Courtney Walsh in the world of cricket (by Ronish Baxter)

If there ever has been a cricketer, who believed the fact that cricket is seen as gentleman’s game, it was Courtney Walsh. The tall as well as gentle giant was a dedicated servant of cricket in his First-class career during 80’s and 90s Begin as a fast bowler for the West Indies, he may have been the been last world-class bowler who played for the regional team. Even today, the team of West Indies is struggling to get an appropriate replacement for this bowling legend.

There were many remarkable achievements of this world-class fast bowler. The most related of these was that Walsh did not had any generally injuries. Fast bowling is related to an unnatural action which places stress on different body parts of the player. However, Walsh- was able to bowl at a speed of over 90 miles during in his career- That his First Class career spread 20 years reflects this.

Walsh was also the first bowler to get record of 500-wicket mark in Test matches. He got this feat in match against South Africa in 2001 and broke the world record of Kapil Dev’s world record in previous year in match against against Zimbabwe. Walsh played lots of Test matches; the maximum for a fast bowler. In 132 Test matches, he created a highest wicket record of 519 wickets with an impressive average of 24.44. His ODI record was also good at 227 wickets from 205 matches.

~Ronish Baxter

Know about Anil Kumble

Anil Kumble (born 17 October 1970) is a former Indian international cricketer and captain. A right-arm-leg spin (leg break googly), Kumble has taken 619 wickets in test cricket. By 2015, Kumble was the third such cricketer to get the most wickets. Only Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne has taken more wickets than him.

Unlike his contemporary cricketers, Kumble bowled low on the ball. His trust was more on speed and line. Because of the art of bouncing the ball of Kumble used to keep in the right direction, he kept the batsman in trouble. Kumble is also called ‘Jumbo’. This word is taken from a jumbo jet. His ball is also sharp as a spinner.

Kumble was selected in the Indian Cricketer of the Year in 1993. Three years later he was selected as Wisden Cricketer of the Year.

Family

Born in Bangalore, Kumble became interested in cricket from an early age. He was very busy watching the game of cricketers like BS Chandrasekhar. His parents’ names are Saroja and Krishna Swami. Apart from Anil Kumble, his brother Dinesh Kumble is in the family. Kumble got married to Chetna Kumble. With whom he has two children, son Mayas Kumble, and daughter Swathi Kumble. His daughter Aruni Kumble, is from the earlier marriage of his wife Chetna Kumble. Kumble is a graduate and a mechanical engineer.

Career

Kumble started his first-class cricket career at the age of 19 while leading Karnataka. He was soon made part of the Indian team against England for the Australia-Asia Cup in 1990. Since then, Kumble has led the Indian Test team in more than 132 matches. He was also the main reason for the victory of the Indian team.

Kumble became part of the Indian ODI team in 1990. 1996 was a successful year for Kumble. He was selected for the World Cup and was the best player of the year. He hit 15 wickets, playing 7 matches. In the 1999 innings of one Test match, Kumble dismissed all the players of Pakistan. Apart from them, there is only cricketers who made this record. HIs name was Jim Lekar.

Award

Kumble was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2005. This is the fourth most civilian honor of India. After playing 18 years, Kumble announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008. In 2012, Kumble became the Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket Committee.

Between 2012 and 2015, Kumble became the chief mentor of the IPL teams Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians. In February of 2015, he was given a place in the ICC Hall of Fame. He is the fourth such Indian cricketer who has succeeded in finding this place.

He was awarded Arjuna Award by the Government of India in 1995. Kumble was among 16 creickers chosen for Wisden Indian Cricketer of the 20th Century.

~Ronish Baxter

VVS Laxman Autobiography ‘281 and Beyond’

Veteran cricketer VVS Laxman, along with Star Sports launched the cover of his autobiography ‘281 and Beyond’ via Facebook Livestream. His autobiography will be in the market on November 19, in which co-author sports journalist is R. Kaushik. Laxman wanted to write his autobiography only after he retired from international cricket.
While launching his cover yesterday, he said that this book will give a ‘unique, but normal’ story of a player of the country. The title of the book is inspired by Laxman’s excellent innings of 281 runs against Australia in Eden Gardens in 2001, which changed the course of the series.
The player said, “The turning point of my life was an innings of 281 runs. In the book, I talked about playing in a match that how did I become fit on time of the match. My batting with Rahul Dravid on the fourth day and how we made that partnership and something more. ‘
He said, ‘I think that Test series taught us a lot. It taught us the progressive and aggressive attitude that we can do good against anyone in the world.’

~Ronish Baxter

Mohinder Amarnath – a Great Cricketer by Ronish Baxter

Mohinder Jain Bhardwaj (Mohinder Amarnath) is former Indian cricketer and current cricket analyst. He is popularly known as ‘Jimmy’. He is the son of Lala Amarnath, who was the first cricket captain of independent India. His brother Surinder Amarnath was a Test player. Another brother Rajinder Amarnath was a former first-class player and is currently a cricket coach.

Mohinder Amarnath became the Man of the Series of India’s 1983 World Cup victory. Mohinder emerged as the best Indian batsman against Express Pace Attack in the later part of his career.

Career

Mohinder Amarnath started his cricket career in Chennai against Australia in December 1969. He was fast bowlers and all-rounders from the beginning. He was the top order batsman in the golden days of his career, who often used to bat in number 3. He was also skilled with the ball and used to swing and cut the ball with good control. His run-up was unique, where he would have been slow to reach the crease.

Mohinder Amarnath scored 4,378 runs in 69 Tests. His batting average of 42.50 included 11 centuries and 24 fifties. Mohinder Amarnath bagged 32 wickets with the bowling average of 55.68. Mohinder Amarnath, playing 85 ODIs, scored 1,924 runs and his average of 30.53. He made an average of 42.84 with a 46-wicket haul in bowling.

appreciation

Pakistan fast bowler Imran Khan and Malcolm Marshall of West Indies, praised the Mohinder Amarnath batting and his art of control of pain. In 1982-83, Mohinder Amarnath played 11 Test matches against Pakistan and West Indies, in which he scored more than 1,000 runs.

India’s world-famous cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has described Mohinder Amarnath as the world’s most mature batsman in his book ‘Idols’. Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan has felicitously praised Mohinder Amarnath in his book ‘All Round View’. According to him, there was no better batsman than Mohinder Amarnath in 1981-82. Imran Khan further said that Amarnath should have been played from the beginning of his career till his retirement. After the start of his career in 1969, Amarnath had to wait till 1975 for his return to the team.

Belligerent Approach

The special identity of Amarnath was for his struggle. Vivian Richards, a well known West Indian player, called him one of the best people in the cricket world. Former Australia Test opening batsman David Boon said to Amarnath, ‘Accepting is not the word of his dictionary’.

Because of Richard Headley, Amarnath had a  hairline fracture in his skull. He felt unconscious with the bowling of Imran Khan and due to Malcolm Marshall, his teeth were broken. Amarnath jaw, injured by Jeff Thomson’s ball, was so badly injured that he was only eating ice cream in lunch. His ability to endure pain was very good.

Dispute

Mohinder Amarnath spoke openly on the political differences of Indian cricket. He called the selectors ‘group of Jokers’  which created a deal of controversy. Because of this habit, he was often outside the team.

Cricket coaching

Mohinder Amarnath created a program for the TV, which was broadcast every week. In this program, he was seen giving coaching to cricket and the name of the program was ‘Cricket with Mohinder Amarnath’  This program was liked by young people at that time.

~Ronish Baxter

Know about Sunil Gavaskar (By Ronish Baxter)

Sunil Manohar Gavaskar is a former Indian cricketer who first became a part of the Bombay cricket team and later joined the Indian national team. Sunil Gavaskar is included in the greatest players of cricket history. His name was a record of the highest Test runs and Test centuries for quite a long time, which nearly two decades later was broken by Indian player Sachin Tendulkar.

Cricket record

Sunil Gavaskar was the first cricketer who scored a century in both innings of a Test match three times, although India did not win any of these matches. Sunil Gavaskar is the first batsman to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket. In the list of cricketers making maximum runs, Sunil Gavaskar comes in 11th position. Gavaskar was always considered the best opener, especially against his fast bowlers, the technique was awesome. His average was 65.45 against the West Indies, whose fast bowling was tremendous in that period.

Unsuccessful captaincy

Gavaskar did not prove as successful as a successful captain. In that period the captaincy changed between him and Kapil Dev. In the captaincy of Gavaskar, Indian bowling attack was weak and of old variety due to which most of the matches were drawn.

Start of career

Gavaskar was born on July 10, 1959, in Bombay (then Bombay). In 1966, he became India’s best “schoolboy cricketer of the year”. Sunil Gavaskar, a student of Mumbai’s famous St. Xavier’s College, played against Karnataka in 1968-69, Later he got selected in the national team.

~Ronish Baxter

Interesting facts about Saurav Ganguly

Team India is number one in Tests and ODIs, whose credit goes to former captain Sourav Ganguly too. This is the player who gave the mantra of winning team players abroad. In the captaincy of Ganguly, players like Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, and MS Dhoni did the debate. who later joined most of the world’s players.

In this article, we have 6 interesting facts about Sourav Ganguly

1.  Sourav Ganguly escaped with Dona his childhood girlfriend after England’s debut tour. The relations between Donna and Ganguly’s family were not good, so they married secretly without informing their families. However, later the family of both of them agreed to this marriage.
2.  Saurav Ganguly works with the right hand. However, for the convenience, he became a left-handed batsman because in the early days he was using his brother’s cricket gear. Today he is considered India’s greatest left-handed batsman.

3.   After being dropped out of Team India in 1992, Ganguly had got the personal rugs machine in his house for practice. In the meantime, apart from the regular shot, Ganguly had a lot of practice on the batting side. After that Rahul Dravid named him ‘God of off side’. In the year 1996, Dravid and Ganguly had test debut at Lord’s grounds.

4.  Ganguly had decided to play Rahul Dravid as a wicketkeeper in the team. After that, he was fiercely criticized. However, this decision of Ganguly proved to be a masterstroke within a few days and due to this decision, an extra specialist batsman got the place in the team. And by this decision, Dravid also confirmed his place in the ODI team.

5.  Sehwag debuted as a middle-order batsman in Test cricket. However, Ganguly had given him the opportunity to open the batting first. After which he is called the world’s most explosive openers.

6. Sourav Ganguly made 22 centuries in his ODI career, during which he put 18 centuries out of India. In comparison to Dhoni and Raina, both of these players have not yet scored ODI centuries out of Asia.

Sourav Ganguly, of course, is not in the team today, but Sourav Ganguly’s team has won India in Twenty20 World Cup and World Cup 2011.

This is to be noted that in the circumstances under which Sourav Ganguly had taken the captaincy, the future of the Indian team was lying in darkness, but Dada taught them to fight back and win.

~Ronish Baxter

 

 

 

Some Great Facts about MS Dhoni

31st among the world’s top 100 athletes. England’s footballer Rooney, athlete Usain Bolt, ahead of tennis star Novak Djokovic. Sachin’s place in this list was 78th. In 2013, the same magazine gave Dhoni 16th place in the list. His annual earnings were Rs 190 crores.

We love him. Then hate. And then begin to love. The most popular and most discussed previous Indian cricket captain is Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Whether its Defeat or winning for the team, Dhoni remains calm. Only the Captain Cool. Not only this, there are many other things that keep him in a different league. Introducing some interesting things on Dhoni’s birthday

1. One of the highest personal income taxpayers: For the last two years, they are the biggest income taxpayers of Jharkhand state and one of the main personality of the country. In 2013, he paid Rs 12 crore as income tax. Six million in September and 6 crores in December.

2. Second Largest Brand Ambassador: They are currently 20 big advertising brands. This includes Reebok, Pepsi products. He is the most ad celebrity after Shah Rukh Khan has 21 brands.

3. The world’s richest cricketer: Forbes Magazine has named Dhoni as the richest cricketer in 2012. In the case of Reasi, he was ranked 31st among the world’s top 100 athletes. England’s footballer Rooney, athlete Usain Bolt, ahead of tennis star Novak Djokovic. Sachin’s place in this list was 78th. In 2013, the same magazine gave Dhoni 16th place in the list. His annual earnings are Rs 190 crores.

4. Bike, SUV and Dogs Fans: Dhoni has 23 bikes. From Harley Davidson to Ducati The latest in this collection is the Confederate X13 Hellcat Bike. He is the only person to have bikes in Southeast Asia. In cars they have Hummer H2, Audi Q7. They just do not do their collection, they can often be seen riding in Ranchi. Only the carts are not his favorites, he has tweeted several times his two pet dogs Labrador ‘Zara’ and the ‘Alsatian Sam’ photo.

5. Love-Marriage: Married With his childhood friend. Both used to read in DAV School of Ranchi. After a two-year affair, he got engaged with his friend in a farmhouse in Dehradun in 2010 and then married the next day. His friends were shocked by the marriage with sudden surprise.

6. Helicopter shot: These shots are in the name of Dhoni only. They only invented it. They hit the ball falling near the feet, moving your bat like a helicopter’s wings. He explains that he is coming to play this shot from the early stages of his cricket. Although people say that this shot looks as easy, it is not so much. If there is a mistake, a foot or a paw may hurt.

7. Why did long hair short? They all know that Dhoni’s hair used to be very large, but he cut it. However, the request for not doing so was done by former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf openly. Dhoni once said that he did it to look like a Bollywood star John Abraham. He later told that he did this on the behest of his wife’s.

8. All-time successful Indian captain: He has broken many records in his cricket career. He won 22 Tests and named Sourav Ganguly as the most successful captain of India. Sourav also called him the most successful captain of India. He is India’s most successful captain in ODIs.

9. Not interested in cricket: Initially, Dhoni was not more serious about cricket. His mind seemed more in badminton and football. He also got selected in the clubs and district teams of these games. He used to do goalkeeping. He was sent by his coach to play cricket in a match, while he did not even know anything about the game. But his wicketkeeping attracted many people.

10. A ticket collector’s job: In 1998, Dhoni was part of the Bihar Under-19 Cricket team. His team lost against Punjab, but his performance was appreciated. On this basis, he was inducted into the Bihar Ranji team. During this time, he got a ticket collector’s job in railway and posting at Kharagpur railway station. To help the family, he did this job from 2001 to 2003. Because of his good performance in 2003 and 2004, he became part of India-A team, followed by India team.

~Ronish Baxter

Know about Sachin Tedulkar (by Ronish Baxter)

Famous by the name god of cricket Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was born on 24th April, 1973 in a Marathi Brahmin family of Rajapur. His father’s name was Ramesh Tendulkar and he was named Sachin after the name of favorite musician Sachin Dev Burman.

Sachin Tendulkar, one of the greatest cricketers in the history of world cricket, has many world records in his name which made him king of world cricket.

Born in a middle-class family, Sachin had his education at Shardashram School in Mumbai. His brother Ajit Tendulkar, knowing his talent, saw the qualities of cricket in his childhood and guided him through explaining the basics of cricket.

His father got his admission to Ramakant Achrekar, who was called ‘Dronacharya’ of cricket, who favored Tendulkar’s cricketing talent well. Sachin also went to M.R.F. training camp of the Foundation, where he was asked by fast bowling coach Dennis Lilly to pay full attention to his batting and since then Sachin focused on his batting.
The way to training of Sachin’s coach, Ramesh Achrekar, was absolutely unique. He used to keep a coin of 1 rupee below the wicket on the crease. If any bowler dismissed Sachin then this coin belonged to that bolwler and if Sachin did not get out, then the coin would have been Sachin’s. Sachin won 13 such coins from his master . In this way coach made Sachin the master of batting.

 

After this, at the age of 15, Sachin shared a 664-run partnership with Vinod Kambli in the Hauras Shield match, in which Tendulkar scored 320 runs with his superb talent. Seeing such performance, the opposition stopped playing the match halfway and conceded defeat.

Sachin had become very popular with this performance, due to which at the young age of 16, he got a place in Team India and started his international cricket against Pakistan in 1989. Sachin had won the hearts of cricket fans with his wonderful cricket playing.
Sachin scored his first Test century in England in 1990 in which he scored an unbeaten 119, followed by his performance in Australia and South Africa Test matches, and where he scored Test hundreds. Sachin played his first home Test match against England in 1992-93 in India, which was his 22nd match of his Test career.

Given Sachin’s talent and cricket technique, everyone gave him the title of Don Bradman, which later Don Bradman himself accepted.

Due to Sachin’s excellent performance, he was given the captaincy of Team India but he could not succeed as a captain and his own game was also very suffered by this. He himself quit the captaincy position.

The worst phase of Sachin Tendulkar’s cricket career came when Sachin was quite unfit due to the pain in tennis and his shoulders in 2005-06 due to which his game was also affected. But with his unmatched talent and hard-working Sachin Tendulkar made a change in his game and proved himself in the 2008 tour of Australia and put an end to the runs drought.
On 23 December 2012, Sachin retired from one-day cricket, and on 16 November 2013, in his last Test match in Mumbai, he retired from Test cricket by playing 74 innings. Tendulkar scored 15921 runs in 200 Tests with his batting average of 53.79 in while his best score was 246 * and he made 51 centuries and 68 half-centuries.

In the ODI, Sachin scored 18426 runs in 463 matches with a batting average of 44.83 in which his best score was 200 *, his name was 49 centuries and 96 half-centuries. He also took 154 wickets for his team in his one-day matches.

Due to their amazing talent and hard work in batting, people are also called him the miracle of Criket.

In addition to his game, Sachin gives love and respect to all cricket lover in the world due to his personality. Despite being a legend of cricket, he never allowed himself to be arrogant and always kept away from his ego; otherwise, after making such a fame, it would not be enough for everyone to remain so simple.

Today, every cricket loving every person in the world speaks the name of Sachin Tendulkar.

Sachin tendulkar is the youngest person to be honored with the highest civilian award in India and the youngest person to get Bharat Ratna. He is the only cricket player to receive Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. He was also awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2008.

Sachin Tendulkar Awards:

* In 2014, India’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna.
* In 2008, Padma Vibhushan award which is India’s second highest civilian award.
* In 1999, awarded the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian award.
* Honored with Maharashtra Bhushan Award for the highest civilian award of Maharashtra State in 2001
* Awarded Arjuna Award by the Government of India in recognition of his outstanding achievement in the Games in 1994.
* In recognition of the achievement of the game in 1997-98, India’s highest honor, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award
* Wisden Leading Cricketer of the Year in 1998 and in 2010
* 2003 Cricket World Cup Player of the Tournament
* In the ICC World ODI XI team in 2004, 2007 and 2010
* In the ICC World Test XI team in 2009, 2010 and 2011
* Excellent Achievement Award in the People’s Choice Award for Sports and Work in 2010, Asian Awards
* ICC Award for Best Cricketer of the Year 2010
* In 2010, the LG People’s Choice Award was received.
* Honorary Group Captain’s title by Indian Air Force in 2010
* Best Indian cricketer of the year 2011 by BCCI.
* Honorary lifetime membership of the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in 2012
* Indian Postal Service issued a postage stamp of Tendulkar in 2013 and he is the second Indian after Mother Teresa, for whom such a stamp has been issued in her lifetime.

Interesting Facts about Rahul Dravid

1. Rahul Dravid is always discussed as a technically strong batsman, but he has been successful as a captain too. In his captaincy, India played 25 Tests, winning eight Test matches and lost in six. Out of the 79 matches played in ODI cricket, under Dravid captaincy, India won 42, while lost in 33 matches.

2. Rahul Dravid is the only player in the world to take most catches (210) in Test cricket.

3. The unique record of making 10,000 or more runs in Test and one-day cricket is Dravid’s name. In Tests, he is the first batsman in the world to become the highest run scorer after Sachin Tendulkar, whereas Dravid is the only third Indian batsman after Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly in ODIs.

4. Dravid was selected Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2000.

5. In 2004, he was selected as the ICC Player of the Year and Test Player of the Year.

6. Dravid was the first batsman to score a hundred against all the countries playing Test.

7. Dravid was the only player to get out by being bowled most of the times in Test cricket. In 286 innings of 164 Tests, Dravid has bowled 55 times.

8. Dravid’s has the unique record of playing 93 consecutive Tests.

9. Rahul Dravid batting at number three was the world’s first batsman to score 10,000 runs

10. His highest score in Test cricket is 270 runs against Pakistan. This inning was the longest innings ever played by an Indian in the crease.

11. Dravid is not even once out of zero for 120 ODI innings.

12. Dravid was the first batsman to have scored three consecutive centuries in a Test series twice in England after Sir Don Bradman.

13. Dravid played only one international T20 game and in that he scored three sixes in three balls.

14. Dravid was found guilty of ball-tampering during a match against Zimbabwe in January 2004. Although, with match referee Clive Lloyd, he said that he had no intention of doing ball-tampering, rather it was unknowing.

15. Dravid has received considerable criticism for not giving chance to Sachin Tendulkar to score a double century in the Multan Test in March 2004. Dravid was the acting captain in place of Sourav Ganguly in this match. When Sachin was playing on 194, Dravid declared the end of innings.

16. Rahul Dravid was first Indian batsman to score five or more double centuries.

17. Rahul Dravid has played in the captaincy of Mohammad Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Ajay Jadeja, Sourav Ganguly and Mahendra Singh Dhoni in his 16-year career.

18. Dravid has scored 36 hundred in Test cricket, out of which for 28 centuries he has been batting at number three.

19. Dravid was involved in 80 centries partnerships with 18 different partners in Test cricket, out of which 19 centuries partnership came when he played with Sachin. This is a world record.

~Ronish Baxter

 

Ronish Baxter

Sports have been part of the Indian culture since the Vedic era. From the ever famous and ever popular traditional ‘gilli-danda’ to ‘kancha’ to the variety of modern games, sports have evolved with time in India.

Through my blog, I, Ronish Baxter like to discuss about everything related to sports, starting from upcoming tournaments to player performances to upgrading of facilities for better training and more. This helps people to not only know about which sporting event is ‘on’ at the moment but also learn different things related to sports in India.

My sports passion has taken me to different places where I got the opportunity to interact with a lot of sportspersons, critics as well as investors who love to promote the game. From the ever popular Indian Premier League (IPL) to ISL to worldwide events like the Olympics and FIFA World Cup, I have attended many a prestigious events and written about them in various channels.

Over the last 7/8 years, a lot of sporting events have been organized in India, thanks to the growing intervention of the government and other investors. As a result of that, Ronish Baxter believe that apart from cricket which was at a time the only major sporting event in India, other sports like kabaddi, football, hockey, badminton and even athletics are witnessing a lot of interest from the youth of India which is a great sign. There is no question of doubt that India still has a long way to go if indeed it wishes to create outstanding athletes from various sporting domains like football, athletics, basketball, etc. but the potential is definitely available in plenty. What is required is a structured format where interested individuals do get the required care, support and the facilities to train.

New initiatives have certainly come up in the form of IPL, Indian Hockey League, ISL and Pro Kabaddi League and it has helped a lot of talented individuals grow and make a name for them. But, more such efforts are required to make India truly a sports loving and most importantly, a nation with a high percentage of fit and healthy individuals.