Vijay Bharadwaj Recalls The Disastrous 1999 Test Tour Of Australia

Former Indian all-rounder Vijay Bharadwaj recalled one of the toughest times in his brief international career that shattered his confidence. It was the tour of Australia in 1999 that happened to be the one in which the tourists lost by 0-3 under the leadership of Sachin Tendulkar. Ricky Ponting finished the series with 375 runs while Glenn McGrath was the leading wicket-taker with 18 scalps.

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Vijay Bharadwaj enjoyed a promising beginning to his career, having debuted during the 1999 LG Cup in Kenya wherein he received the man of the tournament for picking up ten scalps and managing 89 runs. The 44-year old featured in the Test and ODI series at home against the Kiwis without much success. Yet, he joined the likes of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, and Sourav Ganguly on their tour of Australia.

Vijay Bharadwaj perished for a duck in his Test debut at Mohali against New Zealand in 1999 and the Sydney Test proved his last. As far as the Australian tour was concerned, the Bangalore-born cricketer mentioned that he had never seen a deck down under like it wherein players like Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly fared poorly.

“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.

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,” Vijay Bharadwaj told Times of India.

Sachin (Tendulkar) was devastated because he was performing only as a batsman: Vijay Bharadwaj

During that Australia series, the all-rounder played only in the third Test in Sydney and scored 6 in the innings and couldn’t bat due to injury in the second innings. Bharadwaj recalled that Sachin was frustrated since he was performing as a batsman but not captain. For India, Sachin was the top run-getter with 278 runs. Hence, a rookie like him was left nowhere when senior players failed as Steve Waugh’s men inflicted a drubbing.

“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. 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,” Vijay Bharadwaj added.

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