Ajantha Mendis could have come out of a scriptwriter’s dream, a child’s fantasy. JK Rowling could have sent him, armed with a spell (“bowlingus destructivorous” a young wizard at long on could have said, his wand smuggled in, past evil ICC dementors dressed as umpires). All of us have dreamt of moments like these, often in inter-school finals, but this soft spoken armyman has shaken hands with them. He has done with his wrist and fingers, and a straight elbow, what a bullet from a gun cannot. (Can a soldier, knowing a bullet has been fired at him, get out of line only to see it curling the other way and knocking him over?).

It was magnificent to watch, the batsmen getting their just desserts after mercilessly mauling the bowlers, their fangs removed, their weapons confiscated, all over the park. It just reminded all those who want to remember that cricket is still a game of ball versus bat not my bat versus your bat.

It raises questions about the temperament of some of our young batsmen. Are the pitches, the conditions and the bats becoming such strong allies that they are being lulled into believing that this is all they will encounter? And how will they prepare for the unexpected? How will they cope with a strange bowler or with seaming conditions? This is going to be the real problem with T20 and terribly one-sided surfaces like those in Karachi. If batsmen are treated like business class passengers on a luxury plane how will they be able to travel in a general compartment in a train the next day? Or are we reaching a situation where only pitches that favour batsmen will be produced? Pitches like the ones in the Asia Cup cannot produce good cricket as most of us understand it.

... contd.