Siva - a revelation

[coffee_rules]

Who Siva? Are you talking about the same SRK (SivaRamaKrishnan) that Rameez amusingly used to refer to him every 5 minutes during the Ind-Pak series. Aaaaargh! I found Wassan/Aashish Kapoor lot more interesting than Siva. They were pretty good.

[Guest HariSampath]

Siva is an extremely keen student of the game and had always been so , I used to play along with him in U-15 camps in Chennai in 1981, and had known him since all through his FC and tests etc. Even in those days as a schoolboy, he used to be appreciated by the likes of Gavaskar and kapil Dev ( Siva made int'l debut when was in 12th grade in 1983). I too was in 12th grade in 1983 and used to see a lot of him during club games in between his Int'l tours. He can observe a batsman and tell exactly what is going to happen. I remember a game in 1982 ( against Hyd U-19 i think), when Siva was telling a few friends at lunch " if I bowl to that guy, third ball out lbw off googly"...it happened exactly like that, out lbw off a googly third ball of Siva's first over. Sachin had asked Siva to take a comprehensive view on his technique when playing legspin...how many are aware that Siva was a big input into Sachin planning his strategy against Shane warne in the 1998 series ? Sachin rates Siva very highly as a cricket analyst. Siva also bowled to Sachin outside the legstump etc for a few days to prepare him against warne Regarding his commentary, he does make very very good points and is respected internationally. He has been on all top commentary teams since WC 2003, and even in WC 2007. He is certainly one of the most highly rated Indian commentators as channels like ESPN, SET and NEO won't just hire someone with no ability. Even Cheeka had told me that he had heard on all the circuits that Siva was highly rated internationally ( and Cheeka sucks bigtime as a commentator, I have told him this too :D)