Cricket has been nothing short of a religion in India. Where else would you find completely deserted street during Indo-Pak Matches and where a cricketer is just as popular as his last match? In this country we have had numerous cricketing bodies and countless cricketing clubs and thousands of aspiring youngsters who, unfortunately, never got a chance to don the Cap even after performing well in domestic cricket. There have been a fortunate few who did get the chance but were chucked out after initial stroke of bad matches. Then there are these elite bunch of cricketers who got so many chances and yet proved to be the most pathetic bunch of cricketers this country has ever produced. Here’s the elite list and as usual, its not in any particular order.
* Ajay Sharma
Just look at this person’s average.
He has played 130 first class matches(exluding his only test match that he played). He has scored 10148 runs at a phenomenal average of 66.76 and is the third highest(The first is Don Bradman with 95.14 and the second is our very Own Vijay Merchant with 71.64) average in first class matches for anyone who has played atleast 10 first class matches.
He has also got fairly decent List A one day(which excludes international level one day matches) of 36.07.
He got in the Indian team as an “All rounder” and failed miserably. He played as many as 31 one day matches and scored only 424 runs with a “stunning” average of 20.19 and took a “phenomenal” 15 wickets at 58.33 runs a piece.
That he got to play so many matches itself shows how much we trusted this man to don the Indian Cap.
He also had a very disgraceful end to his career when he was banned for life in 2000 when he was accused and found guilty of match fixing
Krishnamachari Srikkanth
Another person who got to play far more cricket matches then he should have. He was “The Best Opener” that Indian Cricket has ever produced and a specialist Indian Opener in One Dayers who has “in his own words” introduced the concept of pinch hitting in the first 15 overs. Well, The statistics are there to prove it:-
He played a staggering 141 one day matches at a “superb” average of 29.01 as a person who hardly ever played less then 2 down. He scored 4091 runs with 4 centuries but this is a pathetic record for someone who is an opener.
Just for the record, he was the biggest failure of India’s 1992 world cup campaign in Australia. Despite having a good 2 months experience on Aussie pitches in December 1991 and January 1992, his world cup 1992 average was 16.71 with the highest score of 40 in 8 matches and 3 ducks.
His Test match record isn’t great shakes either. Despite having a partner like Sunil Gavaskar in most of the test matches, he could only score 2062 runs at an average of 29.88 in 43 test matches and 72 innings.
Did you also know that despite being an opener he had not scored in double figures in 47 innings and this included 11 times being dismissed without scoring a run? It’s a good thing he was sacked permanently after the 1992 world cup.
* Ravi Shastri
Another pathetic Cricketer who should have been barred from Playing International Cricket for India ages back. The prime reason why we never made it big in the 1992 world cup despite having more then 2 months of experience on Aussie pitches prior to the world cup(See my review on the worst one day innings ever played). He did have his good times when he won the “champion of champions” award in the 1985 world championships of cricket down under and that 217 runs that he scored against aussies or even the 6 sixes he hit of an over of Tilak Raj in a domestic test match against Baroda in Bombay. Despite having chosen as a promising all rounder, his bowling average was pathetic. He did take 151 test wickets but at an average of 40.96. He did take 129 one day wickets but at a miserable average of 36.04. Despite having played most part of his cricketing career as a middle order batsman, his average was just 35.79 in 80 test matches in 121 innings. How I wish someone like Mohinder Amarnath or Sandeep Patil would have played instead of him in those matches?
His one day average is not so good either. Scoring Just 3108 runs in 128 innings with a pathetic strike rage of 61.07.
Vinod Kambli
If I ever lay my hands on this guy he will get beaten up to pulp. Just look at his test average, a superb 54.20 in just 21 innings and this includes 2 consecutive double centuries and his first 7 innings got him 2 couble centuries and 2 single centuries. He was termed by some as the left handed modern version of Don Bradman and a serious competition to Sachin Tendulkar. So what went wrong? Attitude. He was very arrogant and this showed when he scored just 147 runs in the last 8 innings at a sad average of 18.37. He made as many as 9 come backs in One Day team and failed each time. The last time that he played, he was shown crying when Sri Lanka were declared winners in the 1996 world cup semi final at Calcutta. Nothing could be more disgraceful than showing a grown man cry in front of over 100000+ crowd. This broke the straw of the camel’s back. He Scored at just 32.59 runs in 97 innings with a strike rate of 71.92 which is miserable for a higher order batsman. His last 22 one day innings, he scored just about 15 – 16 runs an innings. Sad end to what could have been a highly promising career.
* Manoj Prabhakar
A disgrace on the face of Indian Cricket. This man was chosen as an all rounder and towards the last 3-4 years was even given the honour to open the batting and the bowling for the Indian team. This despite having Kapil Dev in the team at that time. His Test Average was ok with 32.65. Not bad considering that he played most of his life as a middle order and lower order batsman. His one day average is just about ok with 24.12 in 98 innings. What is sad is the Bowling average. Just how would you explain an average of 37.30 for an opening bowler in 39 tests? Even an average of 28.87 in 130 one dayers is disgraceful as it had a high strike rate of 4.27. He was thrown out of the team for good when he attempted to try off spin in a world cup group match against sri lanka in 1996. He ended up with bowling average of 4-0-47-0. Not to forget the 7 runs he scored as an opener in that match India lost by 6 wickets. This sealed the fate of Manoj Prabhakar forever. If that was not enough, he even accused the Great Kapil Dev of offering him a bribe to throw away a match and even followed up with a sting operation which was a big disaster as he was banned for life for falsely accusing someone. That he was booed on his home ground in his last one day he ever played sums up how great he was as a player. His last 3 test series averaged just above 23 runs per innings and just 9 wickets in 18 innings. Did you know that he even falsely accused of hiring Goons to beat him up?
PS – Please note that there are many more worst cricketers that I didn’t write about due to space limitations but I would love to mention their names, Dinesh Mongia, Late Raman Lamba, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Chetan Sharma, Salil Ankola being the few of them.