Anecdotes from a Love Affair (Mostly Truth!)
I often claim that I never turned my back on anybody; I never ended a relationship. Actually, that is not completely true! I denounced one of my first loves; I turned my back on someone who was very dear to me for years. And this blog is about that. I've rarely mentioned about it, or took part in any discussion; in effect, my abandonemtn of my love was complete.
But before that, let's talk about cricket! Not cricket per se but some stories about cricket and its personalities.
The first name that comes to my mind is that of Andy Roberts. Extremely fast and deadly and equally briliant, Andy Roberts was the only bowler that Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar was ever scared of! Gavaskar opened the Indian innings for almost two decades, facing fastest bowlers beginning with Colin Croft to Washim Akram, Jeff Thompson and Dennis Lillee included. Gavaskar had his unique technique, what they called smelling the ball after Hanif Mohammed ("Sunil would smell the ball before deciding whether or not to offer a shot... He was that good"), as his antidote to bouncers. A short man, Gavaskar used to just pull his head a foot backward when bombarded with a bouncer, and every bowler who tried to hit him with one invariably failed.
Sunil Gavaskar never used a helmet, which was not a good idea, going by the fact that Nari Contractor had to go blind on one eye after taking a hit from Charlie Griffith. But then, when Srikkanth was hit by Akram, the ball broke the rods guarding his face and hit him. Akram would later tell that a bowler could not be held responsible if a batsman missed the line and got hit! After all, the bouncer was one of the most potent weapons in the arsenal of a fast bowler. (Srikkanth was a batsman who never had any regard for any bowler. I still remember watching him hit 4 consecutive boundaries in the first four deliveries in a Test match by Joel Garner, the tallest bowler ever in Cricket, and then getting bowled on the last ball of that very over!)
Why was Andy Roberts ferocious? As one of the most informative guys I ever met in life told me once, Andy knew that a good batsman always looked at the eyes of the bowler at the final moment of delivery, and based on that could see where the ball would drop and what kind of delivery it would be! So, what Andy did was to roll his eyes when he jumped to deliver the ball.
Andy Roberts was part of the quartet of fast bowlers of the West Indian cricket that included Michael holding (the whispering death), Joel Garner and Colin Croft (to be later replaced by Malcolm Marshall). This was a group formed by Clive Lloyd, after his team was destroyed by the bowling of two Aussies, known as Lillee-Thompson, that comprised of Dennis Lillee, one of the best bowlers of cricket of all time, and Jeff Thompson, arguably the fastest bowler ever. Lloyd did not want to rely on just 2 fast bowlers; he wanted 4!
There is a funny story about Michael Holding. During a Test match between the West Indies and England, Holding was to bowl to English player Peter Willey, which the commentator quite accurately described as "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey".
Malcolm Marshall, one of the best fast bowlers and most beloved cricketers died of cancer in 1999; he was only 41!
However, none of them could reach the pinnacle that Courtney Walsh achieved! Walsh had 519 wickets, the highest tally of wickets in Test cricket then, when he retired. He was one of the most gentlemanly players of cricket; he never objected to an umpire's decision, never lost cool or, shouted at or argued with anyone. He did not make a Pakistani batsman out by Mankad out technique (one of the 9 ways to send a batsman packing, made use of famously by Indian bowler Vinoo Mankad, and thus it being known as Mankad out) in the World cup of 1987, and which led to West Indies' being eliminated before reaching the Semi-finals.
(To quote from Wikipedia: Mankad caused controversy in 1947/48 on India's tour of Australian cricket team, when he ran out Bill Brown backing up in the second Test. In other words, he broke the wicket at the non-strikers end during his run-up while the batsman at that end was out of his ground. He had done the same thing to Brown in the game against an Australian XI earlier on the tour, but his running out of Brown infuriated the Australian media, and someone run out in this way is now sometimes said to have been "Mankaded".).
Many of those info were part of our daily talk. some of these were obtained from books or radio commentaries. Cricket was in our blood and in our thoughts!
And then, in 1987, when during the Reliance cup Semi-finals, Sunil Gavaskar, one of the best batsmen in the world and a master of front-foot batting, went out in front-foot and got bowled by Philip DeFraites of England, my love affair with cricket was over.
I turned my back on cricket forever, and never looked back!
__________________________________________________________________Sunil Gavaskar never used a helmet, which was not a good idea, going by the fact that Nari Contractor had to go blind on one eye after taking a hit from Charlie Griffith. But then, when Srikkanth was hit by Akram, the ball broke the rods guarding his face and hit him. Akram would later tell that a bowler could not be held responsible if a batsman missed the line and got hit! After all, the bouncer was one of the most potent weapons in the arsenal of a fast bowler. (Srikkanth was a batsman who never had any regard for any bowler. I still remember watching him hit 4 consecutive boundaries in the first four deliveries in a Test match by Joel Garner, the tallest bowler ever in Cricket, and then getting bowled on the last ball of that very over!)
Why was Andy Roberts ferocious? As one of the most informative guys I ever met in life told me once, Andy knew that a good batsman always looked at the eyes of the bowler at the final moment of delivery, and based on that could see where the ball would drop and what kind of delivery it would be! So, what Andy did was to roll his eyes when he jumped to deliver the ball.
Andy Roberts was part of the quartet of fast bowlers of the West Indian cricket that included Michael holding (the whispering death), Joel Garner and Colin Croft (to be later replaced by Malcolm Marshall). This was a group formed by Clive Lloyd, after his team was destroyed by the bowling of two Aussies, known as Lillee-Thompson, that comprised of Dennis Lillee, one of the best bowlers of cricket of all time, and Jeff Thompson, arguably the fastest bowler ever. Lloyd did not want to rely on just 2 fast bowlers; he wanted 4!
There is a funny story about Michael Holding. During a Test match between the West Indies and England, Holding was to bowl to English player Peter Willey, which the commentator quite accurately described as "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey".
Malcolm Marshall, one of the best fast bowlers and most beloved cricketers died of cancer in 1999; he was only 41!
However, none of them could reach the pinnacle that Courtney Walsh achieved! Walsh had 519 wickets, the highest tally of wickets in Test cricket then, when he retired. He was one of the most gentlemanly players of cricket; he never objected to an umpire's decision, never lost cool or, shouted at or argued with anyone. He did not make a Pakistani batsman out by Mankad out technique (one of the 9 ways to send a batsman packing, made use of famously by Indian bowler Vinoo Mankad, and thus it being known as Mankad out) in the World cup of 1987, and which led to West Indies' being eliminated before reaching the Semi-finals.
(To quote from Wikipedia: Mankad caused controversy in 1947/48 on India's tour of Australian cricket team, when he ran out Bill Brown backing up in the second Test. In other words, he broke the wicket at the non-strikers end during his run-up while the batsman at that end was out of his ground. He had done the same thing to Brown in the game against an Australian XI earlier on the tour, but his running out of Brown infuriated the Australian media, and someone run out in this way is now sometimes said to have been "Mankaded".).
Many of those info were part of our daily talk. some of these were obtained from books or radio commentaries. Cricket was in our blood and in our thoughts!
And then, in 1987, when during the Reliance cup Semi-finals, Sunil Gavaskar, one of the best batsmen in the world and a master of front-foot batting, went out in front-foot and got bowled by Philip DeFraites of England, my love affair with cricket was over.
I turned my back on cricket forever, and never looked back!
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunil_Gavaskar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nari_Contractor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishnamachari_Srikanth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasim_Akram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Lloyd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Lillee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Thomson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Holding
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Garner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Marshall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Croft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Garfield_Sobers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtney_Walsh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinoo_Mankad
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060219/asp/sports/story_5866755.asp
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