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The Legend of Ajit Wadekar


Mariyam

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1 hour ago, Mariyam said:

Generally, my dad doesn't speak cricket to me.

 

But this is an anecdote worth sharing.

My father used to frequent Shivaji park as a kid/teenager to watch and sometimes to play against the established players of the time. Those days you could just walk into a team and they'd let you play awhile. And coach you pro-bono if they saw any inkling of talent. On one of those such trips, he got to witness Ajit Wadekar on strike.

Wadekar was partnering a spinner/tailend batsman after a collapse of sorts and anchored the innings and got Shivaji Gymkhana into a comfortably winning position.

That's when the crowd started goading him into a display of fireworks.

The crowd would go " we want a sixer" and Wadekar would oblige with a sixer in that general direction.

There was some businessman who was in what passed off as the luxury pavilion of the Shivaji Park restaurant back then and raised his tea cup towards Wadekar. In the next ball Wadekar's six smashed the teapot.

And he repeated this feat again a few overs later, when the businessman had the teapot replaced.

 

I met (rather Hi Hello-ed) Wadekar many years ago at a wedding at the MCA. He would have been in his 70s. He seemed quite sharp and alert. I'm taking this anecdote at face value.

 

Have we ever had any such talent after him? I know we have had many greats, but someone with this level of mastery over his craft?

 

   

 

 

Mariyam ... that was a great read.  Loved it. !

 

With so much information available these days and so much number crunching going on (  I am " guilty " of extreme number crunching myself ), the romanticism that was associated with cricket and most other sports is largely gone. Unless a bit of unprofessionalism is there, you will never see this kind of exciting happenings.

 

The great Viv Richards had the habit of hitting 6s in the area where the bowler had placed a deep fielder. He saw it as a challenge and batted that way. Even in a serious test match, sometimes he took a ball from way outside the off stump and tried to flick it over mid-wicket, just for fun.

 

Most international cricketers have far greater ability than they display in international or IPL matches. If you see them practice or play club matches, how much superior they are in terms of cricketing ability,  compared to the rest of us, would just boggle the mind. I remember, as a kid, Ravi Shastri giving high catching practice before the start of a match. Even with rather poor quality bats at that time ( around 1990 )  he was hitting the ball so high with 1 hand. He did it probably 50 times without even concentrating and casually chatting to the guy next to him. 

 

Once I faced a club level pacer who was so quick that I could not see a single delivery. He injured one of thr openers nastily and he had to be hospitalized. I usually batted at No.5 but my Captain and Vice captain, who used the 3 and 4 spots, suddenly decided to promote me to 3 citing my supposed ability against pace.  :phehe:    I did manage to hit a pulled 6 just by fluke and anticipation and managed to stay unhurt that day. But if we saw this monster bowler on TV, I guess we will all laugh and call him a trundler. 

 

Sorry, I could not contribute much about Wadekar as I wasn't even born when he played.

 

But as I am sitting with a mug of steaming coffee in my office, on a chilly winter afternoon, I really enjoyed the yarn. Brings back lots of memories of the Unprofessional 1990s ( although your tale was from the late 1960s to early 1970s ).

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by express bowling
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7 minutes ago, express bowling said:

 

 

The great Viv Richards had the habit of hitting 6s in the area where the bowler had placed a deep fielder. He saw it as a challenge and batted that way. Even in a serious test match, sometimes he took a ball from way outside the off stump and tried to flick it over mid-wicket, just for fun.

 Talking about Viv Richards there's one incident that I read about - 

 

A county Bowler once was troubling him and he Viv wasn't able to even touch the ball for a while. 

 

The County bowler then tried to sledge him by saying that - "Hey Viv, this is the ball, it's red in color and weighs so many pounds etc" 

 

The next ball Viv hit for a monstrous six and the ball went into the lake outside the stadium, 

Viv then replied to the bowler saying "You knew too much about the ball, now go and find it." 

 

The swagger in cricketers post 1990 was a delight to watch, especially after the 1992 Wc the game of cricket became a big commercial entity and recently the commercial aspect has taken over every other aspect. 

 

Also Cricket became a Sissy game, the West Indian pace trio would be hated in this era bcoz of their hostility and the fact that they were out there to injure players. 

 

The restrictions on Abuse and Sledging should be removed.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Adamant said:

 Talking about Viv Richards there's one incident that I read about - 

 

A county Bowler once was troubling him and he Viv wasn't able to even touch the ball for a while. 

 

The County bowler then tried to sledge him by saying that - "Hey Viv, this is the ball, it's red in color and weighs so many pounds etc" 

 

The next ball Viv hit for a monstrous six and the ball went into the lake outside the stadium, 

Viv then replied to the bowler saying "You knew too much about the ball, now go and find it." 

 

The swagger in cricketers post 1990 was a delight to watch, especially after the 1992 Wc the game of cricket became a big commercial entity and recently the commercial aspect has taken over every other aspect. 

 

Also Cricket became a Sissy game, the West Indian pace trio would be hated in this era bcoz of their hostility and the fact that they were out there to injure players. 

 

The restrictions on Abuse and Sledging should be removed.  

 

 

 

 

Coaches and captains try to rein in individualism and quirks of players these days. 

 

But from a viewer point of view, watching someone like Pant, going about with his pyrotechnics, is so refreshing to watch. Robot like players, going about there business quietly, is no fun for most people. 

 

I too still yearn for the 2 bouncer rule to be removed. With so much protective gears avail able these days, hostile bowling should be accèptable.  

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3 hours ago, express bowling said:

But if we saw this monster bowler on TV, I guess we will all laugh and call him a trundler. 

Cannot stress this enough.

 

The gulf in quality is massive once you step up from the basic recreational or club levels of cricket.  The really short of amount of time a batsman has, in reacting to a pace bowler, is not displayed accurately on TV.  Majority of casuals think why doesn't this batsman do "this or that".  They have no clue.

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4 hours ago, diga said:

I have heard that Sehwag smashed a reverse swinging ball out of the ground and it was replaced. The replacement ball did not swing as much.  

yeah and apparently he would dance down the wicket to a pacer when it is swinging and try a fake shot without the intent to connecting it.. his reputation was such that the bowler would now start bowling it short ( reducing the scope for swing)

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Interesting story, and in fact he wasnt even that "great" a player (test average of 31), which tells you how good the real world class players are

 

However Ajit Wadekar should be hailed as an extremely important figure in the history of Indian cricket not for his batting but for leading us to important test series wins-  India beat WI away and England away under his leadership in 1971 with Gavaskar and the legendary spinners the key men

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16 hours ago, Mariyam said:

Generally, my dad doesn't speak cricket to me.

 

But this is an anecdote worth sharing.

My father used to frequent Shivaji park as a kid/teenager to watch and sometimes to play against the established players of the time. Those days you could just walk into a team and they'd let you play awhile. And coach you pro-bono if they saw any inkling of talent. On one of those such trips, he got to witness Ajit Wadekar on strike.

Wadekar was partnering a spinner/tailend batsman after a collapse of sorts and anchored the innings and got Shivaji Gymkhana into a comfortably winning position.

That's when the crowd started goading him into a display of fireworks.

The crowd would go " we want a sixer" and Wadekar would oblige with a sixer in that general direction.

There was some businessman who was in what passed off as the luxury pavilion of the Shivaji Park restaurant back then and raised his tea cup towards Wadekar. In the next ball Wadekar's six smashed the teapot.

And he repeated this feat again a few overs later, when the businessman had the teapot replaced.

 

I met (rather Hi Hello-ed) Wadekar many years ago at a wedding at the MCA. He would have been in his 70s. He seemed quite sharp and alert. I'm taking this anecdote at face value.

 

Have we ever had any such talent after him? I know we have had many greats, but someone with this level of mastery over his craft?

 

   

 

Thank you for sharing this wonderful anecdote Mariyamjee :smile:

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On 12/6/2021 at 3:51 AM, Adamant said:

 Talking about Viv Richards there's one incident that I read about - 

 

A county Bowler once was troubling him and he Viv wasn't able to even touch the ball for a while. 

 

The County bowler then tried to sledge him by saying that - "Hey Viv, this is the ball, it's red in color and weighs so many pounds etc" 

 

The next ball Viv hit for a monstrous six and the ball went into the lake outside the stadium, 

Viv then replied to the bowler saying "You knew too much about the ball, now go and find it." 

 

The swagger in cricketers post 1990 was a delight to watch, especially after the 1992 Wc the game of cricket became a big commercial entity and recently the commercial aspect has taken over every other aspect. 

 

Also Cricket became a Sissy game, the West Indian pace trio would be hated in this era bcoz of their hostility and the fact that they were out there to injure players. 

 

The restrictions on Abuse and Sledging should be removed.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

yeah, that was greg thomas. have seen him a bowl a bit. a sub-unadcutter level trundler. Viv showed him who's the boss that day

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On 12/7/2021 at 4:43 AM, Sooda said:

Interesting story, and in fact he wasnt even that "great" a player (test average of 31), which tells you how good the real world class players are

 

However Ajit Wadekar should be hailed as an extremely important figure in the history of Indian cricket not for his batting but for leading us to important test series wins-  India beat WI away and England away under his leadership in 1971 with Gavaskar and the legendary spinners the key men

Wasn't even that great?

 

This is some unheard of accuracy. I mean he did this in a competitive match! And twice. 

 

Judgement. Accuracy. Hand Eye co-ordination.Motor reflexes. Wind conditions. He has to be on top of everything when he executes that shot.

 

I miss 80% of the times when I throw a crumpled piece of paper in a bin from 3 feet away. Even my 6 year old daughter laughs at me. I obviously find Wadekar's feat out of this world incredible.

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