My Sport: Michael Holding

[CC1981]

Gavaskar lost a ton of respect to the WI pacers in the 81/82 series in the caribbean. That was the series where Amarnath dominated the WI bowling while Gavaskar was ' c. Dujon b. Marshall' or 'c. Dujon b. Holding' that series for low scores, except for a century in Guyana. That century in Guyana incensed a lot of WI players against Gavaskar because that match was a bona-fide rain-affected draw- India's 1st innings started late in the 4th day and the WI, who wanted to call it a draw on 5th morning were incensed to keep playing for Gavaskar's ton. That innings of Gavaskar is the root to WI's dislike of Gavaskar. Holding, Viv, Lloyd, etc. all mention how Gavaskar played solely for his century on a flat Guyana pitch with no possibility of a result. Also in 84/85 series where Gavaskar scored his 200+ against the four-prong, WI were convinced that Gavaskar was out for 5 but didnt walk. That he went on to score a double incensed them. Otherwise, Gavaskar was a legend in the caribbean throughout the 70s. David Rudder even wrote a song about him and he was the 'cult hero' of the caribbean population along with Doug Walters as the 'caribbean-killers'. As for praising Amarnath- I bet Amarnath would've been there too in Holding's wishlist if he hadnt completely imploded against the WI and scored 1 run in six innings against them. Vengy and Marshall were hated enemies on the field and that is why out of respect for Macco Holding doesnt name Vengy.

[MundaPakistani]

From a Pakistani POV Majid's inclusion makes sense as he was arguably the greatest back foot that PAK has ever produced hence he did quite well against the W Indians. Zaheer on the other hand was a terrible player of express fast bowling but what's more surprising than the inclusion of Zaheer is the exclusion of Wasim Raja. Something tells me that Holding didn't put too much thought in answering this particular question.

[MundaPakistani]

About W Raja( taken from cricinfo) Wasim made his first-class debut at 15, for Lahore, while still at school at Government College, went on to Punjab University, where he excelled at cricket and academically, getting a first in his Masters degree in politics, and came into the Test side in 1972-73, when called up as a replacement for the tour of New Zealand. He began to establish himself in 1974 in England, where he topped the tour averages. The "exuberant" Wasim played two innings at Lord's that Wisden described as "masterly", countering Derek Underwood on a drying wicket with selective attack. At home that winter he scored his maiden Test hundred against West Indies at Karachi. His innings was such a fine one that, instead of the usual handful of well-wishers that used to run on to the field to congratulate a batsman on reaching three figures, there was a full-scale invasion. In all he played 11 Tests against West Indies, against attacks including Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and Colin Croft, making 919 runs at 57.43 so no wonder Holding didn't have much to say about him.

[Lurker]

From a Pakistani POV Majid's inclusion makes sense as he was arguably the greatest back foot that PAK has ever produced hence he did quite well against the W Indians. Zaheer on the other hand was a terrible player of express fast bowling but what's more surprising than the inclusion of Zaheer is the exclusion of Wasim Raja. Something tells me that Holding didn't put too much thought in answering this particular question.

MP. Wasim Raja I would agree to. He was almost like a Mohinder Amarnath in that the ferocious the pace attack the better his batting became. The problem for him was that he was almost like a VVS, his best efforts coming against 1-2 teams. Majid Khan was a good backfoot player but his backfoot game was not technically correct. He himself was on record to say, "Who needs technique when one has hands and eyes". Indeed this brought down his downfall too. There have been many instances in county cricket where on a completely unplayable wicket players were found wanting but not Majid, for the simple reason he did not need technique to succeed. Sehwag is kind of like him. I do agree that it doesnt seem Holding gave it a lot of thoughts in answering the questions. xxxx

[MundaPakistani]

MP. Wasim Raja I would agree to. He was almost like a Mohinder Amarnath in that the ferocious the pace attack the better his batting became. The problem for him was that he was almost like a VVS, his best efforts coming against 1-2 teams. Majid Khan was a good backfoot player but his backfoot game was not technically correct. He himself was on record to say, "Who needs technique when one has hands and eyes". Indeed this brought down his downfall too. There have been many instances in county cricket where on a completely unplayable wicket players were found wanting but not Majid, for the simple reason he did not need technique to succeed. Sehwag is kind of like him. I do agree that it doesnt seem Holding gave it a lot of thoughts in answering the questions. xxxx

You are right about Amarnath and Raja as they seemed to love batting against express pace bowlers hence both performed better away from home. In W Raja's case i feel that a batsman of his ability should have batted higher up in the order.

[Predator_05]

That was one reason why I put that quote of Holding in bold. Immovable on a flat track. that doesn't seem a compliment to me. I thought they struggled to combat Gavaskar even in their own den in the 70s. Apart from Holding rest of them have no second thought acknowledging Sunny. It has to be said Sunny rubs people on the wrong side and I won't be surprised if he did rub Holding the wrong way. I know for sure Lillee can't stand Gavaskar.

Gavaskar's record vs WI is highly overrated. He scored many of those hundreds against poor[er] West Indian bowling attacks featuring the likes of Daniel, Noriega, Holder, etc. and apart from the odd hundred and that 236 on a dead pitch at Chennai, the REAL WI bowling attack - ie; with Holding, Marshall, etc. leading it, had his number more often than not.

[CC1981]

Gavaskar's record vs WI is highly overrated. He scored many of those hundreds against poor[er] West Indian bowling attacks featuring the likes of Daniel, Noriega, Holder, etc. and apart from the odd hundred and that 236 on a dead pitch at Chennai, the REAL WI bowling attack - ie; with Holding, Marshall, etc. leading it, had his number more often than not.

That is going to the other extreme now ! Gavaskar's record against WI pace four-prong is quite obviously not as good as his overall record against the WI ( he averages 65.5 vs them!) but it is far from being crappy either. In 75/76 in the caribbean, Gavaskar opened against Roberts and Holding and still got nearly 400 runs and 2 centuries at over 55 average. He had one disastrous series vs the WI in 82/83 where apart from his dead-pitch dead-match century at Guyana, he didnt cross 35 in any other innings. But next series vs the four-prong, he took 505 runs in 6 matches, 2 centuries and 1 fifty- one was a double ton, one was where he murdered Holding & Marshall for 121 runs in 128 balls and the fifty score was 90 in 120 balls smashing Holding & Marshall all over the park. Overall, his track record against the WI pace merchants is quite stellar - yes, he did have two easy series, one his debut series and one the 79 series with a debutant Marshall & Clarke but his record against the terrifying pace units of the WI was beyond everybody else. Don't forget that while comparing Gavaskar to the rest of the 'great' batsmen, factor in that Gavaskar as opener averaged 50+ in an era when NO OTHER OPENER touched 50, only one touched 47 and no one else crossed 45 ! Its one thing being a lower-middle order like Raja who'd play against an old ball ( WI pacers didnt reverse-swing the ball) but opening was a much challenging job back in the day. I'd put Gavaskar's record against the WI pacers overall to be as good as any other bastsmen's out there, if not better. The four-prong were terrifying when they played together but don't forget that Roberts,Holding, Garner, Marshall/Croft played less than 20 tests together!