Did Sunil Gavaskar’s obsession with personal milestones set Indian cricket back by a decade?

[rangeelaraja]

How many times have those who followed Indian cricket in the 1990s/2000s heard Sunil Gavaskar advise young cricketers to aim for personal milestones a century here, a double century there, and various other records along the way? This mindset, consciously or otherwise, seemed to pass on to Sachin Tendulkar’s generation as well. It was not uncommon to see batters slow down as they approached a milestone, ensuring their place in the record books even if it occasionally came at the expense of the team’s momentum.

 

In recent years, however, the culture appears to have shifted. Starting with Rohit Sharma and, to some extent, Virat Kohli, and now reinforced under Gautam Gambhir as coach who himself embodied a similar team first mindset as a player personal milestones are increasingly frowned upon if they risk hurting the team’s cause.

 

India’s winning ratio has since gone through the roof. We may no longer have the same kind of personal milestone maestros that defined earlier eras, but this team is winning at a rate that resembles an all time great side. 

 

Love this :

 

 

 

[diga]

He comes from the test mindset where losing was not an option and one had to fight for a draw.. the way to motivate himself was through personal milestones. ( Mumbai guys may call it khadoos mindset) ....

 

In this era of limited overs cricket where you always have a result, team goals will dominate personal milestones 

[Gollum]

He is a product of his times. When India was a pushover and milestones gave more happiness to our fans. Never moved on from that mentality. 

 

Anyway, I hope our test players are more milestone-obsessed. Score big 100s, lots of runs, Gill showed that in the Eng tour and we had a good result. Hunger for big runs should always be there in tests, as Root shows. White ball is obviously different. 

[New guy]

You can afford to not care about other stuff when you have enough talent in the team that 1 or 2 players failing made no difference. But when its just 1 or 2 players carrying the team, they will stand out and be bigger than the others and their achievements will be celebrated more

 

No one will care for personal numbers if 7 players from a team each made 100s in a 7 different matches of a world cup. But people will care if one single player of one team made 7 100s in the world cup while others failed. The former team is more likely to win the cup while the later fans are left celebrating that one player.

[randomGuy]

Once dravid declared innings before Sachin made his 200 and Sachin was visibly upset.

[vvvslaxman]

23 hours ago, Gollum said:

He is a product of his times. When India was a pushover and milestones gave more happiness to our fans. Never moved on from that mentality. 

 

Anyway, I hope our test players are more milestone-obsessed. Score big 100s, lots of runs, Gill showed that in the Eng tour and we had a good result. Hunger for big runs should always be there in tests, as Root shows. White ball is obviously different. 

. Score 100s with a couple of conditions  1) don't get out immediately  2) Don't try to get  desperately just before lunch

[vvvslaxman]

8 minutes ago, randomGuy said:

Once dravid declared innings before Sachin made his 200 and Sachin was visibly upset.

Ganguly threw Dravid under the bus lol  But before that tour at the SCG,  Dravid made 233 in the first innings. In the innings he made a quick 91 not out  Ganguly declared depriving him of scoring 200 & 100 in the same test. But Dravid didn't really make a deal about it.

[Gollum]

Just now, vvvslaxman said:

Ganguly threw Dravid under the bus lol  But before that tour at the SCG,  Dravid made 233 in the first innings. In the innings he made a quick 91 not out  Ganguly declared depriving him of scoring 200 & 100 in the same test. But Dravid didn't really make a deal about it.

Dravid got concussed in the 2nd innings because of a bouncer. Couldn't continue IIRC. 

[vvvslaxman]

1 minute ago, Gollum said:

Dravid got concussed in the 2nd innings because of a bouncer. Couldn't continue IIRC. 

really? Didn't remember.

[Number]

18 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

really? Didn't remember.

 

 

Brett Lee's bouncer hit him on his ear, he was bleeding and probably couldn't continue.

Edited March 10 by Number

[Number]

Why blame him alone though. Hero worshipping, always looking for a magical messiah and putting people on pedestal are societal problems in India. 

[vvvslaxman]

23 minutes ago, Number said:

Why blame him alone though. Hero worshipping, always looking for a magical messiah and putting people on pedestal are societal problems in India. 

I think slowing down for 100 did not hurt that badly as the scoring rate was slow anyway. Nowadays it makes more sense.

[zen]

GG is doing the right thing by educating or re-educating against the quest for milestones and stats padding. 

[G_B_]

Yes. But its naunced.

 

Bcci in 70s and 80s produced flattest pitches for a draws in tests to they could make more money.

 

This induced milestones.

 

 

[Lord]

9 hours ago, Gollum said:

Dravid got concussed in the 2nd innings because of a bouncer. Couldn't continue IIRC. 

 

He was hit on the ear. Could continue AFAIK

[Vk1]

12 hours ago, randomGuy said:

Once dravid declared innings before Sachin made his 200 and Sachin was visibly upset.

Dravid did something that he never did while he was batting in tests

[Gollum]

3 hours ago, Lord said:

 

He was hit on the ear. Could continue AFAIK

Dravid was 91*(114), extremely fast by his standards. 

 

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/india-tour-of-australia-2003-04-62294/australia-vs-india-4th-test-64062/full-scorecard

[maniac]

When Sachin started, he used to be daredevil and selfless in Lois. Even in tests he didn’t have 200s for a while and ODIs he would get magical 40-80.

 

then he took Gavaskar’s advice and started converting his knocks to 100s. At that time I remember people criticizing Sachin for playing for milestones but given the team around him, he got away with it. However in hindsight those 100s do look

way more valuable. How much legacy would he have had if he was playing selfless 40-50s?

 

also I remember Sachin getting crazy starts for the first 50-60 runs.

 

Anyway I don’t really get what selfless batting is? I don’t remember any cricketer purposely losing a match and getting his 50 or 100. Yes game might be dead and a player gets cheap runs that’s a different matter. It’s not as easy as it seems to get a milestone with whatever selfish approach.

[vvvslaxman]

5 minutes ago, maniac said:

When Sachin started, he used to be daredevil and selfless in Lois. Even in tests he didn’t have 200s for a while and ODIs he would get magical 40-80.

 

then he took Gavaskar’s advice and started converting his knocks to 100s. At that time I remember people criticizing Sachin for playing for milestones but given the team around him, he got away with it. However in hindsight those 100s do look

way more valuable. How much legacy would he have had if he was playing selfless 40-50s?

 

also I remember Sachin getting crazy starts for the first 50-60 runs.

 

Anyway I don’t really get what selfless batting is? I don’t remember any cricketer purposely losing a match and getting his 50 or 100. Yes game might be dead and a player gets cheap runs that’s a different matter. It’s not as easy as it seems to get a milestone with whatever selfish approach.

 

Rohit showed in 2023. He could have easily gotten 3 centuries in 2023. He missed everyone of them.

[Suhaan]

Gavaskar must retire from everything related with cricket,even writing much like Ian Chappel 

 take alongwith him Akash Chopra,Deep Dasgupta ,Murli Kartik,Siddu,Bhokle and that Bevda(made 'meh' of the moment )