My “Almost There” Indian Test 11

Do we ever think of those cricketers who missed out on selection because of stalwarts ? Or those who did not get enough chances to make their mark as Test players?

I tried to select what I call “My almost there Indian Test 11”. Selection criteria is players I have seen, who have not played Test cricket or have played less than 25 Test matches. Hence legends like Padmakar Shivalkar and Rajinder Goel are not in this list.

Openers

Shiv Sundar Das and Aakash Chopra are both classical openers. Das who played only 23 Tests is the very definition of what Sunny Gavaskar has said about Test Cricket – “Give the 1st hour to bowlers, next 5 hours is yours”. Greg Chappell was on record that Das was the fittest Indian cricketer. He held his own against an Australian attack led by Mcgrath and a South African attack led by Pollock. After only one average series versus West Indies he was dropped from the playing 11. In England however he did not play a single Test and thereafter did not get a chance. Sadly, his last knock for team India was 253 versus Essex, perhaps the last to hit a Double hundred in England.

Aakash Chopra was the perfect foil to dasher Virendra Sehwag. He played only Ten Tests and was unlucky not to continue for long, A failed experiment to have Yuvraj as opener followed by successful discovery of long term player Gautam Gambhir saw Aakash out of the squad. He has since discovered his calling in the world of media.

Middle order bats: Amol Mazumdar, Yere Goud, Praveen Amre and Mohd Kaif ( Captain)

Amol was the schoolboy with pads on when Sachin and Kambli scripted a 664 run record partnership. He started his Ranji career with a glorious 260 and went on to score more than 11000 First class runs @48 with 30 tons but was definitely unlucky to play for India not even once. Just his bad luck that Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly chose the same time to play for India

Yere Goud was called the Rahul Dravid of Railways team by Javagal Srinath. He had more than 7500 Ranji Trophy runs @45 with 16 tons but was unlucky not to play for India.

Amre made his Test debut for India at 24 and scored a century on debut in hostile Durban. Yet, only 1 year later, he played the last of his 11 Tests for India. What a huge loss that this talented cricketer could not play more Tests.

Mohd Kaif is one of the 3 Successful U-19 World Cup winning Indian Captains. He will always be remembered for his 75 ball 87 which helped India chase down 326 in 2002 Natwest Final. Kaif played only 13 Tests for India and promised much but could not continue. He had a match-saving 91 vs England and a 148 not out vs West Indies at St Lucia. Interesting aside is that in the press conference which followed Kaif’s 148, MS Dhoni sat with the reporters and had asked him how he will celebrate his ton. Kaif  replied that he will do so only if India wins the Test Match.  Sad that this team man could not play long for India

Wicket keeper. Sadanand Vishwanath starred in the 1985 World Championship of cricket. He was mesmerising and Aussie media prophesized that he will be India’s best ever. He unfortunately faded away after only 3 Tests and was replaced by Kiran More and Chandrakant Pandit.

Pace bowlers Munaf Patel, Vivek Razdan and Subrato Bannerjee .

Munaf who played just 13 Tests had both pace and control. He played a crucial role in 2011 World Cup, but could not play more Tests. Razdan too played just 2 Tests and in his second took 5-79 vs Pakistan in Pakistan. How strange that he took 5 wickets in his last Test innings and was dropped thereafter.  Subroto Bannerjee played just One Test match and bowled in 1 innings taking 3 wicket, that too those of Mark Waugh, Mark Taylor and Geoff Marsh. He never played for India again. How unlucky can that be?

Spinner  Laxman Sivaramakrishna is in by edging out Narendra Hirwani. Siva’s most famous moment in cricketing history is getting Javed Miandad out stumped by Vishwanath in the 1985World Championship of Cricket tournament. He played Test cricket at 17, but could play only 9 Tests. I feel he could have been a mega star but it was not to be.

Do you agree with my “Almost 11” What’s yours ?

How diet fuels Novak Djokovic’s insatiable appetite for victory

Novak Djokovic is frighteningly dominating men’s tennis. In 2015 he won three Grand Slam titles (Majors), six Masters and his fifth world tour final, becoming the first to win the end of the year tournament four consecutive times.

He then started 2016 by winning the Australian Open for the sixth time.

Djokovic now has 11 Majors, six short of Roger Federer’s 17. He also has won 26 Masters, which is just one short of Rafa Nadal’s 27.

Considering his main rivals are an ageing Federer, Rafa and Andy Murray – all three of whom he is dominating at present – Djokovic looks set to substantially increase his tally.

His success is down to determination, Recognition of what is required, a target set for one’s self, and dedication to stick to it.

Let us go through the journey.

Life changed for Novak in 2010 after a nutritionist, Dr Igor Cetojevic, saw one of Djokovic’s regular mid-match collapses while surfing TV. Dr Igor conducted experimental tests and found Djokovic was allergic to gluten, strongly intolerant to wheat and dairy products, and mildly sensitive to tomatoes. Bread and cheese were forthwith banned. Dr Igor gave him a gluten-free diet for two weeks, and Djokovic felt lighter. Then, as an experiment, Igor gave him a bagel and, lo and behold the Serb felt sluggish and lethargic, confirming the gluten allergy.

The champ permanently switched to a gluten-free diet and he was world No.1 within 12 months. He has stuck to the diet ever since with monk-like perseverance.

The diet itself is based on vegetables, nuts, beans, chickpeas, seeds, lentils, healthyOILS and lean meats. Djokovic cooks almost every meal himself. As a pro tennis player, he can’t avoid staying in hotels, so he lays down a condition for hotels that he will stay with them only if they will allow him to use their kitchen. He never uses his phone or computer while eating. He never watches television while eating his food, slowly and meticulously. Before eating he says a short prayer reminding himself of sticking to his diet. The results sure are reflecting in his performances.

(These diet details were revealed by the champion himself in his book, Serve to win).

A glaring omission in Djokovic’s glittering trophy cabinet is the French Open. Only seven champions have won all four Grand Slam titles: Fred Perry, Don Budge (all Majors in a year), Rod Laver (all Majors in a year twice), Andre Agassi, Roy Emerson, Roger Federer and Rafa.

Its not that Djokovic has done badly at the French Open, but six times – including twice in finals – he came up against the best clay court player of all time, nine-time winner Rafa. Djokovic’s best chances were probably 2011 and 2015. In 2011 he had defeated Rafa four times in a row and also had a 41-match winning streak before being defeated by Fed in the semi-finals. In 2015 too he must have indeed fancied his chances after defeating Rafa in the quarter-final, however Stan Wawrinka came up with a super display.

Pertinently, Federer is 34 and has lost his last seven Grand Slam matches against Djokovic. Similarly, Rafa had a 22-15 career lead against him but Djokovic has won nine of his last ten to go ahead at 24-23. He seems to have the measure of his two great rivals.

Other competitors are the unpredictable Murray and Wawrinka. While both have the game to win against Djokovic, his sheer consistency makes him clear favourites versus both of them. Djokovic may end up winning several more Grand Slams in the next few years unless some young stars come up.

Can he come close to Federer’s 17? Time will tell. Already he has given a veiled statement that Federer’s 17 can be challenged. I am sure he must be planning an assault on it.

( This blog post has been published in Roar sports community of Australia)

The romance of a fourth innings knock in Test cricket

Ian Chappell said, “I haven’t seen better batting in the fourth innings than Virat Kohli’s enterprising century at Adelaide Oval, where he narrowly missed guiding India to an incredible victory in 2014.”

Batting in the fourth innings is special.

Why should it be so? After all, batting first in a Test match should be tough too. The bowlers are rested and can make best use of early morning freshness of the wicket, when it has more juice.

WG Grace famously said, “When you win the toss, bat. If you are in doubt, think about it, then bat. If you have very big doubts, consult a colleague, then bat.”

Sunil Gavaskar said, “Bat first, give one hour to the bowlers, next five hours are yours.”

Therefore after the initial storm has been weathered, one can enjoy batting as the wicket will help the batsman. This suggests that batting first has advantages. Statistically too if we see the batting averages of almost all great batsmen, their batting averages in the first innings is distinctly higher than their batting averages in the fourth innings of a Test match.

What about batting in a Test’s second and third innings? Conventionally speaking, the wicket on the morning of the first day of a Test match offers some assistance to the quick bowlers and then eases out. On the second and third day of the Test match, the wicket is at its best, and then on the fourth day it starts assisting the spinners. Finally, on the fifth day, batting becomes difficult. Therefore, classically speaking, batting is easier in the second and third innings of a Test match than in the first.

What is different about the fourth innings of a Test match? A wearing pitch, turn, unpredictable bounce, target to chase, past history, demons in mind and so on. Due to a combination of these factors, we see fewer scores in the fourth innings than in others.

In the history of Test cricket, only 27 batsmen have scored more than 1000 runs in the fourth innings, with only six having an Average above 50. These are Graeme Smith (53.7), Ricky Ponting (50.4), Gavaskar (58.5), Gordon Greenidge (53.2), Younis Khan (60.2) and Geoff Boycott (58.7).

Two of the greatest batsmen of all time, Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, do not have great fourth innings records at all. Sachin has statistically the maximum Test runs at 1625, but an average of only 36.93. Lara has 1404 Test runs at 35.1.

As far as Test tons scored in fourth innings, Younis Khan has five, while Smith, Gavaskar, Ponting and Ramnaresh Sarwan have four each. Sachin has three, of which his 136 versus Pakistan was probably one of the best ever knocks in a losing cause.

Sir Don Bradman, owner of the enviable Test average of 99.94 that will probably stand the test of time, scored 734 runs in fourth innings with three 100s at 73.40. While 73.4 is awesome, it’s notably less than 99.94, proving that fourth innings batting is the toughest.

Has batting has become easier in the recent past, with pitches remaining true? In the history of Test cricket, there have been 49 scores of 350 or more in the fourth innings, 21 coming in the last 10 years. Nine out of 49 resulted in wins, of which four were in the last ten years. We are also often seeing fourth-day finishes, so has the value of a fourth innings knock slightly decreased? I leave these thoughts for you to reflect on.

( This blog post has been published by The Roar sports community of Australia)

The transition from Under-19 to senior cricket

India and West Indies will contest the final of the Under-19 World Cup on February 14, which sparked a thought about how difficult the transition from youth to senior cricket is for aspiring professionals.

Can we choose a current 16-member Indian team for both Test matches and one-day internationals exclusively from players who have played Under-19 cricket since 2000?

Selection is quite easy.

The opening slots are occupied by Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Robin Uthappa. For the middle order batsmen we have Virat Kohli, Mohd Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Cheteshwar Pujara and Suresh Raina. Ambati Rayudu and Venugopal Rao miss out.The two wicketkeepers are Dinesh Karthik and Ajay Ratra, with Sanju Samson missing out. For spinners we have Ravindra Jadeja and Piyush Chawla while for pace bowlers we have RP Singh, VRV Singh and Jaydev Unadkat.

This team of 16 seems like a strong side indeed and shows that Under-19 cricket in India does go on to produce cricketers capable of graduating to the highest level.

My interest in the Under-19 Indian team stems from my school days when close friend Ranjib Biswal went to Australia for the Youth World Cup in 1988. Members of the team who went on to play for India were Praveen Amre, Subroto Banerjee, Narendra Hirwani, Nayan Mongia and Venkatapathy Raju.

Ranjib, too, I am sure would have played for India for a few years before Harbhajan Singh burst into the scene. However, he quit the game at 25 after becoming Lok Sabha MP. Currently a Rajya Sabha MP, Ranjib played first-class cricket for ten years from age of 15 to 25 and had the unique record of being a sitting Lok Sabha MP who was captain of a Ranji and Duleep Trophy team. Later of course he became national selector and manager of the senior team for a glorious period of 18 months when India became Test number one team as well as ODI world champions.

Coming back to Under-19 cricket, in those days the media was not so active and cricket was not the multi-crore industry it has become. If one sees the last decade, we can note increasing focus on the junior team and many of the players have gone on to play for India.

A brief look at the history of Under-19 cricket will throw up interesting points.

The 1988 Youth World Cup incidentally was an Under-18 tournament. Then there was a gap of ten years before ICC restarted the comp and made it an Under-19 World Cup.

The 1988 tournament had some youngsters who went on to become the biggest stars in world cricket. I have named the Indian stars above, but from other countries there were Brian Lara, Jimmy Adams, Ridley Jacobs, Inzamam Ul Haq, Mike Atherton, Sanath Jayasuriya, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Stuart Law, Chris Cairns, Nasser Hussain and Mark Ramprakash.

So wasn’t it a shame that the tournament was discontinued for ten years? What a blunder.

After the ICC restarted the Under-19 World Cup, Australia and India have been the most successful teams with three titles each, while Pakistan have won twice, and England and South Africa have won once each. In 1998, when the tournament restarted, England won the title, but the shining star of the event was Chris Gayle.

In 2000, India won under the captaincy of Mohd Kaif, and the man of the series was none other than Yuvraj Singh. Subsequent Under-19 World Cups also led to the emergence of major talents of world cricket such as Cameron White, Tim Southee and Tatenda Taibu and Virat Kohli.

Is success guaranteed once someone plays Under-19 level for his country and the World Cup? No, it is only the beginning. It is a tough transition and is not easy to move on from Under-19 cricket to the national team.

The pressure, stress and strain are enormous.

The most horrifying story involves Jamie Grove of England, who was a member of the victorious Under-19 World Cup winning team of 1998. Yet after he went for 20 runs in a T20 final in 2003 he was given death threats, people used to call him up saying they would rape his wife.Yet his club refused to allow him to go to the police, finally putting a line in the club website that they stood by him. Grove was disappointed saying, “that is not the support I was looking for”.

Other stories are not as horrifying and are usually more about missed opportunities. There are many instances of players who were supposed to make it very big in world cricket but just could not do so, such as Owais Shah who has played only four Tests.Then there is Unmukt Chand, who has played none. We can also include Ambati Rayudu and Reetinder Singh Sodhi as Under-19 players who promised so much but could not make the next level.

Coming back to the present tournament, a big letdown was that Australia did not participate due to security concerns. That could not be helped. India’s route to final has been Ireland, New Zealand, Nepal, followed by a quarter-final versus Namibia and semi-final versus Sri Lanka. While one may devalue Namibia and Sri Lanka as opponents, but it would be folly as they reached the semi-finals by knocking out defending champions South Africa and former champions England, respectively.

The Indian youngsters to watch out for are Rishabh Pant, Sarfraz Khan, Armaan Zaffer, Avesh Khan and MK Lomror. I am sure some of them will go on to play for the senior team in the future.

One last issue to be discussed here is whether Under-19 players should be allowed to play in IPL. 2015 started the trend with Sarfraz Ahmed being “bought” for 50 lakhs by RCB, and then this year he was retained.From one player in 2015 from the current Under-19 team, as many as six were selected for IPL teams in 2016, three for their base price for 10 lakhs, captain Ishan for 35 lakhs and opener Rishabh Pant for an astronomical Rs 1.9 crore.The sixth of course is Sarfraz. 

Dilip Vengsarkar, India’s respected former captain and chairman of selectors has said that Under-19 players should not be allowed to play in IPL and this is a major reason for rampant practice of age fraud going on.

Under-19 coach Rahul Dravid has also indirectly said that the players should concentrate on cricket only. Whatever decision is taken by BCCI, they should ensure that the route to the senior Indian team should be Under-19 and first-class cricket rather than Under-19 and IPL.

Since so many stars have come up successfully through the first-class route, this should definitely not be tampered with, and if it is being done so, it should be stopped.

I hope BCCI thinks deep on this issue and comes up with a practical, acceptable solution for all stakeholders.

in my view, the youngsters should complete their Under-19 training and then become eligible for IPL. Firstly, because T20 may affect their skills sets. Secondly, they may be rushed into international cricket without adequate first-class experience. And thirdly, they may not be able to handle too muchMONEY at early age.

Coming back to 2016 U-19 Worlsd Cup Final, India played West Indies. India were competing for their fourth cup while the West Indies will be looking for their first. A brilliant bowling performance saw West Indies retricting India to 145 and then chasing it with 5 wickets,. Congrats to the Champions. Well Played team India as well
( also published in my wordpress blog thesportsmanwritesaway.wordpress.com )

Hi friends. I am new to the blogging world. Let me tell you about myself. I am a tax administrator by profession. My hobbies are Sports and Music. Cricket is my passion and i also follow tennis very very closely. I have keen interest in writing as well and would like to share my thoughts with more like minded people , hence have taken upo blogging. I sincerely feel that I can learn from all of you and can also share something with you which will be of interest to you as well. Looking forward to an interesting time blogging with you , Thanks.