I had posted this on Facebook last year. I think it had gone viral, because it came back to me as a WhatsApp forward.

Posting this here now, for it is his birthday.
+
Wadekar was an excellent captain but he never won a World Cup.

Dhoni won a World Cup but he does not have hat-tricks.

Kuldeep has hat-tricks but he is not an outstanding fielder.

Jadeja is an incredible fielder but he doesn't have even two thousand Test runs.
+
Tendulkar has a lot of Test runs but not even fifty Test wickets.

Bumrah has over fifty Test wickets but does not stay fit.

Pujara does not get injured a lot but has played only 5 ODIs.

Agarkar has played a lot of ODIs but never led India.
+
Ganguly has led India many, many times but never coached India.

(Anshuman) Gaekwad coached India but never won a Ranji Trophy as captain.

Gavaskar won the Ranji Trophy but never a Test series in England.

Dravid won a series in England but never held India's record ODI score.
+
Rohit holds India's record ODI score but never had India's best ODI figures.

Ayub had India's best ODI figures but not 400 Test wickets.

Harbhajan has 400 Test wickets but not 5,000 runs.

Laxman has over 5,000 runs but not a 9-wicket haul.
+
Gupte had a 9-wicket haul but not hundreds in South Africa.

Azhar had one in South Africa but not one in West Indies.

Sardesai had hundreds in West Indies but never one in England.

Vengsarkar had hundreds in England but never hit four sixes in a row.
+
Yuvraj hit more than that but never took eight in an innings in Australia.

Kumble has done that but he never held the world record for most Test wickets.

No Indian has done that, in fact.

Only one Indian has done all this.

Every single one.

And more.
+
India's greatest ever cricketer was born this day, 1959.

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More from @ovshake42

5 Jan
Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi was born on this day, 1941.

His father Iftikhar passed away on this day as well, in 1952 – when Mansur was celebrating his 11th birthday.

Father and son both led India and scored hundreds in their first Tests against Australia, but there is a catch.
+
Iftikhar was playing for England.

That hundred – a laborious, painstaking 380-ball 102 – came during the Bodyline series.

During a particularly slow phase, Vic Richardson could not take it anymore:
- Pat, what’s wrong? Aren’t you seeing them too well?
+
- I’m waiting for the pace of the wicket to change a bit.
- Good God! It’s changed three times while you’ve been in!

Richardson was an Australian who never liked Bradman.

Pataudi was an the England cricketer who refused to field where Jardine wanted him to and got dropped.
+
Read 7 tweets
4 Jan
As per a Wisden report, "Gavaskar subsequently denied that police had warned him there was a threat to law and order should he delay the declaration any longer, though it was broadcast as a fact by an Indian commentator on BBC radio."

The incident took place on this day, 1985.
+
And that was not the only incident of note from that Test match.

India came into the Test match with the series levelled 1-1.

Sivaramakrishnan had scythed through England at Bombay, but England fought back to win at Delhi.
+
At Delhi, with India under pressure, Kapil had hit a six, and was caught in the deep off Pocock when he attempted an encore.

He was dropped from this Test match, at Eden Gardens, causing protests in Calcutta.

This was the only Test he ever missed in his career.
+
Read 15 tweets
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.
+
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.
+
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.
+
Read 13 tweets
31 Dec 20
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.
+
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.
+ Image
But like Barrington, he is not celebrated as much as, say, Compton or Pietersen.

Here is @senantix's thread on May.

Read 4 tweets
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).
+ Image
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.
+
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.
+
Read 7 tweets
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).
+ Image
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.
+
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.
+
Read 11 tweets

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