Do you really think Indian cricket team deserves this?

[marsilians]

i completely and whole heartedly disagree. you dont mess around with a guy like sehwag. if he started caring for all this, then there is no difference in him and lesser mortals. there hasnt been a guy like him for a 100 years and we probably wont see one for another 100. there is no other batsman (past or present) that can change the course of a test series in a couple of sessions.

If you notice, he himself has started to make a consious decision to see the ball through in the early overs recently. If he can extend that a bit more I think he is capable of great things - not being brought down to mortals.

 

[srikarkav]

Hi,

Common on guys let us celebrate that we are at the summit in Cricket! I know all the doubts flow from the affection we have for this team.We dread if they can hold on to this position for long.But we want them to conquer all they see.But we fear if they can do it.And this fear puts doubts into our minds. Chuck all your doubts and enjoy the fact that we are the number 1 in cricket.:clapping: This has not happened ever right? So enjoy the moment guys.

Our team has won test series in England,in Newzealand,in West Indies,in Bangaladesh and we have beaten the aussies(mind you not on mine fields) at home and i sincerely believe we could have beaten the south africans if we had our full strength team in the first test.Guys you all know when we were in Oz last time we should have won the series 2-1 but for the sheer incompetence of the now retired gentleman from the Caribbean.

Guys i love this team cause they have left the meekness of the indian teams of yesteryears.(We all should thank Dada for it i am sure)We have a fast bowler who looks the batsmen in the eye and ready to play mind games with them.I love the this team cause it has a world class spinner who has the temperament of a tearaway fast bowler.I love this team cause i think they have it in them to go to australia and south africa and can have a series win. I love this team cause it has an opening batsman who sends shivers down the spines of bowlers around the world.I don't think even the great Sachin did it to them..And last but not least we have a Mr.Cool at the helms.Guys you cant see the unbeatable teams likes the West Indians of the 70s and the Aussies of the eighties.There is not much to choose between the top teams now.So we can't grumble a world beating team wins only with few overs to spare.

I accept we are a pathetic fielding side. Guys i am sorry to say that we will remain like that in future too.I don't see this team turning athletic and become a good fielding side.We will have to win despite this weakness and we are doing it.So there is no use fretting about this aspect.

My only concern is that none of our teams have conquered the conditions of South Africa except when we won the T-20 world cup.I think all we have to do is to win a series there to clear all the doubts about our supremacy.For that we want a more consistent Ishant Sharma and another good spiinner in our team.Yes i accept we should go with 5 bowlers always.I am looking forward to our visit to the Africa.

At this moment spare thought for Sourav guys.He was the one guy who made this team believe in themselves.He was the one guy who made this team realise that they don't have to take intimidation and abuse lying down.He was the one guy who made us realise that we can be world beaters.I take this moment to salute him and another champion(who can ever forget him bowling with broken jaw!) who never gave up.Anil Kumble.


cheers,
sri

 

[spirovious]

well I always feel,our team shld do better.But what they dont have is consistancy & this time surprisingly they have it.So they deserve,but dont know for how long.

 

[dinyaar]

Hi guys
Some more comments.
Virender Sehwag - Yes the guy is gifted, tremendous hand eye co ordination and clear mind( As in see it, hit it) . BUT is a player who just plays in the same fashion regardless of the needs of the team great? IMO a great player is one who has the skill & the understanding to adapt to the team needs. Remember its a team sport. Yes he has been leaving a few when he walks in so it seems some sense is finally creeping in. I like a sehwag make no mistake about it but u dont want a guy slashing and getting caught at third man when u are desperate to play time & save a game.
Yuvraj Singh - A tremendous talent. Fantastic timer. BUT too cocky. He should have made the No 6 spot his own in tests a long while ago. Look at the shape he is in for a youngish int cricketer. He is no longer the fielder he was & IMO will never be. Maybe in our country we hake heroes TOO EARLY out of our cricketers & some of them cannot handle this elevated status. Classic Example is a Rohit Sharma. Another Ex not too long ago is a Vinod Kambli.
Amit Mishra - Basics are good. Can turn the ball!!!Every budding leggie will not be a warne but he can make a spot in the squad his own if he tightens up.
Ishant Sharma - IMO has it all. Hope he is not brain washed into becoming a run of the mill medium pacer to prolong his career on our pitches. Has the height, pace & is young. A bit more of muscle will add a few yards to make him a strike force for a long time.
Zaheer is too injury prone & is not getting younger so no idea when he packs up.
MSD - Now loads of u will disagree. IMO MSD is an average keeper, an average to below average captain BUT a sensible batsman. Sometimes he is too defensive of late but then he is playing to the needs of the situation & not to the gallery.
VVS, Sachin & Rahul - I think VVS is special too. Cant put him in the same league as the latter two but he is a class act. IMO he could have played a few more ODI even with his 'bad knee'. What can anyone say about sachin & Rahul. As I said earlier am dreading when these two hang up their boots.

I have been a Rahul Fan from the start. I just like the boy. Even more than our cricketing god Sachin. He has always put the team interest first. Poor guy even kept wickets, went down the order in the ODI s & finally was left out of the squad. I hated the comment of the great Dilip Vengsarkar that 'he adds nothing to the ODI squad'. That same Dilip Vengsarkar who looked as fresh at the end of the day as he did in the beginning UNLESS HE BATTED. The same guy who ran his runs like a hare but was an energy conserving turtle when he was running for the other guy is commenting on someone as selfless as a Rahul Dravid. Petty zonal politics can take over & a person who has always given more than his 100 % is treated shabbily BUT the guy still carries on and IS STILL proving his worth in the ODIs whenever called upon. I agree that he too is not the same SOLID batsman he was a while ago. He too flirts too often outside the off stump plus this new habit of playing around the front pad is perplexing. BUT EVERYTHING HAS A SHELF LIFE and his stint has been a long, great one. I would put him in the same class as a Sachin tendulkar.

Some controversy - I was never a fan of Saurav Ganguly. I agree his off side play was sublime. I questioned his dedication and his desire to stay on the wicket in bowler friendly conditions. I think he took his dada tag a bit far. The man never worked on his fielding all thru his career. The time he made his comeback was the time I saw the guy really apply himself. If only he had not taken for granted his spot as captain & team member and worked at his game he too would have been in the same bracket as Rahul Or Sachin but IMO HE DID NOT.

Anil Kumble- Turn the ball or not I will always think highly of him as a player. Grit, determination can make an averagely talented individual great and IMO that sums up Anil. What I like about most players from the south are that they seem humble and down to earth. Anil, rahul dont have their heads somewhere in the clouds like a Rohit Sharma does & hence they have achieved what they have.

Rgds

 

[srikarkav]

Hi dinyar,
I completely agree with your views on Rahul.He has given nothing but the best for the team.It is pretty obvious we would have lost many matches but for him.Not to forget all those slip catches!

cheers,
sri

 

[thevortex]

Dinyaar - as always I am with you on most points. Yes, Dhoni is an average keeper (however a very safe one) and definitely an average captain. And yes, Dravid has always been a key player - he has been given a raw deal.

However Yuvraj Singh, in my opinion, does not deserve a Test spot. He is not cut out for Tests.

 

[dinyaar]

Vortex I agree to an extent about Yuvraj but tell me which young Indian batsman coming thru the ranks in these modern IPL times is playing the conventional game. Who is waiting for the loose ball, tries to build an innings etc etc. Most of them come in & start to explode.
Actually the fact the Sehwag has these triples is what sets him apart from a Yuvraj IMO as both are great strikers of a cricket ball & both can destroy an attack but I cant pin point why sehwag has made it in tests & yuvraj continues to be this enigma.
Rgds

 

[Asit]

I agree completely with the observation that Dhoni is not a great keeper. At the same time, I must also add that he has worked tremendously hard to improve and actually has improved. If you see Dhoni keeping a couple of years back and now, there is a huge difference. Still to improve his leg-side keeping upto the standards and requirements of a no.1 team.

I have mixed feelings about his captaincy skill. The greatest skill of a captain is to back the right guys and at times he has backed the wrong guys to be included in the team. I do not like his field placements at times and we cannot defend low scores easily. Remember folks, we have defended lowish scores consistently in the past with poorer bowlers (especially in 1-day format).

But I like his overall captaincy style very much. There is no doubt he is in command. He can also bring in a fear factor in the opposition with most things he does. Remember cricket is more mental, at this level. He gets best results when he stays positive. Of late in 1-dayers and 20/20 his captaincy has gone off the boil a bit.

But he is lucky to get a near perfect team. There is not much void to fill in any department at the present point of time, except perhaps a batting/bowling allrounder. A captain is as good as his team and Dhoni is the best person at the moment.

I like his batting. His is not the orthodox type, and I can see why he became like what he is today - playing a lot of tennis ball cricket in the early stages. That's why he pulls and cuts so well and mostly along the ground. His greatest virtues in batting are getting behind the line of the ball and seeing it till the last moment possible. Bottom-handed? Yes. Who is not. This is the biggest myth in cricket. More technical discussion on it some other time.

Regards.

 

[doors666]

yuvraj singh is not et al a good test player and i have no hopes of him ever making it big in the test arena. he's a flat track bully who can destroy bad attacks on bad pitches (which is good in t20 and odi). He's not good against swinging ball, neither against spin. Any semi decent spinner can nail him in tests, heck, he's such a bad player of spin that yuvraj singh can get yuvraj singh out:lol:

The sad part is that because of him noone else has gotten a chance in tests, whenever there is an opening, he gets it and the good players like badrinath warm the bench.

Another issue with our board is our selectors. Even now, when there was a chance, they gave it to suresh raina. Now what has suresh raina done to deserve a test call. He might be a good player, but he hasnt done anything in 5 day domestic cricket. He's done well in t20 and ODIs but that's not the same thing. Our idiotic selectors are picking up test players on the basis if international short match form rather than domestic long match form. What are they saying, our domestic is bull shit?


We do deserve the no 1 spot. Simply because there is no team that is currently better than us. We have the best batting by a big margin and our bowling is not much worse than the rest.

 

[dinyaar]

Yes Asit I agree. Dhoni is gutsy. He wont shy away or take a step back. There is a long list of batsman who IMO would take a step back in adversity or attempt silly things and then there are some who will stand & take the heat,
Dhoni, Rahul, M Amarnath are in the latter group & IMO D Vengsarkar, Saurav Ganguly are in the former.
I hope I am not offending Saurav fans, this is truly my personal opinion. I cannot understand how this hugely talented individual NEVER got down to tackling the short rising delivery. Most guys struggle when they first play this level, esp in Aus, SA but they in time learn to cope and get over this weakness but Saurav just hung out his bat or played these wierd hook/pulls.
I know its easier said than done but we all have to deal with this in whatever grade we play & if u work at it u succeed.
Anyway this thread is about good times in Indian Cricket so lets enjoy the time we are 'somewhere' close to the top.
Rgds

 

[Asit]

Dinyaar,
I'll respond to your observations on Rahul and Sourav perhaps in the evening, because there is going to be a state electricity board maintenance shutdown about now till 5 pm. We live on the 6th floor, and there will also be no lift in operation. We have gensets, but very old and usually do not work and hence unreliable. Better not to take the lift. No music today either. May be my wife and I can get out and watch MNIK, but tickets are all gone perhaps:sad:

Regards.

 

[dinyaar]

Dinyaar,
I'll respond to your observations on Rahul and Sourav perhaps in the evening, because there is going to be a state electricity board maintenance shutdown about now till 5 pm. We live on the 6th floor, and there will also be no lift in operation. We have gensets, but very old and usually do not work and hence unreliable. Better not to take the lift. No music today either. May be my wife and I can get out and watch MNIK, but tickets are all gone perhaps:sad:

Regards.

Sure Asit. I hope u are not too peeved on my comments on Saurav. Sadly this cricket talk started too late when u came over to my home in bbay. More than audio I love talking tennis/Cricket.
I hope u had a nice time in bombay and heard all the set ups u planned.
Did u visit Boomerang?
Rgds

 

[thevortex]

Vortex I agree to an extent about Yuvraj but tell me which young Indian batsman coming thru the ranks in these modern IPL times is playing the conventional game. Who is waiting for the loose ball, tries to build an innings etc etc. Most of them come in & start to explode.
Actually the fact the Sehwag has these triples is what sets him apart from a Yuvraj IMO as both are great strikers of a cricket ball & both can destroy an attack but I cant pin point why sehwag has made it in tests & yuvraj continues to be this enigma.
Rgds

Yuvraj and Sehwag, honestly cannot be put even in the same sentence leave alone the same bracket. Today, no other batsman barring Tendulkar has the balance at the crease that Sehwag possesses. Yuvraj is an example of what happens when proper weight transfer and balance when making contact with the ball is not there.

About youngsters being able to build innings I expect much out of Badrinath even if he was humbled by Steyn in the 2nd innings. The only other innings builder we seem to keep hearing about is Pujara.

Actually my point about playing attacking cricket is mainly because once this set of great middle order batsmen is broken up, I dont see India dominating. We have to act fast. And Dhoni has to start thinking aggressively and attack. His captaincy and general approach in this series leaves much to be desired. In fact at times, he appeared inept and bereft of ideas.

 

[thevortex]

I agree completely with the observation that Dhoni is not a great keeper. At the same time, I must also add that he has worked tremendously hard to improve and actually has improved. If you see Dhoni keeping a couple of years back and now, there is a huge difference. Still to improve his leg-side keeping upto the standards and requirements of a no.1 team.

I have mixed feelings about his captaincy skill. The greatest skill of a captain is to back the right guys and at times he has backed the wrong guys to be included in the team. I do not like his field placements at times and we cannot defend low scores easily. Remember folks, we have defended lowish scores consistently in the past with poorer bowlers (especially in 1-day format).

But I like his overall captaincy style very much. There is no doubt he is in command. He can also bring in a fear factor in the opposition with most things he does. Remember cricket is more mental, at this level. He gets best results when he stays positive. Of late in 1-dayers and 20/20 his captaincy has gone off the boil a bit.

But he is lucky to get a near perfect team. There is not much void to fill in any department at the present point of time, except perhaps a batting/bowling allrounder. A captain is as good as his team and Dhoni is the best person at the moment.

I like his batting. His is not the orthodox type, and I can see why he became like what he is today - playing a lot of tennis ball cricket in the early stages. That's why he pulls and cuts so well and mostly along the ground. His greatest virtues in batting are getting behind the line of the ball and seeing it till the last moment possible. Bottom-handed? Yes. Who is not. This is the biggest myth in cricket. More technical discussion on it some other time.

Regards.

Asit - I agree that a captain is as good as his team. However, Dhoni has a long way to go as a captain. He has been hyped and praised too much too early in his career. As a Test captain, he is nowhere near where he ought to be - given the team that he has at his disposal.

It is a myth that he was weak on the pull shot when he entered the scene. The pull has always been his strong suit. But he could not hook. Now, he has added that to his repertoire as well. However, the cut is not his strong suit. If you notice, when he plays the cut shot, his feet are almost always off the ground (both of them) and his lack of backlift hampers him in terms of essaying perfect timing on the shot. If I was a bowler, I would consistently bowl short of length just outside the off stump to him. He is very vulnerable to that line. Yes, most batsmen are, but Dhoni especially so.

About being bottom handed - yes, most batsman do use their bottom hand. It is inevitable when you want to leverage the ball off the ground. But in general 'bottom handed' is used to refer to batsmen who do not have their top hand further towards the top of the handle. That is what promotes a balanced grip. Many batsmen including Tendulkar however have their top hand pretty close to the bottom one.

The way this works is simple. The higher the top hand is on the handle, the easier it is to have a higher, straighter left elbow (for a right hander) when defending off the backfoot. Take Gambhir for example. He does commit a few cardinal sins for an opener. He plays at balls far too early rather than allowing the ball to swing. Also whenever he is on the backfoot and defending he is playing beside the ball rather than getting in line and is also angling his bat towards the leg side. In fact he got hit by Morkel committing that exact mistake.

Lastly Dhoni does not get in line with short balls. He plays beside them. Also he is good at understanding his strengths and weaknesses. He is not good at defending short balls. So he attacks them. He is a shining example as far as maximizing limited talent goes. In batting as well as keeping.

Oh and one more thing - India should not use the excuse of not having an all rounder. For all intents and purposes Dhoni is our all rounder. Just as Gilchrist was for the all conquering Aussie unit. No excuse for our team not to attack more on the bowling front.

 

[murali]

Hi,

Common on guys let us celebrate that we are at the summit in Cricket! I know all the doubts flow from the affection we have for this team.We dread if they can hold on to this position for long.But we want them to conquer all they see.But we fear if they can do it.And this fear puts doubts into our minds. Chuck all your doubts and enjoy the fact that we are the number 1 in cricket.:clapping: This has not happened ever right? So enjoy the moment guys.

Our team has won test series in England,in Newzealand,in West Indies,in Bangaladesh and we have beaten the aussies(mind you not on mine fields) at home and i sincerely believe we could have beaten the south africans if we had our full strength team in the first test.Guys you all know when we were in Oz last time we should have won the series 2-1 but for the sheer incompetence of the now retired gentleman from the Caribbean.

Guys i love this team cause they have left the meekness of the indian teams of yesteryears.(We all should thank Dada for it i am sure)We have a fast bowler who looks the batsmen in the eye and ready to play mind games with them.I love the this team cause it has a world class spinner who has the temperament of a tearaway fast bowler.I love this team cause i think they have it in them to go to australia and south africa and can have a series win. I love this team cause it has an opening batsman who sends shivers down the spines of bowlers around the world.I don't think even the great Sachin did it to them..And last but not least we have a Mr.Cool at the helms.Guys you cant see the unbeatable teams likes the West Indians of the 70s and the Aussies of the eighties.There is not much to choose between the top teams now.So we can't grumble a world beating team wins only with few overs to spare.

I accept we are a pathetic fielding side. Guys i am sorry to say that we will remain like that in future too.I don't see this team turning athletic and become a good fielding side.We will have to win despite this weakness and we are doing it.So there is no use fretting about this aspect.

My only concern is that none of our teams have conquered the conditions of South Africa except when we won the T-20 world cup.I think all we have to do is to win a series there to clear all the doubts about our supremacy.For that we want a more consistent Ishant Sharma and another good spiinner in our team.Yes i accept we should go with 5 bowlers always.I am looking forward to our visit to the Africa.

At this moment spare thought for Sourav guys.He was the one guy who made this team believe in themselves.He was the one guy who made this team realise that they don't have to take intimidation and abuse lying down.He was the one guy who made us realise that we can be world beaters.I take this moment to salute him and another champion(who can ever forget him bowling with broken jaw!) who never gave up.Anil Kumble.


cheers,
sri

Hold on, guys, cricket, for a change in this forum, is welcome and my 2 cents, please.

As someone following the game since the early days of "ball by ball description" through short wave radio even before the dawn of televisions and replays, let me state the most obvious fact that "cricket as the real game has always been benchmarked by only two teams in this world, Australia and West Indies." We all know what the state of West Indian cricket is now and to me, it has been the single biggest tragedy in the game. They were the only guys who used to give Australia a run for their money. The Aussies have always been the best because all these years, they have adhered to a single best policy --- choose your best playing eleven in the team and make the best player the captain. Period. 99% of the time, this strategy has worked and history confirms that. Now with several retiring simultaneously, they are undergoing a rebuilding process which to me is only a pause before the storm strikes again. Excellence for a day or an year or a few years can be attained by anyone but sustained excellence over decades is the privilege of only those who put the efforts. These opinions are purely from the point of view of cricketing abilities, ie. batting, bowling and fielding, and nothing to do with sportsmanship, sledging, drinking, womanising etc (which I believe are more personal characteristics and not team attributes) to which I don't attach much importance. The Aussies try to excel in their skills of batting, bowling and fielding and play to win matches (like the WI used to do) unlike the English and several subcontinental teams whose objective was not to lose matches.

The best example you may have observed is the recent Pakistani and West Indian performances where we saw a bunch of players preferring more to sit inside the dressing room than coming out and play! As Ian Chappell says, the most important attribute you look in a player before selecting is his enthusiasm and willingness to spend maximum hours in the field whether batting or bowling or fielding. Otherwise, he doesn't get a place, especially one who is averse to fielding. This is where our subcontinental teams fall short and can never hope to sustain excellence over extended time.

I am also a puritan, unfortunately, when it comes to basic principles in the skills. If a guy like Sehwag whacks the ball everywhere scoring 300s but without any footwork or defence, he may be doing the job but to me, he is not a great batsman, especially having seen the likes of Richards, Lloyd, Chappell(s), Walters, Zaheer Abbas, Vishwanath etc. If a Harbhajan bowls the so-called "doosras" which a great proponent of left-arm spin bowling like Bedi himself says is bending the arm and cheating, well.... This is all the more funny when I heard recently Mr. Boycott (a great and respected fan of Indian cricket, Ganguly and Shilpa Shetty's legs) in an interview saying that "doosra" was certainly illegal from any off-spinner and with the same breath adding that but it should be allowed because modern pitches were batsmen-friendly and off-spinners needed such flexibilities!!! Remember, we come from the land of such wonderful conventional and legitimate off-spinners like Prasanna, Venkat etc who never "bent" rules.

Cricket teams, to be ranked #1, should be led by dynamic performing one of the eleven playing and that is why India started playing to win when Kapil Dev came along (unlike Mr. Gavaskar who I believe should be kept out from everything including commentary box), Imran Khan transforming Pakistan into a worldclass team, there are examples galore.

Let India sustain the top ranking for at least a couple of years, then we talk.

Purely personal views, right or wrong. Cricket is a passion like audio and what matters as always is what is right and what is wrong, not who is right and who is wrong.

cheers.
murali

 

[doors666]

man, these thread is attracting a lot of long posts. havent seen that with other threads....:lol: people have a lot to say about cricket......

 

[thevortex]

Murali - I am with you about Harbhajan's elbow and its angles and permissibility. And what you say about cricket - it matters not who is right as much as what is right - is applicable to all things in an internet forum. When the 'who' comes in, it is time to take a break .

However I would beg to disagree about your observation on Sehwag. How many times will people point out his lack of footwork? And to what avail? In my opinion we really must not get too much caught up in the process leading up to the act as the efficiency and effectiveness of the act itself. Yes, in this case, the ends do justify the means for a change .

But seriously what Sehwag brings to the table that other 'hitters' all round the world and many a technically correct batsman can only dream of is the rare gift of balance and timing. He is not a Chris Gayle or a Shahid Afridi. Footwork is advocated as a method to get closer to the ball or to get in line with the ball and to promote overall balance leading up to and after the act of executing the shot. So much the better for imparting momentum built up on the backswing to the ball. If somebody is able to achieve optimum balance and score big - as well as score against all opposition all over the world - then we have no recourse but to sit back and applaud. Sehwag is not just a player. He is a phenomenon.

 

[thevortex]

man, these thread is attracting a lot of long posts. havent seen that with other threads....:lol: people have a lot to say about cricket......

That is because cricket lends itself to literature like no other game!

 

[dinyaar]

Hi
Interesting to read opinions from fellow cricket buffs.
The only thing I could not swallow is Murali s comment on Sunil Gavaskar. Its an opinion and I respect it Murali but what do u not like about the man.
Do u feel he was a selfish bat ? Too political? Too slow a batsman? Too negative a captain? Lets not lose first, think of winning later attitude? I hope its not those accusations that he was in with the bookmakers!! The 'Great' Kapil Dev was also supposed to be neck deep in it FYI.

Cause as a batsman I think he was simply superb. The backbone of our batting, the key wicket for two decades for the opposition. We are talking about technique etc etc here. Tell me which modern batsman will stand up to the quicks without a helmet? Will the great Sachin manage? In an era when the WI Quartet made most batsmen shiver this small man achieved big. IMO leaving a ball, getting out of harms way is AS MUCH PART of a good batsman technique.

Yes its your opinion but if u could care to explain the reason for this scorn for one of the GREATEST cricketers of our times. Its not that I know the man though I know his son.
Regarding the Indian team sustaining this over any length of time. Well they may or may not BUT I WOULD TAKE IT WITH GREAT PRIDE IF I WAS THE BEST AT WHAT I DID if even for a minute so if the ratings say we are No 1 today lets just savour it.

Vortex, well I clubbed Sehway and yuvraj together as both are attacking batsmen who take risks. Both are not sound technically BUT both have a keen eye and are superb timers. When I first saw Yuvraj bat I though this guy was tooo talented and if he tightened up a bit he could be the next BIG batting sensation. Its not been quite that but the guy has played many a brilliant knock. Its not just T 20 & his sixes but loads of super knocks in the ODIs. I feel this success & all this super star status has got to him. I still feel he has enough talent to sort out his niggles, buckle down and be a quality test player for our country.
Rgds

 

[murali]

Hi
Interesting to read opinions from fellow cricket buffs.
The only thing I could not swallow is Murali s comment on Sunil Gavaskar. Its an opinion and I respect it Murali but what do u not like about the man.
Do u feel he was a selfish bat ? Too political? Too slow a batsman? Too negative a captain? Lets not lose first, think of winning later attitude? I hope its not those accusations that he was in with the bookmakers!! The 'Great' Kapil Dev was also supposed to be neck deep in it FYI.

Cause as a batsman I think he was simply superb. The backbone of our batting, the key wicket for two decades for the opposition. We are talking about technique etc etc here. Tell me which modern batsman will stand up to the quicks without a helmet? Will the great Sachin manage? In an era when the WI Quartet made most batsmen shiver this small man achieved big. IMO leaving a ball, getting out of harms way is AS MUCH PART of a good batsman technique.

Yes its your opinion but if u could care to explain the reason for this scorn for one of the GREATEST cricketers of our times. Its not that I know the man though I know his son.
Regarding the Indian team sustaining this over any length of time. Well they may or may not BUT I WOULD TAKE IT WITH GREAT PRIDE IF I WAS THE BEST AT WHAT I DID if even for a minute so if the ratings say we are No 1 today lets just savour it.

Vortex, well I clubbed Sehway and yuvraj together as both are attacking batsmen who take risks. Both are not sound technically BUT both have a keen eye and are superb timers. When I first saw Yuvraj bat I though this guy was tooo talented and if he tightened up a bit he could be the next BIG batting sensation. Its not been quite that but the guy has played many a brilliant knock. Its not just T 20 & his sixes but loads of super knocks in the ODIs. I feel this success & all this super star status has got to him. I still feel he has enough talent to sort out his niggles, buckle down and be a quality test player for our country.
Rgds

Flashback 1: The first World Cup - 1975 in England; India's 1st match against England where Amiss socres a century and England pile up a huge total (60 overs those days); India score some 100-odd runs for a loss of a few wickets; lost the match; Gavaskar opens the innings and remains 36 not out at the end of the 60 overs; later justifies by saying that they could never chase the total and hence used for batting practice!!!

Flashback 2: India-Australia series against Lillee, Thompson etc; Some controversial umpiring decisions and Gavaskar as captain walks out of the ground in protest.

Now: He advises others.

I fully agree he was a great test batsman by technique and temperament and had played several great innings. No doubt there. But then remain like that and don't be hypocritical and advise and criticise others. He had never been great as a person and played dirty politics when Kapil was made captain. I respect him as one of the best batsmen India had produced and never as someone youngsters should look upon. There had been equally good or better batsmen like Vishwanath who never got the credit they deserved. Forgive me for saying this openly, those days used to be Bombay's (now Mumbai) domination in Indian cricket who never let others come up, especially Delhiites and the so-called Madrasis. Now things may have changed but let us not hide away from truths.

Another similar guy is Boycott ( a great batsman) now having become a darling of Indian public from the commentary box. A very similar character to Gavaskar. I still remember his being dropped from the England team after scoring a big century against the West Indies which was a blatant show of his playing-for-self attitude. Now he advises others!!!

Just my opinion.

cheers.
murali