In Prudential World Cup 1975 tense finals – the mighty West Indies were
put in by Ian Chappell and were
in a spot of bother at 50 for 3, big Bertha strolled to the middle. A
hooked six off Dennis Lillee set the tone as Clive Lloyd careened to an 82-ball hundred - led his team to 291 from their 60
overs. Following illustrious
predecessors like - Gerry Alexander, Frank Worrel,
Gary Sobers, Rohan Kanhai- Clive
Lloyd, became an icon. The ineffable Lloyd who had battery of pace bowlers won 64 of the
84 matches that he captained and won both the 1975 inaugural and 1979 edition
of Prudential World Cup in England.
Remember
with tinge of sadness that ODI 931 at
Nahar Singh Stadium, Faridabad on
Oct 17 1994 - Stuart Williams, Shivnarine Chanderpaul & Cameron
Cuffy made their debuts. Windies scored
273/5 and India chasing made only 177, losing the match by 96 runs. Guess, why ?!?
The first
price of popularity is that one is hounded quite often of ‘retirement’……… the
great genius writer Sujatha in his heydays was confronted in a student’s forum
with the Q : Sir, when will you stop writing ? Pat came
the reply – ‘in the night ~ when I feel too sleepy’………… ~ one need not be guided by the Q and can have one’s own way !!
The Genius Little Master SAchin
Tendulkar was haunted with the Q of his retirement .. .. and so many critics
were speaking of the retirement of the mercurial Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
The mercurial MSD
surprised everyone on 30.12.2014 – the boxing test had just been drawn and
Dhoni was 24* - 4 overs left with 4 wickets in hand – MSD made no mention
during the customary Captain’s press conference at the end of the match. Then a BCCI release stated that MSD had
resigned citing the strain of playing all formats. We thought that 2020 will
see MSD striking it rich in IPL and turn for India in T20 WC 2020 – but
Covid-19 changed lives and now he has become mentor !
The big news
is - Virat Kohli has announced he will step down as India's T20 captain after
the conclusion of the upcoming T20 World Cup. He wants to continue as Test and
ODI captain, however. Kohli announced his decision on Twitter,
saying he made it with his workload in mind as a three-format player, and that
he has already spoken about it with BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, secretary
Jay Shah, and the selectors. He said he arrived at his decision after "a
lot of contemplation and discussions with my close people", including
India head coach Ravi Shastri and the white-ball vice-captain Rohit Sharma, who
has already led India in 19 T20Is when Kohli has been rested.
"Understanding
workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the
last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for last 5-6
years, I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead the Indian
team in Test and ODI Cricket," Kohli said. "I have given everything
to the Team during my time as T20 Captain and I will continue to do so for the
T20 Team as a batsman moving forward."
The development comes
exactly eight days after Kohli sat with the selectors to finalise the India
squad for the T20 World Cup, which will be played in the UAE in
October-November. Yesterday I was
searching the web for the wickets that he took – 8 International wickets in all
.. .. and was overawed with the statistics.
An Under-19 world Cup-winning captain, when he burst onto the scene,
Kohli was a precocious talent with a cover drive to kill for. He seamlessly transformed to take the role of
Sachin Tendulkar and perhaps has even better numbers. He was widely credited and criticized by some
too, for changing the fitness culture in
Indian cricket, introducing endurance tests as a criterion for selection. Statistically he has 7765
runs in 96 tests at an average of 51.08 with 27 centuries and equal 50s; 12169
ODI runs in 254 matches at an average of 59.07 and strike rate of 93.17 with 43
tons !! - + 3159 T20I runs at 52.65 average and 139.04 strike rate … .. dream
figures indeed !!
.. .. a peaceful
happy retirement is what most office-goers would yearn ..
this simple act which would occur to every living person in Govt / PSU is not
all that easy in Private sector, is what experience has shown. Call it Covid-19
effect, a cash-strapped TN government last year increased the retirement age of its staff from
58 years to 59 years to defer an outgo of Rs.5,000 crore towards retirement
benefits for the current fiscal. More than 25,000 government employees were set
to superannuate in that financial year. Though some Unions welcomed the move, some others like Joint action council of Tamil
Nadu teachers’ organisations and government employees’ organisations strongly
condemned the move, saying it would adversely affect job opportunity of
youngsters and delay promotions of senior employees. The MGR government
raised the age of superannuation from 55 to 58 years in Tamil Nadu in April
1979.
Kapil Dev,
the greatest all-rounder for India played
131 Test matches, scored 5248
runs in 184 innings at an average of 31.05 with 8 hundreds and 27
half-centuries. In 131 tests, he took 434 wickets at 29.64 with 23 five-wicket
hauls and best bowling figures of 9 for 83 against the West Indies. In One dayers (always remember WC 1983) he
scored 3783 runs (175* highest) and took 253 wickets in 221 innings.
On that day
at Faridabad – Kapil Dev was not given the new ball – Manoj Prabhakar, Javagal
Srinath, Anil Kumble and Rajesh Chauhan bowled 10 overs each – while Sachin
bowled 5. It was sad and sickening and
even made me cry when Kapil who walked from deep square leg assuming to bowl
the next over, was unceremoniously sent
back by the Captain Azharuddin. Kapil in
his normal self having completed 5 overs walked towards the Umpire, but the
ball was sort of snatched by the Captain. For me in someways, Cricket was never
the same thereafter ! – exceptional wrong treatment of a Senior on his
retirement.
Clive Lloyd’s playing days
were glorious – he inflicted 5-0 whitewash on England twice and sort of
demolished every other team. B u t, the end of the great Captain was different
– in the 5th Test at Sydney
in Dec 1984 – leggie Bob Holland and a little known left arm spinner Murray
Bennet spun WI to a defeat – that was his last test. Months later, in the Semis of Benson & Hedges WC at Melbourne on
6.3.1985 – the formidable West Indies were bowled out for 159 with part time
bowler Mudassar Nazar taking 5 wickets.
Thus he lost his last match too as Captain !
Looking at all these, the decision of Virat Kohli is really a well-crafted move, perhaps, he has given an extended lease of life to thyself .. .. Shrewd Kohli ! – understand that this is ‘only stepping down’ and not retirement - yet not all know the art of moving away while on top !!
16.9.2021.
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