Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Ashok Mankad, RIP

Last fortnight saw the passing away of Ashok Mankad. To understand the relevance of Kaka Mankad is to understand what it meant to be a cricket fan in the eighties.

For the cricket-loving Mumbaikars, growing up in the city in the eighties was something to be experienced. Mumbai dominated the sport, and the passion could be seen in every cricket fan. Every match, a Mumbai cricketer was involved, was followed with such gusto. We not only followed the Ranji Trophy and the Duleep Trophy, but also the scores in the Times Shield, Police Shield, and the Moin-ud-dawla Cup. The batting lineups were ready in every building compound, even before the Mumbai selectors met up to finalize the squads for the next match. It didn't matter whether a Ghulam Parkar was good enough to play for the country or his keeper brother Zulfikar Parkar would ever replace the great Kirmani. What every Mumbai cricket fan felt that the Mumbai team was good enough to play as an India X1. I remember an Irani Cup match in the eighties where Mumbai played Rest of India. The Mumbai eleven had Gavaskar, Ghulam Parkar, Vengsarkar, the two Mankads—Ashok and Rahul, Sandeep Patil, Shastri, Zulfikar Parkar, Sandhu & Ghavri. The Rest of India was a virtual Indian XI led by Vishy and had Chauhan, Surinder Amarnath, Ashok Malhotra, Kapil, Madan, Kirmani, Doshi, and Yadav. Mumbai won that match.

Another event one looked forward to was the Times Shield and the four biggies—Nirlon, Mafatlal, SBI, and Tatas. Nirlon was led by Gavaskar, Mafatlal by Mankad, SBI by Vishy, and Tatas by Vengsarkar. Some of the brightest cricketers of the land played in this extremely keen competition. The contests were so keen that a century in this A league or a five-for was considered good enough!

It is with this background, we will come back to Kaka. Kaka and Vasu Paranjape may mean nothing to people outside Mumbai but to an average cricket fan growing up in the eighties, these names meant a lot. Kaka those days held two records—the maximum runs and the number of centuries. More than that, it was the never-say-die spirit that he embodied. Mumbai 66/5 A.V.Mankad 5 n.o. This would unsettle any batting team but not as long as the natural predecessor to Steve Waugh was still batting. You could bet that this man would steer the team to safety. I remember a season when he guided the fortunes of the Mumbai team with the help of rookies like Pandit, Raju Kulkarni, Hattangadi, and Lalchand Rajput. Besides the on-field accomplishments, his views were most-sought after. In fact I remember few years later, I was listening to commentary on AIR, which had both Mankad and Paranjape in the panel. They would have embarrassed disasters like Arun Lal and Siva with their crisp analysis!

Alas, those days are gone! Kaka is no more! Paranjape is hardly heard! Mumbai cricketers no longer capture the public imagination! The Mumbai cricket following is on the wane! And these look irreversible!

Kaka—my memories of you will be that of the running catch you took at the Oval that famous summer to dismiss Underwood!

P.S. I have deliberately tried to exclude Vinoo Mankad from the post—Vinoo Mankad was Indian cricket's first superstar and deserves another post. This is for his son whom he would have been proud of and waiting to receive him at the doorsteps of Heaven, almost like the Captain acknowledging a batsman who has comeback to the pavilion after a fine innings!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Fab Four & the Captain (Part 1)

Another series loss, on a day an Indian made us proud of his exploits at Beijing, and the arch villains!

Dravid must go! Ganguly must go! Fab Four must go! There are war cries already which will soon reach defeaning cries! Wiser counsels, enough of them say, these guys have been such great servants of Indian cricket. Their career needs atleast a decent burial. Besides, Indian cricket will suffer!

My memories went back to 1978-79. I was a tot! Rememeber the Friendship series against Pakistan, when Zaheer Abbas hit the quartet out of the Indian team. It was unthinkable - Indian cricket without the quartet. But Sunil Gavaskar rebuilt the bowling attack within 6-8 months and the void left by these great bowlers were alleviated to some extent!

Remember 1982-83. Vishwanath, the greatest batsman of the times had come back from Pakistan after a rare disastrous tour. He was dropped from a side which was to embark on the toughest tour of those times, the West Indies. To go to the West Indies, without Vishwanath was as unthinkable those days as going to Australia without VVS Laxman these days! But still the decision was taken inspite of Vishy's show in the previous tour to England where he had four fifties in five innings! What probably sealed the decision for the selectors was the one sight of Vishy being hopelessly bowled by an Imran indipper at Karachi!

Few months later, when the West Indies were here for the grudge tour, Mohinder Amarnath was dropped after just a solitary run from six innings. This was the same Amarnath who had a great 12 months preceding this series. Remember that he scored more than 500 runs in each of the twin series in Pakistan and West Indies - the toughest assignments those days. His knocks in Pakistan and Barbados are stuff that legends are made of. Remember his match-winning roles in the triumphant World Cup campaign. But when the West Indies came here, he struggled to come to terms with the short-rising deliveries aimed at his body and he failed miserably. Still the bunch of jokers made the decision. Jimmy, as was his wont, fought his way back to the Indian team and was incidentally the top-scorer against David Gower's English team.

The point is that there have been enough instances in the past when the selectors had to bite the bullet and they have chosen to do so. It's their time of reckoning!

Look at the records of the Fab Four and the Captain!

Let's start with Sachin Tendulkar! Now, I just have to utter Sach, and I know there are people who will remind me of his twin hundreds in Australia. I have some damming statistics - eight innings after that Adelaide knock, he has scored 108 runs at an average of 13.5. What is even more telling is that the manner in which he padded upto Mendis and was adjudged leg before. The whole world picked it! How could he not? Is it not a sure sign that his game is not there? A drive on the rise may gladden few hearts but not good enough to make a serious contribution.


Anybody who has had a serious decline over the last 12 months, it is Dravid. What a fall from those glory days. A year back, he was India's best one-day batsman and prior to that the torch bearer of Indian batting for five years. Victories at Adelaide, Kingston, Rawalpindi, and Headingly were built around his batting. Now you look at him and you shudder where his next run is going to come from. He looks like the Dravid who went to Australia in 99-00, pretending as the best batsman after Tendulkar and scratched around for runs. I recently read a piece from Roy Dias, which opened my eyes. According to Dias, if a cricketer begins to struggle with his fielding and catching, it's a sign that your game is not there. You can scratch around for a hundred but your (lack of) athleticism will show up. In Dravid's case, some of the catches he has dropped can only be an indicator about his lack of fitness, if not form. Since the match-winning knocks at Kingston two years back, he has scored 1197 runs in 40 innings at an average of 33.25 (almost down 23 from his career average of around 56) and a strike rate of 27 during the same period against a career strike rate of 41. What it tells you is that Dravid doesn't know where his next run is coming from.

When I saw Laxman walk to the crease, I was astounded by what
I saw. A seemingly-portly figure walked into bat. Guys, we are in modern sport! A player's body language sends signals to the opposition - either positive or negative. Laxman's body language clearly suggests that he is a bunny! The flicks to midwickets, and the off-drives are all there but what is not there is athleticism. He was never athletic, but with advancing (sounds old, yes old) age, this looks HUGE! Thank you, sir for all the entertainment. It's time to move on!

The last two actors in the drama shall be dealt with in the next post!