My Favorite Cricketer: Mohammad Azharuddin

Mohammad Azharuddin: One Of All-time Greatest Indian cricketers

Mohammad Azharuddin is my favorite cricketer of all time. I followed Mohammad Azharuddin keenly since the initial years of his illustrious career. There are quite a few cricketers I regard highly, but it is Azharuddin I liked the most.

The first thing I would like to write about Mohammad Azharuddin is his selflessness. Mohammad Azharuddin is one of few Indian cricketers who did not play for records. Some of the so called legends always play for their records. Azhar always kept the interest of team above his own records. He never bothered about records and fittingly played 99 test. He does not need 100th test match under his belt to prove his credentials. It was sad to see the career of a selfless cricketer end abruptly and unceremoniously in the backdrop of match fixing charges.

In my opinion, Mohammad Azharuddin as a cricketer was a blend of hard work and genius. He made a fairytale debut to his test career. He captured the imagination and fascination of the cricketing world when he scored three consecutive hundreds on his debut.

Mohammad Azharuddin was the best or among the best in every department. He was the best batsman in the Indian batting line-up across all formats of the game. In fact Azharuddin was one of the leading batsmen in the world during first part of his career. People may argue that Sunil Gavaskar was better than Azharuddin. Sunil Gavaskar might have been a better batsman in test cricket, but in one day cricket Azhar was ahead of Sunil Gavaskar. In later years, Sachin joined Azhar as the best batsman in the Indian team, and later as an opener Sachin became the most productive batsman of the Indian team.

Mohammad Azharuddin was inarguably the greatest Indian fielder of his time and arguably the greatest Indian fielder of all time. He was supremely fit, and rarely let the ball go past him. His throw to the stump was impeccable and he hardly ever missed the target. I remember vividly him running out Salim Malik throwing the ball from the boundary as Salim Malik had slowed down approaching the wicket taking the second run. The two other cricketers who could match Azhar's skill as fielder are Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh. These two cricketers are as great fielders as was Azharuddin, but they cannot aim at stump as sharply as Azharuddin did. Mohammad Azharuddin was also sharp catcher in slips. Some people regard Rahul Dravid as the best slip fielder, but let me assure you, Dravid does not even come near Azharuddin in terms of fielding, including at slip.

Mohammad Azharuddin is arguably one of the three greatest Indian captains of all time. In the recent times we have not seen or heard, of course Pataudi being the only exception who is talked as being a great captain, about a captain of Azhar's ability. It was Azhar's decision to promote Sachin to the opening slot and then persist with him as an opener that saw Sachin score those many one day hundreds. Before being promoted to the openings slot Sachin did not have a single hundred in one dayers in about 80 games. There are a couple of his decisions that comes to mind immediately. The one to get Sachin to bowl the last over of the famous match against South Africa when India narrowly won what was thought to be a lost cause is part of Indian cricket folklore. Probably, Dhoni is as good a captain as Azharuddin. I do not rate Sourav on par with Azharuddin as a captain. Sourav was hardly a good captain. It was the emergence of players like Sehwag and Zaheer Khan coupled with brilliance of some other players under Sourav saw Sourav succeed as captain. Moreover Sourav never won any major one day trophy. Azhar still has the distinction of winning most one day trophies for India. Sourav of course underachieved as a captain for the kind of talented players he had playing under him.

The only regret I have about Mohammad Azharuddin is that cricket has brought some changes in our hero as a person. One of the noticeable change in him is that he has not remained as devoted to offering prayers as he used to be in his early days as a cricketer.

One Of My Favorite Cricketers:Brian Lara

Brian Lara is one of those cricketers that I enjoyed watching the most. Brian Lara was undoubtedly the most accomplished batsman of his time. There have been quite a few great batsmen in the last two decades, but Brian Lara was the best of them all. It was always pleasing to watch Brian Lara batting.

Brian Lara played for West Indies when the West Indies cricket was at its nadir. Still Brian Lara has a unique distinction of being the only player to have scored 400 in test cricket history, and is one of the only four cricketers to have gone past 300 mark twice in his career, and is among the batsmen who have scored most number of double hundreds. He is also one and only to have scored a 500 in first class cricket.

These scores of 500, 400, 300s, 200s not only justify Brian Lara as the greatest batsman of his time, but also one of the five greatest batsmen of all time across all formats of the game. Moreover he was equally effective across all formats of the game. He could play longer innings as the his huge scores suggested in test cricket as well as could score quickly required to succeed in shorter formats of the game. Lara was also one of the most stylish cricketer the game has ever produced.

He dominated the best bowlers of his time. He scored breathtaking double hundreds against Australia, which had all time great bowler like Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, and express pace Brett Lee in their bowling line up. He also scored a match winning 153 in the fourth innings of a test match against Australia, which included one of the greatest fast bowler of all time McGrath in their line up. Brian Lara scored an array of hundred on his tour of Sri Lanka and dominated the best off spinner the world has ever seen, Muthia Muralitharan throughout the series. Those performances prompted Murali to say that Brian Lara was the best batsman in the world. Murali rated Lara the best batsman among all the batsman he bowled against.

Brian Lara also has a distinction of being among the top players to have scored most number of runs in an over on a couple of occasions. He dominated all the great spin bowlers of his time, and two of them, Shane Warne and Muralitharan are of course considered as the greatest spine bowlers of all time. He clobbered Shane Warne during his encounters against Australia when he notched hundreds and double hundreds, pounded Muralitharan during his couple of double hundreds and hundres against Sri Lanka, and completely dismissed Danish Kaneria and hit him to all parts of the ground and into the stadium repeatedly during his tour to Pakistan. At that time, one of the best batsman of modern times, Mohammad Yusuf described Brian Lara as the greatest batsman of modern times.

Had Brian Lara played for a stronger West Indian team or for that matter any stronger team, he would have achieved much more than what he eventually did. Being part of good team always help a player to improve his own performance. One can see the decline in Ricky Ponting's batting in the last couple of years after some of the greats of Australia retired during this time. One can also see the improvement in Sachin's batting with some great talent around him, especially with the flourishing of players like Sehwag, Dhoni, Gambhir, and Laxman in batting around him in the last couple of years. Cricket fans will always miss Brian Lara as a batsman, but his position as the greatest test batsman of the last two decades and one of the greatest of all time is undebatable.

My Favorite Cricketer From Pakistan:Imran Khan

Imran Khan in my book is easily one of the five greatest cricketers of all time. As an all rounder he can be compared only to Gary Sobers. He was the best among the great all rounders of his time. In fact, Imran Khan is the best bowling all rounder of all time. Moreover, he is one the greatest captain of all time. No other all rounder of his class is known for leadership skills. If that is any pointer, Imran Khan can be regarded as joint greatest all rounder or even the greatest cricketer of all time with Gary Sobers.

Imran Khan was one of the best fast bowlers of his time. He excelled other great all rounder of his time either with the bat or the ball. He holds a distinct edge over all of them as a captain. Moreover his never say die attitude makes him the great that he is.

Pakistan dominated India in Imran Khan's tenure with Pakistan cricket as a player and a captain. The intensity of rivalry between Pakistan and India used to be altogether different levels in 70s and 80s. The relationship between two countries were at its worse. The pressure was certainly more on the players when playing each other in those acrimonious times. The game was getting more popular because of the spread of the television. The players were being watched on the television and that would add more pressure to the players. In those intense pressure cooker times, Imran Khan led Pakistan team their first test series against India in India. In one day cricket too, Pakistan dominated India during Imran Khan's time as a captain and as a player.

Apart from Pakistan dominating India during Imran Khan's time, the other distinct achievement of Imran Khan was Pakistan's test triumphs against the mighty West Indies in 1980, a team that is considered by the most as the greatest team of all time so far. Pakistan is the only team that drew two test series with the West Indies, and that happened under Imran Khan's leadership. Pakistan came close to winning a test series against West Indies in West Indies.

Imran Khan then rounded off his one day career with a World cup win in the year 1992, after being favorites and coming close in the year 1987 when they lost by a whisker in the semi-final against Australia. Imran Khan thus is one of most complete cricketers of all time, and easily one of the five greatest cricketers of all time.

An Unpredictable Series Between Two Unpredictable Sides in the World

Pakistan has the distinction of being hailed as the most unpredictable side in the World for a very long time now. On their day, they can soar to the zenith, and on their off-day they can fall to depth of nadir. For a very long time now, Pakistan did not have a competition for their tagged as the most unpredictable side. But things are changing  fast. New Zeeland is proving to be a strong challenge for the very title of the most unpredictable side in the World.

How could you explain about a team, which was almost whitewashed by the fast maturing minnows Bangladesh, and then turned up to India to challenge the No. 1 team in the World today. After losing the series against minnows Bangladesh, New Zeeland drew test matches with India giving them enough scare at times, and if not for the bad weather and the toss, might have drawn the third test, or even won had the coin fell on their side on that gloomy day when batting was difficult.

They registered the series win in T20 series against the most unpredictable side in the world by winning the first two consecutive matches of the series, but then to keep their tag of being the fastest emerging unpredictable side in the world, they went on to lose the third T20 by a huge margin to the most unpredictable side in the world.

On the back of their performance in T20 and the series being played on their home turf, everyone was expecting New Zeeland to beat Pakistan in the first test and eventually win the test series. But it seems they do not want to lose their honor of being the emerging side for the title of the most unpredictable side in the world and went onto lose the first test match to the most unpredictable side in the world.

Pakistan is in a better position at the end of the first day of the 2nd test match and may as well go onto win the second test match and thus win the series. They win the series even if they draw this test match. But Pakistan being Pakistan, and for the title of the most unpredictable side in the world to remain with them, they are capable of doing strange things as they always did in the past, and may eventually lose the test match and draw the series, making the series the most unpredictable series between the most unpredictable teams in the world.

The tag of the most unpredictable will still remain with Pakistan. Then we have a one-day series to evaluate these two most unpredictable sides in the world for the forthcoming world cup. Pakistan and New Zeeland are going to be the two most unpredictable sides in the forthcoming world cup, and they are capable of doing anything.

Is India Vs South Africa Series a Rehearsal for 2011 World Cup Final

 South Africa and India are two of the biggest teams in the World of cricket today. In that sense are we watching a rehearsal for the World Cup 2011 Final in the current India Vs South Africa series. You never know. South Africa and India are placed in the same group in the World Cup 2011. Both are likely to qualify easily for the second round of the tournament and are not likely to meet each other in the next rounds, including the Semi-Final. If they reach Semi-Finals, they are likely to face other teams in two Semi-Final games. If they win those semi-final games, they will meet each other in the Final. If current form and strength of the teams are any indication, India and South Africa are two likely teams for the Final of the 2011 World  cup. At the same time, nobody can discount other teams from reaching Final four stage, and then to the Final. But if it is South Africa and India progress to the Final who is more likely to win. Will we get any pointer in that direction from the current series being played between India and South Africa. May be. But India is not playing to their full strength. Their key players are still missing. But we will have a larger picture from this series as to which team is stronger between the two of the biggest teams in the World cricket today. The first one day has gone South Africa's way. The toss might have also played a crucial role in the result. We could not come to a conclusion as to which side is better of the two after the test series. There is very little to differentiate between the two sides at this time. Both have some very promising players. In Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, South Africa  has the best bowling unit. But how much they will be effective on the subcontinent pitches where the World cup is scheduled to be played remained to be seen. Hashim Amla's superman with the solidity of Kallis and firepower of Smith, De Villiers, and Duminy can prove vital for the success of South African team in the World Cup. On the other hand, India has formidable batting line up. In Sehwag, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Sachin, and Suresh Raina they have as many as five dependable stroke players who can be decisive with their bat. Gambhir can play the anchor role. Yusuf Pathan can be lethal on his day, but he  will be the biggest gamble in the World Cup if he plays for India. India is thin on bowling resources. Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, and Munaf Patel/Sreesanth will make the perfect bowling line up for India. Ishant Sharma will be ineffective so will be Harbhajan. If India plays Yusuf Pathan, they should drop Harbhajan. Sehwag, Yusuf Pathan, Tendulkar, and Yuvraj Singh are better bowling options than Harbhajan Singh.

Perfect Indian batting line up would be 1. Gautam Gambhir 2. Sachin Tendulkar 3. Virender Sehwag 4. Mahender Singh Dhoni 5. Yuvraj Singh 6. Suresh Raina 7. Yusuf Pathan 8. Praveen Kumar 9. Zaheer Khan 10. SreeSanth 11. Munaf Patel/Harbhajan Singh