Indian legends of Modern Cricket: Do you agree??

[suraj]

The Heart: Kapil Dev The transformer: Sunil Manohar Gavaskar The Talent: Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (AKA God of cricket) The bowler: Anil Kumble Note: I highlighted modern era so excluded the hazares, mankads etc I am highlighting the absolute legends; of course the absolute silken touch of VVS, captaincy of SG & Pataudi, comebacks of Amarnath and the dependency of Dravid are legendary but till this stage I consider these three as absolute legends for Indian cricket; sort of absolute lifetime achievement award winners Agree? Disagree? Thoughts?

[fineleg]

If we are talking only Test cricket (considering Gavaskar's name is listed), then Dravid is sure way up there with the legends you have listed. You can add him to the list above. If ODIs then Tendulkar. Bowler: Kumble is correct.

[Guest HariSampath]

Yeah, agreed probably. But there have been others on somewhat equal footing too. No mention of Indian cricket can be complete without GR Vishwanath and the famous spinners mentioned. I also think that MS Dhoni will outdo all earlier legends, and in the next 6-7 years become the biggest sporting icon of India

[suraj]

If we are talking only Test cricket (considering Gavaskar's name is listed), then Dravid is sure way up there with the legends you have listed. You can add him to the list above. If ODIs then Tendulkar. Bowler: Kumble is correct.

Well I am in double minds- hard to start clubbing test, oDI & 20-20, gully cricket etc together cos that will exclude some and include some unworthy ones I am thinking of contribution to Indian cricket in general folks who transformed Indian cricket, took it to new level etc Well sorry for the confusion but looking for legends beyond stats and visuals but rather ppl who were significant during the eras; the list will probably include one player in every generation or era because lets say 20-20 becomes the most popular form in cricket and Dhoni takes us to new heights over yrs in that form his name will then lead (just an example) from his era over others

[Vignesh]

Well all those NAMES will be right up there considering Indian cricket.... But when u look at the contribution to world cricket there is just 1 Indian in that list of people who made an impact in world cricket... SACHIN TENDULKAR the one who defined modern day cricket..... the one who defined aggressive cricket etc..............

[The Outsider]

Well all those NAMES will be right up there considering Indian cricket.... But when u look at the contribution to world cricket there is just 1 Indian in that list of people who made an impact in world cricket... SACHIN TENDULKAR the one who defined modern day cricket..... the one who defined aggressive cricket etc..............

Not sure how long you have followed cricket and as much as I rate Tendulkar the best batsman after Bradman, as far as the impact of an individual on Indian cricket's fortunes is concerned I think it's difficult to parallel Gavaskar. It was with his advent that India started showing decent fight in away test matches and against quality opposition. He brought the fight in Indian cricket and stood up in the toughest of conditions where former Indian players would have cowered away into a corner. For all his faults, it is hard to think of any one individual who has redefined Indian cricket so much.

[suraj]

Not sure how long you have followed cricket and as much as I rate Tendulkar the best batsman after Bradman' date=' as far as the impact of an individual on Indian cricket's fortunes is concerned I think it's difficult to parallel Gavaskar. It was with his advent that India started showing decent fight in away test matches and against quality opposition. He brought the fight in Indian cricket and stood up in the toughest of conditions where former Indian players would have cowered away into a corner. For all his faults, it is hard to think of any one individual who has redefined Indian cricket so much.[/quote'] Very true- and this is why I classified SMG as the transformer. Again my reasons of choosing these as the legends go beyond just pure stats or the sheer pleasure of watching their strokes; its a longer term impact than some of the other greats. SMG- shwetabh has highlighted the reasons of why SMG was and is very imortant to Indian cricket. I will not sit here and try to defend every word that comes out of SMG's mouth because we all know that he is not without his faults but every legend chooses his poison and SMG at some point chose puuting the fight into the Indian team as his legacy. While standing up to the Windies pace battery was his "on-field" contribution, speaking up against the Victorian era administrators of the game was the off-field achievement. Any mention of SMG's contribution always draws Vishy lovers but I will stay away from that topic just by saying its the overall contribution to Indian cricket & not just pure batting skills that I am talking about here. Kapil Dev While SMG used his concentration & technique to the max, Kapil brought the passion and heart to the team. In times where fitness was not always the focus Kapil maintained his over the years while bowling with the fire and competing with a passion that few can match. SRT Well the God of cricket's talent is unmatched. As Shwetabh pointed out the SRTs of India might not have come around and achieved as much without the SMGs and Kapil Devs preceding him. But SRT's talent took the team to another level single handedly in his peak years. Anil Kumble What can I say about a legend who is handed the ball to take us to a win many a times in tests after all is said and done.

[Temujin Khaghan]

To hook and pull the vicious and lethal west indian pace battery, with no limitations on the barrage of bouncers, without even a helmet; for a short man is a real definition of - TRUE GRIT. There were many other players in his era who played without helmets but not many scored 10K+ runs in test cricket.

[riya]

^^ Totally agree to that point .I remember Tendulkar had a rough/tough time against Allan Donald ,imagine Sunny managing 4 Donalds at the same time .The best ever opening batsman ,not only for India .

[Bumper]

To me the personalities who had the biggest influences on Indian cricket were Kapil Dev & Dalmiya 1) Kapil Dev of the 80s: If Paaji did not win us the world cup, Indian cricket would be nowhere near the force it is today. He put Indian cricket on the roadmap. Infact if not for that world cup win, cricket would be a poverty struck sport today & would be heading for its natural death. So, in some sense, i would say, that was a turning point for world cricket. For the first time in history, India entertained thoughts of being a world dominant team, winning the 1983 world cup & carrying momentum into the 1985 world championship, winning tests & ODIs abroad. 2) Dalmiya of the 90s: He turned Indian cricket from a popular sport to a gargantuan business. The ICL, IPL, cash rich BCCI are all mere by products of Dalmiya's genius. There are others who have had a great impact on our cricket, such as, Sachin of the 90s (for the massive fan following he brought to the game), Ganguly (who lifted Indian cricket from its doldrums) & Sehwag of this decade (who changed the way India approached test cricket), but the two biggest influences for me would have to be Kapil & Dalmiya

[Lurker]

Here would be my list: 1) Transformer: Kapil Dev. If you think of any traiblazing activity in Indian cricket there is a good chance you can trace a bit of it to Kapil. Today when I read as to how Dhoni has brought cricket to "small towns" I find it amusing because thats what Kapil did, only 30 years back. Before he arrived Sunil Gavaskar used to open the bowling for India, I dont need to remind people of how Kapil changed that scenario. On batting side I am yet to see an Indian batsmen whose strike rate matches Kapil's in both form of the cricket. And on fielding side he was peerless, easily the most natural fielder(alongwith Azhar) that I have seen till date. 2) Mr. Consistent: Gavaskar Gavaskar was not the first great Indian batsmen. Indeed Vijay Merchant was as good as Sunny and Hazare and others can also claim the title. But what worked in Sunny's favour was his consistency. He put a price on his wicket and it did not matter where he was playing, against whom he was playing, he would stay put and get his runs. Unlike say a Sehwag who scores 0,10,23 & 197 in 4 innings and gets his average past 50, Sunny was more likely to score 35, 63, 47, 76. Today when you hear commentators gush about Hayden - "For an opener he plays spinner extremely well" you have to wonder how good Sunny really was as almost every spinner of his time would tell you that Sunny was the best batsman against spinners. Of course his skills against pace bowling need not be retold. 3) Mr. Complete : Sachin Sachin, to me, is just a shade under Sunny as far as Test batting is concerned but he more than makes up for it with his LOI batting where he must rank alongside Viv Richards as the greatest batsman ever. Sachin has as big a range of strokes as any batsman seen and is also a very handy spinner and a decent, if not splendid, fielder. 4) Silent servants: Dravid and Kumble. Both fantastic cricketer but the kind who choose to do their job and go home to their family. It is almost impossible to pick 1 controversy that this guys have started and thats saying a lot considering they have played over 200 Test and probably 3 times that many LOI. As a batsman Dravid is technically as good a batsman as we have ever seen, as a bowler Kumble has won more matches than any other bowler for India till date. xxx

[Dhondy]

Not sure how long you have followed cricket and as much as I rate Tendulkar the best batsman after Bradman' date=' as far as the impact of an individual on Indian cricket's fortunes is concerned I think it's difficult to parallel Gavaskar. It was with his advent that India started showing decent fight in away test matches and against quality opposition. He brought the fight in Indian cricket and stood up in the toughest of conditions where former Indian players would have cowered away into a corner. For all his faults, it is hard to think of any one individual who has redefined Indian cricket so much.[/quote'] Yes, but India remained a shockingly poor side for many years after Gavaskar hung up his boots. Similarly, Kapil's departure was followed by a very lean period, bereft of any sort of fast bowling talent, allegations of match fixing, culminating in our worst ever loss at home, 2-0 to SA. To me, if you going to talk about Indian cricket's resurgence, you have to talk about her performance away from home. We have always won at home, and been lambs overseas, the butt of derisory jokes all over. All that changed on 3 November 2001. Virender Sehwag made his debut against SA at Blomfontein that day. He made a century, batting at number six, scored at a rate of 60.7, and followed that up with a 31 in the 2nd innings, scored at 86.11/100 deliveries. Although India lost that match, their overseas record was to change unrecognisably from that point on. Until that point, starting on 6 March 1971, the day that Gavaskar made his famous debut against the West Indies, India had played 114 overseas Tests, won 13 and lost 43, a pathetic W:L ratio of 0.30 (9:21 for Sunny himself, giving a W:L ratio of 0.43). Since debut, Sehwag has featured in 32 overseas Tests, and India has won 11 of them, losing 10, a W:L ratio of 1.10. When you consider that of those 32, six Tests were played in Australia, of which India won 2, and lost 1, you just begin to appreciate his importance to the side. He was also instrumental in our first away series win against Pakistan in 2004, who never recovered from his fearful triple ton, scored at a rate of knotts, against a full strength bowling attack in the first Test. During this period, India have played 11 overseas Tests without him, won 3, and lost 3. Overall, India's record since his debut reads won 14, lost 13, W:L ratio 1.07. Why is Sehwag so important to India? Consider this, he is the only player in the history of the game to score at a pace quicker than 70 runs per 100 deliveries and average 50. (His SR is 74.89) If anything, he scores even faster away from home, where his SR stands at an astounding 77.61. There is no player currently drawing breath who can combine that pace of scoring to his prolificity. For changing the face of Indian cricket with his bold and fearless cricket, particularly away from the comforts of home, Virender Sehwag gets my vote for the player who's had the greatest influence on his national team's fortunes.

[Yuvraj4Captaincy]

Kapil Dev as he is the one who brought the passion for odis in India.. Next will be Gavaskar and then Tendulkar.

[Chaos]

agree kapil was the REAL champ. Gavaskar and other's played lot of politics to crush other people down.

[suraj]

Yes, but India remained a shockingly poor side for many years after Gavaskar hung up his boots. Similarly, Kapil's departure was followed by a very lean period, bereft of any sort of fast bowling talent, allegations of match fixing, culminating in our worst ever loss at home, 2-0 to SA. To me, if you going to talk about Indian cricket's resurgence, you have to talk about her performance away from home. We have always won at home, and been lambs overseas, the butt of derisory jokes all over. All that changed on 3 November 2001. Virender Sehwag made his debut against SA at Blomfontein that day. He made a century, batting at number six, scored at a rate of 60.7, and followed that up with a 31 in the 2nd innings, scored at 86.11/100 deliveries. Although India lost that match, their overseas record was to change unrecognisably from that point on. Until that point, starting on 6 March 1971, the day that Gavaskar made his famous debut against the West Indies, India had played 114 overseas Tests, won 13 and lost 43, a pathetic W:L ratio of 0.30 (9:21 for Sunny himself, giving a W:L ratio of 0.43). Since debut, Sehwag has featured in 32 overseas Tests, and India has won 11 of them, losing 10, a W:L ratio of 1.10. When you consider that of those 32, six Tests were played in Australia, of which India won 2, and lost 1, you just begin to appreciate his importance to the side. He was also instrumental in our first away series win against Pakistan in 2004, who never recovered from his fearful triple ton, scored at a rate of knotts, against a full strength bowling attack in the first Test. During this period, India have played 11 overseas Tests without him, won 3, and lost 3. Overall, India's record since his debut reads won 14, lost 13, W:L ratio 1.07. Why is Sehwag so important to India? Consider this, he is the only player in the history of the game to score at a pace quicker than 70 runs per 100 deliveries and average 50. (His SR is 74.89) If anything, he scores even faster away from home, where his SR stands at an astounding 77.61. There is no player currently drawing breath who can combine that pace of scoring to his prolificity. For changing the face of Indian cricket with his bold and fearless cricket, particularly away from the comforts of home, Virender Sehwag gets my vote for the player who's had the greatest influence on his national team's fortunes.

Great thoughts Dhondy and then I simply fail to understand why Sehwag is often dropped for tests and picked for ODIs; I am sure if you did a similar analysis in ODIs Sehwag's record will be pretty poor compared to the tests.

[suraj]

Here would be my list: 1) Transformer: Kapil Dev. If you think of any traiblazing activity in Indian cricket there is a good chance you can trace a bit of it to Kapil. Today when I read as to how Dhoni has brought cricket to "small towns" I find it amusing because thats what Kapil did, only 30 years back. Before he arrived Sunil Gavaskar used to open the bowling for India, I dont need to remind people of how Kapil changed that scenario. On batting side I am yet to see an Indian batsmen whose strike rate matches Kapil's in both form of the cricket. And on fielding side he was peerless, easily the most natural fielder(alongwith Azhar) that I have seen till date. 2) Mr. Consistent: Gavaskar Gavaskar was not the first great Indian batsmen. Indeed Vijay Merchant was as good as Sunny and Hazare and others can also claim the title. But what worked in Sunny's favour was his consistency. He put a price on his wicket and it did not matter where he was playing, against whom he was playing, he would stay put and get his runs. Unlike say a Sehwag who scores 0,10,23 & 197 in 4 innings and gets his average past 50, Sunny was more likely to score 35, 63, 47, 76. Today when you hear commentators gush about Hayden - "For an opener he plays spinner extremely well" you have to wonder how good Sunny really was as almost every spinner of his time would tell you that Sunny was the best batsman against spinners. Of course his skills against pace bowling need not be retold. 3) Mr. Complete : Sachin Sachin, to me, is just a shade under Sunny as far as Test batting is concerned but he more than makes up for it with his LOI batting where he must rank alongside Viv Richards as the greatest batsman ever. Sachin has as big a range of strokes as any batsman seen and is also a very handy spinner and a decent, if not splendid, fielder. 4) Silent servants: Dravid and Kumble. Both fantastic cricketer but the kind who choose to do their job and go home to their family. It is almost impossible to pick 1 controversy that this guys have started and thats saying a lot considering they have played over 200 Test and probably 3 times that many LOI. As a batsman Dravid is technically as good a batsman as we have ever seen, as a bowler Kumble has won more matches than any other bowler for India till date. xxx

Your titles sound better than mine

[graphic23]

I agree with most of the folks here that Kapil, Sunny, Sachin, Dravid, and Kumble have been great servants and legends of Indian Cricket. I think the reason why we started to do well abroad after 2001 was also because Sourav's captaincy. Despite the deficiencies in his technique as a batsman, I think he deserves some credit for improving the way we played our cricket. He's a very hot headed guy, and though he has made some controversial decisions as captain, I think he instilled the belief in our players that we don't have to play any differently abroad than at home (in regards to our confidence, not strokeplay or bowling). I think it helped that he had Sachin, Dravid, and Kumble at their best at this time as well. He was a very aggressive captain (but for those tests played at home against Australia in 2004), and we started doing well in England (1-1) and Australia (1-1) and I think with Dravid, we started winning series (WI 1-0) and England (1-0). Who can forget that we won the series in Pakistan in 03-04 (2-1)? I do attribute it to Dravid more than anyone else for these victories but I think Ganguly's captaincy had something to do with it as well.

[sachin_fan]

I am really surprised that saurav was left out from this left. He was the one who brought new vigor into a team that was struggling with one dismal series after another and disappointments galore. He gave a new found arrogance to the team be it the natwest final or making steve waugh wait. Please add his name to this list

[prince40]

definitely ganguly was the biggest factor in our unparalleled successes in this century it began with the 2001 series victory vs aus, test wins/series wins in england, world cup 2003, natwest series, test win in WI after 25 years, first ever test and series wins in pakistan, first win in aus after 20+ years and also of course giving india youngsters like zaheer, bhajji, yuvraj, sehwag etc for the future so since the kapil/gavaskar era ganguly's captaincy since the match fixing scandal and also the greatness of tendulkar/dravid''s batting during this period r the best moments in indian cricket history for me so i'll add a new one- "THE" Captain- Ganguly

[King]

None can parallel Kapil Dev in Indian cricket. There have been batsmen that have scored heavily and consistently but to date there's only been one truly great all rounder from India i.e Kapil Dev. He truly remains at the top of the legend list for me. To be able to bowl in India and pick as many wickets is not easy. To also be equally good with the bat and to turn the games over its head consistently takes a lot. Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid follow Kapil Dev in the list.