RAHUL Dravid of India scored three hard-fought hundreds and yet his team lost 4-0 to England in the just concluded series to determine the world’s No. 1 Test team in accordance with the ICC’s rankings. Dravid’s fighting performances, albeit in vain, rekindled memories of a famous West Indian batsman – Brian Lara – who suffered a similar fate ten years ago against Sri Lanka. Just like Dravid, Lara scored three hundreds and yet West Indies lost the three-Test series 3-0. Dravid made scores of 103 not out, 36, 117, 6, 22, 18, 146 not out and 13. He scored 24% of his team’s runs in the series and yet they lost all four Tests. While the media – both English and Indian – used words such as ‘abject’ and ‘catastrophic’ to describe India’s demise, Geoffrey Boycott labelled India as, “Bangladesh in disguise.” Dravid was India’s sole gem who shone brightly amidst its ruins.

Dravid’s performance was a replica of Lara’s achievement for the West Indies in Sri Lanka in 2001. Against the wiles of Muttiah Muralitharan and the swing of Chaminda Vaas, Lara produced scores of 178, 40, 74, 45, 221 and 130. His aggregate was 688 at an average of nearly 115. Lara and England’s Graham Gooch remain the only batsmen to aggregate more than 600 runs in a three Test series.

Lara’s duels with the otherwise unstoppable off-spinner Muralitharan and the two-way swing of Vaas were most memorable. In spite of Lara’s mastery over Muralitharan, the off-spinner was a problem for all the other West Indian batsmen with his prodigious turn, teasing flight and clever variations. Vaas was at his brilliant best with controlled left-arm swing that went both ways. Of the 60 West Indian wickets that fell in the series Vaas took 26 and Muralitharan’s 24.

Dravid was the only Indian batsmen to score a hundred in the series. The highly-vaunted Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman failed miserably. Tendulkar in particular had a glorious opportunity to score a big hundred and save the fourth Test on the final day. However, despite three chances from the Englishmen, he still fell short of a hundred. His failure to save the Test lent credence to the argument that he is the greatest of fair weather batsmen who, more often than not, caves when the pressure is on. It’s a pity, given the Little Master’s outstanding record.

Like Dravid, Lara was the sole West Indian to reach the coveted three-figure mark in the 2001 series. A young Ramnaresh Sarwan showed much promise with an average of 55. However, the experienced Carl Hooper could only muster a paltry average of 27 in the series, thereby lending credence to his sobriquet ‘False Promises.’ Lara’s double and single in the third Test was historic. Of the six batsmen – Doug Walters, Lawrence Rowe, Greg Chappell, Sunil Gavaskar, Graham Gooch and Lara – have scored at a double (or a triple) and a single hundred in the same Test, Lara is the only one to have ended up on the losing side. How can one batsman score 688 runs – a world record 41% of his team’s aggregate – and yet be on the losing team? Furthermore, how can one batsman score 221 and 130 in the same Test and yet his team loses? The answers to both questions are the same: he played in a weak, weak team.

And so while Dravid added three more hundreds to his career achievement, his team went down to a humiliating 4-0 loss. The same it was for Lara ten years ago in Sri Lanka. Their respective performances are a timely reminder that cricket, despite individual brilliances, remain a team sport. Several, if not all, members have to perform or else the results are often, well shall we say, ‘abject and catastrophic.’