‘England Will Keep On Improving To Get Better All The Time’

Follow @Vishal1686 One of the finest all-rounders and fielders from England, Paul Collingwood was in India recently during the England-India 5-match ODI series and the one off Twenty20. He is the only captain to have lifted a World Cup in the history of English cricket when England beat Australia to win the 2010 World Twenty20. When I met him in Mumbai, he spoke in length about whatever I asked him about our common love - cricket. In this conversation, he talks about the current England team which he thinks is capable of staying at the top in Tests and doing much better in one-dayers.

India couldn’t win a single match in England and England managed to win only one in India. What were the reasons behind this kind of a result apart from the alien conditions for the two teams?

It comes down to adapting your skills in the conditions. I know everybody is saying that it can’t just be the conditions but it’s very alien for the Indian batsmen to bat and bowlers to bowl on wickets like that and English batsmen become very accustomed in their conditions. Likewise, when we come over here it’s very difficult for us to adapt to the conditions. But, I guess it’s the mentality as well. Known that we haven’t done well here in the past, it becomes a bigger challenge and the pressure of going 1-0 or 2-0 down is huge. So the mental side is obviously a huge factor too and it comes down to the skills that you have in these two completely different conditions.

Number 1 in Tests, number 1 in Twenty20s but number 5 in ODIs. What do you make of the current England ODI side and what’s the way forward for them?

If you look at the World Cup coming up in 2015 in Australia I believe 70% of the players who are involved now will be involved then. England’s one-day side has a broad spectrum of skills that will work very well in Australia. We’ve got a lot of power in the side now and we do have some serious pace and we’ve got one of the best spinners in the world which we haven’t had in previous occasions. They are a learning side and they will move forward, they will keep on improving their skills to become better all the time. So I don’t think there will be a major change and they won’t panic about the situation, they will learn a lot from playing in India and in these conditions.

The Test team won the Ashes this year, beat Sri Lanka and whitewashed India in the summer to become the number one team. What does the team need to do now to stay at the top in the long run?

It’s simple you got to keep winning. That’s what you gauged and that’s what people want you to do and to stay at number one. You don’t sit back, you don’t relax thinking we are number one and I’m sure they won’t do that. They are very driven, very ambitious and each and every player will want to get better and better by playing in different conditions.

Will staying at the top be a bigger challenge than reaching the top?

I think it’s a huge challenge because people would want to knock you off from the number one spot. So people subconsciously try a bit harder against you to beat you. Obviously once you’ve gained some things as the number one spot, you do sit back and relax a bit but I don’t think this England team will. I think they will all keep moving forward and get better and better.

We have some new faces in the England team like Jonny Bairstow, Scott Borthwick, Stuart Meaker. What do you make of them and what are their prospects in the future?

They are a very talented set of players and England haven’t had many leg-spinners in the history and he (Borthwick) is a very talented cricketer, not just leg-spinner but good batsman and a very energetic fielder as well.

We talk about power and Bairstow has serious power, something in the one-day game that we have probably lacked at times. If he can find his game and play at his potential, he is going to be a serious asset to that side.

Stuart Meaker has some really good pace and I’m sure will develop all the time, it looks as though he has a good action and can trouble the batsmen with his pace.

The next Tests series England play now is only in January 2012 against Pakistan in UAE. Do you think this long gap will break the winning momentum they have had?

No, not at all, it will probably work the other way. I think it’s a good time to sit back and relax. England haven’t had a break from cricket for such a long time and they have hardly had a 2 or 3-month break. It’s great they have this break now and that will put them in good shape, they can recharge their batteries as individuals. It’s amazing how that recharging will help to become a better side and it’s crucial you do get those kinds of breaks and in many ways it will work for them.

So instead of breaking the momentum, this break will work in their favour?

I think the preparation time before they play the next Test series is crucial. You want to give your bowlers enough time to get into their rhythm of playing and the batsmen to get used to the conditions out there. So, it will be a real drive forward in terms of wanting to keep the momentum going in the Test side and they will certainly do that.

The Prince of Indian Cricket

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The career of Mansur Ali Khan, the Nawab of Pataudi reads like a romance. A man who was a cricketer in more senses than one is unfortunately not with us anymore.

Mansur Ali Khan, the ninth and last Nawab of Pataudi, was arguably the best captain India has ever produced. He was handed the captaincy of India at a tender age of 21, the youngest captain in the world until that record was broken in 2004 by Tatenda Taibu. Something worth a mention is that he severely damamged his right eye in a car accident well before he made his debut for India.

After his debut in 1961 and only three Tests, he was made the captain of the national team ahead of some senior players in the team like Chandu Borde, Vijay Manjrekar and Polly Umrigar.

From the very beginning he was known for his skills, his ambitious attitude, his poise and panache as he had already captained Sussex and Oxford University. He then changed the course and direction of Indian cricket.

The Indian team till then played more to represent the country and not so much for winning. The team lacked the belief that they could play a Test and bowl the opposition out twice in a single Test.

Pataudi is known as the man who changed that and instilled feelings of self belief, confidence, faith and taught his team how to fight. Between 1961 and 1975, he captained India in 40 Tests, of which India won nine. This included the magical feat of leading India to its first ever Test win at Dunedin in 1968 and the team's first ever series win abroad in New Zealand.

If his successor Ajit Wadekar was successful as a captain in the early 1970s, it was only because Tiger Pataudi had impregnated the idea of playing the team to its strength of match-winning spinners - Bishan Singh Bedi, BS Chandrashekhar, Erapalli Prasanna and Venkataraghavan.

Apart from captaining the side, he made a name for his personal achievements too. Six hundreds, including a double hundred against England in Delhi, and 16 fifties bear testimony to his gumption. He was a Tiger on the field being one of the finest fielders in the covers in the history of Indian cricket.

Tiger was once smacked on the jaw at the Eden Gardens against West Indies in 1975 by 6 feet 2 inches tall Andy Roberts. He was back on the field with a wired jaw as soon as the next wicket fell to hit six elegant boundaries.

One innings which stands out in his career is one he played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1967. Pataudi came to the green pitch when the scoreboard read 25 for 5 and came along with a runner as he had pulled his hamstring. This innings of 75 is regarded better than his six hundreds and is referred to an innings played with one leg and one eye.

It is because of his and his father's services to Anglo-Indian cricket that the bilateral Test series between India and England have been named the 'Pataudi Trophy'. His father Iftikhar Ali Khan is the only cricketer to have played for both India and England.

While some of us shed tears and some hold them back, one question which will always remain unanswered is, what all would the Nawab have achieved with two eyes?