Perfect 10 go head to head

Seven of the 11 active members in the 100-Test club are here and that includes the top four longest-serving present-day cricketers. Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan and Anil Kumble made their Test debuts in the late 80s or early 90s — that’s an era with which no other international team, besides India and Lanka, has any remote connection with. West Indies with 1994 debutant Shivanarine Chanderpaul in their side comes close, but that’s all.

Jayasuriya might have retired from Tests, but going by his recent T20 and ODI form, many here say a presidential intervention — and we aren’t talking about a Cricket board official here — is on the cards, one that could see him wear the flannels again.

What makes that number looks less intimidating is the fact that these batting stalwarts will be against the likes of Murali, Kumble and Chaminda Vaas — three bowlers with a Test wicket pool of 1686. Seven plus three is always 10 and, in this case, it’s pretty much a ‘Perfect 10’. Include 29-year-old Virender Sehwag to this list of those on the wrong side 30 and there’s the look of a Dream XI to it — a World XI selected by someone with a bias against pacers.

After being on a 44-day diet of T20 ‘happy meals’ and the subsequent morsels of hastily cooked one-day mini-meals, the craving for the longer version has intensified. With the Test series starting in a week’s time — July 23 — things look promising glancing at the ingredients in the kitchen and the master chefs at hand. The cooking range is set at low flame as a mouth-watering three-course spread is planned for the next month.

Mouthwatering contest

It’s been a long wait for the ‘old school’ to savour this incredible indulgence. Injuries to aging bodies and scissor-hand selectors with flippant youth policies were the two factors that ensured that this ‘Perfect 10’ didn’t quite happen when India met Sri Lanka in the recent times.

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