A ‘jinxed’ destination?

From 1998, and through the next five trips, Bangladesh tours have developed into a sort of jinx for some Indian cricketers.

From 1998, and through the next five trips, Bangladesh tours have developed into a sort of jinx for some Indian cricketers. A varied lot of batsmen, wicket-keepers, all-rounders, medium-pacers and spinners who made their debuts on those tours are now lost souls in international cricket.

The likes of Hemang Badani, Rahul Sanghvi, SS Das, SS Paul, Gagandeep Singh, Amit Mishra, Avishkar Salvi, Syed Saba Karim, Abhijit Kale, Amit Bhandari, Joginder Singh and Gautam Gambhir are clear case studies in this.

All the above either made their Test or ODI debuts in Bangladesh. It may be sheer coincidence, but their careers never developed to the extent of their potential. Of this lot, SS Paul and Gagandeep Singh went to Bangladesh but didn’t play any match. Since then, they have never really stood up to even be in contention for any other team. Interestingly, all of them, except two, played their debut matches in Dhaka.

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As Team India gets ready for the eighth national trip to the country, carrying three debutants — Piyush Chawla, Manoj Tiwary and Rajesh Pawar — past experiences may hang heavy. But there is one man who stands tall, defying this jinx — Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The dashing wicketkeeper-bat made his ODI debut in the 2004 tour and has since risen through the ranks to be a phenomenon in world cricket. His teammate on this tour, Gautam Gambhir, is on his third trip to Dhaka and is striving hard to seal a place. If stretched, maybe Hemang Badani too has played a decent number of matches to stay on the borderline.

Badani made his debut in 2000 Asia Cup in Dhaka. He, however, feels there’s no such thing as a jinx. “I must say the list is really long, but I don’t believe in jinxes, I believe only in destiny,” he says. “Just because I or anybody else has played his first game in Bangladesh, I don’t think it’s fair to say he won’t get to play long. It’s all about performance and destiny. I just work hard and wait for the results,” he says.

Gautam Gambhir too, while admitting the list is long, says: “I don’t believe in this, though I must say that this tour is definitely my chance to break this so-called jinx forever. And I am confident of being able to do this,” he says.

Piyush Chawla, when contacted over phone form Moradabad, sounded confident. “If there’s a jinx, so be it. If there’s one exception in Dhoni, there can be another after this trip, and surely that will be me. I am sure that I am groomed enough to tackle these things,” he says.

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Tiwari said: “I don’t carry with me such thoughts and concerns about what’s happened in the past. For me, it’s the 22 yards that I am focusing on, not on things like a jinx. Look at it this way. My job is simple, to bat and get runs. I don’t really worry about other factors.”

Says a board official: “It’s definitely very interesting (the Bangladesh jinx), but we can’t really stop sending players there. It’s a coincidence. And frankly, if we take into consideration cricketing reasons, then it’s much better than sending them to Australia or England straightaway.”

The jinxed

• 1998: Rahul Sanghvi: ODI debut vs Pakistan, Dhaka; 10 ODIs; 10 wkts, B/B 3/29.

• 2000-01: SS Das: Test debut vs Bangladesh in Dhaka; 23 Test matches, 40 innings, 1326 runs

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Saba Karim: Only Test vs Bangladesh at Dhaka; 1 Test, 1 innings, 15 runs

Hemang Badani: ODI debut vs Bangladesh at Dhaka; 40 matches, 36 innings, 867 runs

Amit Bhandari: ODI debut vs Pakistan at Dhaka; 2 matches, 5 wickets, B/B 3/31

• 2003: Amit Mishra: ODI debut vs South Africa at Dhaka; 3 matches, 2 wkts, 1/29

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Avishkar Salvi: vs Bangladesh at Dhaka; 4 matches, 4 wkts, b/b 2/15

Abhijit Kale: Only ODI vs Bangladesh at Dhaka; 1 match, 1 innings, 10 runs

• 2004: Gautam Gambhir: ODI debut vs Bangladesh in Dhaka; 19 ODIs, 19 innings, 480 runs