Why didn't Saba Karim get more chances despite averaging 56 in FC cricket?

[Trichromatic]

He played just one test match.

 

All our keepers average 30s or at best early 40s in FC cricket. Saba Karim averaged 56 which is probably best record for an Indian keeper by some distance. 

 

Was he a poor wicketkeeper?

[Pollack]

Freak eye injury. Looked decent batsman and a decent keeper in his short career. 

[Gollum]

He lost one eye off Kumble's bowling, like Boucher's injury.

 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/fitness/Career-ending-sports-injuries/articleshow/28465180.cms

Edited November 26, 2017 by Gollum

[jusarrived]

He was a decent LOI bat , but not a 56 avg batsmen . 

[Trichromatic]

33 minutes ago, Gollum said:

He lost one eye off Kumble's bowling, like Boucher's injury.

 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/fitness/Career-ending-sports-injuries/articleshow/28465180.cms

 

 

43 minutes ago, Pollack said:

Freak eye injury. Looked decent batsman and a decent keeper in his short career. 

I am aware of his injury, but he was already 33 by then. He had been playing cricket for 18 years and he never got chance in test cricket before that. 

[Trichromatic]

8 minutes ago, jusarrived said:

He was a decent LOI bat , but not a 56 avg batsmen . 

He was averaging 56 in FC cricket, not in List A. He was average in List A anyway.

[Rightarmfast]

Saba Karim was my super duper senior from my school, St Michael's Patna and also happens to my close friends first cousin. Saba Karim was an exceptional batsman. During the 90's, when we were struggling for openers, he would open against the likes of Shoaib Akhtar and Wasim Akram and still come out on top. However, due to extreme politics in cricket board, and the fact he was from Bihar cricket affected his career great deal. I mean in one of the interviews the selectors on record said that it didnt matter how Saba Karim performed ( He was performing exceptional, way better than Mongia ), they had assigned a certain no of matches for Saba as a formality and he had exhausted those nos and hence was not selected! This interview had come out around 98-99 I think.

[jusarrived]

42 minutes ago, Trichromatic said:

He was averaging 56 in FC cricket, not in List A. He was average in List A anyway.

Yeah from having seen him bat he wasnt as good as the 56 avg suggests , but was a decently good hitter of the ball . Would have been a good buy for an IPL team if he was playing now :) 

[Nonbeliever]

Mongia was helping Azhar achieving all the targets

Edited November 26, 2017 by Nonbeliever

[rtmohanlal]

A scape goat of dirty politics,incompetence, zone partiality and after all corruption.Frauds Azharuddin & Mongia ensured that  Karim won't get a chance by their noble match fixing ways.

[rkt.india]

1 hour ago, Trichromatic said:

 

 

I am aware of his injury, but he was already 33 by then. He had been playing cricket for 18 years and he never got chance in test cricket before that. 

He was not considered a test level keeper, more of a batsman.

[Cricketics]

Sachi did not like Saba Karim much as captain before Ganguly came. I remember him taking it out on the selectors and mentioning about Saba Karim post Asia cup 1997 or 1998. Sachin always liked Mongia more in every format but selectors gave him Saba Karim during that series. 

 

[Trichromatic]

17 minutes ago, Cricketics said:

Sachi did not like Saba Karim much as captain before Ganguly came. I remember him taking it out on the selectors and mentioning about Saba Karim post Asia cup 1997 or 1998. Sachin always liked Mongia more in every format but selectors gave him Saba Karim during that series. 

 

It seems that was the case:

 

Quote

Selectors have given me a B-grade team, says unhappy Sachin

                           EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, July 9: The next time you see Sachin Tendulkar ad-libbing, ``Yehi hai right choice, baby'' or ``Let's make things better'', you can be sure the Indian skipper is not talking about Indian cricket. In what is probably the strongest outburst from an Indian cricket captain, Sachin Tendulkar has lashed out at the selectors, who seemed to have made illogical changes in the team bound for the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka. Indian cricket reeling under the onslaught of allegations of match-fixing and betting scandals, seemed headed for further controversy as Tendulkar minced no words in a telephonic interview with the Bengali daily, Aajkal. Tendulkar, whose captaincy seemed in danger, was quoted as saying, ``They have saddled me with a B-grade team. I have decided to speak the truth. For how long can one keep on lying? Lies do not serve anyone's interest. I will allow no one to use me.'' The skipper added, ``I can't say that I have been given the best team to lead, by the selectors.'' ``I am very unhappy. The Indian captain is powerless. Earlier, only performance mattered. Now extraneous factors seem to have become important in selection,'' he went on to say, in what was clearly an attack on the selectors, who seemed to have ridden rough-shod over his needs and requests.Tendulkar made the comments over the phone from Mumbai to the paper before leaving for London to attend the captains' meeting, called by the International Cricket Council. Sambaran Banerjee, the selector from East Zone, and one who is believed to have played the key role in the choice of Saba Karim as the wicketkeeper ahead of Nayan Mongia and the inclusion of Debashish Mohanty as the third seamer, expressed surprised at Tendulkar's outburst. When contacted by The Indian Express over the telephone, Sambaran said, ``We (the selectors and the captain) all shook hands and left the meeting (in Bangalore) in a cheerful mood. There were no signs of rancor. Of course there was debate about many individuals but, overall, there was consensus.'' He went on to add, ``When we wished him all the best, Sachin said, `We will win the Asia Cup'.'' Of course, there is no way of knowing whether Sachin said that sarcastically or seriously. But all reports emanating out of Bangalore at the end of the selection committee's meeting suggested that he was far from happy and wore a glum look. Not only that, Ramakant Desai, the chairman of the selection committee, when quizzed on whether Tendulkar wanted any particular players in the side, had very categorically said, ``Just one.'' Tendulkar is believed to have asked for Vinod Kambli ahead of Mohammed Azharuddin and Mongia instead of Karim.Today, when contacted by an agency, Desai, said, ``Till I read the interview I cannot be sure if he made those comments. But I can say that he was not totally happy at the selection.'' On his own captaincy hanging by a slender thread in the face of some selectors debating whether or not he ought to retained as the skipper, Tendulkar is quoted by the Bengali newspaper as saying, ``Unlike some others, I am not hankering after the captaincy. Let them take it away.''He also lamented, ``Why can't the skipper get a team of his choice? After all, the captain is blamed when the team loses.''

            Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.

 

[Cricketics]

4 minutes ago, Trichromatic said:

It seems that was the case:

 

 

My memory is always sharp. Good old days of following cricket in the late 90s. I am not surprised by Kambli’s selection also which article mentions. Everytime Tendulkar became captain he did try to get Kambli back in the team. He liked him.

 

Nothing wrong in that since everyone have their favorites and back them to do well but its a good reminder that every captain likes certain players more than ofhers and it is nothing new.