Dutch Treat

In the beginning, it looked like it would be an entirely one-sided game. Then, it seemed as if it would turn into the first major upset of the World Cup. And at the end, England barely managed to scrape past minnows Netherlands. The Oranje, who might have been pleasantly surprised to be playing in India’s orange city Nagpur, stunned spectators by scoring 292 runs against a vastly more experienced England. All-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate scored a devastating 119, picked up a couple of wickets and was man of the match. England, which looked shellshocked at the Dutch onslaught, started tentatively but ultimately got its act together, drawing on its vast cricketing experience . But it could easily have been a Dutch treat that England would have paid for. On current form, give the Dutch a few more years of experience at world-class cricket, and who knows? Which brings us to the big question: are cricketing standards converging over time?

Can latecomers to the game, like the Dutch, Bangladeshis, Kenyans and Canadians become tomorrow’s champions? India’s own experience suggests that. For many years after Independence, India’s teams played a timid game, looking for Test draws rather than outright victory over rivals like England and Australia. Today, India is number 1 in the Test rankings; it might achieve something similar in the one-day format , too. South Africa emerged from apartheid to become a cricket powerhouse. Pakistan, racked by violence and political turmoil , has consistently produced world class players. But there is one case of sharp decline: the West Indies. Under Clive Lloyd and Vivian Richards, the Windies were an unbeatable team in any format of the game. Thereafter, complacence and institutional apathy let the team down. It’s easy to go down that slope. Don’t .