Was Karthik's 50 more important than a win? asks Gavaskar

[Desi Cartman]

But for a late declaration, India would have pulled off an astonishing win over Pakistan and ended the series 2-0. It would have been a great way to take on the Aussies with the confidence of such a win under their belt. Why the declaration did not come earlier is a mystery, unless, of course, Dinesh Karthik, a popular member of the team, was allowed to get to his half-century and ensure he is on the plane to Australia. We keep hearing that Indians no more play for individual glory and records. But is it really so? On such a pitch there was no way Pakistan would get 250 even if they went hammer and tongs, leave along a target of 374. By batting for so long, India did not give themselves enough overs to get Pakistan bowled out. That’s the difference between Australia and other teams. They are not satisfied with a 1-0 margin and would have fancied their chances of getting any team out on such a pitch. In India there is a tendency to sit on laurels and not look for more glory. The new generation of cricketers were supposed to have kicked this attitude. But going by the last two Test series it appears we are still satisfied with a 1-0 win. This attitude comes from first class cricket where teams are satisfied with the first innings lead and don’t try for an outright win. The thinking is why field under the hot sun when you can bat for another day after having taken the lead. In the past India hardly won any games so it was understandable that they were happy to avoid defeat, but this Pakistan side was the weakest to have come to India and a 2-0 margin would have been an apt result.

[kumble_rocks]

For a guy who scored 36 not out in 60 overs, this guy is certainly generous I must say in commentating harshly about others . BTW, Karthik will certainly be a better passenger than one Rohan Gavasker of 2003/4 series.

[Mandrake]

Pretty rich this coming from Gavaskar...criticizing the timing of declaration is fine but conjuring a conspiracy theory where none exists....nothing more than a rant.

[Holysmoke]

What a dumass. Kumble wasnt waiting for Karthik's 50. If he was, he would've declared right after he reached 50, not after he got out!

[Cricketics]

For a guy who scored 36 not out in 60 overs' date=' this guy is certainly generous I must say in commentating harshly about others . BTW, Karthik will certainly be a better passenger than one Rohan Gavasker of 2003/4 series.[/quote'] no need to bring his son in between.. and why bring the 36 runs in 60 over topic?? it's history now.. Gavaskar is making sense here.. he is spot on. why to cover the matter by bringing the game that happend ages ago

[novpj]

Gavaskar is the most selfish SOB out there. Its a shame to see him take shots at Kumble. This guy cant find time from his schedule for coach selection meetings and we are supposed to believe he has anything useful to say about Indian cricket. May be the readership and interest in his columns are dropping.

[kumble_rocks]

no need to bring his son in between.. and why bring the 36 runs in 60 over topic?? it's history now.. Gavaskar is making sense here.. he is spot on. why to cover the matter by bringing the game that happend ages ago

It's nothing but a baseless allegation against player of high integrity, It's one thing to criticize Kumble's declaration decision , but to suggest conspiracy theory like he delayed for Karthik is nothing but baseless accusation . And this is rich especially coming from Gavaskar who is one of the most selfish and polarizing figures of Indian cricket. And why is that useless Rohan Gavasker not a fair game. He played in 2003/2004 series in Australa using influence and even he was a passenger just like Karthik will be! :D

[MundaPakistani]

no need to bring his son in between.. and why bring the 36 runs in 60 over topic?? it's history now.. Gavaskar is making sense here.. he is spot on. why to cover the matter by bringing the game that happend ages ago

Fully agree.

[Cricketics]

It's nothing but a baseless allegation against player of high integrity' date=' It's one thing to criticize Kumble's declaration decision , but to suggest conspiracy theory like he delayed for Karthik is nothing but baseless accusation . And this is rich especially coming from Gavaskar who is one of the most selfish and polarizing figures of Indian cricket. And why is that useless Rohan Gavasker not a fair game. He played in 2003/2004 series in Australa using influence and even he was a passenger just like Karthik will be! :D[/quote'] who told u he played with sunny gavaskar's image??? and btw, if he really did.. then atleast he didn't make sure that gavaskar get selected for every Indian tour.. it's not that Rohan Gavaskar used to open the inning or come in the middle order Ganguly again used to bring him low down the order it's baseless to blame Sunny for Rohan's inclusion..

[The Outsider]

The declaration was overtly defensive but to attribute it to Karthik completing his half century means that you have lost your marbles, Sunil Gavaskar.

[living]

It isn't so far fetched. Think about it, Kumble wants KKD to go to AUS. Useless selectors unnecessarily pressurizing him, so he thought well if KKD get some runs here then it will be easier for me to get him in the squad. Doesn't matter anyway, series victory

[Ram]

Why Gavaskar is wrong Gavaskar is seen accusing Kumble of waiting till he got his 50, but it is quite obvious that it was not the scenario. The Indians never intended to declare early in the first place. There was no concerted attempt to force the pace by the intial opening pair of Dravid or Ganguly. Dravid in fact, scored 10 runs batting for 80 mins on day 5. The plan was to bat out Pakistan , which meant not declaring till one hour after lunch, which is what happened. Even more damning proof that Indians were never really after a quick declaration is that fact that we kept on playing even AFTER VVS got injured. If a Captain was really wanting to enfoce the follow-on and go for the victory, he would have done at the stroke of injury to Laxman. So, its quite obvious that it was part of the plan to bat till one hour after lunch, Karthik's 50 was just a irrelevant consequence of that strategy.

[fineleg]

Gavaskar the agenda man

[Guest HariSampath]

correct in many ways Sriram....KKD's 50 was incidental, even if he had got out for 32, Kumble will have waited till one hr after lunch to declare ( this declaration was too late and defensive IMO and I had already criticised it, but that is a separate issue from attributing reasons to it). My main contention is if Kumble was backing karthik for Australia which he was, and wrongly too IMO, as I feel Parthiv should have gone...Kumble could have easily taken KKD to Australia with or without a pathetic last minute 50 which impressed no one really. The reality is Kumble had backed KKD for cricketing reasons based on KKD's performances in Eng and SA.... and NOT on this 50. We all know Anil is far too intelligent a cricketing brain to argue for KKD based on this 50 and not on a stronger case based on ENG and SA performances. For these reasons, Gavaskar blaming Kumble and his late declaration as favoring one personal performance is flawed. Lastly... this coming from Gavaskar who was famous for winning one test per series and drawing remaining 5 tests.... is funny. Just see Gavaskar's 1978/79 home series against WI, against Pakistan, against Aus etc...all 6 test series...where the series results were mostly 1-0 or 2-0 , with Sunny nothcing up big 100s in drab drawn games. His argument used to be that given India's bowling strengths being Kapil Dev, Ghavri, Doshi and Shastri with the likes of Yadav etc being "too weak".. that was the best he could do. I had always completely disagreed with that. That was a far superior attack to any current one we have and with spinning wickets we could have easily thrashed the visitors... 3-0, at least in each series, but Sunny didn't want that. Also take a look at the last Pakistan series we won at home1979/80.. 2-0 at the end of the Chennai 5th test. Instead of going in for a 3-0 kill at Kolkatta, Sunny relinquished captaincy after series win , and asked Vishy to lead in last test ( 6th test)...hardly aggressive attitude. Also the teams who came here were second 11s of Australia under Kim Hughes , ( due to Packer series), under Kallicharan 1979 ( due to packer again)...where both the 6 test series were won 1-0 and 2-0 etc.. so much so for people in glass houses throwing stones, even when series had been won Sunny plays defensive, and here when theoritically there is a possibility of Pakistan leveling 1-1 , he criticises Kumble for late declaration for wrong reasons ( although speaking on the declaration itself, it WAS too defensive and we could have won 2-0)

[Tapioca]

For a guy who scored 36 not out in 60 overs' date=' this guy is certainly generous I must say in commentating harshly about others . [/quote'] For people who have hardly played anything better than backyard or gully cricket, we guys here do a good job of dissing the batting of Dravid and Ganguly :giggle:

[Ram]

So true Hari. I am convinced that the decision to select KKD for the Aussie tour was made even before Karthik played his final innings in B'lore. And what amazes me the most is, for someone who has played so much intnl cricket as Gavaskar has done, didnt he see the tell-tale signs for how we never even intended to declare early in the first place ? Oh well, looks like he is just bitter at Anil for some reason.

[beetle]

It's nothing but a baseless allegation against player of high integrity' date=' It's one thing to criticize Kumble's declaration decision , but to suggest conspiracy theory like he delayed for Karthik is nothing but baseless accusation . And this is rich especially coming from Gavaskar who is one of the most selfish and polarizing figures of Indian cricket. And why is that useless Rohan Gavasker not a fair game. He played in 2003/2004 series in Australa using influence and even he was a passenger just like Karthik will be! :D[/quote']...this guy is just a bitter man...and I doubt he has the interest of indian cricket at heart.He can't even make time for coach selection meetings ........................but has the time to pull out the likes of embureys from his hat ....

[fineleg]

...this guy is just a bitter man...and I doubt he has the interest of indian cricket at heart.He can't even make time for coach selection meetings ........................but has the time to pull out the likes of embureys from his hat ....

Beetle, Good observation, i had forgotten this tamasha by this SMG-the-agenda-man.

[Sachinism]

stop looking at the past and what he's done what he said about karthik's 50 being more important than a win is true

[riya]

For a guy who scored 36 not out in 60 overs' date=' this guy is certainly generous I must say in commentating harshly about others . BTW, Karthik will certainly be a better passenger than one Rohan Gavasker of 2003/4 series.[/quote'] U beat me into that .The most ''avergae hunting batsman '' is talking .All i can say is :finger: