Tendulkar in ESPN Cricinfo World Eleven
The World 11 picked by ESPN Cricinfo has been great news for cricket fans all over the world. The true value of a player or for that matter a performer in any field has been forgotten by successive generations with the passage of time. While the eleven picked by ESPN Cricinfo is heartening news for old timers who had seen the exploits of the former greats during their time it is also a message to the current generation indicating that there were greats in the earlier era as well who should not be forgotten.
At the outset one must give credit to the jury comprising of former greats and historians who did a excellent job and got the best possible eleven. The jury one must say did a near perfect job and yet one must say that at least a cricketer is lucky to be selected while there are two others who were unlucky to miss out due to a flaw in the selection system. The problem is that World Elevens are always picked on the basis of batting order and if a player howevr good he is does not fit to that slot that he is not selected.
Let us take the example of Sunil Gavaksar whose exploits on the cricket field are legendary but does not find a place in the team whereas Viv Richards another great but not greater than Gavaskar finds a slot in the team. Let us compare their career averages, Gavaskar averages 51.12 while Richards averages 50.23 almost in the same number of tests as they have played 125 and 121 test matches respectively. Gavaskar has scored almost 3000 runs more than Richards as they finished their careers with 10122 with 8540 runs respectively and yet you find Richards ahead of Gavaskar.
While many would argue the fact that Richards was a match winner one must also admit that Richards had the luxury of coming to the crease after the likes of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes have laid a solid platform and with the likes of Clive Lloyd and Larry Gomes to follow. On the contrary Sunil Gavaskar had a tougher task of having to face the meanest of fast bowlers right from the first ball of the match. Richards had yet another huge advantage that he played for a strong West Indian team who toyed against hapless bowling attacks while Sunil Gavaskar scored most of his runs against the best fast bowlers of that time. Sunil Gavaskar scored as many as 2749 runs against the West Indies at an average of 65.45 when other batsmen of his era would have been more than content with half of that average. Sunil Gavakar scored as many as 13 centuries against the West Indies a figure not many batsmen of his era could have boasted of having hit in a entire career. There was a time when batsmen like Allan Lamb and Allan Board used to pump their firsts after having got a ton against the West Indies as it was almost impossible to get a ton of them considering the attack they had at their disposal in the fearsome pace quartet of Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts, Michael Holiding and Joel Garner. Sunil Gavaskar missed out to Richards only because he was eligible for selection as an opener and therefore lost to Hobbs and Hutton who averaged a shade better than him.
Another cricketer who would feel himself lucky to have missed out on a slot is Virender Sehwag whose average of 53.37 at a strike rate 81.82 is almost unheard of in cricketing cricles. If you consider the fact that he has been able to maintain that average and strike rate in 81 tests while accumulating 7152 career runs it makes his case even more stronger for a inclusion in the team.
Muthiah Muralidharan the words highest wicket taker has also got reasons to feel bad for being left out but then he cannot complain much because there is no way he can gain entry into the team which has bowlers of the calibre of Malcolm Marshall, Wasim Akram, Shane Warne and Dennis Lille and the fact that all the above mentioned actions have legal bowling actions makes Muralidharan's case even weaker.
Next time around while picking a World Even, the jury would be well advised to take the following points to consideration.
1. Pick up the best eleven without looking into the batting order. Let us take two class examples of that of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. Both of them made their debuts as middle order batsman but both of them have converted themselves into brilliant openers. While Sehwag opens in both forms of the game, Sachin Tendulkarwho played 75 odd matches before being asked to open the innings has cemented his place as the best opener ever in the history of one day internationals. The thing to be learnt from this merit counts not the batting slot. Let us take the example of M S Dhoni in one dayers who is a floater in the batting order as he bats up anywhere from number 3 to number 8.
2.Look at the value of runs scored:- Let us take the example of Gavaskar and Richards. While the former had to sweat it out against the top pacers of his era, the letter made merry against mediocre medium pacers. Let the jury avoid more points for runs scored against better attacks and lesser points against weaker attacks.
3. Look at the era:- There was an era in which a ball hit on either side of the fielder was a boundary as there was no effort on the part of the fielder to dive in and stop the ball. That factor too needs to be taken into consideration as players of an earlier era would have ended up with substantially lower career tallies.
If you look the positives one can say that the quality of cricket has not deteriorated over the years with as many as 4 players of the current era in the form of Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Wasim Akram making it into the World Eleven.
Even after taking the flaws into consideration one needs to appreciate the eleven. While not many know of the likes of Hutton, Hobbs and Bradman who played long back the batting to follow looks awesome with Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar at No.4 and Blaster Vivian Richards at No.5. Everybody has heard of Sobers though not many has seen him play but then again with the muderous Adam Gilchrist at No.7 one can imagine the plight of bowlers. The bowlers to follow in the form of Marshall, Akram and Lilee can tear apart the best of batting on their day. Shane Warne one must say would not be required to use his extra ordinary skills as the pacers would have ripped through the batting line up.
One thing is for sure that if the jury is to sit over again to pick a World Eleven for One Day Internationals, then they have a easy task at hand in selecting at least one player and that is Sachin Tendulkar who should be the unanimous choice from all.
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