Seven cricketing pioneers in India
First real world beater: MAK Pataudi
Indian cricket can be divided into the pre and post-Pataudi eras. He was the first Indian captain who seriously believed that India could beat the world and he inspired his entire team and managed to instil confidence in them. As a result we beat our opponents 3-1 in the New Zealand Test tour of 1968. It is a feat we are yet to achieve—that is winning 3 Tests in any foreign tour. While Pataudi faded away thanks to his only one good eye, India beat both the West Indies and England in away tours in 1971 and we finally managed to give the world a fight on a consistent basis.
First record breaker: Sunil Gavaskar
Competing is one thing and becoming the number one record breaker in the world is quite another. For decades nobody thought the legendary Don Bradman could be surpassed. But Gavaskar belted 34 Test centuries against the Don's 29. He became the first to cross 10,000 Test runs and the first to be taking seriously everywhere in the world. The legendary Viv Richards once stated that all the great batsmen who came after Gavaskar flourished because they stood on the shoulder of this giant.
First fast bowler: Kapil Dev
In a way Kapil remains the only consistent career Indian fast bowler in our history. Not only was he our first real fast bowler, but he played for a whopping 16 years without missing a single match due to injury. In comparison Manoj Prabhakar, Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad have had truncated careers. Zaheer Khan had so many breaks due to injury that nobody remembers. Pacers still swing in and out of the team and in a way Kapil is yet to be replaced.
First superstar: Ravi Shastri
Gavaskar was a star and the winners of the 1983 World Cup became heroes overnight. However the first real superstar was Shastri. In the 1985 mini World Cup in Australia India finally got used to lights and coloured clothing. India finally became comfortable with ODIs and Shastri was declared "Champion of champions", a label that stuck with him for life. Millions of youngsters wanted to emulate the young superstar who owned the swank Audi.
First global politician: Jagmohan Dalmiya.
England hosted the first three World Cups and Dalmiya was instrumental in it coming to India in 1987. England and Australia called the shots in world cricket, but by the time Dalmiya was done, India was the last man standing. Even to this day India continues to be a cricketing superpower and the genesis lies with Dalmiya. He played Indian-style politics at the ICC and got away with it. Even after Dalmiya was ousted, India continued to call the shots. Back in India he formed a winning partnership with Sourav Ganguly and India started doing much better on the field too.
First professional: John Wright.
Before coach Wright took over, India was probably the most unprofessional set-up in the world. After Wright left, nobody could put the genie back in the bottle and coaches like Gary Kirsten carried his philosophy forward. It was no mean feat sprucing up a sloppy Team India and he set in procedures in place some of which last to this present day. India became much more consistent and started competing again on foreign pitches.
First to win them all: MS Dhoni.
India has many glorious victories in the past but we simply lacked consistency. Dhoni in contrast has had the longest victory streak in India's history. He is the only captain in the world to win all ICC trophies (ODI World Cup, T20 World Cup and ICC Champions Trophy). He is the only captain in the world to take his team to the No. 1 rankings in all the formats of the game- Tests, ODIs and T20s. Add his IPL and Champions League titles and you have no close second. They say Dhoni wasn't a good Test captain. But he still has 27 Test victories, the most by any Indian. They say he couldn't compete abroad, but he still won Test series in New Zealand and West Indies, the ICC Champions Trophy in England. He is also the only Indian captain to win any series/tournament in South Africa (T20 World Cup).
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Posted by: Abdul Matin Sheikh <abdulmatinsheikh@yahoo.com>
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