Comment: Lord's knows what they'll do next

Just for a day, just for a couple of hours it was so refreshing to see the brashness of youth.

Saurav Ganguly, Captain of the Indian Cricket team painted a funky picture on the balcony of Lord's as he took off his shirt, waved it over his head and mouthed the choicest of profanities, at no one in particular, in a moment of pure, unbridled emotion fuelled by triumph.

Saurav then ran down the hallowed portals of cricket's last haven of pure refinement and launched himself into Mohammed Kaif to register a technical knockout on India's favourite batsman of the moment.

Pity adrenaline doesn't come with well oiled brake pads.

But in his moment of madness Saurav gave us a glimpse of the changing face of the Indian cricket, that of modern sport. He told the world that he regarded himself, and his team, not only as the proper custodians of the game (at Lord's) but also its only bona fide judge.

He did not care what the fans, or even the highly critical writers said. He did not need what they had to give.

That was Nasser Hussain's problem.

Indian cricket has turned around the corner. It took six hours and 326 runs for this transition to take place. Ironical that the metamorphosis should happen at Lord's, regarded as cricket's last bastion.

To hell with decorum. The purists may never have resorted to such behaviour but Saurav's reaction was a fitting climax to a taut and well written script.

It took a couple of 21-year-old kids to write the story, however. Where were the once discarded Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif in the fragile fabric that is Indian cricket?

They were around, we just didn't notice them. As Phil Knight, Nike's Chairman said of Tiger Woods while making a reference to Michael Jordan: "Everybody was looking for the next Michael and they were always on the basketball court. He (Woods) was walking down the fairway."

Kaif and Yuvraj scripted India's surreal triumph over England. The game itself has been archived in the section marked for cricket's most memorable matches.

But where do the duo go from here? Hopefully down cricket's freeway, if only it was that easy.

Unfortunately in those few scintillating hours at Lord's they upped the ante on their own future. The two are mavericks on a quest for perfection which by itself is a contradiction in terms. Of Yuvraj it has often been said where he can spot the gap for a possible boundary he will opt for a six.

Kaif on the other hand is probably playing to fulfill a destiny: to ensure that instead of four he can get five square meals a day.

People will question whether they can perform with the same focus and passion after Saturday. They will have to be wary of the two powerful forces that will contrive to pull them in opposite directions.

One is fame, which will ensure that their bank account is on steroids. The other is talent, which hopefully will be burnished by their desire to be the best there is.

The current record suggests that fame is winning by a nose. As for talent, if they didn't have it they would not have been around in the first place.

Who better to endorse the new face of Indian cricket than them.