Roar Guru
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‘Captain’s knock’ is a frequently used term within the cricketing fraternity. And fair enough too - in the long history of the game, there…
In the 50-over game teams need to build partnerships to achieve success. Here are Australia's best World Cup ones from over the years.
For the most part of the recent World Cup, we saw domination by the batting over the bowling. With most pitches offering little or…
The first Test that I watched was the historic Centenary Test at the MCG in 1977. Cricket, at the time, was very much a…
Like many other things in cricket; the story of debut pairs in Test cricket started with the Grace family of England. Fred Grace, one…
Over the last few years I have read some wonderful articles here related to A, B, C, D, X, Y, Z teams both from…
On 29th July, 1982, at Edgbaston, Imran Khan, the new Pakistan captain, went out to the toss along with his rival Bob Willis. This…
Given his never-say-die spirit and his desire to carry the fight until the very end, I am a little bit surprised that Graham Gooch’s…
Most cricket experts consider 1971 to be the start of the modern era in Indian cricket. An impressive series win in the Caribbean was…
Although the Aussies lost the Ashes series in 1981, Allan Border returned home with his head high after showing the pundits that he could…
If 1978 is considered as the beginning of the second century of Australian Test cricket history, then Allan Robert Border is without doubt the…
Just like my previous combined teams, only one slot is available to each Test-playing nation. The main criterion is very simple: the player had…
This will be the last article in this mini series. I selected the year 1984, as my love for the game of cricket reached…
The first World Cup was held in England in 1975 at a time when the limited-overs game was still very much in its developing…
1977 was a special year for me, and it was special for the cricketing world as well. To begin with, I fell in love…
Right now, there are 12 Test-playing nations. In 1971, exactly 50 years ago, this number was much smaller. With South Africa absent from the…
After New Zealand made history by winning the series in England in 1986, Graham Gooch, the England opener, described the Kiwi bowling as, "It…
The years 1985 and 1986 can be termed a golden era in New Zealand cricket history. In roughly 18 months starting from February 1985…
'What might have been?' I love these words. At times the facts become a bit dreary, often the same story just gets repeated. In…
Subhas ‘Fergie’ Gupte was born in Bombay on December 11, 1929, and died in Trinidad on May 31, 2002. He spent the last four…
off topic: The Ranji trophy final has started today at Bangalore between Mumbai & Madhya Pradesh (MP).
If MP wins it will be a news; if Mumbai wins I don’t think nobody will care. .
Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat
yes. His job was made harder by the fact that the spinners wer largely ineffective and Binny was unfit to bowl.
yet, at the end of the match, he came for criticism from the media for his decision to field first in an underprepared wicket.
Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat
I think Jo Angel was taller than Julien. But Angel was a right armer. Many expected him to play against NZ at WACA in 1993. Instead the selectors went for a rookie, named Glen McGrath.
West Indies all-time Test XI
One big problem for Sunny was that he never had a steady opening partner. In total he had in 18 years. during the 1974 tour to eng he had 3 different openers in 3 tests. I once wrote an article here on that
To make matter worse, the middle order was very brittle in the 70s. Vishy was fine at 4, but no one looked settled at no. 3
Vengsarkar came good in the 1978-79, but he was a makeshift one. He had problems against genuine pace and he was aware of it. Mohinder Amarnath emerged in 1983 as a solid but unspectacular No 3. Vengsarkar moved to 4 as Vishy was dropped.
Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat
yes thommo was Simpson’s main weapon. But, there wasn’t much quality at the other end.
I have watched some videos of the series; and I got the impression that thommo’s mind was at the WSC. of course I can be wrong. certainly it wasn’t easy for thommo to play under Simpson. think things flared up a bit during the tour to WI, where I believe Thommo was made the VC.
Also, at SCG thommo got into a bit argument with Chauhan. sunny, at the other end describes the incident here
https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/chetan-chauhan-laugh-jeff-thomson-riled-6558920/
Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat
Well, Sunny is more of an expert. Harsha, of course is very popular.
I think an issue was raised perhaps a decade about Harsha’s dominant position among commentators given he had no international experience. In fact, I don’tr know anything about his cricketing background.
I do know that he was a student of IIM (the leading business school in India). he was supposed to do commentary for Indian Radio during the 1984 Ind-Eng test of 1984. The death of Indira Gandhi meant that there was a slight change in tour schedule; and the test (cricket) coincided with his test (IIM). In a rare occurrence in the history of the Institute, Harsha was granted permission to go ahead with his commentary job, and the professors took a separate test for him.
Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat
Thanks everyone for your comments. I would like to share some views of my own .
1) first of all I don’t like batsman from one generation being compared with another. I don’t think it’s possible. throughout the 70s Indian batting was very brittle. it depended almost entirely on Sunny and Vishy. Although they didn’t have helmet, certainly not before 1978.
2) IMO he was best Indian batsman between 1971 to 1985. In 1986 Vengsarkar with a string of hundreds perhaps took over this mantle.
3) He certainly proved himself against the moving ball in England more than once. His record in Aus perhaps can be a bit misleading as most of his runs there came against weakened attacks.
And yes, I agree that his record against WI doesn’t tell the whole story. But then you can argue that when he faced the ‘real ‘ WI attack in 1983, he was past his peak
4) As a captain he was a bit defensive minded. But, he took over the captaincy just when the great spinners were past their prime. The substitutes were never to the mark .
5) I like him as a commentator; his analysis are good and among all the Indian commentators I find him to be the most objective in his opinions.
Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat
Wayne Clark of WA dismissed Gavaskar 4 times at Gabba and WACA. I was much surprised when he didn’t feature in the Ashes next season. To confuse things even more fro a 9 year old, a Clarke emerged in the WI team.
Now I know that his action was quite a bit suspicious.
Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat
The Ahmadabad test in 1983 is memorable fro many reasons.
Apart from Sunny becoming the leading run getter in test history and Kapil creating a new bowling record:
it was the first time 4 Sikh players were on the field in a test match
Navjot Sidhu was making his test debut. he would become a leading batter for India in the 90s.
Maninder Singh, left arm spinner and my role model, was tryin to establish himself as the new Bedi.
Medium pacer Balwinder Singh Sandhu was playing his 8th and last test.
Gursharan Singh was not in the XI, but substituting for Roger Binny created a new record taking 4 catches.
A right had bat, he did play one test for India at Auckland in 1990.
Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat
Gavaskar’s test record in Aus is interesting:
1977-78 5 test 450 runs 50.00 3 hundreds
1981-82 3 test 118 runs 19. 66 1 fifty
1985-86 3 test 352 runs 117.33 2 hundreds
If course both in 1977-78 and 1985-86 Aus had depleted attacks.
He had poor season in 1980-81 when he struggled in both Aus & NZ.
Lillee always rated Vishy above Sunny.
Sunil Gavaskar's greatest knocks in defeat
I think it was Franklyn Stevenson. There was a quickie named Franklyn Rose who came in the n2d half of the 90s. One of the many who failed to keep the fast bowling tradition going.
West Indies all-time Test XI
I still remember the hype around Lillee breaking Gibbs’ record during the 1981-82 season. I think he kept everyone waiting for one test before getting the record.
I was totally confused to learn about a spinner from WI.
It seemed like something alien to me.
I learned about the’ two little pals of mine’ later.
West Indies all-time Test XI
So the 4th tier would be
Bishop, Clark, Patterson
Wayne Daniel, Gray to the 5th team.
West Indies all-time Test XI
I once tried a string of WI teams keeping the 3 fast bowler restrictions intact:
1sr team (going with cricinfo)
Holding, Marshall, Ambrose
2nd) Hall, Roberts, Garner
3rd) Walsh, Croft, Griffith
still Sylvester Clark left.
West Indies all-time Test XI
I actually saw the Madras test, where Hirwani took 16 wickets on TV. The wicket was badly underprepared . Some of the WI players looked badly homesick. some of t hem were in the subcontinent from the beginning of Oct for the WC and it was late Jan. There was lot of travelling in between.
Few eyebrows were raised when Viv commented that Hirwani ws no way near Abdul Qadir in class prior to the home series against Pak. subsequently he was proved to be right. Hirwani took 36 wickets in his first 4 tests; all at home -and then faded away rapidly.
West Indies all-time Test XI
In fact for the first part I tried this title ‘Alan Border: the Loser (Part I).I wanted this to be the beginning of my ‘Loser’ series.
perhaps it would have conveyed the wrong message to the readers.
Allan Border's greatest knocks in defeat
Based on memory the Aus team picked was something like this
Trumper
Morris
the obvious one
Chappell ( the middle one)
Harvey
Miller
Healy
Lindwall
Lilee
Tiger Bill
Warney
Ian Chappell relegated his brother to 12th man and got McCabe instead. He also suggested Marsh for Healy and Davidson for Lindwall (to add more variety to the bowling).
West Indies all-time Test XI
Cricinfo did something like this about a decade ago. I think they picked two teams, one picked by the expert, the other by voting. The 2nd teams were bit biased towards current players. For example for Paksitan the experts picked Fazal Mahmoodd to complete the pace attack with Imran, Wasim & Waqar, the public picked Shaoib.
As for WI the team picked by experts was something like this . There was restriction to pick only 3 specialist fast bowlers.
Greenidge
Hunte
Headley
King Richards
Lara
Sobers
WK (most probably Dujon but I am not 100% sure about it)
Marshall
Holding
Ambrose
Gibbs
West Indies all-time Test XI
Very interesting that the WI got 3 test series in 1979 and 1981. Possibly the 5-1 thrashing earlier had something to do with it. By the time they went to 5 test series, the difference between the teams had become enormous.
Allan Border's greatest knocks in defeat
Yes, I wasn’t aware about the Chappell injury. Was supporting Aus in the series. Was disappointed when I learned from Radio that the Windies have successfully reached their target.
Allan Border's greatest knocks in defeat
The last sentence regarding Mumbai seems very unclear to me. No doubt, Mumbai is the cricket capital, even more impressive than MI success at IPlL is Mumbai’s record in Ranji trophy.
But Calcutta was the traditional venue for Football( soccer) .
In hockey and many other sports the ex maharaj’s played a big part. Specially the house of Patiala played in big part in Indian sports.
What is the sporting capital of the world?