GREG BAUM
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WACA Test match media award for 2007-2008 Age senior sports writer Greg Baum has won the WACA Test match media award for 2007-08. The award, open to all media, is given to a work that best “captures the essence and uniqueness of the WACA Test match”. Baum’s winning report was of day one of the Australia-India Test in January. “The judges were unanimous that the article beautifully and skilfully portrayed the atmosphere in which that first morning’s play was conducted,” the citation read. |
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A pat before a bat as diplomacy reigns supreme AUSTRALIA v INDIA - THE 3RD TEST AT THE WACA GROUND By GREG BAUM THE END was at the beginning. As the Australian and Indian teams took the field for the third Test at the WACA Ground yesterday morning, each player shook the hand of every other, soccer-style. That's 72 handshakes, 73 if you include the extra pat Australian captain Ricky Ponting gave Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh. At any rate, as the gestures count goes, it was a day one record. The impromptu ceremony was the last of a series of diplomatic manoeuvres in the prelude to Perth meant to soothe the tensions that ran out of control in Sydney. Umpire Steve Bucknor was stood down, Harbhajan's appeal against a three-match ban for racism was postponed until after the series and India dropped its counter-charge against Brad Hogg, leaving both spinners available. On Tuesday, Ponting and Indian captain Anil Kumble declared a truce. But Harbhajan and Hogg were both dropped, not for the sake of keeping peace, but because of a pitch nearing its bouncy old self, both sides wanted to play an extra quick. Australia went without a specialist spinner for the first time in 16 years, since India last played here. Shane Warne was the man dropped then. Sydney umpires Bucknor and Mark Benson were nowhere to be seen and it had a defusing effect. If umpires Asad Rauf and Billy Bowden erred, it was the side of "not out" although Rauf yielded to Brett Lee's plea against Sachin Tendulkar, putting an end to the day's best innings. It was the fourth vociferous leg before wicket appeal against Tendulkar, and far from the likeliest. Replays suggested that it was high. But the appeal was legitimate, umpire Rauf's mistake discernible only on television, and the ever noble Tendulkar accepted it with no more protest than a rueful shake of his head. No one would have begrudged him that. Really, this outbreak of good manners could not have been any other way, with the eyes, ears and lenses of the cricket world trained on the WACA Ground. Appeals were strangled, fours conceded, niceties observed, milestones acknowledged, and nothing more inflammatory was heard than: "Don't worry, Clarkey, catch the next one." Properly, the only conflict was between bat and ball. It ebbed and flowed agreeably. Virender Sehwag, Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid fashioned a score for India in their contrasting ways, but Australia twice checked its opponent with a brace of wickets, and two more at the end gave it the edge. On a wicket not quite as fast as promised, Australia had to be dogged, and was. It is one of its less recognised qualities. An unseasonal easterly breeze in the morning died, leaving a hot and clammy day. Tempers and temperaments were tested. Rejected appeals became personal slights, edges and lobs provocations. Still, decorum was maintained. The umpires made allowances; this was day one, not only of this Test, but of a new detente. The one instance of loss of composure was a bolt from the blinding blue. Dravid toughed it out for more than four-and-a-half hours then slogged as if he was Sehwag at Andrew Symonds. Cricket, as Sydney showed, is a game in which a mad moment can transcend a day of virtuosity. The crowd, vigilantly guarded and lacking anti-heroes, amused itself. The Guardian's man, flown in at short notice, moved among them, but was dejected to report only good humour. When Symonds' raucous appeal for lbw against Tendulkar was turned down, there was one cry: "Bring back Bucknor." Nonetheless, sensitivities remained. One man held up a placard on which was scrawled: "No more monkey business." It was quickly confiscated. The Guardian man had a tough day. After 48 hours on the road, he was turned away at the gates of the WACA Ground because his shirt did not have a collar. In cricket, you see, it is important not to break the rules. Published: Thursday, January 17, 2008 |
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