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Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
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31 Dec 20, 4 tweets, 2 min read
A few years ago, ICC retrofitted rankings for all Test cricketers.

These rankings indicate performances *till that point* and not entire careers.

But even then, it is never easy to remain in the top six for over sixty years.

Peter May hit 941 on August 27, 1956.
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He was in top five until Steven Smith broke through.

In fact, if you look at his career, it seldom dipped below 900 between 1956 and 1958. Then it plunged.

May was among England's greatest post-War batsmen.
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But like Barrington, he is not celebrated as much as, say, Compton or Pietersen.

Here is @senantix's thread on May.

I missed the photograph. :( Image

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Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
2 Jan
Had *that* incident not taken place, Raman Lamba would have turned 59 today.

Lamba was a childhood hero.

slightly unusual one, but eye-witnesses will probably see reason in this.

I had grown up on stories about Pataudi and Jaisimha and Engineer and Baig.
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I was told about their debonair presence on the ground.

We had two men of our generation who could match them in panache.

Of them, Azhar led India for almost a decade; and Lamba faded into nothingness.

Both men were flamboyant without trying, in their own different ways.
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I wanted to imitate them.

But Lamba was inimitable.

Had I met Lamba outside a cricket ground I would probably have mistaken him for a film star.

From the hairdo to the swagger, every bit of him was special, but none more than his batting.

I remember his international debut.
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Read 13 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
31 Dec 20
Geoff Marsh turns 62, so anecdote time.

But first, some highlights.

Marsh scored two hundreds in the 1987 World Cup.

He and Mark Taylor batted through all of Day 1 at Trent Bridge in 1989.

He was the first man to win a World Cup as both player (1987) and coach (1999).
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He fathered two Test cricketers and a professional basketball player.

And he formed a famous opening pair with David Boon.

He was also one of the handful of people who succeeded in embarrassing Boon.

As was norm with most opening pairs, they used to share rooms on tours.
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Boon once woke up to find Marsh at shadow practice in front of the mirror.

In the nude.

Marsh denies this. Not *entirely* naked, he says – he had the Baggy Green on.

Boon was once reading a book inside the room.

Marsh did not approve of this.

He *shredded* the book.
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Read 7 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
30 Dec 20
Rohit asked me to write on this.



This has been written on many times. I shall leave out from dogs, cats, and other common creatures.

This may have underage readers, so I shall leave out the birds and bees as well (please laugh).
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I shall also skip the duck released at Sydney and the pig at Brisbane.

They were brought into the ground intentionally, with the purpose of stopping play.

Bella the elephant was not hired to *stop* cricket, but we all know about her, don't we?

Foxes are another thing.
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In June 1982, a fox ran behind Derek Underwood's arm, straight towards the crowd, during a John Player League match between Warwickshire and Kent.

In December 1951, during MCC's tour match against Maharashtra in Poona, a monkey decided to say hello to its descendants.
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Read 11 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
24 Dec 20
The Boxing Day Test match is two days away, so I suppose it is better to tell the tale of the greatest Boxing Day cricket the world has ever seen.

That happened in 1953, at Ellis Park, Johannesburg (the photograph is from another match).

Warning:
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I often get carried away even while reading this, let alone writing. There may be overdose of emotions.

First, as usual, some context.

Despite playing Test cricket for over two decades, New Zealand were yet to win their first Test match.
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Jack Cheetham, on the other hand, was turning South African cricket around.

They had drawn the 2-2 in Australia and had won 1-0 in New Zealand.

And they won the first Test of this series, at Durban, by an innings.
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Read 38 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
23 Dec 20
Yes, 36 hurt. It still hurts.

So much that there have been speculations of flying out Dravid.

Gavaskar and Manjrekar are probably out there as well (though I am not sure who speaks from the studio).

There is also Pujara as well.

There is someone else, too.
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You see, as any cricket-loving child will tell you, Gavaskar used to open batting, while Manjrekar, Dravid, and Pujara all batted at three.

There have been exceptions, but these were more or less where they batted.

Not this person.
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You see, they pushed him up the order whenever India travelled.

And once back to the comfort of home, he was quietly demoted.

Did he fail at the top?

He has batted 121 times in Test cricket: 35 in top three, 86 lower down the order.

At home, 53, 3, 50.
Overseas, 68, 32, 36.
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Read 8 tweets
Abhishek Mukherjee Profile picture
22 Dec 20
Hey @StanChart @StanChartIN @StanChartHelp @StanChartHelpIN:

I hold an account for twenty years. I also hold a credit card for roughly the same time.

The credit card became chargeable a few years ago.

This set off an annual string of events.

(thread)
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1. I got charged the amount
2. I called telemarketing
3. You reversed the amount

When this happened last year, you told me that you will not reverse the amount, and that your policy has changed.

Fine, I said. Cancel my card.

This triggered a string of phone calls.
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I was immediately refunded 75% of the amount but requested me to not cancel.

At least they gave me 75%, I thought.

Just before my card expired, I called up again to inform that I was not interested in a renewal.

This triggered another string of phone calls.
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Read 5 tweets

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