His bat
known as ‘Excalibur’ was in news for its odd shape and the way it was wielded
by its big burly owner, hitting huge sixers !! Remember seeing him in action at
Chepauk in 1976 – on day 1 – he took 5/55 including the wickets of Sunil
Gavaskar, Anshuman Gaekwad, Mohinder Amarnath, Ashok Mankad & Srinivasan
Venkatraghavan who scored 64 ! …. .. in 1985 at Perth he played his last Test
failing to take wickets in both the innings and scoring a duck ! ~ this is no
post on the Man, but on his son who courted fame and at times notoriety !
The son, had
reasonable success in his career ~played 62 Tests making 3320 runs with 5
centuries; 4950 runs in 215 ODIs – 4 centuries, the first of which came at
Pune. Took 218 wickets in Tests and 201
in One dayers. Retired somewhat early from Tests in 2004; ODI in 2006, played
in ICL, captained Chandigarh Lions. The
New Zealand Herald compared his retirement to those of Michael Jordan and Björn
Borg – now in news for different reasons
!
Christopher Lance Cairns,
also captained the Black Caps on seven occasions, usually when regular captain
Stephen Fleming was unavailable. After his playing career Cairns went on to
become a commentator with Sky Sport New Zealand. He came down to India played
in ICL until he was suspended in October 2008. The public reason given for his
suspension was under performance due to an ankle injury which put him in breach
of his contract. But in the weeks and months that followed, Cairns and others
were rumoured to be involved in match-fixing. Then in January 2010, Lalit Modi,
chairman of the Indian Premier League, posted this message on this Twitter
page: "Chris Cairns removed from IPL auction list due to his past record
of match fixing. This was done by the Governing body today." The tweet was
followed up by cricket news website, CricInfo, and then Cairns hit back by
taking libel action against Modi in the High Court in the United Kingdom.
Chris Cairns was successful
and was awarded £90,000 in damages after allegations on Twitter. Mr Cairns's lawyer stated that the comments
had tainted the career of his client, who played for Nottinghamshire before a
spell in India. In what was described as
the ‘first Twitter libel case’ in England, a councillor in Caerphilly, Wales,
was ordered to pay £3,000 and costs to a political rival for posting a
libellous comment on Twitter. In this
case, Mr Modi was also ordered to pay Mr Cairns' £400,000 legal costs….. a few
months later, he was in news again, this time for ‘perjury’ but was acquitted
of perjury and perverting the course of justice after a jury at Southwark crown
court returned a verdict of not guilty. Both
Cairns and co-defendant Andrew Fitch–Holland, who had faced the latter of the
two charges, will walk away free men following a nine-week trial in London. .
Cairns said on the court
steps that despite being found not guilty he felt his reputation had been
“completely scorched” and that there was no longer a future for him in cricket.
“I think it would be pretty hard ever to go back into the game: there’s a lot
of damage been done,” he stated.
After a decade now, at 51
years of age, there is sad news circulating on his ill-health. Chris Cairns is
on life support after collapsing in Australia. It is understood Cairns suffered
a major medical emergency - an aortic dissection - in Canberra last week. This
is when a tear occurs in the inner layer of the body's main artery. According
to a Newshub report, he has undergone several operations while in hospital, but
has not responded to treatment as hoped. The Cairns family has endured personal
tragedy. Chris Cairns' sister Louise was killed in 1993 when a cement truck
failed to stop at a level crossing at Rolleston in the South Island and
collided with the Southerner passenger train.
One of the media reports
gives encouraging report stating Cairns Cairns was stabilised in Canberra last
night, before being transferred to Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital — a
recognised leader in Cardiology. He underwent surgery shortly after arrival,
and is in a serious but stable condition in ICU," …. Wishing that the all-rounder comes out
successful after surgery and regains good health.
The Mongoose bat is not
the first innovation – there have been some attempts earlier like the boutique
shoulder-less blade used by Lance Cairns (the man referred in first para) in the 1980s, known as
"Excalibur". In 1983 at MCG,
big burly Lance Cairns struck lusty blows (6 sixers in 10 balls) making 52 off
only 25 balls. Cairns played in an era
whence ODI was at its nascent stage.
Remember that he played when India toured New Zealand in 1981. In a test at Basin Reserve, Wellington, Kirti Azad, Yograj Singh (father of Yuvraj
Singh) and a young Ravi Shastri who had just flown in as a replacement made
their debuts. Lance Cairns took 5 for
33. It is his son, Chris who is in news because of his ill-health. The
shoulders of "Excalibur" bat
were planed down to form a conical rather than rectangular shape.
Lance Cairns was a swing
bowler with an unorthodox 'front on' action. He took 130 Test Match wickets and
89 ODI wickets. He took ten wickets in New Zealand's first ever win on English
soil, at Headingley in 1983. Cairns has been profoundly deaf since age 17, and
in 2009 he was fitted with a cochlear implant. He is the Ambassador for The National
Foundation for the Deaf Inc. and is instrumental in raising awareness for the
Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities. Following his retirement from cricket,
Cairns concentrated on his golf skills …. .
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
11th Aug 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment