Virender Sehwag

Sehwag is an aggressive right-handed opening batsman and a part-time right-arm off-spin bowler...
Born in New Delhi, India

Virender Sehwag (born 20 October 1978), affectionately known as Viru, the Nawab of Najafgarh, or the Zen master of modern cricket, is one of the leading batsmen in the Indian cricket team. Sehwag is an aggressive right-handed

Jacques Kallis

He is one of the greatest cricketers of all time, particularly all-rounders, being the only cricketer in the history of the game to hold more than 10,000 runs and 250 wickets in both one day and Test match cricket...
Born in Cape Town, South Africa

 

Jacques Henry Kallis (born 16 October 1975) is a South African cricketer. As an all-rounder he is a formidable right-handed batsman and fast-medium swing bowler. He is one of the greatest cricketers of all time, particularly all-rounders, being the only cricketer in the history of the game to hold more than 10,000 runs and 250 wickets in both one day and Test match cricket. From October–December 2007 he produced a streak of five centuries in four Test Matches; with his century in the second innings of the third test against India in January 2011, his 40th in all, he moved past Ricky Ponting to become the second highest scorer of Test centuries, behind only Sachin Tendulkar who currently has 51 centuries. He was named Leading Cricketer in the World in the 2008 Wisden for his performances in 2007 in addition to being the "ICC Test Player of the Year" and ICC Player of the Year in 2005. He has been described by Kevin Pietersen and Daryll Cullinan as the greatest cricketer to play the game.

Jacques Kallis is one of the most reliable all-rounders that the South African side possesses. A dependable batsman and a bowler in testing times, he has put up crucial yet less spectacular performances for his team. He is a fine slip fielder and has the knack of playing a variety of strokes.

The right hander has been a lucky charm throughout his stint with the South African team; he debuted against England on 14 December 1995. His international career was sluggish initially, however it has been rampaging in the last decade. In the 2003-04 series against the West Indies, Kallis got a hundred in each of the four Tests. As a bowler, he has claimed many five and four wicket hauls. His records boast the likes of Gary Sobers, as he is one of the few cricketers to amass huge number of runs as well as wickets in both ODIs and Tests. He has portrayed himself as the toughest both mentally and physically.

Kallis scored the highest number of runs for South Africa during the 2007 World Cup with 435 runs to his credit. However, he was criticized for his slow innings and was eventually dropped for World Twenty20 in 2007 at home. But he proved his mettle again after he was recalled to the team for the Pakistan tour in 2007.

Kallis founded the Jacques Kallis Scholarship Foundation which promotes a combination of academic and life skills programmes in schools. His achievements are many and he has been awarded the ICC Test Player of the Year 2005, ICC Player of the Year 2005 and Wisden Leading cricketer of the Year 2007.

Brian Charles Lara

The Prince of Port-of-Spain
Born in Trinidad and Tobago

 

Brian Charles Lara (born May 2, 1969) (nicknamed "The Prince of Port-of-Spain" or simply "The Prince") is a West Indies cricketer. Lara has several times topped the Test batting rankings and being the current world record holder for the highest individual innings score and the all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket.

Biography

Brian was born in Cantaro, Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago. He is 10th in a family of 11 children. His father Bunty Lara died in 1988. His mother Pearl Lara suffered from cancer and died in January 2002. He is also the father of an eight-year-old daughter called Sydney whom he had with Trinidadian model Leasel Rovedas.

From an early age, Lara's father Bunty and one of his older sisters Agnes Cyrus enrolled him in the local Harvard Coaching Clinic at the age of six for weekly coaching sessions on Sundays. As a result, Lara had a very early education in proper batting techniques.

Lara's first school was St. Joseph's Roman Catholic primary. He then went to San Juan secondary, but played no cricket there. A year later, at fourteen years old, he moved on to Fatima College. Lara moved in with his fellow Trinidadian Test player Michael Carew in Woodbrook, Port of Spain (a 20 minute drive from Santa Cruz). Michael's father Joey Carew worked with him on his cricketing and personal career development. Michael got Lara his first job at the Angostura Ltd. in the Marketing department. Lara played in Trinidad and Tobago junior soccer and table tennis sides but cricket was the path to recognition in Trinidad at the time. Lara said he wanted to emulate his idols: Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards and the left-handed Roy Fredericks.

Lara began his cricket career while at school at Fatima College. When he was 14, he played in the under-16 and First Divisions of national schoolboys' cricket. He amassed 745 runs in the schoolboys' league that year with an average of 126.16 per innings. Afterwards he was selected for the Trinidad national under-16 team. When he was 15 years old, he played in his first West Indian under 19 youth tournament.

In 1984, Lara represented West Indies in Under-19 Test Cricket. 1987 was a breakthrough year for Lara, when he broke the West Indies youth batting record. In January, 1988, Lara made his first-class debut for Trinidad and Tobago in the Red Stripe Cup against Barbados. The Bajan attack contained Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall. Lara made 92.

Later in the same year, he captained the West Indies team in Australia for the Bicentennial Youth World Cup. His innings of 182 as captain of the West Indies under 23 XI against the 1988-89 Indians elevated Lara's reputation even further. He was selected for the Port of Spain Test of that season. He did not play, however, due to suffering the personal setback of the death of his father. In 1989, he captained West Indies B Team in Zimbabwe and scored 145 for the West Indies, a side that included several players with Test experience.

In 1990, at the age of 20, Lara became Trinidad and Tobago's youngest ever captain and won the one-day Geddes Grant Shield. It was also in 1990 that he made his Test debut for West Indies against Pakistan, scoring 44 and 6.

Lara loves carnivals, Chinese & Italian food, and is known to be a practical joker.

Career Highlights
Lara holds several world records for high scoring. He has the highest individual score in both first-class cricket (501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham in 1994) and Test cricket (400 not out for the West Indies against England in 2004). He also holds the record for the highest total number of runs in a Test career, after overtaking Allan Border in November 2005. He is the only man to have reclaimed the Test record score, having scored 375 against England in 1994, a record that stood until Matthew Hayden's 380 against Zimbabwe in 2003. His 400 not out also made him the second player after Don Bradman to score two Test triple-centuries, and the second after Bill Ponsford to score two first-class quadruple-centuries. He has scored nine double centuries in Test cricket, second only to Bradman's twelve.

Lara captained the West Indies from 1997 to 1999. He was reappointed as captain against the touring Australians in 2003, and struck 110 in his first Test match back in charge, showing signs of him returning to his best. In September 2004, West Indies won the ICC Champions Trophy in England under his captaincy.

In March 2005, Lara declined selection for the West Indies team because of a dispute over his personal Cable & Wireless sponsorship deal, which clashed with the Cricket Board's main sponsor, Digicel. Six other players were involved in this dispute, including stars Christopher Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, and Dwayne Bravo. Lara says he declined selection in a stand of solidarity, when these players were dropped because of their sponsorship deals. The issue was resolved after the first Test of the series against the touring South African team.

Lara returned to the team for the second Test (and scored a huge first innings score of 196), but in the process lost his captaincy indefinitely to the newly-appointed Shivnarine Chanderpaul. In the next Test, against the same opponents, he scored a 176 in the first innings. After a one day series against South Africa, he cored his first Test century against the visiting Pakistanis in the first Test at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados.

On April 26 2006 Lara was reappointed the captain of the West Indies cricket team for the third time. This followed the resignation of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who had been captain for thirteen months - in which the West Indies won just one of the 14 Test matches they had competed. In May 2006, Lara led the West Indies to successful One-Day series victories against Zimbabwe and India. Lara's team played Australia in the final for the ICC Champions Trophy and lost.

Zaheer Khan

A left arm Fast bowler considered as the spearhead of the Indian bowling attack, Zaheer is known for his ability to swing the ball both ways...
Born in Shrirampur, India

 

Zaheer Khan (born 7 October 1978) is an Indian cricketer who has been a member of the Indian cricket team since 2000.

A left arm Fast bowler considered as the spearhead of the Indian bowling attack, Zaheer is known for his ability to swing the ball both ways, and as a batsman also holds the record for the highest Test score by a No. 11. After leading the Indian pace attack for much of the early 2000s, recurring hamstring injuries in 2003 and 2004 forced him out of the team, and after returning for a year, he was dropped again in late 2005. Strong performances on the domestic circuit have seen him recalled to the team as its leading pace bowler.

Zaheer was selected in 2000 for the first intake of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, He made his Test debut against Bangladesh at Dhaka and ODI debut against Kenya at Nairobi during the ICC KnockOut Trophy in the same year.

In late 2005 pacemen Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and R. P. Singh made their international debuts and became regular members of the Indian team making it difficult for Zaheer to retain his position in the playing eleven. The Board of Control for Cricket in India demoted Zaheer from a B-grade to a C-grade contract at the end of the year.

He returned for the 2006 tour of Pakistan, where India fielded three left arm pacemen and had difficulty dismissing Pakistan with a lack of variety in the bowling attack. Zaheer, with inferior results to those of Irfan Pathan and Singh, was dropped.

In Indian domestic cricket, Zaheer made his name playing for Baroda, but transferred to Mumbai at the start of the 2006-07 Indian cricket season his debut for Mumbai until the final of the Ranji Trophy in which he took 9 wickets as Mumbai defeated Bengal.

In 2006 Zaheer signed for Worcestershire County Cricket Club as their second overseas player as a replacement for Australian Nathan Bracken. He became the first Worcestershire player to take 10 wickets in a match on debut for over 100 years against Somerset, even though Worcestershire eventually lost the game. In June 2006 he took the first nine wickets to fall in the first innings against Essex, ending with 9-138; had wicket-keeper Steven Davies not dropped a catch offered by last man Darren Gough he would have become the first bowler ever to take all ten for the county.

In late 2006, Zaheer was recalled to the Test and ODI team for the tour of South Africa, following a form slump to Baroda team-mate Irfan Pathan and injuries to Munaf Patel. After consistent performances on tour, his performance in early 2007 in home ODIs against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, including a career best 5/42, saw him named in the squad for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. He is moulded on the likes of Wasim Akram and Chaminda Vaas, though not as successful as they are.

He won the Man of the Match award in the first test between India and Australia, at Bangalore, in the 2008-2009 series for his all round performance with the bat and the ball. He became the third Indian, after Rusi Surti and Kapil Dev, to score a half century and take five wickets in an innings in the same match against Australia. He has since become the strike-bowler and a permanent fixture in the Indian team. Zaheer also won the Man of the Match award in the T20 World Cup 2009 against Ireland for taking 4 wickets by giving only 19 runs.

Khan is currently tied with James Anderson of England at No.4 in ICC Test bowlers ranking.

At 21, the left-armer made a big move when he sacrificed a career in engineering to pursue one on the cricketing field. Zaheer started playing for Baroda in 1999 and only a year into domestic cricket, he was called up to the Indian side. He made an impressive start against Kenya in the 'ICC Knockout Trophy', picking up 3 wickets on debut and was brilliant throughout the tournament, playing a major role in India's road to the final. He was immediately inducted into the Test side and thereafter became a regular fixture in the Indian squad. A brilliant 2002 season, capped by 89 wickets, announced his arrival on the international stage. Though in 2003-04, a hamstring injury which was later found out to be a nerve-twitch, hampered his progress. The selectors continued to rest their faith in him but form and fitness combined with the emergence of competition like Sreesanth and RP Singh, meant that he wasn't assured of a place in the side anymore.

Zaheer's tumultuous tale reached its climax in 2006 when he was dropped after the Pakistan series and was demoted to a C-Grade contract by the BCCI. He then came up with a befitting reply, prizing 78 wickets for Worcestershire, forcing his way back into the Indian team. A leaner, fitter 'Zak' emerged with a shortened run up and a moulded bowling action to lead India's attack with renewed vigour. His fight-back began in South Africa and was followed up by a historic Test series triumph in England where he ended up as the highest wicket-taker.

With his perfect seam action and his ability to swing the ball both ways, Zaheer is sort of a destructive bowler who any team would yearn to call their own. That coupled with his lethal reverse swing with the old ball explains why the Baroda lad has become one of the most feared bowlers in world cricket. Zaheer Khan with his current achievements is already an inspiration to young Indian quickies. But the speedster's career is far from over. He dreams of going one step further to emulate the legendary Wasim Akram and for the lionhearted optimist that he is, even this herculean task is none too tall for him to conquer.

Highlights: 
• Zaheer Khan was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2008.
• He is India's most successful left-arm seamer and the third most successful in the World.
• In Tests, he is India's most successful fast bowler after Kapil Dev.
• Zaheer became the third Indian bowler to take more than 150 Test wickets outside India.
• He was India's highest wicket taker in the 2003 ICC World Cup.
• In county cricket, he became the first Worcestershire player to take 10 wickets in a match on debut for over 100 years.
• He was the highest wicket-taker in 2007, picking up an astonishing 81 scalps in Tests and ODIs combined.
• As of December 2010, his 75 against Bangladesh in 2004 was the highest Test score by a number 11 batsman.
• Against Australia in 2008, Zaheer became the third Indian after Rusi Surti and Kapil Dev to score a half century and take five wickets in an innings in the same match

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly

One of the best Indian Cricketer
Born in Calcutta, India

 

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly also known as "Dada" is an Indian cricketer. Born 8 July 1972, lives at Barisha in Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, West Bengal, he made his One Day International debut against Australia in 1992, and a Test debut versus England in 1996. He went on to become the captain of Indian cricket team from 2000 to 2005. He has led India to the World Cup 2003 finals, and holds the Indian captaincy record for the most Test victories. Following an exit from the national team in early 2006, he was recalled to the Indian Test side in December, staging a successful comeback in the 2006 - 2007 Indian tour of South Africa.

Ganguly is a left-handed batsman and a right-handed medium-pace bowler. He is a natural right-hander, but converted to the southpaw stance at a young age so that he could use his left-handed brother, Snehasish Ganguly's equipment.

Nicknamed Bengal Tiger, Prince of Calcutta and also affectionately called Dada (elder brother in Bengali) by his team-mates and Lord Snooty by his opponents, he is an aggressive player on and off the field. He made his one-day international debut in 1992, but his talents did not truly receive the recognition they deserved until India's 1996 tour of England when he scored centuries both in his debut Test as well as the next match (the second and third Tests of the series). Ganguly is only the third cricketer ever to score a century on debut at Lord's, after Harry Graham and John Hampshire (Andrew Strauss has also since accomplished the feat). Rahul Dravid once commented, "On the off-side, first there is God, then there is Ganguly”. He scored 183 against Sri Lanka at Taunton in the 1999 Cricket World Cup, the highest by an Indian in World Cup cricket. He became captain within a year after the world cup and scored 2 centuries in the 2000 champions trophy immediately after. While he has achieved significant successes as captain, his individual performance deteriorated during his captaincy, especially after successes in the world cup and the tour of Australia in 2003 and the Pakistan series in 2004. Following indifferent form in 2004 and poor form form in 2005, he was dropped from the team in October 2005. He has since remained active on the first class cricket scene in hopes of a recall, but his performance has been mixed - he has hit a couple of centuries in domestic cricket, but his English county stint in 2005 and subsequent appearances in the Challenger Trophy were failures.

Consistent batting failures of the Indian cricket team, more so than his own mediocre to good performances in the domestic circuit led to his recall to the Indian Test squad in November 2006. Although India lost 2-1, Sourav Ganguly was the highest run getter for India, and only batsman to hit more than 200 runs in total. On January 12th 2007 he was recalled for the one day squad as well, where India play host to West Indies and Sri Lanka in a one day tournament. On January 21st, Ganguly hit a match winning 98 against the West Indies.

Sourav Ganguly made his international debut against Australia in India's tour of Australia in 1992. He didn't score much and was dropped from further matches. Four years later, following a good domestic record, he was recalled into the national side for a Test series against England in England. He made his Test debut at Lords, with a century in that match and repeated the feat in the match which followed. He was retained for the One day team and he went on become a regular in both forms of the game. One of his most memorable performance was in the final of the Independence cup at Dhaka against Pakistan, when the entire Pakistan team walked back in stating bad light along with the umpires, but Ganguly refused to come in. Ganguly scored 124 in that match in darkness, while Hrishikesh Kanitkar scored the winning runs with a boundary.

In 2000, after the match fixing scandal Ganguly was named the captain of the India team. In 2003 under his captaincy India reached the World Cup Final, where they lost to the Australians. Ganguly has scored over 10,000 runs in One Day Cricket and over 5,000 runs in Test cricket, including 12 centuries in Tests and 22 in ODIs. In terms of number of centuries in ODIs, he is exceeded by Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya. Sourav, along with Sachin Tendulkar, formed by far the most successful opening pair in One Day Cricket, having amassed the highest number of century partnerships (16) for the first wicket. Together, they have scored 5,308 runs at an average of 45.37. Sourav has been succeeded by Virender Sehwag as opener.

He is the third player to cross 10,000 ODI runs and so far the fastest one to do so, after Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam Ul Haq, and reached 6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000 ODI runs milestones in least number of matches played. Sourav can bowl medium-pacers as well, but has under-achieved in this aspect in Test matches, taking 25 wickets in 84 matches, at an average of 52.47. In 2004, he was awarded the Padma Shri. As of 2006, he is the only Indian captain to win a Test series in Pakistan (although two of the three tests of that series was led by Rahul Dravid).

Sourav Ganguly's 10 year international cricket career could be easily bisected into 2 halves, the pre and the post Y2K eras. The significance of the year 2000 lies not only in the fact that he became the captain of the Indian team but also in the fact that the ICC introduced the one bouncer per over rule in ODIs starting from that year. This introduction of the rule by the ICC had a negative impact on Sourav Ganguly's batting average, which plunged from a high 45.5 before the year 2000 to a low 34.9 between the 5 year period of 2001-2005. Also, against Test playing nations (which included Zimbabwe and Bangladesh), his overall average plunged further down to 30.66, as did his 'away' average which fell to 29. He managed to score only (6) centuries between 2001-2005, of which 3 centuries were against Kenya & 1 was against Namibia. This sudden drop in his batting average against Test playing nations after 2001 was clearly a result of the short pitch stuff he had to encounter from opposition bowlers. As S. Rajesh, the assistant editor of Cricinfo analyzes, Sourav Ganguly has been dismissed numerous times fending off the short ball since 2001 and his average of 11.92 against the short ball has been the lowest among contemporary Indian batsman who played more than 80 ODI matches. The former captain has also been uncomfortable while attempting the 'pull' and the 'hook' shots when bowlers have dug it in short, often lasting less than five(4.89) balls before being dismissed.

Also, Sourav Ganguly's Test career had been riddled with lean patches, the first of which stretched for 3 years from Dec 1999 to Dec 2002, during which his batting average fell to 31.7 in 36 consecutive Test matches over 60 innings. The next biggest lean patch of his career occurred after the 2003 World Cup, when his ODI average fell to 28 and this was when his place in the team was questioned by numerous Indian cricket fans. He averaged 23.5 in 20 ODI matches between Sep 2004 and Sep 2005, before being finally dropped from the ODI side.

Despite his hot and cold streaks Sourav Ganguly is only the third Indian Test match batsman to maintain a career average that never dipped below 40 runs per innings for his entire Test career. This is more due to his initial career graph, which plummeted alarmingly in the second half of his career. Whereas his contemporaries like Dravid, Tendulkar, Sehwag and Laxman have shown steady improvement in their career graphs, his own happens to have a pronounced downward trend. The other two who achieved this feat are Sunil Gavaskar and Mohammad Azharuddin.

Sourav Ganguly also shares with G. R. Viswanath of India the record for scoring at least 10 or more centuries and his team either winning or drawing each and every match in which he scored a century. He also shares with Mohammad Azharuddin the record of scoring two consecutive hundreds in his first two Test matches, though Azharuddin bettered that by scoring a third consecutive hundred in his first three Test matches.

Sourav Ganguly has the highest Test and ODI aggregate of any left-handed batsman India has produced and his 12 Test and 22 ODI centuries are also a record for any Indian left-hander.

It was, however, as captain of the Indian team that Sourav Ganguly's biggest achievements occurred. He led India in a record 49 Test Matches, winning 21 of those, including 12 of them outside India. All three figures are records for Indian Test captains. He also led India to her first series wins in both Tests and ODIs in Pakistan, a feat that had eluded India for over 50 years. Ganguly also led India to more Test wins (11) outside India between 2000 and 2005 than all Indian captains had done between 1980 and 2000. He led India to victory over Steve Waugh led Australia in the 2001 Border-Gavaskar trophy which is considered as one of the greatest in Indian cricket history. However, his captaincy record has no doubt been immensely helped by numerous series against the minnows Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Against other teams, his captaincy record 12 wins and 12 losses, which is still better than other Indian captains. He also benefitted immensely from the peaking of all the great Indian players during his tenure - Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag, Kumble, Srinath and Harbhajan.

November 30, 2006, turned out to be lucky for Sourav Ganguly as the national board of selectors, chaired by Dilip Vengsarkar, decided to reinstate him in the team for the three-Test series against South Africa. The decision came after India had been knocked out early of the Champions Trophy, held in India, as well as losing the opening three games of an ODI series with South Africa. The selectors decided to back experience in a total reversal of coach Greg Chappell's mission to inject fresh blood into the Indian cricket team and Ganguly was selected alongside VVS Laxman and Zaheer Khan, who had also been removed from the Test team recently. Ganguly and Zaheer both fared well. Ganguly emerged as leading run getter for India in the recently concluded Test series with South Africa.

January 12, 2007 Sourav Ganguly was reinstated to the ODI team for the first two ODIs against West Indies. This comes almost after 15 months of his removal from the ODI side in 2005. He staged a good comeback by scoring a match-winning 98 run knock in Nagpur on his return in the first ODI. He was also selected in the 30 probables list for World Cup 2007 to be held in West Indies starting in March. He will most likely open the innings with Tendulkar as Virender Sehwag has been dropped for the first two ODIs.

This was good news to his fans who believed that India's most successful captain deserved the farewell of a champion. Sourav is a passionate man and fans (possibly selectors too) believe that, after spending ten months in the wilderness, Sourav's desire to succeed at the highest level and his experience will hold him in good stead.

Controversies:
Ganguly is an aggressive player and has often attracted controversy. He has attracted the wrath of match referrees quite a few times, the most severe of which was a ban for 6 matches by ICC match referee Clive Lloyd for slow over rates against Pakistan and therefore his tour to Sri Lanka for the Indian Oil Cup 2005 was uncertain. These circumstances led to Rahul Dravid being made captain for the tour. Later, Justice Albey Sachs reduced the punishment from 6 matches to 4, and this permitted Ganguly to join the team, but as a player and not captain. In his opening match he made the highest score of the side (51) taking (110) balls. He was again named captain for the Zimbabwe tour of August-September 2005. With this, he has captained India in the highest number of Tests (50).

During the 2003 World Cup final against Australia, Ganguly won the toss and decided to field. This decision raised eyebrows but Sourav remained confident that there would be moisture on the pitch that would help his bowlers, however the bowlers flopped and Sourav performed poorly with the bat. India went on to lose by 125 runs, a staggering defeat.

Ganguly's performance in the last couple of seasons has been really poor. This put his place in the Indian team under pressure. In the tour of Zimbabwe, in which he was newly reinstated as skipper, Ganguly ground out a painfully slow century, against what is regarded as one of the weakest bowling attacks in international cricket. During the match he told reporters that newly-appointed coach Greg Chappell had asked him to stand down as captain - a comment which Chappell later played down. However, forty-eight hours after saying that he respected the Indian captain and looked forward to working with him in the future, Chappell sent an email to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Both Ganguly and Chappell were summoned to a BCCI board meeting in which they agreed to work together for the good of the team. Rahul Dravid was appointed captain for the series against Sri Lanka and South Africa after Ganguly was not selected for the opening games due to injury. When the two series got over, Rahul Dravid was asked to continue as skipper.

On November 22, 2005, Ganguly stepped down as captain of Bengal cricket team after being replaced as captain of the Indian Test team. He played in the first two Test matches in the three-Test series against Sri Lanka. However, on December 14, he was controversially dropped, for the third Test at Ahmedabad, to make way for Wasim Jaffer, an opening batsman for Mumbai. Jaffer was picked by the selectors as they wished to build up a player selection pool with sufficient experience to succeed at international level.

Despite this, he retained his A-grade contract from the BCCI, in December 2005.

Following the drop, fans blocked roads and railway tracks in Kolkata, burning effigies of chief selector Kiran More and Indian coach Chappell, and the urban development minister of West Bengal, Asoke Bhattacharya, said Ganguly was a victim of the internal politics of the BCCI. [9] Cricinfo editor Sambit Bal wrote in a commentary that this was in all probability ... the end of the road for him. [10] However, it was announced on December 25, 2005 that he was selected as part of the Indian team to tour Pakistan. Kiran More cited his experience as the key reason, with Mohammed Kaif being dropped [11]. He was in the playing XI in the Lahore and Karachi Tests, but was dropped for the Faisalabad match, and has not been recalled since. He was unable to play in the England home series and the West Indies tour. He was also not selected for the following Tri-series in Sri Lanka. However, he was chosen amongst 30 probables for the ICC Champions Trophy after being left out in the dark for almost close to a year. Ganguly failed in the Challenger Trophy, however, managing less than 30 runs in two games, and so the chances of recall to the ODI side look bleak.

Ganguly later sent an email hitting out at his one time mentor saying that Jagmohan Dalmiya did not deserve to become CAB president as he had played with his career and that Ganguly was a victim of internal politics within the BCCI. This was in the backdrop of the CAB elections which Jagmohan Dalmiya won.

Comeback:
After being dropped from the side for almost eight months, Ganguly was recalled to the Test team for the series against South Africa in December 2006, after an injury to Yuvraj Singh. And after the recall, in his first warm up match against rest of South Africa, he scored fantastic 83 runs when his team was in troublesome position at 69/5. this knock helped India win against rest of South Africa.

He went on to play a crucial knock in the first test match, scoring 51 not out in the first innings in a low scoring game. India went on to win the match, its first win in South African soil for 17 years. Though India ended up losing the next two test matches and thus the series, Ganguly emerged as the top run scorer for India, with an aggregate of 214.

Selected for the one-day team after his successful Test comeback, he started the series against West Indies with a fluent 98, which led to India winning the match. He played his last international ODI before 500 days. After being rested for the third ODI, he again answered his critics with a sparkling 68 in the final ODI to help India win the series 3-1.

Records

Test:

• Scored a century on Test debut
• Scored a century in each of his first two Tests
• Captained India in a record 49 Test matches
• Led India to a record 21 Test wins
• India's most successful Test captain

ODIs:

• Second fastest player to reach 10,000 ODI runs
• Fastest to reach multiples of 7,000, 8,000, 9,000 ODI Runs
• Holds the record, shared with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for the second highest score by an Indian cricketer in an ODI — 183, against Sri Lanka in 1999.
• Held the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar, for the highest first wicket partnership for India in a ODI match, 258, against Kenya in 2001. This record was bettered by Sri Lankan opening pair of Jayasuriya and Tharanga in 2006 at Headingly.
• Was involved in the First 300 run ODI partnership with Rahul Dravid
• 6th on the all time list with 30 man of the match awards (Sachin Tendulkar leads with 52 awards in 369 matches)
• He is also the only player to win 4 consecutive man of the match awards in ODIs.
• India's most successful ODI captain
• First Indian to Score a ODI Century Against Australia in Australia

Career Statistics

Tests:

• Cumulative Test batting average never fell below 40 runs per innings
• He joined another select brand of 3 batsman who made tons in their 1st two Test innings.
• Sourav was only the 3rd batsman in the world to score a century on debut at Lords.
• His 131 still remains the highest by any batsman on his debut at Lord’s.
• Has gotten out on 99 twice in tests only 8 batsman have fallen so. The others are MJK Smith, G Boycott, RB Richardson, JG Wright, MA Atherton, Saleem Malik, GS Blewett

ODI's:

• Second Fastest after Viv Richards to reach 6,000 ODI Runs in 147 Innings and Sachin Tendulkar to 10,000 in 263 Innings
• Cumulative ODI batting average never fell below 40 runs per innings after his 84th Innings

Sunil Manohar Gavaskar

Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1980
Born in Mumbai, India

 

Sunil Manohar Gavaskar pronunciation (born July 10, 1949 at Bombay, Maharashtra), nicknamed Sunny, was a cricket player during the 1970s and 1980s for Bombay and India. He is arguably the the greatest opening batsmen in the Test cricket. His Home town (native place) is Ubhadanda-Vengurla.

He made a spectacular Test debut in 1971 scoring 774 runs in his first Test series against the West Indies helping India to become one of the few teams to defeat the West Indies at home in the Caribbean. Gavaskar went on to average a mammoth 70.20 runs per innings in the West Indies throughout his career - a feat no batsman in his era was able to surpass consistently. From then until his retirement in 1987 he was a mainstay of the Indian batting line-up. In 1983 Gavaskar broke one of the oldest and most prestigious records in the game: Donald Bradman's total of 29 Test centuries. Gavaskar was the holder of the record for the most number of Test centuries (34) until 2005 when his countryman Sachin Tendulkar broke that record. Gavaskar was the only player to score centuries in each innings, three times (Ricky Ponting equalled this record against South Africa in 2006). He was also the first batsman to reach 10,000 Test runs and held the record for the most number of runs until it was broken by Allan Border. Along with Hannan Sarkar, Gavaskar holds the dubious distinction of being the only Test cricketer to be dismissed with the first delivery of the Test match on three occasions.

Gavaskar was captain of the Indian team on several occasions in the late '70s and early '80s, though here his record is more mixed. Often equipped with weak bowling attacks he tended to use conservative tactics which resulted in a large number of draws. Still he had several successes as captain especially a 2-0 victory over Pakistan in 1979-80 and a victory in the World Championship of Cricket held in Australia in early 1985. As a matter of fact, it was during his tenure that Kapil Dev emerged as a leading pace bowler for the country. On the downside there was a heavy defeat against Pakistan in 1982-83 which cost him the captaincy until the 1984/85 home series against England.

Gavaskar was also a fine slip fielder and his safe catching in the slips helped him become the first Indian (excluding wicket-keepers) to take over a hundred catches in Test matches. Perhaps his most memorable display of catching was in a one-day international against Pakistan in Sharjah in 1985 when he took four catches and helped India defend a small total of 125. Early in his Test career, when India rarely used pace bowlers, Gavaskar also opened the bowling on occasion. The only wicket claimed by him is of Zaheer Abbas in 1983-84.

While Gavaskar could not be described as an attacking batsman, he had the remarkable ability of keeping the scoreboard ticking with unique shots such as the "late flick". On occasions however, he would resort to a very attacking mode, such as against West Indies at Delhi in 1983 when he hooked and pulled Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall to reach his 100 off just 94 balls. Still his style of play was usually less suited to the shorter form of the game, at which he had less success. He famously scored an ignominious 36 not out carrying his bat through the full 60 overs against England in the 1975 World Cup. In contrast to his record-breaking 34 Test centuries, Gavaskar almost went through his career without scoring a one-day century. He finally managed his first in the 1987 World Cup, when he hit a blistering 103 not out against New Zealand in his penultimate ODI innings at Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur.

Gavaskar was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1980 and has also been awarded the Padma Bhushan. In December 1994 he was appointed the Sheriff of Mumbai, an honorary for a year. After retirement, he has been a popular, sometimes controversial commentator, both on TV and in print. He has written four books on cricket – Sunny days (autobiography), Idols, Runs n' Ruins and One day wonders. He also served as an advisor to the Indian cricket team during the home series against Australia in 2004 and currently serves as the Chairman of the ICC cricket committee.

His son Rohan is also a cricketer who plays at the national level in the Ranji Trophy. He has played some One Day Internationals for India, but could not cement his spot in the team.

Controversies

Gavaskar failed to carry over his success as a Test batsman to the ODI format. He could not adjust to the pace required in an ODI, and struggled throughout his career. In one of his notorious ODI performances in 1975, he scored 36 not out off 174 balls as an opener with just one Four in reply to England's 334 in 60 overs. Indian team's total contribution turned out to be 132 for 3 in 60 overs. It was alleged that Gavaskar deliberately performed poorly in that match, due to his annoyance with the promotion of Srinivas Venkataraghavan to captaincy. [2] He later claimed that he could not adjust to the pace of the game.

In 1981, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, when Gavaskar was given out by the Australian umpire Rex Whitehead, he ordered his fellow opener Chetan Chauhan to quit the match [3]. Instead of abandoning the match, the Indian manager, SK Durani persuaded Chauhan to return to the match which India went on to win by 59 runs as Australia collapsed to 83 in their second innings.

Recently, he has been involved in a string of controversies as an ICC official. He has been criticized for supporting changes in cricket rules that tend to favor batsmen. In addition, his role as the chief selector for ICC World XI also came under criticism due to some controversial selections, which resulted in one sided matches against the ICC World Champion, Australia.

Personal Life

Sunil is married to Marshaniel Gavaskar (née Mehrotra), daughter of an leather industrialist in Kanpur. They have a son Rohan.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one of the best known Indian Cricket players, who was made the Captain of the Indian Cricket team in the year 2007...
Born in Ranchi, India

 

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, (born July 7, 1981) is an Indian cricketer and the current captain of the Indian national cricket team.

Initially recognized as an extravagantly flamboyant and destructive batsman, Dhoni has come to be regarded as one of the coolest heads to captain the Indian ODI side. Under his captaincy, India won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, CB Series of 2007–08, and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008 in which they beat Australia 2–0. He also captained Chennai Super Kings to victory in the recent IPL 2010. He is now captain of India in all three forms of the game and also led the team to their first ever bilateral ODI series wins in Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Dhoni also led team India to number one position in ICC rankings in test cricket for the first time. Dhoni has also been the recipient of many awards including the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009 (the first Indian player to achieve this feat), the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour in 2009. As of January 2010, Dhoni is the highest ranked ODI batsman on the ICC Rankings List. Dhoni was named as captain of Wisden's first-ever Dream Test XI Team in 2009 and has topped the list of world’s top 10 earning cricketers compiled by Forbes. He was named as the captain of ICC World Test and ICC ODI teams for 2009.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one of the best known Indian Cricket players, who was made the Captain of the Indian Cricket team in the year 2007. One of the most flamboyant Indian Cricket stars ever, Dhoni is also fondly known as Mahi by the huge number of his fans particularly comprising of a big percentage of females. And not only his looks and style Dhoni equally proved to be a hard hitting batsman and one of the best Captains the Indian Cricket team has ever seen.

Early Days
Dhoni was born in Ranchi, the state capital of Jharkhand on the 7th of July 1981, and was brought up in the same city. His parents originally hailed from a village in Uttarakhand. In his childhood Dhoni played Badminton and Football, and was sent by his Football coach to play Cricket. He began the journey as the wicketkeeper at the Commando Cricket Club in the year 1995, and was selected for the Under-16 Vinoo Mankad Trophy in the year 1997-98.

The Beginning
Dhoni entered the Bihar Cricket team in the year 1998-99, and was further selected for the India-A Cricket team in the year 2004. Later the same year, he made his debut in the National Cricket team of India.

The Charisma Begins
In his 5th One Day International (ODI) Cricket match against Pakistan, Dhoni scored 148 runs which was the biggest score made by an Indian wicketkeeper till then. He managed to accomplish this score just off 123 balls in the match played at Vishakhapatnam on the 5th of April 2005. Later the same year, he scored 183 not out against Sri Lanka in the Bi-lateral One Day International (ODI) Series, outclassing his own record. This match was played at Jaipur and India had to outsmart a huge 299 runs score set by the Sri Lankans. Dhoni got India this great victory with his wonderful 183 runs within just 145 balls. This score set a yet another record for being the highest score made in the second innings of a One Day International (ODI) Cricket match, and still lies unbeaten by any other batsman. At the end of the Series, Dhoni finished with highest total score of 346 runs and grabbed the coveted Man of the Series award.

He scored good number of runs in a consistent manner for a period of time, and soon grabbed the No. 1 position in the One Day International (ODI) Cricket rankings issued by International Cricket Council (ICC) in the year 2005-06.

The Low Down Phase
The Indian Cricket team lost its grip during the year 2006-07, as the team lost in the DLF Cup 2006-07, and again in the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy. Although, Dhoni tried to maintain his record a bit by half century against West Indies. This was a low phase both for the Indian Cricket team and Dhoni, as the wicketkeeper batsman could just score 139 runs in the 4 matches during the One Day International (ODI) Cricket Series against South Africa, and the Indian team lost the Series to South Africa by 0-4.

Again, in the 2007 Cricket World Cup, India badly lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and was ousted from the tournament. In both the matches, Dhoni lost at duck (0 runs), and scored a total of 29 runs in the whole tournament.

The Fighter Bounces Back
But he soon emerged as a winner again after the World Cup nightmare, and scored 91 runs not against Bangladesh in a Series later and 174 runs in 3 matches during the Afro-Asia Cup with an average of 87.00 runs.

Finally, the Leader
He was named the Vice Captain of the Indian One Day International (ODI) Cricket team during a Series against South Africa in Ireland, and the Captain of the team during the Twenty-20 Cricket World Cup played in September 2007. On 24th of September 2007, Dhoni got India its second World Cup victory in the breath-taking finals against Pakistan, and equaled the rare feat of leading India to a World Cup Cricket Trophy achieved by Kapil Dev in the year 1983.

Highlights
• MS Dhoni was the ICC ODI Player of the Year in 2008 and 2009.
• His 183 against Sri Lanka in 2005 was the highest individual score in ODIs for a team batting second.
• Dhoni took just a year and 52 days to cross the 1000-run-mark in One Day Internationals, becoming the 7th fastest of all-time to do so at the time.
• He went on to become the fastest player to score 5000 ODI runs, taking 4 years and 357 days to reach the feat.
• Dhoni led India to victory in the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in 2007.
• Under his captaincy only, India went on to become the highest ranked team in Test Cricket.
• Dhoni is amongst only three Indian skippers to have led the team to 10 or more victories in Tests.
• He is India’s most successful wicketkeeper-batsman in limited over formats of the game.
• Dhoni successfully led his IPL franchisee Chennai Super Kings to title triumph in the 2010 edition.

Harbhajan Singh

Harbhajan Singh
A specialist bowler, he has the second-highest number of Test wickets by an off spinner behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan...
Born in Jalandhar, India

 

Harbhajan Singh (born: 3 July 1980) is an Indian cricketer. A specialist bowler, he has the second-highest number of Test wickets by an off spinner behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.

Harbhajan made his Test and One Day International (ODI) debuts in early 1998. His career was initially beset by investigations into the legality of his bowling action and disciplinary incidents that raised the ire of cricket authorities. However in 2001, with leading leg spinner Anil Kumble injured, Harbhajan's career was resuscitated after Indian captain Sourav Ganguly called for his inclusion in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy team. In that series victory over Australia, Harbhajan established himself as the team's leading spinner by taking 32 wickets, becoming the first Indian bowler to take a hat trick in Test cricket.

A finger injury in mid 2003 sidelined him for much of the following year, allowing Kumble to regain his position as the first choice spinner. Harbhajan reclaimed a regular position in the team upon his return in late 2004, but often found himself watching from the sidelines in Test matches outside the Indian subcontinent with typically only one spinner, Kumble, being used. Throughout 2006 and into early 2007, Harbhajan's accumulation of wickets fell and his bowling average increased, and he was increasingly criticised for bowling defensively with less loop. Following India's first-round elimination from the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Harbhajan was replaced by other spinners in the national squad for both formats. He regained a regular position in the team in late 2007, but became the subject of more controversy. In early 2008, he was given a ban by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for racially vilifying Andrew Symonds. The ban was revoked upon appeal, but in April, Harbhajan was banned from the 2008 Indian Premier League and suspended from the ODI team by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for slapping Sreesanth after a match.

He was conferred the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour, in 2009.

Young Harbhajan Singh bolstered his credentials after a successful home series against Steve Waugh's invincible Australia in 2001. Replacing an injured Anil Kumble, 'Bhajji' was crowned 'Man of the Series' in performances that stopped the Kangaroos' record unbeaten run.

Prior to his ascendancy during that series, Harbhajan made a full international debut as a teenager in 1998. After a year in action, few noteworthy displays coupled with a suspect bowling action is all that emerged and he was eventually relegated to domestic cricket. His return after a two year hiatus was one filled with renewed determination and epitomizing captain Sourav Ganguly's fearlessness. Following his stand-out performance against Australia, he forced selectors to rethink India's bowling line-up by opting for a two-pronged spin attack in tandem with Anil Kumble. Rarely did his bowling fail to yield satisfactory results, often being the source of bulk wickets for India. He added further repute as a player with his pinch-hitting abilities as a tail-ender. Harbhajan continued to haunt Australia on their return tour to India with another 10-wicket haul at Bangalore in 2004, in a series which India eventually lost. He did face criticism from various circles for being too defensive, a flaw rectified by honing the skill to flight deliveries. Due to his short temper, controversies followed him. One such incident with Andrew Symonds gave rise to a misconstrued racism row. A run-in with Sreesanth in the first IPL season also saw Bhajji banned for the rest of the tournament. On the pitch, he was part of both India's failure in the 2007 World Cup and later its success in the ICC World Twenty20.

Following spin ally Kumble's retirement from international cricket, the spin mantle was cast on 'The Turbanator' (nickname), especially in series abroad where India usually played with a single spinner. He stuck to his task in India's series victory in New Zealand in 2009, the country's first such win against the Kiwis in 40 years. In November 2010, he scaled an unprecedented summit in his batting career when he scored his maiden Test century against New Zealand, helping India to save a match that was slipping ominously out of its grip.

The transition from one spin legend in Kumble to a potential one in Harbhajan is credit in part to the selectors for having an eye on sustenance. But it is Harbhajan's willingness to improve and his never-say-die spirit that makes him a player whom fans love to praise and the opposition loves to despise.

Highlights: 
• Harbhajan Singh is currently the most successful off-spinner in Tests.
• In ODIs, he became India’s second most successful spinner after Anil Kumble.
• Harbhajan became the first Indian to take a hat-trick in Test cricket.
• His bowling figures of 15/217 in Tests against Australia became the second best for an Indian behind Narendra Hirwani's 16/136.
• He became only the 10th player in cricket history to take 350 wickets and score a century in Tests.
• Harbhajan made history as the first No.8 batsman to score successive centuries, a feat which he achieved during New Zealand's 2010 tour of India.

Sir Donald 'Don' George Bradman

Sir Donald 'Don' George Bradman 
One of five Wisden Cricketers of the Century
Born in Cootamundra, Australia

Sir Donald 'Don' George Bradman, AC (August 27, 1908 — February 25, 2001), often called The Don, was an Australian cricketer who is universally regarded as the greatest batsman of all time. He is one of Australia's most popular sporting heroes, and one of the most respected past players in other cricketing nations, as was demonstrated upon the occasion of his death. His career Test batting average of 99.94 is by some measures the greatest statistical performance of all time in any major sport. By way of comparison, the second and third best Test averages over completed careers of any length (20 Tests or more) are 60.97 and 60.83.

Cricket career

• Early years
Bradman was born in Cootamundra, New South Wales but his parents moved the family to Bowral (where the Bradman Museum and Bradman Oval are located) for the cooler climate when he was around 2½ years old, Bradman practiced obsessively during his youth. At home he invented his own one-man cricket game using a stump and a golf ball. A water tank stood on a brick stand behind the Bradman home on a covered and paved area. When hit into the curved brick stand, the ball would rebound at high speed and varying angles. This form of practice helped him to develop split-second speed and accuracy.

After a brief dalliance with tennis he dedicated himself to cricket, playing for local sides before attracting sufficient attention to be drafted into grade cricket in Sydney at the age of 18. Within a year he was selected for New South Wales, and within three years he made his Test debut.

• Pre-war
After receiving some criticism in his first Ashes series in 1928–1929 he worked to remove perceived weaknesses in his game, and by the time of the Bodyline series he was without peer as a batsman. Possessing a great stillness whilst awaiting the delivery, his shot making was based on a combination of excellent vision, speed of both thought and footwork and a decisive, powerful bat motion with a pronounced follow-through. Technically his play was almost flawless, strong on both sides of the wicket with only his sternest critics noting a tendency for his backlift to be slightly angled toward the slip cordon.

In the English summer of 1930 he scored 974 runs in only seven innings over the course of the five Ashes Tests, the highest individual total in any Test series before or since. Bradman himself rated his 254 in the second Test at Lord's as his best ever innings. His 334 in the third Test at Headingley, of which he scored a Test record 309 runs on one day, was then the highest individual score in Test cricket (surpassed by Walter Hammond in 1933 but not equaled by an Australian batsman until Mark Taylor declared with his score at 334 not out in 1998, in what many regard as a deliberate tribute to Bradman; the Australian record was eventually surpassed by Matthew Hayden, who scored 380 in 2003.

Bradman so dominated the game that special bowling tactics, known as fast leg theory or Bodyline, regarded by many as unsporting and dangerous, were devised by England captain Douglas Jardine to reduce his dominance in a series of international matches against England in the Australian summer of 1932–1933. Orthodox leg-theory was first used in English cricket as far back as 1910 principaly as a run restricting technique bowled by slow bowlers. Jardine's take on this proven idea was to use two fast bowlers, Larwood and Voce, in tandem to bowl at leg stump whilst pitching the ball short - effectively bowling at the batsman rather than the stumps, hence the name given to the tactic by the Australian media, Bodyline. The principal English exponent of Bodyline was the Nottinghamshire pace bowler Harold Larwood, and the contest between Bradman and Larwood was to prove to be the focal point of the competition. Some indication of his superlative skill was that his average for that series, 56.57, is still higher than the career averages of all but a dozen or so international Test cricketers. Due to a dispute over his newspaper reporting role, he missed the first Test.

Further evidence of his supreme athletic skills was revealed when Bradman missed the 1935–36 tour to South Africa due to illness. During his absence from cricket, Bradman took up squash to keep himself fit. He subsequently won the South Australian Open Squash Championship.

Jack Ledward, a Victorian batsman, recalls Bradman's footwork in a description of a pre-WW II innings played by the Don against Victoria. After playing himself in, Bradman confidently announced that he was about to conduct "a round-up". Ledward watched in amazement as Bradman hit each ball of every over to every fielder in anti-clockwise succession — starting with Ledward at slip and concluding with fine-leg, disregarding the line and length of each individual delivery.

Despite occasional battles with illness, he dominated world cricket throughout the 1930s, and is credited with raising the spirit of a nation suffering under the privations of the Great Depression.

• Post-war
Don Bradman approaching forty years of age, he returned to play cricket after World War II, leading one of the most talented teams in Australia's history, despite being at an age at which most cricketers are long retired. In his farewell 1948 tour of England the team he led, dubbed "The Invincibles", went undefeated throughout the tour.

Bradman emerged for what was his last Test innings, at The Oval, with his Test batting average above 100. He needed only 4 runs to keep it in three figures, but he was dismissed for nought by a googly from wrist spinner Eric Hollies. Applauded onto the pitch by both teams, it was sometimes claimed that he was unable to see the ball due to the tears welling in his eyes, a claim Bradman always dismissed as a lie. He was given a guard of honour by the players and spectators alike as he left the ground with a batting average of 99.94 from his 52 Tests.

Statistical assessment

Over an international career spanning 20 years from 1928 to 1948, Bradman's batting achievements are unparalleled. His career statistics are far superior to those of any other batsman, and a testament to his unusual powers of concentration. He broke scoring records for both first-class and Test cricket. The final batting average achieved by Bradman was, famously, 99.94. This record (approximately 65% higher than that achieved by anyone else in a career of any length, see Context section, below) was the product of a career of astonishing consistent high scoring and a final, ironic incident of rare failure.

• Creation of the statistic
Toward the end of a phenomenal, record-breaking career, Bradman came to the wicket at The Oval for what turned out to be the last time in a Test match against England in 1948. It was known that he would not play in England again and the England side (and crowd) gave him three cheers.

At the time, Bradman had scored 6,996 runs in Test cricket from 79 innings, with 10 not outs. His average was thus 101.4 and a score of just 4 would give him an average of exactly 100. However, in the 1st innings, Bradman was bowled by an Eric Hollies googly for a duck (0). As Australia dominated the match, Bradman was not required to bat in the 2nd innings and thus left him with an average of 99.94 and, although it was not clear at the time that it was his last match, (merely his last in England) he did not play Test cricket again.

A story quickly gained currency that Bradman was unable to see the ball due to tears in his eyes. Wisden itself in its match report (1949) states "Evidently deeply touched by the enthusiastic reception, Bradman survived one ball." (Wisden 1949, pub. Unwin Bros., p.252)

Bradman himself dismissed this; "I knew it would be my last Test match after a career spanning twenty years but to suggest I got out as some people did, because I had tears in my eyes, is to belittle the bowler and is quite untrue."

• Context
In a sport that revels in statistics, the figure 99.94 has become one of cricket's most famous, iconic statistics.

Contextualising Bradman's achievement is easier than is usual for comparisons of cricket statistics across the eras. Compared to his average of almost 100, no other player who has played more than 20 Test match innings has finished his career with a Test average of more than 61 (see the list of highest Test career batting averages).

Bradman scored centuries at a rate of better than one every three innings. He converted very nearly a third of his centuries into double hundreds, and his total of 37 first-class double hundreds is the most achieved by any batsman. The next highest total is Walter Hammond's, who scored 36 double hundreds but played in exactly 400 more matches than Bradman's 234.

For decades, Bradman was the only player to have scored two Test triple centuries (both against England at Headingley, 334 in 1930 and 304 in 1934). This feat was equalled by West Indian Brian Lara in 2004 (Lara has, however, played more than twice as many Tests). Bradman very nearly reached 300 on another occasion, his last partner being run out when he was on 299 not out against South Africa in 1932. Bradman, Lara and Bill Ponsford are the only players with three first class scores of over 350.

In a biographical essay in Wisden, he is hailed as "the greatest phenomenon in the history of cricket, indeed in the history of all ball games".

In The Best of the Best, statistician Charles Davis argues that Bradman's performance is the most dominant of any player of any major sport. He calculates the number of standard deviations above the mean that several prominent individual sporting statistics lie.

After Cricket

After retiring from playing cricket, Bradman continued working as a stockbroker. Allegations that he had acted improperly during the collapse of his employer's firm and the subsequent establishment of his own, remained behind closed doors until his death, were publicised in November 2001. He became heavily involved in cricket administration, serving as a selector for the national team for nearly 30 years. He was selector (and acknowledged as a force urging the players of both teams to play entertaining, attacking cricket) for the famous Australia–West Indies Test series of 1960–61.

As a member of the Australian Cricket Board, and, reportedly, their de facto leader, he was also involved in negotiations with the World Series Cricket schism in the late 1970s. Ian Chappell, former Test captain and selected to lead the rebel Australian side, has stated that he places much responsibility for the split on Bradman, who in his opinion had forgotten his own difficulties with the cricket authorities of the time.

He was also famous for answering innumerable letters from cricket fans across the world, which he continued to do until well into his eighties. Bradman died in 2001, in Adelaide, aged 92.

Honours

Bradman was selected as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1931. He was awarded a knighthood in 1949, and a Companion of the Order of Australia (Australia's highest civil honour) in 1979. In 1996, he was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame as one of the ten inaugural members.

In 2000, Bradman was selected by a distinguished panel of experts as one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Century. Each member of the panel selected five cricketers, and Bradman was the only player to be named by all 100 correspondents. The other four cricketers selected for the honour were Sir Garfield Sobers (90 votes), Sir Jack Hobbs (30 votes), Shane Warne (27 votes) and Sir Vivian Richards (25 votes). Some members of the panel commented that two of the five votes cast would be effectively wasted, as they had to be cast for Bradman and Sobers. In 2002, the Wisden rated Bradman as the greatest ever Test batsman. Tendulkar, Garry Sobers, Vivian Richards were placed at 2nd, 3rd and 4th positions respectively.

Bradman's innings of 270 in the third Test against England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1937 was rated by Wisden as the greatest ever Test innings.

Jeev Milkha Singh

Jeev Milkha Singh
Tee-Time learnings
Born in Chandigarh, India

 

Jeev Milkha Singh (born 15 December 1971) is the first Indian golfer to become a member of the European Tour. He is the highest ranked Indian golfer in the world and first broke into the top 100 in October 2006.

Early life

Singh was born in Chandigarh, India, the son of the Indian Olympic athlete Milkha Singh. His mother is Nirmal Kaur, former captain of the Indian women's volleyball team. He lives in Chandigarh. Singh attended Abilene Christian University in the United States of America, obtaining a degree in business and international studies in 1996.

Career

Singh won the NCAA Division II individual golf championship in 1993. He also won a number of amateur tournaments in the U.S. His first professional win came at the 1993 Southern Oklahoma State Open, a minor local event, but he played mainly in Asia, where he was a regular winner in the mid 1990s. In 1997 he finished seventh at the European Tour qualifying school, and he joined the tour the following year.

His best season in Europe up until 2006 was in 1999, when he came 50th on the Order of Merit. He struggled with injury in the early years of the new century but in April 2006 he won the Volvo China Open, becoming the second Indian player to win on the European Tour after Arjun Atwal. He also won the season ending Volvo Masters, which elevated him to a final position of 16th on the Order of Merit. He finished 2006 as the winner of the Asian Tour Order of Merit and capped his season with a pair of back to back wins in Japan to become the first Indian to make the top 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings. In 2007 he became the first Indian golfer to participate in the Masters Tournament. In August 2008, Singh achieved the highest ranking for an Indian in any major event at the 2008 PGA Championship in Oakland Hills, finishing at T9, making him arguably India's best golfer ever.

Singh finished the 2008 European Tour season ranked 12th on the Order of Merit, and after winning the Barclays Singapore Open won his second Order of Merit title on the Asian Tour.

In 2009, Singh finished the WGC-CA Championship in fourth place, after leading round one.

Singh received India's fourth highest civil honour the Padma Shri in 2007.

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