da dobrowin： Dinesh Mongia feels that playing Twenty20 is no different from 50-over cricket
Anand Vasu in Mumbai17-Apr-2007
‘It’s more a case of going out there and having some fun. It’s not really the ultimate in cricket or anything’ – Mongia © Getty Images
He’s celebrating his 30th birthday quietly in Mumbai, playing Twenty20cricket for Punjab, but Dinesh Mongia could well be in for a careerresurgence thanks to this form of the game. He’s of course no stranger tocareer dips and ups. He’s been in and out of the Indian team since he madehis debut in 2001, coming back to the side for the 2003 World Cup and again almost making the cut for the squad that went to the West Indies to the 2007 edition.He won’t be happy with the 55 ODIs he’s played, scoring 1196 runs at28.47, yet believing he should have got a longer run. But when it comes toTwenty20 cricket, he’s far and away the most experienced of all theIndians. With 29 Twenty20 matches, most of them for Lancashire andLeicestershire in England, he shades the bigger names like SachinTendulkar and Rahul Dravid, who have barely wet their toes in this form of the game.Surprisingly, though, even with all his experience, Mongia feels thatplaying Twenty20 is no different from 50-over cricket. “See, it’s still agame of bat and ball,” he told Cricinfo, after expressing surprisethat someone remembered it was his birthday, which falls one week beforethe biggest birthday in Indian cricket, Tendulkar’s on April 24.”The way I look at it, you still have to play your natural game. I like togo for my shots, so it doesn’t really make that much of a difference tome.”Although Dinesh Karthik walked away with the Man-of-the-Match award in theonly Twenty20 international India played, against South Africa, Mongia hada big role to play, making 38 runs in a tight chase. “It’s not thatserious a form of the game at the moment,” said Mongia. “It’s more a caseof going out there and having some fun. It’s not really the ultimate incricket or anything.”But Twenty20 cricket is serious business in some parts of the world. Thekind of attention it has drawn in England, where the game was conceived, isphenomenal, and it has done more to attract audiences to the game,especially in domestic cricket, than anything else. Twenty20 matches havebeen pencilled into the family calendars, and a game between theLeicestershire Foxes and the Lancashire Lightning, both teams Mongia hasplayed for, is more likely to draw a full house than not. But Mongiadoesn’t see that happening in India. “Look, let’s be honest, I don’treally see that happening here. In India people only go to the ground forinternational matches,” he said. “Of course it would be brilliant ifpeople came and supported their teams like it happens in England. It’s ahuge difference playing in that atmosphere. But here, even withinternational stars playing, whether it is in the Ranji Trophy or Duleep [Trophy], wecan’t seem to draw crowds for domestic cricket.” Since it is being held in India for the first time, people make so many assumptions and say ‘bowl like this’, ‘bat like this’. People must first play and experience it and then decide how it should be played The game, which is still being played on an experimental level inIndia, has yet to evolve like it has in England.”The more you play and the more experience you gain, it will become easierto adapt and try different things. You need more time to think about itand more time to learn to play it,” Mongia said, but stressed that therewas no need to try and do things dramatically differently, adding, “skillsand intelligence will make one a successful player”.One of the problems players have faced in this edition is going into thegame with an approach of trying to hit everything out of sight. That, asMongia correctly points out, is not the way forward. “Just like howone-day cricket became the shorter version of Test cricket this has becomea shortened version of one-day cricket,” he said. “Since it is being heldin India for the first time, people make so many assumptions and say ‘bowllike this’, ‘bat like this’. People must first play and experience it andthen decide how it should be played.”Mongia has had his share of fun in the shortest version of the game, butthe most amusing came when he was bowling for Lancashire in the Twenty20semifinal against Surrey in 2004. Mongia had sent down two overs for just sixruns, picking up a couple of wickets and his captain, Andrew Flintoff,walked across to him. “If you bowl like this you won’t be too popular, thecrowds will not come to watch this. People come to watch batsmen scoreruns,” Flintoff said to him, obviously in jest. It might be all fun andgames for the players at the moment, but Twenty20 is set to take root inIndia, and when it does, you can be sure it will be serious business, bothon and off the field. And who knows, for someone like Mongia it could wellthrow a fresh lifeline. Already there are plenty of one-day specialists,who don’t get a look-in in Tests. The day of the Twenty20 specialist isnot far.