Five Best Cricketers

Chottu was the ten year old “help” at the institutes’ informal canteen a.k.a “Jhopdi”. Countless hours have been spent drinking gallons of uncles’ “adrak chai” and savoring aunty’s “mirchi” bhaji to sharpen the senses – talk about cutting edge.

Cricket and Chottu were inseparable – his eyes would light-up during any conversation related to cricket and in between cleaning tables, serving chai and shouting “saaaar”, he displayed a keen understanding of the game and would reel off statistics and biographies with passion.

This review is based on one such conversation with him and hence aptly named as “Chottu’s List”. His list also would be my List of Top Five Cricketers. Since, this occurred almost a decade ago, it will not include some of the gems of modern cricket.

Here goes…

# 1. Sir Garfield St.Aubrun Sobers a.k.a as Gary Sobers (West Indies). Gary typified the Caribbean spirit of playing cricket. He was one of the greatest all-rounders and a great cricketer. What I liked about him was his winning attitude – he was more interested in playing the game rather than winning or losing and that cost him his captaincy. His first hundred was a triple century of 365 n.o. which stood as a record for highest individual test score for over 37 years. He was also the first to hit six sixers in an over – would love to get a video of this feat. My respect for him had increased on reading about a 6 matches India /W.I series - the series stood at 2-2, with 1 draw and the last match was being played in Bombay and Gary was asked who will win – and sitting 8000 miles away he said, whoever wins the toss will win the match and true to that Clive Lloyd won the toss and won the match and the series.

# 2. Sunil Manohar Gavaskar a.k.a Sunny Gavasker – the little master (India). He helped consolidate the position of Indian Cricket at the International Level. He was an opener when India was struggling to find a suitable partner at the other end which was almost like a revolving door – Chetan Chauhan, Gopal Bose, Ravi Shastri, K.Srikath etc came and went – I am sure after some time Gavasker stopped trying to remember the name at the other end. He was the first to surpass Don’s twenty-nine centuries and reach the magical figure of 10, 000 runs. He did have his share of controversies, his suspect to adapting to the instant variety of ODI, his apparent disagreements with Kapil Dev. All in all, he is a true professional and represented India well.

# 3. Gregory Stephen Chapell a.k.a Greg Chapell (Australia). He was the epitome of steadfastness and was a strong middle order batsman. In an era when the middle order used to crumble like a pack of cards, he was like the rock of Gibraltar and faced the wrath of the Windies and English pace attack. He took over as captain from his elder brother Ian Chapell and had a good tenure both as a batsman and skipper for the Australian team.

# 4. Ian Stephen Botham a.k.a Ian Botham (England). He can be considered as one of the best all-rounders the game has produced and time and again proved to be a match winner either with the ball or with the bat. He was young, brash, arrogant and talked with his bowling and batting abilities. Though he did skipper England – his tenure was marred with controversies. The reason I have chosen him was because of his raw talent. He was gods’ gift to the game. He broke every all rounder record – the fastest 100 wickets and 1000 runs, the fastest 200 wickets and 2000 runs and his record of 373 wickets was held for some time till it was broken by Hadlee, who is next on my list.

# 5. Sir Richard John Hadlee a.k.a Richard Hadlee (New Zealand). From a cricket crazy country which had yet to make its mark in International cricket – Hadlee paved the way with his pace bowling and terrorized the opposing batsmen by swing rather than sheer pace. He broke Botham’s record of 373 wickets and then went on to cross 400 wickets and finished with 431 wickets. It was Kapil Dev who was able to surpass Hadlee when he captured his 432 nd wicket and got a personal congratulatory note from the master himself – an ample proof of Hadlee’s modesty. More than talent, it was his perseverance which earned him his place in my list.

I am no poet but I have penned some thoughts taking some poetic liberties. This poem is dedicated to Chottu – the perennial “help” in college canteens who are part of your education process and then fade into oblivion.