Ever seen an athlete or sportsperson quietly pump his or her closed fists, eyes closed with a smug smile of satisfaction?
Nothing showy or attention grabbing, not making any grand gesturing statement, just the feeling of having overcome so many struggles, self doubt and now a enjoying personal moment of joy and triumph.
I wish there was a word to perfectly describe that sight.
Go Giants! Great job Eli Manning.
How eerily similar was this Giants superbowl run to 2007/2008 season. Peter King, sports Illustrated writer, described it best in his Monday Morning QB column. Maybe I can find the link and attach it here. someday.
Nav
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Saturday, March 20, 2010
David Boon interview
Just read this short interview with David Boon on Cricinfo and boy are they right!
In my mind, between 1991-1994 Boon was probably one of the best batsmen in the world. Compact defense and good attacking shots on the off-side was what I remember, especially watching the highlight package (around 10 PM on DD) of India's tour to Australia 1991. A quick twirl of his wrists, a reasonably high backlift and see the ball flying thru' the offside. He took a particular liking of the Indian bowling attack.
Another clear memory was during the one of the ODI's which followed the test matches, where Boon who typically opened with Geoff Marsh, scored a chanceless 107* to chase down a low Indian total. I think Dean Jones partnered on the other end scored 48.
Good times.Dont get to see characters like Boonie playing cricket anymore. Its all different now..
In my mind, between 1991-1994 Boon was probably one of the best batsmen in the world. Compact defense and good attacking shots on the off-side was what I remember, especially watching the highlight package (around 10 PM on DD) of India's tour to Australia 1991. A quick twirl of his wrists, a reasonably high backlift and see the ball flying thru' the offside. He took a particular liking of the Indian bowling attack.
Another clear memory was during the one of the ODI's which followed the test matches, where Boon who typically opened with Geoff Marsh, scored a chanceless 107* to chase down a low Indian total. I think Dean Jones partnered on the other end scored 48.
Good times.Dont get to see characters like Boonie playing cricket anymore. Its all different now..
Friday, March 19, 2010
Forgotten Cricketers: Part Three
In this part we shall look closely at Indian cricket's two biggest banes - Wicket Keeping and the dearth of the Indian All Rounder.
Wicket Keepers -
There is something assuring about the presence of M.S Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps these days. The assurement that these guys can compete as one of the better batsmen in the line up but at the same time they are solid behind the stumps both to quick bowlers and more importantly those tricky leg & off spinners in the Indian sub continent. And to think that for the longest time after the departure of Nayan Mongia, these two qualities almost seemed mutually exclusive for our Indian keepers.
Lets take a look -
Saba Karim
A succesor to Mongia. Decent bat in Indian conditions, but a better keeper. Suffered an eye injury which prematurely ended in his cricketing career
Vijay Yadav
Afer Kiran More but before Mongia, Yadav for a short stint served as India's wicketkeeper /batsmen and will be remembered as an aggressive batter on the Indian tour of SA circa 92. Mongia's emergence as a reliable keeper and batter soon left Yadav fading back into the domestic circuit.
MSK Prasad
Showed glimpses of batting talent at the domestic level and was soon thrust onto the India's tour of Australia 99. Enough said. Never recovered. Not many did.
Deep Dasgupta
After Mongia had been the primary keeper for years and when it finally dawned upon the the selectors that he couldn’t keep or bat outside of the subcontinent, Deep Dasgupta was one of those who were thrown into the ring on India's controversial tour of SA 2001. Played well in patches including a dashing century in SA but overall struggled against quality pace bowling. His keeping wasn't upto par either and so was then asked to focus on his technique in domestic cricket and has since never made it back.
Sameer Dighe
A fighter, Dighe who for years bore the burden of Bombay's wicket keeping duties, briefly seemed to answer India's need for a wicketkeeper batsmen. And he proved his worth in that decisive game in Chennai against Aus in 01. But he was 31 that time and selectors were looking towards the future
Parthiv Patel
..and tThe future for a while seemed to be Patel. The youngest cricket to make test debut, he promised much after a satisfying tour of England in 2002 both in front and behind the stumps. However as time progressed his keeping standards deterioated and he was pushed to back of the line. These days he is content opening the batting alongside Matty Hayden for the Chennai SuperKings.
Ajay Ratra
Briefly played the part in between Dasgupta and Patel. Scrappy cricketer who could stick around, but was a typical keeper hitter. Remember all Wkeepers at this point were judged by their batting skill..a high benchmark set by Adam Gilchrist.
Vijay Dahiya
Same as above
Pankaj dharmani
Played 2 games in the 90's when Mongia's form seemed be dipping. But Mongia's comeback sealed dharmani's fate.
Ambati Rayudu
Probably the best wkeeper never to have played for India.
All Rounders
During the final years of Kapil Dev's playing days, I heard an Indian commentator on air state -
"Cricketers like Kapil only come once every 20-30 years"
I remembered smirking at the above comment. If only I knew, at that time, how prophetic that statement would turn out to be. Kapil Dev retired around 1993-94 and today almost 15 years later we are yet to find another who could shoulder the bowling attack and at the same time, could easily tear apart the opposition attack with his batting.
And every succesful team had atleast 1 great all rounder which brought the balance to their squad -
South Africa blessed with the likes of Brian McMillian, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener
England's Freddie Flintoff really took off in Ashes 2005 and when Freddie was at his best, England seemed to be a different squad.
Pakistan - In the late 90's Pakistan had discovered a whole bunch of young all round cricketers - Abdul Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood alongside the great Wasim Akram who moulded these youngsters like the great Imran Khan before him.
New Zealand - For many years, all rounders Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Nathan Astle and later Daniel Vettori carried the NZ squad and some times single handedly won test matches and championships (remember Cairns in 01 Champions Trophy)
Sri Lanka - Sanath Jayasuriya & Aravinda DeSilva led the way with their more than handy bowling alongside their explosive batting to add new dimensions to Sri Lanka cricket in the 90's.
West Indies - Carl Hooper stood out as an all rounder. But he too was in and out of the squad for most part of the 90's.Probably the cause for WI decline since the mid 90's.
Australia - Waugh brothers were quality all rounders, especially Steve Waugh who regularly took up the old ball and contained opposition with his cutters and slower ones. Bevan and Lehmann could also turn their arms over but Australia had such quality players at every position that they could afford not to have a true all rounder. Plus the presence of Adam Gilchrist allowed the team to carry an extra bowler as needed.
Lets took at some of the potential successors to our own Kapil Dev.
JP Yadav
A medium pacer who could hit the ball hard too. Unfortuantely his debut was against Australia in 2001 and his bowling didn’t quite hit the mark expected.
Sanjay Bangar
In his second stint with the Indian team, Bangar was the consumate team man, who could bowl steady medium pace and even offered to open the batting with decent success. However with Sehwag taking off as opener in One-day and test cricket and with no room in the middle order, selectors decided they could do away with Bangar.
Noel David
Noel who? Sachin Tendulkar apparently uttered the same words. very brief stint with the Indian team. Good fielder.
Dinesh Mongia
Wouldn't qualify as an all rounder in truest definition of the word. For me, a batter who wants to qualify as an allrounder should be able to bowl his share of 10 overs if needed. I dont recall Mongia ever completing 10 overs.But over time he proved to be a decent left arm spinner who could turn over a quick 5-6 overs and more than useful left arm middle/lower order batter. While Dravid donned the wicket keeping gloves, John wright's strategy of employing 7 batsmen allowed Mongia to time share with Hemang Badani. However with the end of the WC 03, Dravid turned in the wk gloves and the 7 batsmen experiment was abandoned. Mongia and badani were out of a job.
Hemang Badani
Similar to Mongia, Badani was once the mainstay of Indian ODI team. A good fielder and excellent lower middle order batsmen who specialized in run chases and building competive totals a la Michael Bevan. Just one of those players who the selectors swapped out for somebody newer.
Ajit Agarkar
Wiry fast bowler and free flowing batsmen when on fire, Agarkar is probably one of the bigger disappointments of Indian cricket. From an early age he was expected to do big things and displayed all the makings of a great all rounder -- century in under 19 cricket against Pakistan, fastest indian bowler to reach 50 wickets in ODI, 6/72 against Aus in 2004 which led to historic Indian victory in Australia, a flamboyant 66 versus Zimbabwe are some of the glimpses of what could've been. Soon after his debut his batting skills quickly deterioated. He will be remembered for getting 7 consecutive ducks against Australia. And a little after 2000 his bowling seemed to dip. Inconsistency led to his eventual downfall.
Reetinder Singh Sodhi
Once hyped as the answer to India's all round needs, Sodhi was part of the initial group of Ganguly's Gang circa 00 -02. But for all his support and the energy he brought onto the field this youngster simply didn’t have the talent to compete at the highest level and was soon playing full time for Punjab.
Laxmi Ratan Shukla
Compared as the next Kapil Dev, it took only 3 ODI's to show the world the true nature of shukla's talent. Not seen at the international level since
Nav
Wicket Keepers -
There is something assuring about the presence of M.S Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps these days. The assurement that these guys can compete as one of the better batsmen in the line up but at the same time they are solid behind the stumps both to quick bowlers and more importantly those tricky leg & off spinners in the Indian sub continent. And to think that for the longest time after the departure of Nayan Mongia, these two qualities almost seemed mutually exclusive for our Indian keepers.
Lets take a look -
Saba Karim
A succesor to Mongia. Decent bat in Indian conditions, but a better keeper. Suffered an eye injury which prematurely ended in his cricketing career
Vijay Yadav
Afer Kiran More but before Mongia, Yadav for a short stint served as India's wicketkeeper /batsmen and will be remembered as an aggressive batter on the Indian tour of SA circa 92. Mongia's emergence as a reliable keeper and batter soon left Yadav fading back into the domestic circuit.
MSK Prasad
Showed glimpses of batting talent at the domestic level and was soon thrust onto the India's tour of Australia 99. Enough said. Never recovered. Not many did.
Deep Dasgupta
After Mongia had been the primary keeper for years and when it finally dawned upon the the selectors that he couldn’t keep or bat outside of the subcontinent, Deep Dasgupta was one of those who were thrown into the ring on India's controversial tour of SA 2001. Played well in patches including a dashing century in SA but overall struggled against quality pace bowling. His keeping wasn't upto par either and so was then asked to focus on his technique in domestic cricket and has since never made it back.
Sameer Dighe
A fighter, Dighe who for years bore the burden of Bombay's wicket keeping duties, briefly seemed to answer India's need for a wicketkeeper batsmen. And he proved his worth in that decisive game in Chennai against Aus in 01. But he was 31 that time and selectors were looking towards the future
Parthiv Patel
..and tThe future for a while seemed to be Patel. The youngest cricket to make test debut, he promised much after a satisfying tour of England in 2002 both in front and behind the stumps. However as time progressed his keeping standards deterioated and he was pushed to back of the line. These days he is content opening the batting alongside Matty Hayden for the Chennai SuperKings.
Ajay Ratra
Briefly played the part in between Dasgupta and Patel. Scrappy cricketer who could stick around, but was a typical keeper hitter. Remember all Wkeepers at this point were judged by their batting skill..a high benchmark set by Adam Gilchrist.
Vijay Dahiya
Same as above
Pankaj dharmani
Played 2 games in the 90's when Mongia's form seemed be dipping. But Mongia's comeback sealed dharmani's fate.
Ambati Rayudu
Probably the best wkeeper never to have played for India.
All Rounders
During the final years of Kapil Dev's playing days, I heard an Indian commentator on air state -
"Cricketers like Kapil only come once every 20-30 years"
I remembered smirking at the above comment. If only I knew, at that time, how prophetic that statement would turn out to be. Kapil Dev retired around 1993-94 and today almost 15 years later we are yet to find another who could shoulder the bowling attack and at the same time, could easily tear apart the opposition attack with his batting.
And every succesful team had atleast 1 great all rounder which brought the balance to their squad -
South Africa blessed with the likes of Brian McMillian, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener
England's Freddie Flintoff really took off in Ashes 2005 and when Freddie was at his best, England seemed to be a different squad.
Pakistan - In the late 90's Pakistan had discovered a whole bunch of young all round cricketers - Abdul Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood alongside the great Wasim Akram who moulded these youngsters like the great Imran Khan before him.
New Zealand - For many years, all rounders Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Nathan Astle and later Daniel Vettori carried the NZ squad and some times single handedly won test matches and championships (remember Cairns in 01 Champions Trophy)
Sri Lanka - Sanath Jayasuriya & Aravinda DeSilva led the way with their more than handy bowling alongside their explosive batting to add new dimensions to Sri Lanka cricket in the 90's.
West Indies - Carl Hooper stood out as an all rounder. But he too was in and out of the squad for most part of the 90's.Probably the cause for WI decline since the mid 90's.
Australia - Waugh brothers were quality all rounders, especially Steve Waugh who regularly took up the old ball and contained opposition with his cutters and slower ones. Bevan and Lehmann could also turn their arms over but Australia had such quality players at every position that they could afford not to have a true all rounder. Plus the presence of Adam Gilchrist allowed the team to carry an extra bowler as needed.
Lets took at some of the potential successors to our own Kapil Dev.
JP Yadav
A medium pacer who could hit the ball hard too. Unfortuantely his debut was against Australia in 2001 and his bowling didn’t quite hit the mark expected.
Sanjay Bangar
In his second stint with the Indian team, Bangar was the consumate team man, who could bowl steady medium pace and even offered to open the batting with decent success. However with Sehwag taking off as opener in One-day and test cricket and with no room in the middle order, selectors decided they could do away with Bangar.
Noel David
Noel who? Sachin Tendulkar apparently uttered the same words. very brief stint with the Indian team. Good fielder.
Dinesh Mongia
Wouldn't qualify as an all rounder in truest definition of the word. For me, a batter who wants to qualify as an allrounder should be able to bowl his share of 10 overs if needed. I dont recall Mongia ever completing 10 overs.But over time he proved to be a decent left arm spinner who could turn over a quick 5-6 overs and more than useful left arm middle/lower order batter. While Dravid donned the wicket keeping gloves, John wright's strategy of employing 7 batsmen allowed Mongia to time share with Hemang Badani. However with the end of the WC 03, Dravid turned in the wk gloves and the 7 batsmen experiment was abandoned. Mongia and badani were out of a job.
Hemang Badani
Similar to Mongia, Badani was once the mainstay of Indian ODI team. A good fielder and excellent lower middle order batsmen who specialized in run chases and building competive totals a la Michael Bevan. Just one of those players who the selectors swapped out for somebody newer.
Ajit Agarkar
Wiry fast bowler and free flowing batsmen when on fire, Agarkar is probably one of the bigger disappointments of Indian cricket. From an early age he was expected to do big things and displayed all the makings of a great all rounder -- century in under 19 cricket against Pakistan, fastest indian bowler to reach 50 wickets in ODI, 6/72 against Aus in 2004 which led to historic Indian victory in Australia, a flamboyant 66 versus Zimbabwe are some of the glimpses of what could've been. Soon after his debut his batting skills quickly deterioated. He will be remembered for getting 7 consecutive ducks against Australia. And a little after 2000 his bowling seemed to dip. Inconsistency led to his eventual downfall.
Reetinder Singh Sodhi
Once hyped as the answer to India's all round needs, Sodhi was part of the initial group of Ganguly's Gang circa 00 -02. But for all his support and the energy he brought onto the field this youngster simply didn’t have the talent to compete at the highest level and was soon playing full time for Punjab.
Laxmi Ratan Shukla
Compared as the next Kapil Dev, it took only 3 ODI's to show the world the true nature of shukla's talent. Not seen at the international level since
Nav
Thursday, March 11, 2010
DPL 2009 Season
Champion for 2009 Fantasy Football season, your truly.
It seems a little silly to mention this now after all this time but I think I deserve a little self-back patting here.
I'd like to thank Chris Johnson (2k+ yds, 14 TD), Andre Johnson & Ray Rice who all had fantastic seasons and helped carry my team every week!
And also my last round pick - Giants receiver Steve Smith who I would say had a decent year kept me in the play with 100+ receptions, 1200+ receiving yards and 7 TD's in the year. Truly this is where luck plays such a big factor. Getting that kind of Welker like production from your last round pick is priceless.
Also lucky, to say the least, to have acquired QB Ben Roethlisberger for next to nothing when I was struggling in that position. Big Ben consistently put up big points for me and even one game against Green Bay he put up a monster 45+ points. His presence consolidated my team.
Even my kicker Nate Kaeding was clutch, who kept putting above average fantasy points when it really mattered.
Overall a great team where everything fell so beautifully in place. A maybe once in a lifetime set of events. Who knows. But looking forward to 2010 season of Fantasy Football..
A final snapshot the winning team -
Nav
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Forgotten Indian Crickets: Part Two
So lets look back at some of the players who had the promise and hype to make India a super team -
OPENING BATSMEN
SS Das - Good openers are like rare gems in the Indian cricketing establishment. And this little fella was praised by the great Sunny Gavaskar himself. A short statured batter, Das seemed to be opener material with solid defense and technique against fast bowling. He had a promising start to his role but he didn’t convert his starts into big scores when he had the chance and when the runs ran dry, the selectors left him out cold.
Sadagoppan Ramesh - A free flowing batsmen when on song, his inconsistent performances drove selectors up the wall and after that wretched tour of Aus 1999, where he broke his finger courtesy a express delivery from Brett Lee (which he played with his eyes closed) he was briefly set packing away. He was given another lease of life around 2001 where he played a decent hand against Australia tour of India 2001
But soon his lack of big innings and his clumsy technique and footwork proved exasperating and the selectors had other openers they decided to give a look.
Vinayak Mane - Opener from mumbai. Putting up Tendulkar like numbers in the domestic scene. Got his chance against Australia at mumbai in 2001 but his poor performances silenced his hype and has been left out of national reckoning ever since.
Vikram Rathore - The great hype from Harayana. Embarrassing tour of england in 96 relegated him back to the domestic circuit
Sujith Somasundar - Captain of the succesful Karnataka ranji victories in the 90's. This opener was once thought to be "on par" with Rahul Dravid. Sometimes timing decides all. Que sera sera.
Wasim Jaffer - On again off again Mumbai opener. Was given opportunities till a couple years ago so he may still make a comeback. However given his inconsistency and lazy technique against the new ball I wouldn't expect to see him around too soon.
Akash Chopra - Now Chopra was a genuinely good opener from Delhi who played a crucial role in India's fine performance against Australia in 2004. For some inexplicable reason was left out by selectors and has been considered since. A real tragedy.
Devang Gandhi - Another allegedly opener of "promise" who quickly became undone in the nightmarish tour of Aus 99.
Robin Uthappa - This aggressive opener was seen as the next big thing in Indian cricket. But after a series of mixed results he sits on the sidelines. May still be part of India's T20 and ODI plans.
Middle Order
Traditionally the strength of Indian cricket, thru' the 1990's there were plenty gaps which needed filling. Here were some of the notable nominees -
Pravin Amre - A solid Middle order batsmen from MP who had a dream start to his test career with a century on debut on tour of SA. However a string of poor scores put his nervous crease digging days to an end.
Jacob Martin - A decent middle order batter, another victim of the intensive cleanup after the disastrous tour of Aus 1999
Hrishikesh Kanitkar - See above. Will forever be remembered for sweeping Saqlain Mushtaq to the boundary off last ball with India chasing down a then record 312 runs to beat arch rivals Pakistan under failing light in B'desh circa 98.
Atul Bedade - Master blaster from Mumbai. India's middle order answer to S. Jayasuriya. Left hand hitter known to whack the cricket ball with obscene power. That is if he ever connected bat on ball. Soon his hit or miss ways took its toll on his international ODI career
Venugopal Rao - Part of Greg Chappell's youth brigade who found themselves out of favor once the controversial head coach was sacked. Decent enough player though.
Hemang Badani - Once a mainstay of Indian ODI team. A good fielder and excellent lower middle order batsmen who prided on being a finisher a la Michael Bevan. Just one of those players who were swapped out for somebody newer and never quite re-established into the national team
Mohammed Kaif - See above. Excellent fielder and along with Y.Singh brought a certain vigor into the Indian infield. His Man-of-the-match performance in 2002 Natwest finals where his unbeaten 89 helped India win a famous victory. A victory which I personally feel helped India gain confidence in their own ODI ability. Sadly he never established a fixed batting spot in the line up and soon his inconsistent scoring allowed other players to push him out of the team.
Sridharan Sriram - Once proclaimed as one of the best batsmen produced by Tamil Nadu this wooden lefthander just couldn't’t cut it in the big world of intl cricket.
Amay Khurasia - The lion of MP domestic cricket. Another case of an Indian cricketer not quite ready for the intl stuff.
Sanjay Manjrekar - Given the kind of start he had to his career in the late 80's, it was expected that Manjrekar along with Tendulkar and Azhar would form the backbone of Indian Middle order for years to come. Sadly this never came to be. After a lackluster tour of Australia 91 and WC 92, Manjrekar briefly flirted with opening position before the eventually quits circa 96 due to injuries.
Vinod Kambli - A Test double hundred on debut followed by another in the next test. Fastest Indian to score a 1000 test runs. A dream start. But this best bud of Tendulkar simply could not lockdown his spot on the team although provided with ample opportunities due to his careless and lackadaisical attitude. And in sports its absolutely crucial to have the right mindset to stay successful
Next we will discuss the two perennial problems of Indian cricket - Wicket Keepers and All rounders.
OPENING BATSMEN
SS Das - Good openers are like rare gems in the Indian cricketing establishment. And this little fella was praised by the great Sunny Gavaskar himself. A short statured batter, Das seemed to be opener material with solid defense and technique against fast bowling. He had a promising start to his role but he didn’t convert his starts into big scores when he had the chance and when the runs ran dry, the selectors left him out cold.
Sadagoppan Ramesh - A free flowing batsmen when on song, his inconsistent performances drove selectors up the wall and after that wretched tour of Aus 1999, where he broke his finger courtesy a express delivery from Brett Lee (which he played with his eyes closed) he was briefly set packing away. He was given another lease of life around 2001 where he played a decent hand against Australia tour of India 2001
But soon his lack of big innings and his clumsy technique and footwork proved exasperating and the selectors had other openers they decided to give a look.
Vinayak Mane - Opener from mumbai. Putting up Tendulkar like numbers in the domestic scene. Got his chance against Australia at mumbai in 2001 but his poor performances silenced his hype and has been left out of national reckoning ever since.
Vikram Rathore - The great hype from Harayana. Embarrassing tour of england in 96 relegated him back to the domestic circuit
Sujith Somasundar - Captain of the succesful Karnataka ranji victories in the 90's. This opener was once thought to be "on par" with Rahul Dravid. Sometimes timing decides all. Que sera sera.
Wasim Jaffer - On again off again Mumbai opener. Was given opportunities till a couple years ago so he may still make a comeback. However given his inconsistency and lazy technique against the new ball I wouldn't expect to see him around too soon.
Akash Chopra - Now Chopra was a genuinely good opener from Delhi who played a crucial role in India's fine performance against Australia in 2004. For some inexplicable reason was left out by selectors and has been considered since. A real tragedy.
Devang Gandhi - Another allegedly opener of "promise" who quickly became undone in the nightmarish tour of Aus 99.
Robin Uthappa - This aggressive opener was seen as the next big thing in Indian cricket. But after a series of mixed results he sits on the sidelines. May still be part of India's T20 and ODI plans.
Middle Order
Traditionally the strength of Indian cricket, thru' the 1990's there were plenty gaps which needed filling. Here were some of the notable nominees -
Pravin Amre - A solid Middle order batsmen from MP who had a dream start to his test career with a century on debut on tour of SA. However a string of poor scores put his nervous crease digging days to an end.
Jacob Martin - A decent middle order batter, another victim of the intensive cleanup after the disastrous tour of Aus 1999
Hrishikesh Kanitkar - See above. Will forever be remembered for sweeping Saqlain Mushtaq to the boundary off last ball with India chasing down a then record 312 runs to beat arch rivals Pakistan under failing light in B'desh circa 98.
Atul Bedade - Master blaster from Mumbai. India's middle order answer to S. Jayasuriya. Left hand hitter known to whack the cricket ball with obscene power. That is if he ever connected bat on ball. Soon his hit or miss ways took its toll on his international ODI career
Venugopal Rao - Part of Greg Chappell's youth brigade who found themselves out of favor once the controversial head coach was sacked. Decent enough player though.
Hemang Badani - Once a mainstay of Indian ODI team. A good fielder and excellent lower middle order batsmen who prided on being a finisher a la Michael Bevan. Just one of those players who were swapped out for somebody newer and never quite re-established into the national team
Mohammed Kaif - See above. Excellent fielder and along with Y.Singh brought a certain vigor into the Indian infield. His Man-of-the-match performance in 2002 Natwest finals where his unbeaten 89 helped India win a famous victory. A victory which I personally feel helped India gain confidence in their own ODI ability. Sadly he never established a fixed batting spot in the line up and soon his inconsistent scoring allowed other players to push him out of the team.
Sridharan Sriram - Once proclaimed as one of the best batsmen produced by Tamil Nadu this wooden lefthander just couldn't’t cut it in the big world of intl cricket.
Amay Khurasia - The lion of MP domestic cricket. Another case of an Indian cricketer not quite ready for the intl stuff.
Sanjay Manjrekar - Given the kind of start he had to his career in the late 80's, it was expected that Manjrekar along with Tendulkar and Azhar would form the backbone of Indian Middle order for years to come. Sadly this never came to be. After a lackluster tour of Australia 91 and WC 92, Manjrekar briefly flirted with opening position before the eventually quits circa 96 due to injuries.
Vinod Kambli - A Test double hundred on debut followed by another in the next test. Fastest Indian to score a 1000 test runs. A dream start. But this best bud of Tendulkar simply could not lockdown his spot on the team although provided with ample opportunities due to his careless and lackadaisical attitude. And in sports its absolutely crucial to have the right mindset to stay successful
Next we will discuss the two perennial problems of Indian cricket - Wicket Keepers and All rounders.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Forgotten Indian Cricketers: Part One
I was reading an article on Cricinfo the other day and I came across this name - Jacob Martin. I couldnt place the name immediately but it had a very familiar sound to it. I did a little digging around and it all came back to me -
Jacob Martin! A young right handed middle order batsmen out of Baroda, who for a very brief period was expected to fill the role of sheet anchor role in the Indian middle order, a sort of a second Rahul Dravid (this was before Laxman had found his footing & Calcutta 2001 was a few years away).
Martin might as well been that player had it not been for a rather disappointing tour of Australia 1999-2000. Mind you that was wretched tour for everyone involved on Indian side. Both cricketers and viewing public were shell shocked.
Here's a quick review of the tour provided by Cricinfo -
http://www.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/153771.html
It was the lowest point of Indian cricket but it led to the catharsis that was the Ganguly-Wright era.
Being reminded of Jacob Martin, my mind began wandering, trying to remember of those countless other players through the 1990's (especially late 90's), many who burst into the national team and who along with core players like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Javagal Srinath etc were expected to transform Indian cricket team into a world beating superpower. Many of them were not given enough opportunities while others were simply not good enough.
But first lets put things in a little perspective before I proceed
1) Through the 90's the Indian team were a mess. They just didnt fully realize it till the end of the decade. With the retirement of stalwarts who led the team through the 80's (Vengsarkar, Shastri, Gavaskar, Srikkanth) the team was in transition which was obviously neither well thought out nor well handled. This resulted in a lot of players persisted with despite being on the decline (Azhar, Sidhu) and others who were simply dead weight.
2) Indian batsmen were brought up on heavy dose of flat tracks aka belters. This allowed batsmen to play with a certain amount of freedom and expansiveness which could never be replicated outside of the sub continent. India's home strategy often rotated around the batsmen putting up huge scores on the board and the three pronged spin attack (Anil Kumble, Rajesh Chauhan, Venkathapathy Raju) would exploit the dust bowls to maximum effect and destroy opposition.
3) Openers werent tested enough. Their mission was to bat out the first session of the day where the ball would swing a bit and post lunch was time to cut lose. And the team management did themselves no favors by often experimenting with non-specialist openers (eg: Laxman, N.Mongia, M.Prabhakar etc) in an effort to squeeze in an extra batter or bowler. It was quite obvious to see that this narrow minded approach would not work outside of the dead pitches of India. As a result, genuine openers were being set up to fail since they usually had to face international fast bowling on swinging, bouncy conditions with little experience outside the domestic circuit.
4) Lack of quality fast bowlers. After Kapil Dev's retirement circa 93, Javagal Srinath and Manoj Prabhakar were the only pace options. There were several occasions were Srinath would be the lone fast bowler on the team. As a token measure of his mere presence, he would be asked to bowl a handful of overs before letting the spinners take over. He was later joined by Venkatesh Prasad around 96
5) As a result of above India could never really compete outside the sub-continent. The batsmen (few exceptions - Tendulkar, Dravid) could never consistently handle the pace, bounce, swing et al and the three pronged spin attack would not be as much a threat as at home. So while Kumble was the chief wrecker at home, on the away tours it was Srinath and Prasad would had to do the heavy legwork to keep India in the game while Kumble provided containment.
6) Therefore as much as India won at home, they were burdened by their poor record in places which really mattered like Australia, England, New Zealand, SA and West Indies. Soon questions were raised by commentators as to the true ability of the Indian team and the nature of the demoralizing defeats abroad began to take its toll in the sub continental performances too.
Overall there was a lot of negativity within the Indian team and amongst the cricketing public. Losing seemed unavoidable. Several players were brought into the team to fill gaps were quickly replaced because they couldnt provide the instant results the selectors were looking adding fuel to the fire of insecurity and team groupism. Thankfully today selectors are willing to provide more opportunities/chances to the younger players in order for them to settle down and blossom. A refreshing attitude inculcated by folks like Ganguly and Srikkanth (and several others) who have faced first hand the effects of callous selections. I hope and pray this trend will continue well into the future.
In my next article I will talk about of some of the more unfortunate, forgotten cricketers from the Indian National Cricket team.
Jacob Martin! A young right handed middle order batsmen out of Baroda, who for a very brief period was expected to fill the role of sheet anchor role in the Indian middle order, a sort of a second Rahul Dravid (this was before Laxman had found his footing & Calcutta 2001 was a few years away).
Martin might as well been that player had it not been for a rather disappointing tour of Australia 1999-2000. Mind you that was wretched tour for everyone involved on Indian side. Both cricketers and viewing public were shell shocked.
Here's a quick review of the tour provided by Cricinfo -
http://www.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/153771.html
It was the lowest point of Indian cricket but it led to the catharsis that was the Ganguly-Wright era.
Being reminded of Jacob Martin, my mind began wandering, trying to remember of those countless other players through the 1990's (especially late 90's), many who burst into the national team and who along with core players like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Javagal Srinath etc were expected to transform Indian cricket team into a world beating superpower. Many of them were not given enough opportunities while others were simply not good enough.
But first lets put things in a little perspective before I proceed
1) Through the 90's the Indian team were a mess. They just didnt fully realize it till the end of the decade. With the retirement of stalwarts who led the team through the 80's (Vengsarkar, Shastri, Gavaskar, Srikkanth) the team was in transition which was obviously neither well thought out nor well handled. This resulted in a lot of players persisted with despite being on the decline (Azhar, Sidhu) and others who were simply dead weight.
2) Indian batsmen were brought up on heavy dose of flat tracks aka belters. This allowed batsmen to play with a certain amount of freedom and expansiveness which could never be replicated outside of the sub continent. India's home strategy often rotated around the batsmen putting up huge scores on the board and the three pronged spin attack (Anil Kumble, Rajesh Chauhan, Venkathapathy Raju) would exploit the dust bowls to maximum effect and destroy opposition.
3) Openers werent tested enough. Their mission was to bat out the first session of the day where the ball would swing a bit and post lunch was time to cut lose. And the team management did themselves no favors by often experimenting with non-specialist openers (eg: Laxman, N.Mongia, M.Prabhakar etc) in an effort to squeeze in an extra batter or bowler. It was quite obvious to see that this narrow minded approach would not work outside of the dead pitches of India. As a result, genuine openers were being set up to fail since they usually had to face international fast bowling on swinging, bouncy conditions with little experience outside the domestic circuit.
4) Lack of quality fast bowlers. After Kapil Dev's retirement circa 93, Javagal Srinath and Manoj Prabhakar were the only pace options. There were several occasions were Srinath would be the lone fast bowler on the team. As a token measure of his mere presence, he would be asked to bowl a handful of overs before letting the spinners take over. He was later joined by Venkatesh Prasad around 96
5) As a result of above India could never really compete outside the sub-continent. The batsmen (few exceptions - Tendulkar, Dravid) could never consistently handle the pace, bounce, swing et al and the three pronged spin attack would not be as much a threat as at home. So while Kumble was the chief wrecker at home, on the away tours it was Srinath and Prasad would had to do the heavy legwork to keep India in the game while Kumble provided containment.
6) Therefore as much as India won at home, they were burdened by their poor record in places which really mattered like Australia, England, New Zealand, SA and West Indies. Soon questions were raised by commentators as to the true ability of the Indian team and the nature of the demoralizing defeats abroad began to take its toll in the sub continental performances too.
Overall there was a lot of negativity within the Indian team and amongst the cricketing public. Losing seemed unavoidable. Several players were brought into the team to fill gaps were quickly replaced because they couldnt provide the instant results the selectors were looking adding fuel to the fire of insecurity and team groupism. Thankfully today selectors are willing to provide more opportunities/chances to the younger players in order for them to settle down and blossom. A refreshing attitude inculcated by folks like Ganguly and Srikkanth (and several others) who have faced first hand the effects of callous selections. I hope and pray this trend will continue well into the future.
In my next article I will talk about of some of the more unfortunate, forgotten cricketers from the Indian National Cricket team.
NFL 2010: Divisional Championships
NFC
I wont be the first to state this obvious parallel and the sports media have over analyzed this to death already- But for Favre it was another interception thrown in the Overtime of an NFC championship game which effectively pulled his team off the field when they were so maddeningly close to a game winning field goal.
The interception helped the saints take over in a favorable spot and 4 plays later, Garett Hartley kicked in a 40 yard field goal dead center of the upright to stamp Saints first ticket to the Superbowl.
I think it'll go down as one of those "Fuck me" plays which any professional athlete would love to take back.
Going into the game and being an objective viewer I thought the Saints and Vikings were evenly matched and it was plain for everyone to see all though the offense of both teams were comparable, the Vikings defense were far superior constantly applying pressure on D.Brees and virtually stiff ling the Saints scoring in the second half.
Vikings controlled possession of the ball through the course of the game and had the better passing and rushing stats including 3 pounding touchdowns by Adrian Peterson and passing touchdowns by B.Favre and yet the Saints came up on top cos they simply didn’t make any mistakes – The Vikings had 5 turnovers in total, infuriating fumbles by Adrian Peterson and B.Berrian and shot themselves in the foot when Vikings could have easily scored on both occasions and of course the final interception which sealed the Vikings fate. And while Saints didn’t deserve to win, in the end the Vikings, although the better team, deserved to lose.
With the end of Vikings 2010 campaign, questions will invariably arise of Brett Favre's next move. Will he finally call it quits? Or will give another go in attempt to achieve superbowl glory? Will he stick around Minnesota or chase his dream with another franchise? I figure we shall hear more about this
sometime during pre-season..
AFC
The Jets miracle run finally comes to an end. The first half highlighted the best of Jets football, great defense, tough running game and a safety-first passing game including the 80 yard bomb to B.Edwards designed perfectly which caught the Colts off guard.
But Peyton showed his class and why is the MVP of this league, with his surgical flawless passing game which in the end exposed the Jets secondary which had up to that point done a good job on containing R.Wayne and
D.Clark, but man-to-man couldn't cover both Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon who had monster games.
On the Jets side of the ball, the injury to Shonne Green and the lackluster performance by T.Jones crippled their running game and thus forcing them to go with the passing game which is clearly not their forte.
Looking to next year, the Jets seem to have all the right pieces and personal to make another run to the playoffs. Sanchez for all his limitations (and we know he can be quite the turnover machine as seen mid season) has matured over the past 4-5 weeks and there are signs, he can under the direction of Rex Ryan, handle the offensive assignments.
Ryan’s #1 priority would be acquiring an extra pass rusher. It just seemed in the second half that they seemed to be lacking that one extra rusher who could get in the face of Manning and disrupt his rhythm.
The return of Leon Washington will no doubt provide them the all purpose physical game. Questions loom over the return of T.Jones and B.Edwards. Jones had a great year but seemed to be a little off thru the post-season. With the presence of Greene, Ryan could pick up another running back and possibly see T.Jones off via trade or free agency. Ditto for B.Edwards with talks surrounding the possibility of trade for B.Marshall.
In any case it appears, although unthinkable beginning of this season, that the Jets seem to appear in a much better shape that the NY Giants.
Nav
I wont be the first to state this obvious parallel and the sports media have over analyzed this to death already- But for Favre it was another interception thrown in the Overtime of an NFC championship game which effectively pulled his team off the field when they were so maddeningly close to a game winning field goal.
The interception helped the saints take over in a favorable spot and 4 plays later, Garett Hartley kicked in a 40 yard field goal dead center of the upright to stamp Saints first ticket to the Superbowl.
I think it'll go down as one of those "Fuck me" plays which any professional athlete would love to take back.
Going into the game and being an objective viewer I thought the Saints and Vikings were evenly matched and it was plain for everyone to see all though the offense of both teams were comparable, the Vikings defense were far superior constantly applying pressure on D.Brees and virtually stiff ling the Saints scoring in the second half.
Vikings controlled possession of the ball through the course of the game and had the better passing and rushing stats including 3 pounding touchdowns by Adrian Peterson and passing touchdowns by B.Favre and yet the Saints came up on top cos they simply didn’t make any mistakes – The Vikings had 5 turnovers in total, infuriating fumbles by Adrian Peterson and B.Berrian and shot themselves in the foot when Vikings could have easily scored on both occasions and of course the final interception which sealed the Vikings fate. And while Saints didn’t deserve to win, in the end the Vikings, although the better team, deserved to lose.
With the end of Vikings 2010 campaign, questions will invariably arise of Brett Favre's next move. Will he finally call it quits? Or will give another go in attempt to achieve superbowl glory? Will he stick around Minnesota or chase his dream with another franchise? I figure we shall hear more about this
sometime during pre-season..AFC
The Jets miracle run finally comes to an end. The first half highlighted the best of Jets football, great defense, tough running game and a safety-first passing game including the 80 yard bomb to B.Edwards designed perfectly which caught the Colts off guard.
But Peyton showed his class and why is the MVP of this league, with his surgical flawless passing game which in the end exposed the Jets secondary which had up to that point done a good job on containing R.Wayne and
D.Clark, but man-to-man couldn't cover both Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon who had monster games.On the Jets side of the ball, the injury to Shonne Green and the lackluster performance by T.Jones crippled their running game and thus forcing them to go with the passing game which is clearly not their forte.
Looking to next year, the Jets seem to have all the right pieces and personal to make another run to the playoffs. Sanchez for all his limitations (and we know he can be quite the turnover machine as seen mid season) has matured over the past 4-5 weeks and there are signs, he can under the direction of Rex Ryan, handle the offensive assignments.
Ryan’s #1 priority would be acquiring an extra pass rusher. It just seemed in the second half that they seemed to be lacking that one extra rusher who could get in the face of Manning and disrupt his rhythm.
The return of Leon Washington will no doubt provide them the all purpose physical game. Questions loom over the return of T.Jones and B.Edwards. Jones had a great year but seemed to be a little off thru the post-season. With the presence of Greene, Ryan could pick up another running back and possibly see T.Jones off via trade or free agency. Ditto for B.Edwards with talks surrounding the possibility of trade for B.Marshall.
In any case it appears, although unthinkable beginning of this season, that the Jets seem to appear in a much better shape that the NY Giants.
Nav
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