What is success and accomplishment ? the feat of Wasim Jaffer

According to Warren Buffet, principles of life and investing often parallel each other.  He says ‘you only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong”

One should feel sorry for today’s children – for often they are pressurised into doing or becoming whatever their parents wanted to achieve [but never achieved perhaps] in life. The process of parenting in faunaldom is raising them physically but in humans it is more of emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to childhood.    From the times when children were desperate in capturing the attention of elders, the present day parents try to have the child’s attention all the times.  They often forget that their instructions have to be clear and concise to ensure the following.  The golden principles of ‘giving one instruction at a time, being realistic, being positive, telling without asking etc.,’ are often forgotten.

Matching the parental expectation becomes the single most arduous task for the child. In the city, you find so many Sports training  / coaching camps – cricket camps have mushroomed in every open area.  The coaches talk of nurturing the cricketer from their childhood, making them mentally tough, making them hungry for accomplishment and more..  

Their eyes glisten in seeing their kid in cricketing flannel – a dream of becoming Sachin Tendulkar.  There is a story that everyday tens of villagers get down at Chennai Central or Egmore railway station dreaming to become a star in cinema ……. How many of them live to realise their dream is too well known.  So, what is accomplishment in Sports  ?   The first ever ODI was played in 1971; India played theirs in 1974 and only in 1983 – the first century by an Indian was registered – Kapil Dev’s magnificent 175 n.o at Trentbridgewells.  Sachin did not make a ton in his first 80 ODI matches but today he has more than 50. 

Before the advent of IPL & T20, cricketers rose from domestic tournaments – premier amongst them being the Ranji Trophy[named after Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji (Jam Sahib of Nawanagar, also known as "Ranji"] – the domestic first class cricket championship played between different State sides.   This competition was launched in 1934 – though most of the teams represent States (Tamilnadu, Andhra, Kerala, Haryana, Rajasthan etc.,) there are teams like Mumbai, Baroda, Hyderabad, Delhi and then there is the Railways and Services.  For long Ranji trophy matches were followed keenly and scores in those matches captured greater attention.

Yesterday at Wankhede, there was a significant landmark achieved.  Wasim Jaffer, the Mumbai Captain became the highest run getter in Ranji surpassing his former mate Amol Mazumdar.  Long long ago, Jaffer made a triple century in his second match against Saurashtra and now has more than 8250+ runs – a herculean achievement indeed. Players like Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina may never reach there..

 Amol Mazumdar with Wasim Jaffer (courtesy www.cricinfo.com)

Wasim Jaffer played 31 Tests for India with high of 212, made 5 centuries aggregating 1944 runs in 58 innings at an average of 34.10 – but might never play for India again given the present day competition. 

He overtook Amol Anil Muzumdar presently playing for Assam – but was present at the venue when his record was broken.  Muzumdar had earlier broken the record for most runs in Ranji held by Amarjit Kaypee.  Muzumdar was a school mate of Sachin.  When Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli made that record unbroken 664 partnership in a school match, he was padded up next and waited the longest.  On debut he scored 260 against Haryana and was stated to be a compact batsman with good technique. He amassed runs.  He was the Vice Caption of Indian U19 team in 1994.

What does it take to succeed in life – Playing for India would ever remain the highest priority for any cricketer.  With such prolific scoring and abundant talent, Amol Mazumdar was never selected to play for the Nation despite a first class average of 50+   Heart-broken he considered quitting the game in 2002 but somehow continues to play in the Ranji format.  Amol overtook the other great scorer Amarjit Kaypee – who again never played for India in a Test of an One dayer.  The next in the list is Pankaj Dharmani who played a solitary onedayer against South Africa in 1996.  Incidentally, the highest wicket taker in Ranji, Rajinder Goel with 637 wickets never played for India.

So what is success, is it good performance, reaching  higher echelons,  abundant talent or easy recognition……   one can have enormous talent but still might go unrecognised is what the lives of Amol Mazumdar, Kaypee, Dharmani, Goels – all represent …….. there are many many more who never got their due credit or never attained the heights they deserved in life… do we call them unsuccessful !!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.