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Talent vs Mental toughness - Part I


Lurker

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Is there any other word that gets used as injudiciously as "talent" these days? The moment a player makes a debut chances are the "experts" would be falling over each other to show how great a talent he is. But make no mistake in its true sense there is few sight as captivating as a talented cricketer. The difference between a talented and a gutsy cricketer is the difference between a Mark Waugh and a Steve Waugh, the difference between a Shane Warne and an Anil Kumble. There is place for both but if one had to pick one would he much rather be talented or hard working? I did not want to get caught up in the "Middle path" of Gautam Budha(read as -both are important, you need talent as well as mental toughness etc.) and so I decided to address the issue by making two teams play each other. One built exclusively by players that I think set the cricketing world on fire by sheer talent and other made up of players who one would count on to save the day. The players were picked based on whom I have been fortunate enough to watch, and hence they are of post 80's era mostly. I would start with my talented XI. Here are my openers: 1) Virendra Sehwag: If the epitome of an Indian cricketer's performance is his acts against Pakistan(and vice versa) then Sehwag did little harm to his fame when he notched up a stellar 300 plus on debut against Pakistan in their backyard. Legend has it that after he has let go a rare delivery the ace paceman Shoaib Akhtar asked him to hit the ball and leave it only to be replied, "Bowl kar reha hai ke bheek maang reha hai". The century set up many records but more importantly set Sehwag on a run scoring spree against Pakistan. Till date he has played 3 test series against Pakistan and never scored at less than 73. But it would be criminally insane to see Sehwag's prowess in the light of only his performance against Pakistan. The short and stoutly built opener from Najafgarh. He has scored against all sorts of opposition and all grounds world over. Unlike most cricketers his away average does not drop as compared to his home average. Indeed his batting average against minnows is lot worse than that against the superpowers. India's success in the past few years owes a lot to this devil-may-care opener's exploits. When he does well,India do well. When he does not, India palpably fails. It is a testament to his skills that in an era when Graeme Smith, Hayden,Langer, Trescothick, Strauss played there was no opener as feared as Virendra Sehwag. Why he belongs here: For all his runs, Sehwag has never been able to satisfy the purists. "He does not move his feet", "his bat comes down at an angle", "he doesnt have back lift" and so on. And truth be told some of the criticism are quite right(as he seems to be finding out now). However inspite of his drawbacks he has a terrific eye, a wide range of shots, a deep beleif in his abilities and a complete lack of respect for the greatest of bowlers. What else can you say except that when he bats along with his idol, the great Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag's game not only holds its own against his mentor but often(perhaps most times) beats the aura of Sachin. To be Contd....

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Talent vs Mental Toughness - Part II Continuing with my talented XI. So far the first player selected was Sehwag. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saeed Anwar - If Pakistan with its formidable bowling attack of late 80's and early 90's could not dominate the World cricket you have to blame the batsmen for it. The only batsman that comes out without blemish has to be Saeed Anwar. For the major part of his career Anwar was most prized wicket of Pakistan. Opponents would try to knock him over and set the panic button rolling for Pakistani middle order, which happened invariably when Anwar was cheaply dismissed. Anwar's career was quite fascinating in the sense that he started out as a middle order batsman but was forced to open since the middle order was pretty packed with the likes of Miandad, Malik, Inzamam and others. It is hard to imagine that by the time Anwar would retire fans expected him to score as many International 100's as the great Miandad and more than what Inzamam would deliver. Unlike other batsmen Anwar's record outside his country is quite decent.He played some memorable innings against Mcgrath-Warne and Allan Donald at their peak. His innings against Donald in Durban led Pakistan to notch up win against South Africa in a test match where highest score by any team was 250 odds. His finest Test innings perhaps came against Aussies at Brisbane when he scored 119 against an attack of Fleming-Mcgrath-Warne in 1999. But if Anwar was great in Test he was perhaps even better in ODI. He would retire with many ODI records, notable being highest indvidual score in a game and 3 consecutive centuries. Today when fans remember Sachin's glorious 98 at Centurion they forget that Anwar had set the stage alight with his superb 101 in the first innings. Why is he here: Watching Anwar bat was like an artist at work. He would be facing the fastest bowler and lift a ball on off-stump effortlessly over mid-wicket by the flick of the wrist. Amidst the unpredictability of Pakistan team he was one level-headed cricketer. Day in and day out he would take to the middle scoring runs and standing alone amidst shambles. And when he played against India he seemed to bat with his eyes closed. Such was his penchant to score runs against India that Indians often shut down the television when Anwar walked to bat. Viv Richards: In the era between mid 70's to late 80's if a bowler ended with a figure of 80 plus runs in 10 overs there was a fair chance that Viv Richards had done the damage. John Emburey once recalled about Viv's fastest 100(56 deliveries), how he(Emburey) had a bowling analysis of 14 runs off 10 overs before Viv arrived, but went for 87 off 15 by the time Viv mayhem stopped. Has there ever been a player, batsman or bowler, more feared as was Richards at his prime? Such is the respect for the man that even today he is only known by his first name. Think of Geoff Boycott, mention "Geoff scored 100 at perth" and people would immediately ask, "Geoff who?". Now say "Viv scored a 100 at Perth". Enough said. The man was a legend right in his own time. You bowled superfast at him, he would dispatch you to the boudary even faster. You bowled spin to him, he would wait and deposit you with one hand. His arms and forearms were strong enough to satisfy a boxer, indeed Viv was an amateur boxing fan in his own right as also a football player who represented his country. But it was cricket where he would leave his eternal mark. Walking into bat with that swagger he would take his guard, then look at the field around as if a King assesses his subjects and then look straight at the bowler so as to speak, "Now lets see how good you truly are!". In the era which is universally acknoledged as the best era for fast bowling he would fancy his chances with a cap. He was once felled by a Jeff Thomson bouncer, got up picked the cap put it back on and smot the next one for a huge six. If his batting in tests was incomparable his batting in ODI was beyond this world. Even today he is widely claimed to be the best ODI batsman ever, or atleast one of the top 2 best. In an era where a score of 100 by a batsman was considered good he notched up scores of 180 plus.His innings of 189(off a total of 272) is thought of as the greatest ODI innings. No wonder he was nominated as one of the top 5 Wisden cricketers of the millenium. Why is here: West Indies has given some of the greatest batsman of cricket. Starting from the days of George Headley to the W's to Sobers to Kanhai, Lara etc. Take the best attributes of them, throw in a dash of arrogance and supreme confidence. Add a blend of complete disdain for bowlers and you get the run machine that was Viv Richards. One can argue if he was the best batsman of his time or not but rest assured that no batsman of his time gave bowlers more nightmares, nor was any players wicket more treasured than King Viv. xxxxx PS: Part I of the series can be found here. http://indiancricketfans.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1521 MODS can you merge it as an article?

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Re: Talent vs Mental toughness - Part I Quality write-up, Lurker. I've always rated Anwar very highly - well ahead of all the other P@ki batsmen i have watched. He was very elegant in his strokeplay, yet so destructive at the same time. His 194 @ Chennai was a magnificent innings and a record which will take some beating. His 188 @ Kolkata in the '99 ATC Test is a knock which i rate as the best ever played by any non-Indian batsman on Indian soil...on a lively pitch which saw Srinath knock off one batsman after another, Anwar remained steadfast and periodically unfurled one fantastic stroke after the other. A class act and a worthy inclusion. Haven't seen much of Viv, but the fact that his records (in BOTH forms of the game) have stood the test of time like none other - even in this day and age of crappy bowling attacks - is enough for him to merit inclusion. I saw highlights of that 189*...one hell of an innings it was. In that match you mention, i think he shared a 106 run partnership with the #11 Michael Holding. The tailender contributed just 12 of those runs !! His mere presence was so intimidating that the moment he would take guard, every single fielder would immediately take a few steps back. The man truly was AHEAD of his time. Any ideas about who the next players would be ? You must pick Tendulkar...he just oozes talent. Maybe Azharuddin as well. Those two batsmen played the kind of shots no other mortal would even think of attempting. Mark Waugh would be a good choice as well. Whatever - i know you will pick the right players anyway... :wtg:

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Talented XI - Part III(Middle Order) The team thus far Sehwag Anwar Richards For earlier editions please check http://indiancricketfans.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1535 http://indiancricketfans.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1521 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ So who was better - Tendulkar or Lara? You can perhaps answer that question by trying to measure the worth of two of the greatest players the world has ever seen in terms of number of runs scored, quality of opposition faced, centuries gathered, performance in wins, big scores, consistent series performance and so on. But surely that would be as much of a futile act as trying to measure the greatness of Alexander in terms of square miles he conquered, or the greatness of Buddha, Mohammed, Christ by sheer number of their followers. The greatness of a Lara and Tendulkar lies in the fact that for two decades they split the cricketing world into two camps, pro Lara and pro tendulkar, and even the biggest Lara fan would not blink an eyelid in snapping up Tendulkar in his World XI, as would a Tendulkar fan pick Lara every single time. Brian Lara: Every era has its genius. Lara was the genius of my era. He was prone to send his fans from one extreme to another within the same game. When he got going he appeared a conqueror, indeed he was nicknamed Prince, when he did not he would play worse than a novice. Somehow all these only added to the enigma, the spectre, the theatrics, the swings from the pantheon of God to a mere mortal. Ever since he arrived West Indies fortunes were largely dependent on his performance. Quite something to say considering for the better part of his career he played alongside the likes of Ambrose and Walsh. What may perhaps be even more telling is the fact that somehow the great Viv Richards was not missed! Lara's record are pretty well known and so I would not waste your time here. What stands out,in my opinion, are - a) Penchant for scoring big scores(his average score when he passes 100 is 184). b) His ability to raise the game when the stakes are big. His performance against the top bowlers of the era has been excellent. I remember vaguely a series in early 2000's in Sri Lanka where Murali at his prime snapped 24 wickets in 3 tests. West Indies had lost 0-3 but Lara had stood unconquered scoring at will and finishing with average plus 100. No wonder Murali considers him the best he bowled to. Great batsman against spin, superb against pace, equally good at home and abroad, piling on runs and creating a magic as he did. And even when he did not, it only added to his genius. Why he belongs here: Lara's runs could never have been scored by anyone else except Lara. The way his left arm shrugs a bit before a bowler bowls his delivery, the way his feets move, the snap of the wrist as the bat comes down and plays the ball late, so very late that the bowler thinks he had had Lara, only to see him being taken for runs. With the natural grace that only a left hander can have coupled with a hand-eye coordination that can make an agnostic turn to religion Lara is the perfect example of what seperates talent from mundane. Sachin Tendulkar: Even though he was on his last leg he still remained a wily customer. Powerfully built with cricketing brains that would have perhaps done an Einstein proud, the greatest left bowler of all times, ran in. With his fast arm action the ball pitched a shade outside the leg stump, jumped up and flew to middle and leg at brisk pace. The diminutive young batsman who had hithreto seemed harmless rocked back just a shade, before you could blink his blade come down and the ball hit the sweet spot of his bat. Before the ball touched the boundary India celebrated. The next over the fastest bowler on the planet was put into place...20 rows back in the stands. 2003 WC may not have been won but this was better than any win surely. Quite simply Sachin Tendulkar is the best batsman I have seen bat. It did not matter if it was a 50 over game or 5 day, if the game was played on first day pitch at Perth(the kind where a Paul Reiffel seemed more hostile than a Harold Larwood, not today's kind where Monty Panesar takes 5 wickets on day 1), or last day at Syndey, whether the game was at home or away, Sachin seemed above it all. His emergence conicided with the deadly match fixing saga and it speaks volumes about his persona that he was perhaps the only man in Indian cricket team whose commitment was never questioned. Every bowler that has bowled to Sachin Tendulkar includes him in the list of greatest batsmen they bowled to. Every single one of them admitting that they had to raise their game to the highest to deal with the Little master. Talking about batting records here would be futile since he owns almost every single one of them but let it be known that the greatest competitors of their times, Aussie cricket team, thought Sachin to be the best. Players like Steve Waugh to Shane Warne would concede that this was one bloke they could not dismantle. And of course there is that little matter of the great(est) Don Bradman suggesting that if ever a batsman batted like him it was Sachin. Why he belong here: Straighest of straight drive, the punch off the bat foot, the deft movement across the wicket as the bat hammers a square cut, fleet footed cover drive with the ball crossing the boundary before the batsman completed his follow through, deft pull that seemed to suggest the ball caressed the ground but was done with such power that the grass underneath might have burnt. At his best the batsman of my generation...followed by daylight...ask Warne. xxxx

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