Frankly reply all senior haters

[Lurker]

^^ Good to hear that. It would be interesting if you could drag one of these chaps sometimes, if thats possible obviously. Talking of Sreekkanth what actually happened? The man was quite a swasbuckler in the period between 83 to 87(essentially the two world cups) but ever since the series in Pakistan he went down the tube. Did try to make a comeback in 1991/92 WC and managed to play a couple of 50 plus scores but was certainly not the Cheeka we all had seen. What exactly happened? Did lack of support(from BCCI) do him in? Was it pressure of leading so many captains (Kapil, Vengsarkar, Shashtri etc) or was it simply a case of Wasim Akram creating a permanent doubt in his mind? xxx

[kumble_rocks]

HariSampath , Where you based out of Hyderabad during the early nineties. I used to know journalist by your name from Hyderabad. And some of your anecdotes sound so similar to the gentlemen I used to know.

[Guest HariSampath]

HariSampath ' date=' Where you based out of Hyderabad during the early nineties. I used to know journalist by your name from Hyderabad. And some of your anecdotes sound so similar to the gentlemen I used to know.[/quote'] No, I had never been based out of Hyd per se, all allong in Chennai , when in India and I had never been a journalist at anytime. Of course since a lot of cricketers of India from Bangalore and Hyd always play in the Chennai cricket circuit, I know a bit about the cricket in those cities as well

[Guest HariSampath]

^^ Good to hear that. It would be interesting if you could drag one of these chaps sometimes, if thats possible obviously. Talking of Sreekkanth what actually happened? The man was quite a swasbuckler in the period between 83 to 87(essentially the two world cups) but ever since the series in Pakistan he went down the tube. Did try to make a comeback in 1991/92 WC and managed to play a couple of 50 plus scores but was certainly not the Cheeka we all had seen. What exactly happened? Did lack of support(from BCCI) do him in? Was it pressure of leading so many captains (Kapil, Vengsarkar, Shashtri etc) or was it simply a case of Wasim Akram creating a permanent doubt in his mind? xxx

Oh, Cheeka had a very bad test series in Pak 1989 as a batsman when he led India there, Sachin's debut for India. Before that series, due to wranglings with the board on players and contracts issues Srikkanth for the first time in Indian cricket history, rejected the board's sponsorship, and took his team to Pak under the private sponsorship of BOSS the sporting gear/clothes company. Despite the board being rubbed on the wrong side, Sri managed his team very well, and with a young side, managed to become the first Indian captain to return undefeated from a tour of Pakistan, smting even Bedi and Gavaskar had not achieved. He was dropped for the tour of NZ in 1990 and also England with Ajju made captain , but when the SA team made their first international tour to India to mark their return to cricket, in 1991, the selectors asked Sri to come back to deal with Allan Donald and Co in the 3 ODIs and Sri playing again got 2 Fifties in the 2 ODIs he played. In the 1991/2 of Aus, Sri played really well, scoring many 40s and 50s against Windies, Aus etc in the B & H ODI series, even though his physical reflexes and eyesight had declined and he was a pure reflex player and never a technical batsman. He played the WC and also the Test series there and I think even in his last test inings he topscored or something for India, but was dropped after which he announced his retirement. He was of course one of the foremost players to have put Indian ODI cricket on the world map through the 1980s playing against the likes of Roberts, Holding, Marshall, Garner, Lillee, McDermott, Lawson, Imran, Wasim, Hadlee, Willis , Botham et al... no other decade had such a glittering lineup of fast bowlers all in their peak , playing for their countries. Yeah, although never a run accumulator, a big scorer or statisticians delight, Srikkanth was a batsman who could destroy the best fast bowling attacks of the world on his day, and was largely a crowd pulling entertainer in India

[The Outsider]

Lurks, I know Ajju very well, and I have known him

Hari, can you inquire from Azhar the name of his cousin who stays in Lucknow?

[Lurker]

He was dropped for the tour of NZ in 1990 and also England with Ajju made captain , but when the SA team made their first international tour to India to mark their return to cricket, in 1991, the selectors asked Sri to come back to deal with Allan Donald and Co in the 3 ODIs and Sri playing again got 2 Fifties in the 2 ODIs he played. In the 1991/2 of Aus, Sri played really well, scoring many 40s and 50s against Windies, Aus etc in the B & H ODI series, even though his physical reflexes and eyesight had declined and he was a pure reflex player and never a technical batsman. He played the WC and also the Test series there and I think even in his last test inings he topscored or something for India, but was dropped after which he announced his retirement.

Yes I remember that very well. I was quite happy to see a return of Srikkanth in 91/92 WC, I was hoping he would prove the Selectors wrong for keeping him out. However very quickly I realized it was not to be. In the first(or second perhaps) game of the series that India played against Pakistan, Srikkanth was completely at sea. He scored some 5 runs off 35-40 deliveries and that was unpardonable in Cheeka's book. Thank heavens for good innings by Azhar and SRT and a late blast by Kapil that we ended up with a decent score and eventually beat our arch rivals. But that game pretty much told me how Srikkanth's best days were over. After that he did a couple of other good innings but his reflexes were a thing of past and even though I was happy to see him score 60s it was kinda painful to watch him, almost whats happening with Sachin today. You could see them scratch around for survival when before they hit the ground running. Only that Sachin is lot more successful. xxx

[Guest HariSampath]

Hari' date=' can you inquire from Azhar the name of his cousin who stays in Lucknow?[/quote'] Obviously I wouldn't want to call him for this, but I would certainly ask him next time I speak over phone if you can give me some name/context something ( by PM if you wish)

[The Outsider]

Obviously I wouldn't want to call him for this' date=' but I would certainly ask him next time I speak over phone if you can give me some name/context something ( by PM if you wish)[/quote'] I was just fooling around, man.

[Guest HariSampath]

Yes I remember that very well. I was quite happy to see a return of Srikkanth in 91/92 WC, I was hoping he would prove the Selectors wrong for keeping him out. However very quickly I realized it was not to be. In the first(or second perhaps) game of the series that India played against Pakistan, Srikkanth was completely at sea. He scored some 5 runs off 35-40 deliveries and that was unpardonable in Cheeka's book. Thank heavens for good innings by Azhar and SRT and a late blast by Kapil that we ended up with a decent score and eventually beat our arch rivals. But that game pretty much told me how Srikkanth's best days were over. After that he did a couple of other good innings but his reflexes were a thing of past and even though I was happy to see him score 60s it was kinda painful to watch him, almost whats happening with Sachin today. You could see them scratch around for survival when before they hit the ground running. Only that Sachin is lot more successful. xxx

Ya, I believe he did scratch around in some WC games, but I was in New York for a couple of years and didn't follow that season on TV, but did hear ( and later saw stats) that he had done much better in the B&H ODIs, getting 60, 40, 60, 80 etc and a few scores, in fact I heard he got M of M against Windies for 80 against Patterson and co. But probably his reflexes had declined as he would have been 32 and in his 12th Intls season. On the whole he had pretty much clobbered much of the world's best fast attacks between '81 and '91 including Donald in his last season, whenever he had good striking form against any top side. Most importantly his best games were against Aus in Aus, some indication that his stroke play was better suited to those fast bouncing tracks