail India out of one more tight situation. We
watched him bat because in the pretext of a willow in hand, with his
artistic strokes, he provided perspectives about life which only a
person with artistry in his soul could. He maneuvered the cricket
field as an artist maneuvers through various creative ideas.
Just as you thought
the delivery was now going to be inevitably delivered to the cover
fence with a copybook swirl of the bat, with the left foot in tandem,
the TV camera suddenly shifted towards the midwicket fence, focusing
on a hapless and bewildered fielder fetching the ball. Just as an
artist gets an instant inspiration to change the direction of his
brush, Laxman often suddenly used to bring the wrist into play and
dismiss the delivery to another corner of the large canvas called the
cricket field. This aspect of his game was so unique that it can
never ever be replicated on the cricket field. New batsmen taking his
place in the middle order can replace the name in the batting order,
but cannot replicate his talent, for he was not just one of his kind,
he was the only ONE.
In terms of pure
cricketing contribution, Laxman gave Indian cricket and India self
belief. His 281 at Kolkata's Eden Gardens in the 2001 series against
Australia was not just an extraordinary or unbelievable innings, it
was an example of poetical destruction. Pace or spin met with a
treatment which sunk the opposition into a `despair of admiration`.
It was an example of grabbing the opportunity to etch his name
amongst the immortals of the game. It is not that the innings
manufactured Laxman, he manufactured the innings.
Whatever Laxman did
or did not after that innings is purely a matter of academic
discussion. In that innings he had scripted the future of Indian
cricket. He started the journey of India years later being anointed
as the world's No.1 test playing nation. To my mind, his innings in
Kolkata and his mammoth partnership with Rahul Dravid (is it any
coincidence that the two shared many great partnerships!) in that
test is one of the great events in post-independence history of
India. Though purely a great sporting event, it had ramifications for
the entire nation's psyche, as India draws so much of its joys and
sorrows from the happenings on the cricket field.
Laxman's retirement
from the cricketing canvas marks the end of artistry in a game which
is based so much on technique and temperament. Laxman battled hard
all through his career to balance his inner urge for creativity as
well as the situation he found the team in when he went into bat. But
in the past few months, the artistry seemed to be deserting him;
perhaps, the bat refused to be treated as a brush any more. Maybe,
the bat could not reinvent itself any further. Maybe, Laxman finally
had to accept that cricket is a game between bat and ball, the
cricket field is not a canvas, and that he now needs to paint his
future on a different pitch of life.
Artists change their
canvas often, and maybe VVS, after sixteen long years, has done just
that!
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