Skip to main content

A tribute to Vengsarkar

The recent change of the selection committee brought to mind once again how under-rated Vengsarkar was as a batsman. To an extent, justifiably I suppose given that his record (overall and abroad particularly) definitely doesn't let one classify him as a great batsman. He probably wouldn't even make my Indian top 5 of all time. But he was a valuable player at a time when we didn't have that many batsmen to support Gavaskar and Vishwanath (given the shabby treatment that Mohinder Amarnath always received) and always did his utmost to rise above his limitations as a player. My memories of him will always be of a player who struggled in the West Indies and Australia but that is only because I happened to start watching cricket at a time when he was nearing the end of his career. More recently, he's been the best selector that India has had in some time and is greatly responsible for India's recovery as a one-day team and in India having a pool of pace bowlers to pick from.

In closing, a look at his career stats (as a Test match player) throws up some interesting bits. For a player of his calibre, its pretty shocking that he doesn't average more than 35 anywhere except India and England (he hasn't scored a hundred anywhere else either). Also interesting is that being the captain (although in my opinion he shouldn't have been made skipper) didn't affect his batting average at all. And the third interesting bit is that he performed much better (ave 61.23) under Kapil Dev than under Gavaskar (ave 40.98). I'll have to look into the stats of some other guys of the time to see if there's a trend (and therefore a story) there.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Et tu?

As a single sport website, I think Cricinfo has brought about a revolution and the fact that they were bought by ESPN is testament to how highly valued they've become. Their editing and approach to articles/opinion has been refreshing to say the least and even though they seem to have had a lot of editorial staff movement they've usually maintained very high standards. Off late though, both in their headline styles as well as in actual content, there seems to be an occasional slippage of standards and an inching towards the modern media sensationalism which is a bit of a pity. This piece  by Siddharth Monga is a classic example. Granted that the last two press conferences by Dhoni and Sehwag  indicated clearly that the captain and his deputy did not agree on this aspect of selection but "discord", "dissent", "public sniping" feels rather presumptuous and heavy handed. Yes, it is a team sport but there is no reason why everyone on the team needs ...

An Asian Test summer

Little that's happened in the cricketing world recently has given me as much pleasure as Pakistan's ascent to the #1 ranking in Tests . Though it finally happened in slightly farcical circumstances with the outfield fiasco in Port-of-Spain, it couldn't have come at a better time for the country, and more importantly Misbah-ul-Haq deserved it for the sterling job he's done in the last five years. Sportspersons are constantly challenged in having to live out of hotel rooms and away from friends and family for long periods of time. And for this Pakistan team, the burden has been manifold given the inability to play even their own domestic T20 league at home, let alone international cricket. Not for a month, or a year but for nearly seven years now. That needs a huge degree of mental toughness especially for the younger players, not to say adjusting to non-home conditions. Coupled with that toughness, the other quality that this team has displayed unlike some of their pr...

The Ashes part deux: series preview

While I admire the honest, outspoken style that Ian Chappell has in his commentary and writing I don't find myself agreeing with his views very often. This latest piece on ESPNcricinfo is an exception though. In what is a faintly ridiculous set of back to back Ashes series (to accommodate an ODI World Cup of all things), the build-up to the second round has been laughable almost. Anyone who hasn't followed the game for a few years might be forgiven if they thought that the Australian domination from the 1990s and early 2000s has continued and that they will win in a canter again. For a team that's lost seven of their last nine matches (and it should have been eight really), that's quite a good turnaround on paper (and digitally). The reality though is that unless they show a drastic improvement (especially in terms of scoring runs) and England have a bit of a shocker, its going to be well nigh impossible for Australia to win back the urn. Despite putting Buffoon Bo...