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Cricket Players‘Imagine my state if Dravid, Ganguly, Tendulkar were failing like that’: Former all-rounder recalls 1999 Australia tour
The 1999/2000 tour of Australia, was hard even for the big three of Indian cricket – Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly – let alone on a youngster like Vijay Bharadwaj.
Former all-rounder Vijay Bharadwaj recalled how India’s disastrous tour of Australia dented his confidence, and played a part in halting a career that had taken off with a bang. Bharadwaj made his India debut during the 1999 LG Cup in Kenya and was in fact, named Man of the Tournament for scoring 89 runs and picking up 10 wickets.
Bharadwaj went on to play the ODI and Test series against New Zealand at home but without much success. He was drafted in India’s Test squad for the tough tour of Australia, which was hard even for the big three of Indian cricket – Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly – let alone a youngster like Bharadwaj.
“We travelled to Australia, one of the toughest tours. I had never ever seen an Australian pitch before that. I sat (out) for two Test matches. Everybody was failing. Rahul’s series average was somewhere around 15 or 20. Imagine someone who had played 5-6 years of Indian cricket was failing. (Sourav) Ganguly was a failure as well in that series, never got (many) runs. VVS Laxman didn’t score, no opener could score,” Bharadwaj told Times of India.
“I played only one Test match (during that series against the Kiwis). In my debut game, I got out first ball, without even realising what Test cricket is. A golden duck. I was dropped for the third Test.”
The tour of Australia was abysmal for India as they were blanked 0-3 in Tests and managed to win just one ODI out of 14 in a tri-series including Pakistan. Rahul Dravid scored just 93 runs in three Tests, while Ganguly’s numbers were slightly better with 177 runs. Tendulkar was the best of the lot, scoring 278 runs but it was a personal low as far as his captaincy was concerned. The outcome of the tour was scarring, with Tendulkar relinquishing India captaincy shortly after. Bharadwaj played one more ODI two years later against Zimbabwe, which turned out to be his last appearance for India.
“I went in at No. 6 or No. 7. Imagine the morale of the team. Sachin (Tendulkar) was devastated because he was performing as a batsman, but as a captain he was not able to understand what was happening. So what would happen to a youngster like me when some of the seniors were failing like that. They had no clue what was happening. We lost 3-0,” he said.
“During the Sydney Test that I played, my back got injured badly. For the next one and a half years, I didn’t get up because I was bedridden; and nobody even bothered to ask me what was happening. I was totally lost.”
