To win Test matches, you need bowlers who can take 20 wickets. How often has India had that sort of a bowling attack. If you see the link I posted in the last post, in the list of players with the highest percentage of MoM awards in a Test Match, 4 are bowlers / bowling all-rounders and the fifth one is a batting all-rounder. The memory of Kapil Dev that I have was this swashbuckler who’d stand and deliver (but too often get out like Sehwag does).

An I’ll be surprised if you really believe the opposition fears Sehwag more than Sachin.

Could not agree more about Viv. I was watching that innings of 189 out of Windies’ 272 against England with Eldine Baptiste and Michael Holding for company. He was a merciless hitter, but man did he hit the ball straight.

Then that anecdote … Dean Jones was in his early days and had to stand at Short Leg with Viv batting. Deano is visibly shaken by the prospect, but Sir Viv turns around and says – “Don’t worry kid, I won’t hurt you. I am going to hurt that maan in the staand.”

Anyway, to be fair Sachin has been India’s greatest performer and he has handled better quality bowling than most contemporary greats (even Ricky Ponting). On the other hand, his Test record is only marginally better than Rahul Dravid who started playing 7 years after him. Even so, he is the leading getter of MoM awards in Tests for India (in number, second to Kumble by a shade in percentage). Here is a link:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.sport.cricket/msg/2cbe5a19dd13d912?pli=1

Good points some, GB, but I fail to see how Viv’s style ‘ultimately failed him’. Viv averaged 50+ in tests IIRC and 47+ in ODIs, while not losing any opportunity to dominate attacks. Your comment about his shot selection in ’83 smacks of revisionism, in my opinion. Comparisons are ultimately futile, but a million journeymen like Roebuck (who’s been apologising for his gaffe of late, albeit sheepishly) cannot tarnish Viv’s legacy and standing. For those who have only seen Sachin bat and not Viv, well, they have no bloody idea what the man was about – not to take anything away from Sachin, but he is yet to have the kind of intimidating presence Richards had (except for a period in the ’90s). True, Richards was part of the greatest side of all time, and that has to be factored in.

Kapil, without belittling SRT, said what is actually quite true. And like someone mentioned above, until Ganguly came the same SRT did not do too much to win matches for India on a consistent basis.

Gavaskar paved the way initially by building up the Indian psyche. He knew we may not be able to win matches as we were really short on quality bowlers, well until Kapil Dev at least, but he ensured that we lost as few matches as possible. Much later, Ganguly led a young team to blv we can win too. SO maybe, just maybe, India should be thankful to Gavaskar and Ganguly for teaching us not to lose first, and then win.

SRT for all his talents, has not lived upto his potential in Test matches. Someone can look up the numbers on his second inning scores and match it with the results of the Test matches.

Of course, in One day’s he has been spectacular…intermittently, but still India did not win too many series or championships..for someone who is considered to be God…that definitely is a shortcoming. And if you look at the number of times India has played in the Finals of a major championship…it was certainly a collective effort from the team…I know..I know..you guys will mention Sharjah (prolly one tournament that was won by one man alone)…but what else?

Well he has all sort of records to his name..but yet, he has under-achieved IMHO.

Cheers,
Rahul

PS: Using the number of overs must equal to so many runs by Kapil to deny the truth in his write-up is kinda not seeing the larger picture.

So when Kapil talks of the kind of batsman SRT could have been he has a point.

are we witnessing the writer snapping at someone who made a harsh comment?

And yes, for all his carps, he has caused more than his fair share of frustration for his fans too. And let’s face it, in his times, an India win was rare enough to be cherished , even if the series scoreline read 2-1 or 301 or 4-2 or whatever. Today, a series scroeline on the wrong end is never acceptable to fans here. And Sachin has played no small role in changing their expectations. Give him credit for that at least.

The post was nice and interesting but the end seemed somewhat harsh and judgmental on Kambli. I can’t help but feel sorry for him and am saddened by the weird thought that if ever read the above lines it would leave him a much broken man.