From Munaf Patel to Jonty Rhodes

[fineleg]

Lets say we come up with a points system. Scale of 1 to 10 (10 is super) 1 - Worst Fielder (imagine munaf daadaji patel on one of his sleepy days) 10 - A superman (lets say Jonty Rhodes is 9 or 9.5) NYO or N/A = Not Yet observed or N/A (For example, Munaf Patel in close catching or slips is N/A) How would you rate various contemporary Indian players (Domestics, ODIs and Tests, include T20 players if you want)...Maharathis (seniors), Midrathis (Sehwag, ZK), and Juniors (Chawla, Mishra et.al) JUST AN EXAMPLE: [table=header]Player|Close-catching|Outfielding|Remarks Raina|7.5|8| Laxman|7.5|3.5| Mohd. Kaif|4|8| (kaif bad in close catching like fwd.short-leg, but good elsewhere) Kumble|6|3.5|(retired, but just now retired) [/table]

[Online]

Nerd

[bharat297]

I gave them overall scores Sehwag - 6.5 Gambhir - 7.5 Dravid - 6.5 Tendulkar - 6.5 Laxman - 6 Ganguly - 5 Dhoni - 8.2 (a very good keeper) Harbhajan - 6.5 Zaheer - 6.5 Ishant - 6 Mishra - 6 Rohit Sharma - 8.1 Yuvraj - 7 (I think he used to be an 8, but after the knee injury he has gone down) Uthappa - 8 Raina - 8.1 Kohli - 8 Praveen Kumar - 6.5 Badrinath - 8 Munaf - 4 Pathan - 7 RP Singh - 6 Average = 6.73 My system was that if you can pick up the ball 9 times out of 10 you score more than 4. If you have decent reflexes and catch 90% of the balls at you, you score more than 5. If you have a good arm you score more than 6. If you are mobile in the field and can make diving stops you score more than 7. If you can really attack the ball, throw down the stumps, or take diving catches regularly, you score more than 8. For that reason, I believe that Sharma, Raina, Kohli, Uthappa and Badrinath are our best fielders at the moment.

[Dravid]

edit: removed

[Kohum]

How do you folks come up with 1/2 points even? There aren't that many stats as well Dravid - no need to post if you have nothing *constructive* to add to the thread.

[fineleg]

I gave them overall scores Sehwag - 6.5 Gambhir - 7.5 Dravid - 6.5 Tendulkar - 6.5 Laxman - 6 Ganguly - 5 Dhoni - 8.2 (a very good keeper) Harbhajan - 6.5 Zaheer - 6.5 Ishant - 6 Mishra - 6 Rohit Sharma - 8.1 Yuvraj - 7 (I think he used to be an 8, but after the knee injury he has gone down) Uthappa - 8 Raina - 8.1 Kohli - 8 Praveen Kumar - 6.5 Badrinath - 8 Munaf - 4 Pathan - 7 RP Singh - 6 Average = 6.73 My system was that if you can pick up the ball 9 times out of 10 you score more than 4. If you have decent reflexes and catch 90% of the balls at you, you score more than 5. If you have a good arm you score more than 6. If you are mobile in the field and can make diving stops you score more than 7. If you can really attack the ball, throw down the stumps, or take diving catches regularly, you score more than 8. For that reason, I believe that Sharma, Raina, Kohli, Uthappa and Badrinath are our best fielders at the moment.

Good one. Interestingly, RP Singh, Praveen Kumar et.al. who are *not* seniors, dont field well. Why so? Is it because our training (in fielding) at junior level still sucks a lot?

[kooljatt]

edit: removed offensive portion :cantstop::haha::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical: brilliant,,,,i like this rating

[bharat297]

Good one. Interestingly, RP Singh, Praveen Kumar et.al. who are *not* seniors, dont field well. Why so? Is it because our training (in fielding) at junior level still sucks a lot?

Tony Grieg made a very good point about that once. He said that people that didnt play, at a young age, sports where you have to dive round a lot (such as say soccer, or rugby) generally do not end up as good a ground fieldsman as those that do, for the main reason that they are scared to attack the ball. They may still catch well. If you look at Australia, NZ, England and SAF ... they all play soccer or rugby and, as young kids, often have to attack a ball at extreme speeds without concern for their own safety. When they move to cricket it actually becomes less of a fear to attack a cricket ball that is hit to you at 200+ km/h because they dont mind putting their body on the line. I dont know if I explained that well. I hope that makes sense.

[ludhianvi]

I wish I can draw a table' date=' but you get the idea.[/quote'] Here finey: http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showpost.php?p=474683&postcount=753

[Online]

I really thought this thread was a joke, I am surprised there may be people who think otherwise! Maybe the mods should move this to the jokes section - it may get more mileage there.

[fineleg]

online, get out of this thread, if you dont want to contribute.

[fineleg]

Ludh, Thanx - I updated the first post.

[Mr. Wicket]

Crap removed. Keep it on topic.

[DomainK]

Good one. Interestingly, RP Singh, Praveen Kumar et.al. who are *not* seniors, dont field well. Why so? Is it because our training (in fielding) at junior level still sucks a lot?

Tony Grieg made a very good point about that once. He said that people that didnt play, at a young age, sports where you have to dive round a lot (such as say soccer, or rugby) generally do not end up as good a ground fieldsman as those that do, for the main reason that they are scared to attack the ball. They may still catch well. If you look at Australia, NZ, England and SAF ... they all play soccer or rugby and, as young kids, often have to attack a ball at extreme speeds without concern for their own safety. When they move to cricket it actually becomes less of a fear to attack a cricket ball that is hit to you at 200+ km/h because they dont mind putting their body on the line. I dont know if I explained that well. I hope that makes sense.

Well said Bharat. Thats a very practical reason definitely. I myself did not play those games in my childhood. I was a very good close-in fielder but I sucked in the outfield. I have played a lot of gully cricket with the kids on the hills of Orissa. I have learned that a body built in a gym may look athletic, but does not necessarily act so. On the contrary the kids who grow up grazing cows in the hills can really field. They are lightening fast in the outfield and have sharp in reflexes. I have seen some of the best catches in gully cricket and not in international cricket. Another interesting point was made by Amarnath in a television interview that the seniors have not set good examples. He said that a youngster who modeled himself on Sunil Gavaskar (Sunny was sitting next to him at that time) would not learn the importance of good fielding. He said that Sunny could bat day after day without tiring, but ask him to chase a few on the outfield and he is dead.:D So he pointed out that unless youngsters see their heroes set the right examples, they wont learn.

[fineleg]

Well said Bharat. Thats a very practical reason definitely. I myself did not play those games in my childhood. I was a very good close-in fielder but I sucked in the outfield. I have played a lot of gully cricket with the kids on the hills of Orissa. I have learned that a body built in a gym may look athletic, but does not necessarily act so. On the contrary the kids who grow up grazing cows in the hills can really field. They are lightening fast in the outfield and have sharp in reflexes. I have seen some of the best catches in gully cricket and not in international cricket. Another interesting point was made by Amarnath in a television interview that the seniors have not set good examples. He said that a youngster who modeled himself on Sunil Gavaskar (Sunny was sitting next to him at that time) would not learn the importance of good fielding. He said that Sunny could bat day after day without tiring, but ask him to chase a few on the outfield and he is dead.:D So he pointed out that unless youngsters see their heroes set the right examples, they wont learn.

Move over SRT - we need Raina to take up your position of national hero :D I agree domaink - seniors need to set a good example. But given what we have, the cricket training institutes need to work with youngsters on fielding at an early stage. Fielding importance needs to be grilled into them.