From: bnataraj@uceng.uc.edu (Bhaskar Natarajan)
Subject: Re: Indian Batsmen are not test class
Organization: University of Cincinnati
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 22:55:54 GMT

In article <karnik.725655600@myria> karnik@cs.umn.edu (Neeran M. Karnik) writes:

>	Yes, age or immaturity is not an excuse any longer, but wasted
>talent?  No way! There is a case for the assertion that Vengy was a
>'wasted' talent because he curbed his free stroking style so much.... I
>for one, wouldn't like to see SRT waste his talent in similar fashion,
>although he may end up scoring a couple of thousand runs less, this way!

	And I for one, would not like to see his free-stroking nature 
	cost India a test match. All his free-stroking has not won India
	a single test match in the more than three years that he has been
	playing and sadly has cost India more than a few test match losses
	(Tho' i admit not all the blame is to be lumped on him). The boy
	(and a lot of his fans :-)) need to realise that a loss of the 
	national team is also a personal loss...tho' he score a double
	century (an unbeatean one at that ;-)) in a lost match (Just to
	site an instance...don't flame me with statements like	"He went
	down with his guns blazing" and the like ;-))

	Again, no intent to be harsh on him, and i am very much a fan of
	Sachin, but we need to see his performance in lost test matches.
	Clearly he has succumbed to his stroke-making and put burden on
	the rest of the incompetents (batsmen... sic), when with his ample
	talent he could easily have put his head down and put the bowlers
	thru a grind. I would love to hear a truthful answer from him to the 
	question : "Did you really do your utmost in the 3rd SA test match
	or were you a little too casual, and don't you feel partly responsible
	for the loss of the match, and what are u gonna do about it ?"

	Again, an answer like "everyone was responsible" doesn't exonerate
	him as the "safety in numbers" funda just doesn't apply here.

	The bottom line is : The boy should be wise enough by now to realise
	when a situation calls for committed batting with none of the crowd-
	thriller stuff. This is especially true with him because he is too 
	young to involve in politicking of any kind and at his age the CAUSE 
	of saving a match is in itself JUSTIFICATION for doing a good job.
	(If u understand what i mean... like i would have said f&^% off to
	something that bends rules a little at his age that i might consider 
	for half a second at my present age (24, in case u're getting ideas
	like "sala buddhha hai..") to check out the sacrifice-benefit ratio.

	Again, hope you sense what i'm saying. In a team as much in the 
	doldrums as the present Indian team, the person i'd expect most to
	bring about a revival is a fresh guy like Sachin.

	All this not meant to be an indictment on that exciting chap, just 
	to say that he needs to show more character in this messy state of 
	affairs. Well, that's enuff, i'm bored...

 
>	Nope, a guy needs to *average* 40s and 50s to be called a
>specialist batsman. I'll bet Gower didn't score the 50s regularly, but

	Averages are very misleading and very much inflated by the number
	of not outs. If Sunny had been a 2-down batsman, his avg. would
	have been higher by at least 5 runs. A good chunk of Sachin's avg.
	is attributable to large not-out scores.. like 165* odd in Aus.. &
	many more instances, which the statistical minded of rsc readers
	can confirm.

>	Yes, but do we really want him to become a Vengsarkar ? Do we need 
>him to score the 40s and 50s monotonously, or would we rather leave that to
>Manjrekar and Amre ? Let Sachin play his own game and produce the occasional
>(and hopefully, frequent) brilliant ton.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
	That's the problem, it is becoming a game of roulette with him and 
	Azza. And no one said 40's and 50's can't be brilliant...anyway, i 
	get u but still not convinced. 

	I can only pity Azza. The poor chap's record is not much worse than 
	Sachin's ( in fact their scoring pattern is very similar) but Azza
	gets all the flames. Sachin, in the public mind is beyond reproach.

	And the lesser said about the other incompetents, the better...

Alrightey, lets see what others have to say about this...

Ciao,
Bhaskar