I think
Narayan Jagadeesan is still unmarried – my son asked me a hypothetical Q – on
what NJ would name his son / daughter ??
– a Cricket Q only !!
Miles away lies – Sydney
- the capital city of the state of New South
Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on
Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends
about 70 km (43.5 mi) towards the Blue Mountains to the west. Sydney is made up of 658 suburbs, spread
across 33 local government areas. Residents of the city are known as
"Sydneysiders” - nicknames of the
city include the 'Emerald City' and the 'Harbour City'. Aboriginal Australians have inhabited the
Greater Sydney region for at least 30,000 years, and Aboriginal engravings and
cultural sites are common throughout Greater Sydney. The traditional custodians
of the land on which modern Sydney stands are the clans of the Darug, Dharawal
and Eora peoples.
During his first Pacific
voyage in 1770, James Cook charted the eastern coast of Australia, making
landfall at Botany Bay. In 1788, the First Fleet of convicts, led by Arthur
Phillip, founded Sydney as a British penal colony, the first European
settlement in Australia. After World War
II, Sydney experienced mass migration and by 2021 over 40 per cent of the
population was born overseas.
We grew up seeing the
exploits of Clive Lloyd- saw a bit of Roy Fredricks, then it was Gordon
Greenidge and Desmond Haynes opening partnerships, Allwyn Kallicharan, King Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, Richie
Richardson .. .. .. and later Brian Charles Lara, born in 1969 at Cantaro,
Santa Cruz, Trinidad.
At a time when we fully
admired Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, there was Brian Lara scoring massive scores ..
with elegance. Even his stance was
thrilling - the bat raised high in the air, the weight poised on a bent front
knee, the eyes low and level. Then the guillotine would fall, sending the ball
flashing to the boundary. Lara played
for Trinidad's junior football and table tennis sides, but it was cricket that
really drew him. In 1990, at 20, he became Trinidad and Tobago's youngest
captain, and that year, he also made his Test debut, in that 3rd Test, Lahore, 1990, scoring 44 and 6 against Pakistan. Masood Anwar too debuted in that match but
played only that solitary test !!
In the space of two months
in 1994, Lara's 375 and 501 not out broke world records for the highest Test
and first-class scores, but sudden fame seemed to turn him into a confused and
contradictory figure. During an inventive but largely fruitless spell as
captain of a fading West Indies team, Lara reiterated his genius by
single-handedly defying the 1998-99 Australian tourists with a sequence of 213,
8, 153 not out and 100.
Lara ended up with 11953 runs in
131 tests with 34 centuries; 10405 runs in 299 ODIs with 19 centuries. Though
he scored 375 & 400 ! - his 277 at
Sydney was significant. In his fifth
test, played at Sydney in Jan 1993, Lara scored his maiden century – 277 – West
Indies went on to win the final two tests taking the series at 2-1 - Lara
went on to name his daughter Sydney after scoring 277 at SCG.
Yesterday at Chinnaswamy
stadium, Bengaluru in Vijay Hazare tourney against Arunachal Pradesh – so many records were shattered by the Tamil Nadu
batter during his innings of 277 off 141 balls against Arunachal Pradesh at the
Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. His
individual score of 277 is now the
highest individual score in men's List A cricket. The previous highest was 268
by Alistair Brown against Glamorgan in 2002. Jagadeesan's 277 is also the
highest score in all List A cricket, surpassing 271 not out by Sripali
Weerakkody against Pushpadana Ladies in the 2007 Sri Lanka Women's One-Day
tournament.
With Sai Sudarshan, the
other centurion, NJ shared a partnership of 416 – becoming the first pair to
share a 400-run stand for any wicket in men's List A cricket. The previous
highest partnership was 372 between Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels for the
second wicket against Zimbabwe in 2015.
The Q on the lines of Lara naming his daughter ‘Sydney’ after
his 277 at Sydney Cricket ground – Jagadeesan may name his off-spring after the
place he scored 277 .. .. generally, we
do not name after places (exceptions like Thirupathi, Palani, Chidambaram,
Mathurai ! .. .. – Bengaluru is sort of
ruled out – he may deeply think of Chinnaswami !!
In case you
did not know, the Bengaluru stadium is named after M Chinnaswamy, who was the
president of the Indian board from 1977 to
1980, and was involved in the administration of Karnataka cricket for
close to four decades. The foundation for the construction of the stadium was
laid in May 1969 and building began in 1970. The stadium was given Test status
in hosted West Indies in the opening match in Nov 1974, even when the stadium
was only half-built. That match saw the
debut of two West Indian greats, Gordon Greenidge and Viv Richards. Hemant Kanitkar debuted and made 65 in his
very first International innings. Chinnaswamy represented India in the
International Cricket Council in 1965, 1973 and 1977 - 1980. A lawyer by
profession, he actively practiced from 1925 till 1975.
22.11.2022
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