Inspirational XI

Disclaimer: For those of you who take this post seriously and consider it as an insult to the stalwarts of domestic cricket who didn't quite succeed in international cricket, Apologies and an advice - Just take it easy!

Now that I have established my political correctness, let us talk:

Enough of celebrating Sachin, Lara, Wasim, Warne et al. Sometimes I wonder why we even celebrate them. I had only one dream in my childhood – to be an international cricketer. These guys didn’t help me even one bit in realizing my dream, if anything they pushed me further away from my dream. I bowl a good spell in a school match and feel good about myself, come back home and switch on the TV only to watch Allan Donald cleaning up Atherton with a an absolute Jaffa that I can’t even dream bowling it. What’s the point of admiring these dream-spoilers, they didn’t even allow me to live in an illusion. But just when I was going through those depressionary times, there were always a bunch of guys providing hope and inspiration…If Iqbal Siddiqui can play for India, surely I should be able to. If Vikram Rathore could open why not me?

I wanted to pay a tribute to all those who inspired me when I was growing up by dedicating a blog to them. Then we thought we would do it a little differently – after all these people have inspired not just me but so many in my generation. So Ramki and I had a discussion (on gtalk) on some of those inspiring cricketers (the discussion was restricted only to Indian Cricketers) of our generation and we came up with an idea to select an all time best inspirational XI as a mark of respect to them. The transcript of the discussion follows:

Mahesh: Those were great times man. We had stalwarts like Vikram Rathore, Devang Gandhi, Atul Bedade etc. I feel sorry for the teenagers of today, they only have Joginer Sharma to look upto…
Ramki: Sujith Somasundar
how can u miss him
Ajay Sharma
Bhupinder singh jr...
M: Subroto Banerjee!
R: hahahaha
M: Amay Khuraysia
R: of course
M: In a match he consitently played Shoaib's next ball in advance
R: Nikhil Chopra
Aavishkar Salvi
M: oh beauty
R: thank you
M: Almost Mcgrath - i.e, till he released the ball
R: hahaha
M: after that Paras Mhambrey would seem Mcgrath in comparison...
R: yaaa
M: What about Iqbal Siddiqui - till date even he doesn't know how he got selected.....
I think it was part of BCCI's poverty alleviation program
whereby they would pick one player to be part of the Indian team for a match
R: yep...
M: and that one match fees by Indian standards is enough for him to survive the rest of his life
R: and based on that he would make a lot of money
M: exactly
M: "I helped India chase a 4th innings total successfully against England"
R: 5 runs?
R: honor of opening the batting and bowling in the same test on debut
M: that is ultimate
R: Laxmi Ratan Shukla
Jacob Martin?
M: oh…ya
you know what
M: when Sachin picked him in the XI for one of the matches in the tri -series down under
he was asked about Jacob Martin by Ian Chappell at the toss
R: hmmm....
M: "Tell us something about this new guy in the team"
Sachin had only one thing to say - He's an excellent fielder!
R: hahaha
M: and we all know the excellence of his fielding - so u know how much Sachin rated his batting!
R: Ranadeb Bose
M: What abt Harvinder Singh
R: Of course
in the list
M: Bose is ultimate
M: my alltime fav
R: David Johnson
M: he got Sachin's wicket with a beauty (the only good ball I have seen him bowl though!)- so lets not tease him too much.......
Amit Bhandari!
R: top pick that
Connor williams
M: lol
but none to beat Vikram Rathore I say
R: couldn’t agree more
M: People talk of Lara being the quintessential walker
R: my all time favourite
M: but this man is in a different league
Have you even seen Lara walk for an LBW?
Our man did..........
apart from the grace and elegance, the sportsmanship is what separates him from the rest comfortably
R: and Sujith Somasundar also
17runs
1 single 4 fours
all french cuts
M: all classy french cuts…he simply didn’t have a clue…the ball came and hit the bat and went to the boundary!
R: Vivek Razdan
M: lol
his greatest achievement in cricket is that he was part of the winning team finally
in a quiz contest in Home Tv
"A Question of Cricket"
R: hahahaa
M: he even beat Gavaskar I say
R: oh..ok..lots of time to study about cricket....
T. Kumaran?
M: Dodda Ganesh.......
R: maan
brilliant
M: Kumaran - narrowly misses out
R: hahahahaha
M: lack of enough samples...
R: yaa..true
Dodda Ganesh is a good pick

M: Mr.Dodda Ganesh single-handedly undid all the good work by Srinath and Prasad in the opening spells in SA
oh.......
R: Gagan Khoda !
averages around 80 in international cricket
against Kenya....
M: I think he got the man of the match award for that innings
R: yes
89 if I am not wrong...
M: immediately after that match, Azhar seemed to have told the selectors that he is not fit for international cricket
R: hahahaahaha
M: Devang Gandhi! I think he was the closest to Vikram Rathore!
R: in terms of footwork...deja vu
M: In the whole of Australian tour I think he only played 2 shots in front of the wicket
one resulted in Sadagoppan's Ramesh's run out !
R: yaaa
in brisbane
M: and the other was a catch right into the hands of the only fielder standing in front of the wicket in an ODI
Only Devang Gandhi can do that.........
R: Ajay Sharma?
M: no match fixers pls
R: ok...
we dont want to spoil the team….
M: this list is too big man
lets filter it
M: lets pick an all time best XI out of this…
Openers are a no brainer......
R: openers of course
if you pick anybody else...then I don’t know you for the rest of my life…
M: Vikram Rathore - Class, Style and that quintessential sportsman spirit of walking....
Devang Gandhi - His repertoire of dismissals is simply stunning
even more stunning than Sachin's repertoire of shots
R: ok...
M: now lets come to the crucial no.3 spot
R: scenario
India lost one quick wicket
against pakistan
shoaib bowling
who would you want?
M: who else… but Amay Khuraysia....
the next ball man!
after a cracking 50 against a Srilankan team packed with spinners at home, he was up against Shoaib in Sharjah
R: hmmm
M: boy was he putting on a show there... almost beating Sujith Somasundar's master class
by the time the ball had thudded into the keeper’s gloves, he brought his front foot forward and by the time he completed his stroke, Shoaib had completed the next ball!
R: hmmm
M: but no one can beat Sujith Somasundar though!
not even Khurasiya at his best, so lets have Sujith at 3 and Khuraysia at 4….
R: ok
no 3 sujith
no 4 khurasiya
no 5 bedade
no 6 dighe
M: wow...........thats a batting line up to die for
Atul Bedade averaged almost 10 in an innings against Pakistan - for 40 odd he had 4 lives!
R: 44 with 4 sixes in them!
M: I know
R: my father used to say he is a hard hitter
well he hardly hits
M: thats not the point
Whenever he does he hits it hard
Hardly hitting hard hitter at no.5
R: thats once in 3 matches!
M: but I must confess he came back with a better technique later in his career
in the masters series that is!!!
R: hahahaha
M: now to Mr.Dighe....
I know Ajay Ratra gives him tough competition.....
but it has to be Dighe man
R: he won a series for us
THE series
M: but the real Dighe moment was in his debut match in Australia
Gavaskar had hyped him as a batsman who could keep a bit!
R: ok
and Sachin goes one step further......
sends him at no.3 after a good start to up the tempo further.......
R: yaaa
M: up the tempo he did....3 off some 25 balls I think!!!
R: 1 of 27 balls
M: even better!
Sachin was so pleased with that effort that he gave him the privilege of carrying the drinks in the same match
R: hahaha
M: in my opinion that must be the first occasion where a player in the XI after playing a physically exerting innings is being asked to do this...
R: Lol… Now to the bowlers
M: wait
R: hmmm
M: that is probably the only wise thing that Sachin did in his captaincy.......
But hang on
What abt Jacob Martin
R: ok...
12th man
M: Atul Bedade cant have it so easy
R: he is an excellent fielder isn’t he?
M: ok agreed
YES.........
M: now to the bowlers..........
Paras Mhambrey
R: Bhupinder Singh
he should be there
M: Subroto Banejee
Dodda Ganesh.......
R: Dodda Ganesh
M: YES..........
R: Harvinder Singh
Aavishkar Salvi
M: even Sourav out bowled him in a test match against Australia
Salvi is a real beauty - the almost Mcgrath......
R: yaaaa
M: we are spoilt for choices man
lets zero in on 3 fast bowlers
R: tough
Salvi definitely
M: YES!
R: and Dodda Ganesh
no arguments
M: I totally agree
now Subroto Banerjee
R: bhupinder singh
M: no more questions on that
R: you havent seen bhupinder singh?
M: I have seen
I love him too
R: then ?
M: but Subroto Banerjee is a notch above
R: no no
Banerjee bowled some good spells…but this guy is a class aprt
M: Does Banerjee know this??? Anyways let’s go with Bhupinder Singh for now.......
R: hmmm...ok
we will take a look at the records and then see
M: one spinner and one allrounder now
sure
R: all rounder...Hrishikesh Kanitkar?
M: lol
not a bad choice
but lets dig deeper
Laxmi Ratan Shukla
JP Yadav..... can neither bowl nor bat - all-rounder!
Greg Chappell's masterful selection - apparently better than Sourav it seems!
R: Reetinder Singh Sodhi
M: he's not even fit enough to be in this team
Let’s leave it at that
R: ok
then I would go with JP Yadav
M: now to that quintessential spinner's slot........
R: hmmm...Rajesh Chauhan....
M: Just yesterday Harsha was talking about him!
other contenders?
Utpal Chatterjee?
R: Ananthapadmanabhan?
M: I thought of him too!
R: Sunil Subramaniam?
M: I haven't seen much of him…
R: ok
if no spinner comes to my mind...we would take an extra fast bowler
M: lol
R: we should pick the best XI not horses for courses
M: no no Utpal or Rajesh Chauhan would be taken for sure if no other name comes up
3 fast bowlers and a spinner… good balance
R: then rajesh chauhan
M: but he's also bowled well on occasions
R: k
utpal chatterjee i am not so sure
M: Nikhil Chopra!
R: oh yaa…the best of them all
he could also be an all rounder you know?
M: I know....
R: I missed atul wassan man
M: lol..thats ok, we’ll have notable mention list at the end – would add him there…

There you go, the final inspirational XI is:
1. Vikram Rathore
2. Devang Gandhi
3. Sujith Somasundar
4. Amay Khurasia
5. Atul Bedade
6. Sameer Dighe
7. JP Yadav
8. Nikhil Chopra
9. Dodda Ganesh
10. Bhupinder Singh
11. Aavishkar Salvi

12th man is the excellent fielder Jacob Martin…

I know this is the most controversial XI that we have picked in the history of “Cricket Talk” (By the way, that’s this blog’s name!). Each of you would have your own inspirations who may have been missed in this team. We wholeheartedly apologize for such omissions which may offend you. As a bargain we tried to come up with a “notable mention” list of those players who missed out by a whisker…even that’s a futile exercise because there are so many of them…but still…here is the list:

Notable mentions:
Iqbal Siddiqui, Ranadeb Bose (the only reason he missed out is because he didn't play in the XI for India, otherwise he was a certainty)Atul Wassan, Subroto Banerjee, Vivek Razdan, Utpal Chatterjee, Rajesh Chauhan, Gagan Khoda, Connor Williams, MSK Prasad, Jatin Paranjpe, Pankaj Dharmani, Debashis Mohanty, Harvinder Singh, Aashish Kapoor, Robin Singh (jr)….oh I am tired of typing now…Please feel free to add more!