Sadanand Vishwanath and the curse of talent

[Cricket Tragic]

L. Siva was an alcoholic and drug abuse? :headshake:

Yes.

[Sooda]

Arent you arguing against your own case here UG. Lets compare Irfan with Hilfenhous. Ever since Irfan lost his mojo and got kicked out of the National side, rightfully so too, his atitude has been - Please dont expect me to be a 150 kph bowler, I was always a 130 kph. That whole argument is weird on so many levels - a) No Indian fan expected Irfan to be a 150 kph bowler. Ever! But what we did expect Irfan was to be in 138-142 kph range. This was not a huge expectation since Irfan started his career in that range anyway. If anything Indian fans could have expected, rightfully so, that he would up his speed to around 140 kph consistently, which clearly did not happen. b) Much as Irfan didnt up his speed, his speed actually went down. Now even this could have been acceptable had he gone McGrath or Akram route and added tool to his arsenal. Instead he lost pace, lost whatever skills he had and no wonder batsmen sorted him out rather easily. If after all that you have that kind of atitude I doubt MRF or NCA would have made any difference. When Dravid retired almost every player mentioned how he was the first one at practice, last to leave. Much as I have been critical of Sachin, he also went to Australia before the trip to get some practice. Didnt work in the end but you give props for taking the initiative. Ever heard Pathan bowling his heart out in Ranji getting his mojo back? Or Munaf bending his back? Or Sreesanth working on ironing out his chink? You think they could have been nurtured, I think their atitude ensured they eventually achieved what they were capable of. xxx

YES! Well not the getting his Mojo back bit, but bowling his heart out anyway.It is the reason why he is back in the side. He has worked hard, very hard, on his technique with T A Sekhar- so it was coaching and his attitude that did help him. That is why his bowling arm is higher and he is quicker now and a better bowler then when he last played when he was a slow medium cutters bowler. He is not quite as quick as he was, I do not think he can be now as he has suffered serious back injury since. Still the question he ducks of his lost pace (as with all our pacemen) is a legit one as it was way down even before the injury I would not bracket all these guys together, cases are different. RPS has became blatantly unfit, something you cannot accuse Irfan of. And I would agree that Santh and RPS are pretty talented. There was time in 07 when RPS was very good, since then you can tell his attitude his sucked from the belly when he was in England. Santh is an enigma, spells in SA and testament to his ability, but one good spell a series does not a good bowler make. Maybe youre right- does he put in as much effort as he should? If there are chinks, as there might be with Ishant then as UG says, that is where Simons or whoever should have been coming in to tell them how to sort it out. No one can accuse Ishant of lack of commitment- why has he not developed over the years as we expecrted. I see it as a combo of both almost, attitude on the bowlers part and the coaching somehow not being up to mark. Munaf lost his pace too, I think his lack of athleticism is a lot to do with the fact that he really started bowling seriously quite late, maybe even in his 20's..? Before playing serious cricket. I think we do the BCCI a disservice if we accuse them of lack of support for injured players. Certainly in Irfans case they supported his rehab. And Im sure they did the same for Bala and Nehra. Bala was just unlucky, he could have been very good if injury had not struck. He even made a comeback- again doing the hard yards in Ranji- but was clearly not the same.

[Crookbond]

Loss of pace of Munaf is not just due to athleticism but on his run up to the crease. He has modeled himself on McGrath who had a slight cross jump (left to right) while approaching the crease. This made the ball straightening or the out swinger slightly more pronounced as it may haven't been effective because McGrath bowled close to the stumps. McGrath however was bloody strong but Munaf isn't so. Therefore, it let to slight remodeling of his action and jump to the crease to keep him fit. This led to a dip in pace.

[Lurker]

YES! Well not the getting his Mojo back bit' date= but bowling his heart out anyway.It is the reason why he is back in the side. He has worked hard, very hard, on his technique with T A Sekhar- so it was coaching and his attitude that did help him. That is why his bowling arm is higher and he is quicker now and a better bowler then when he last played when he was a slow medium cutters bowler. He is not quite as quick as he was, I do not think he can be now as he has suffered serious back injury since. Still the question he ducks of his lost pace (as with all our pacemen) is a legit one as it was way down even before the injury

Sooda, Have a look at these. Compare Kapil Dev's last few years First class bowling with Irfan Pathan's. Surprising to see, or maybe not, that even on his last leg Kapil bowled more deliveries per season than Pathan. Look at 91-92 and 92-93 for example. If you are interested look at Kapil's overall first class stat and compare how often Kapil would be bowling 2000 plus deliveries per season, and how little Irfan does today. Wont be too different for others. Admittedly these days first class cricket are on wane, there is 20 20 etc..but the larger point of bowling long hauls to develop your craft remains. http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/1/1568/f_Bowling_by_Season.html http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/11/11245/f_Bowling_by_Season.html

[StatsRock]

Yes.

CT Anna, Care to throw more light on this? As in which time period did this happen and where was it reported that he picked up these vices? LS toured SL in 1985-86 followed by Aus. Played 1 Ranji knockout vs Bombay that year. Played 86-87 Ranji league games as well(TN did not qualify for KO). Part of the 87-88 Ranji winning team. When exactly did he fell into those vices and how did they affect his cricket?

[Crookbond]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/495687.html

There's nothing uniquely Indian about unfulfilled potential, of course, and yet India seems to offer more egregious examples of it than most cricketing countries. The first seven Indian batsmen to score a century on Test debut never made another: it was almost as if ambition was satisfied at the first triumph. Is there something in our national character that ensures brilliance is too easily satisfied? Or is it the huge pressure of the expectations of the cricket-obsessed millions that many believe they can never meet? Is it, conversely, the huge rewards the game offers in India that distract the gifted young man before he can rise to the full heights of which he is capable? Whatever it is, to paraphrase the poet Whittier, of all the sad words about the cricketing scene, the saddest are these: "it might have been".