Munaf Patel: Desi Brett Lee
dodo
Does not give his age: just says he is under 25 and regularly clocked
between 140 and 150 ks
===================
Bharuch lad to test pace against Sachin
ROBIN DAVID
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 01, 2003 08:38:24 PM ]
VADODARA: It is not often that an unknown cricketer is asked to join
the training camp of the Indian cricket team just before an important
series. The Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI), however, could
not ignore the talent of a young fast bowler from the small village of
Ikhar in Bharuch who is making waves without playing a single Ranji
Trophy match.
Munaf Patel has been asked to try out his scorching pace against the
likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly at the ongoing training
camp at Bangalore. This follows the legendary Denis Lillee noticing
Munaf during a stint with the MRF Pace Foundation recently and dubbing
him as one of the fastest in the country. He had regularly clocked
between 140 and 150 kilometres per hour average speeds.
"We have identified a handful of promising boys to train with the
Indian team and Munaf is one of them," said national selector and
Baroda Cricket Association secretary Kiran More.
"Players like Sachin and Saurav can take a look at these youngsters.
Besides, Kapil Dev will spend a few days there which will be good for
the likes of Munaf." Vadodara medium-pacer Rakesh Patel too has joined
the camp.
Gujarat Cricket Association president Narhari Amin is already building
high hopes for the Bharuch lad. "He has done very well both at the
National Cricket Academy and at MRF. I would not be surprised if he
makes it to the Indian team in the next two years," he says. "He is
easily the fastest bowler we have."
Munaf came into the limelight while playing his first first-class
match for Gujarat against Saurashtra in the Under-25 tournament.
Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah retired hurt with a broken finger hit
by a Munaf bouncer, another batsman had his ribs tingled and the
rookie ended up with five wickets on debut.
With another three wickets in the second innings, he ended up with
eight in the match.
This 6.4-feet rookie was first spotted last year by former Gujarat
fast bowler Dhansukh Patel during an inter-district match between
Surat and Bharuch last year. Dhansukh had been coaching the Surat team
but could not help notice the tall youngster in the opposition who was
making wickets tumble at will. In two matches, he had 16 wickets and
Dhansukh knew he had spotted a diamond.
After that he played three matches for Gujarat under-25 team and took
18 wickets, most of them by surprising the batsmen with his scorching
pace and steep bounce. Making full use of his height, he would make
the ball zip across the batsmen's face, many of whom would lob simple
catches while fending off rising deliveries. "We are expecting him to
get even better with a little experience," says Gujarat under-25 coach
Rajeev Desai.
Ironically, Munaf comes from a conservative Muslim family, which
doesn't even have a television at home. He would watch the game at a
friend's home and fire his passion. "They are fascinated by his pace,
but you should see him bat," says his proud father Musa Patel, a small
cotton farmer. "Crowds gather in local tournaments just to see him hit
sixers.
p masud
> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=160120
>
> Does not give his age: just says he is under 25 and regularly clocked
> between 140 and 150 ks
>
>
Shatadal
"p masud" <pma...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:8323ed0f.03090...@posting.google.com...
Maybe like Shoaib I guess. After all he has a *hypermobile* (hyperextensible
whatever) elbow joint too.
Shatadal.
Ramakrishnan G
"dodo" wrote
>
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=16012
0
>
> Does not give his age: just says he is under 25 and regularly clocked
> between 140 and 150 ks
>
>
This link does.
http://www.thatscricket.com/news/2003/09/03/0309munafpatel.html
He is apparently 20.
<snip>
Cric8wala
And there's more than just a little bit of hype to him too, especially merely
on the word of Lillee :-)
BTW, Lillee first mentioned him a few months ago - about 6 months ago actually,
after the camp in February. And overall this is what Lillee said at the time:
-------
He observed that Irfan Pathan (Baroda) and Sreesanth (Kerala) were now ready
for higher honours while, Gujarat's Munaf Patel, recommended by former Indian
`keeper Kiran More, had displayed "exceptional pace and accuracy for someone
who has played so little cricket."
Munaf and Sidharth Trivedi, also from Gujarat, Athish Yadav (Delhi), and
Yadvinder Singh (Punjab) have been inducted into the Pace Foundation for full
time coaching, while G. Chaitra (Karnataka), Jesuraj (Tamil Nadu) and Abhishek
Choudhary (Delhi) have graduated.
--------
Note that he claimed Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth were "ready for higher honours"
- and this was in February! Irfan went to England with the India-A side, and
didnt really set the world on fire himself. Sreesanth has yet to play for
Kerala, and Munaf Patel yet to play for Gujarat (though both Ranji teams had
not yet ended their season when these comments were made, back in February -
both Gujarat and Kerala still had a few Ranji games after that, but chose not
to pick either Sreesanth or Munaf Patel).
Also, Chaitra, Jesuraj and Abhishek Choudhary graduated from the MRF Academy in
Febuary - but so far IIRC none of them have actually played Ranji Trophy
cricket either.
I had actually heard bits and pieces of Munaf Patel before, which is why the
name seemed familiar when the hype started about him a couple of days ago (Ive
since gone back and checked why the name seemed familiar, and figured out why
:-) - it was thru comments like this, from MRF etc. I have no doubt he is a
terrific prospect - he has played very little good level cricket so the room
for improvement and growth is obviously very high indeed. But lets not rush him
into the national side yet, I mean the guy hasnt even played for Gujarat yet,
and Gujarat isnt *that* great a Ranji side :-) Munaf played U25 for them,
another time I had read his name someplace was when he played Bombay U25 in
Bombay for example (Bombay U25 had gotten to 80-odd for 1 so the openers must
not have collapsed against him, at any rate - but he was mentioned as Gujarat
U25's strike bowler, and did ok overall IIRC). He also played some
first-division cricket in Madras lately (so Samarth probably can find out
first-hand descriptions of him from friends :-) - he played for Jolly Rovers
(and Sreesanth of Lillee fame also played in the first division in Madras this
season BTW). His name has been mentioned a few times in the papers IIRC, but
not for anything spectacular, not even at the A-division level (though the
pitches are often not hugely helpful to pace anyway).
This camp can only help him - but lets not get carried away yet. Lets see him
get a few games first, maybe at Ranji or higher level, before we hand him
superstardom (of course, our journalists arent waiting - he is the "most sought
after" player in the camp at the moment by the press, apparently, even more so
than Tendulkar, Ganguly or Dravid :-) Gives us an indication of the desparation
abroad in the country for a real pace bowler :-)
Sadiq [ who likes the 6'3" part more than anything else ] Yusuf
><snip>
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Shariq A. Tariq
:-)
Nice post as always. It's true that bowling in the nets or bowling to
non-first class batsmen is a very different prospect to facing the
Ranji and Test players. He will will have a hard time being selected
ahead of the likes of Zaheer Khan, Aashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan,
Avishkar Salvi and the Kerala speedster that you mentioned, especially
if Srinath decides that he will not retire just yet.
As you mentioned in the past, the selection process for the Indian
team is pretty systematic and you do not have instances of players
whose first first-class match is a test match as is the case with
Pakistan. I doubt we will see this young man in the inetrnational
arena in the next couple of years barring unforseen circumstances
Did you know there are 2 Irfan Pathans from Baroda, Gujrat? One is
Irfan Safi Pathan(LM) born in 1978 and the other one is Irfan Khan
Pathan(LMF) born in 1984. The more famous one is known from time to
time as Irfan Pathan Junior
Here are the two pacers records
Irfan Safi Pathan
Career Statistics:
FIRST-CLASS
(1999/00 - 2002/03)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St
Batting & Fielding 10 16 5 70 17 6.36 0 0 3 0
O M R W Ave BBI 5 10 SR
Econ
Bowling 232.3 58 722 34 21.23 5-44 2 0 41.0
3.10
Irfan Khan Pathan
Career Statistics:
FIRST-CLASS
(2000/01 - 2003; last updated 05/09/2003)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St
Batting & Fielding 29 34 9 423 54 16.92 0 1 9 0
O M R W Ave BBI 5 10 SR
Econ
Bowling 880.3 180 2742 87 31.51 6-31 3 1 60.7
3.11
---------------------------------
Seems like Senior has the more impressive figures. Can anyone shed
more light on the status of older Irfan Pathan, and if he is an India
prospect
Shariq
Cric8wala
>:-)
>
Naah, we dont want him to be a totally obvious chucker, or to give up 18 runs
in the first over of the World Cup Game of the Century. Desi Brett Lee is just
fine :-)
>Nice post as always. It's true that bowling in the nets or bowling to
>non-first class batsmen is a very different prospect to facing the
>Ranji and Test players. He will will have a hard time being selected
>ahead of the likes of Zaheer Khan, Aashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan,
>Avishkar Salvi and the Kerala speedster that you mentioned, especially
>if Srinath decides that he will not retire just yet.
>
I dont know, I think just from reading some of the stuff that he is probably a
better prospect than Sreesanth of Kerala anyway (who hasnt played Ranjis yet
either). Just because he hasnt played that much serious cricket until recently
- and so if he is already pretty good, I would expect his rate of improvement
to be much more rapid than most others, and possibly a high ceiling as well.
(Zaheer was similar, he came to Bombay for college at age 18 with almost no
serious cricket behind him. He was not nearly as good at 19 as Agarkar was at
19 - because Agarkar had been playing structured school cricket all his life,
had captained Bombay U16 and then Bombay U19 and played for India U19 etc. But
Zaheer, while not as good at age 19 as Agarkar was at age 19, was improving
much more quickly because he had so much scope for growth. And he came on much
stronger in the next 2 or 3 years).
I have no doubt that Munaf Patel is probably a really good prospect - the fact
that he has come out of nowhere to do reasonably well in U25 cricket already,
seems to have height and a degree of pace etc, all would add up to that much.
And he has actually done amazingly well for someone so raw at even club level.
But I have a problem with the amount of hype given to these kinds of guys - it
was *way* overblown.
(And it comes from people, writing in national newspapers, who apparently have
little clue about cricket period. The following was the statement made in the
Times of India by Robin David in his article "Can Munaf derail Rawalpindi
Express?":
---
"So, if you imagine Patel in the national squad, you would be looking at
world's most formidable pace attack. And backed by the world's best batting
line-up, the next world series could just be India's."
---
Only a guy with little clue about cricket would say something that stupid,
IMHO, unless he was deliberately trying to hype things. Does the addition of a
tyro, even if he bowls at 150, suddenly make the Indian pace attack "the most
formidable in the world"? And we wont even go into the "best batting lineup in
the world", especially after the experience are bowlers had in the World Cup
final. Anyway :-)
>As you mentioned in the past, the selection process for the Indian
>team is pretty systematic and you do not have instances of players
>whose first first-class match is a test match as is the case with
>Pakistan. I doubt we will see this young man in the inetrnational
>arena in the next couple of years barring unforseen circumstances
>
Things have changed a bit, though - Parthiv Patel actually had a test match as
basically his first couple fc games. In that, Parthiv had never played Ranji
match when he got picked for India to tour England. He was not really supposed
to play there when he was picked - just play the county games, learn etc, back
up Ajay Ratra basically. But he ended up playing a couple of county games and
then taking over for Ratra by the 2nd test itself (partly because of a Ratra
injury, and partly because Ratra was performing below-par). This is very
unusual for India - at least, unusual in the past 20-30 years.
OTOH, when there is *so* much hype about a player in national publications (and
articles on Munaf showed up in *every single newspaper* as far as I can tell),
it changes things. If Munaf gets picked for the Rest of India side in the Irani
Trophy, for example (which could happen, on hype alone), and if he happens to
suddenly do really well, who knows where it could lead? Ideally the people in
charge wont get carried away and pick him so randomly (as of the moment, they
have only brought Munaf in along with 9 other young pacemen with potential, to
bowl to the stars in the nets during the national camp in Bangalore - it is as
much because the stars need to have good net bowlers as it is for the young
pacemen themselves). But, because of the hype, he might get a bit of an
opportunity at least - which is not neccesarily a terrible thing. (Personally I
wouldnt pick him for the Iranis I dont think - but I might pick him in a game
or two for the Challengers, and then for the Ranjis etc).
BTW, Munaf has gone up the ladder playing better quality cricket already, in
the past 6 months or so. He did bowl to Steve Waugh in the nets when he visited
MRF, for instance (Waugh was surprised at his nippiness too :-) He played U25
cricket in March/April, which he had never played before - U25 teams are
allowed only about 2 Ranji players each maximum, so he had limited viewing of
fc level players. He then has played First Division Madras League cricket this
summer, which gave him more exposure to fc level cricketers. And he basically
really came into prominence a week or two ago, when he took 7/78 in the finals
of the Buchi Babu tournament for Indian Airlines in a losing effort (that 7/78
came against S Ramesh, S Sharath, Badani etc - they did put up 317 on first
innings and won handily and the top-order had taken the score to about 140/1 at
one stage before they lost wickets so it wasnt like they were devastated by
Munaf... but 7/78 against pretty good fc level competition was a heck of an
effort by someone so raw, and definitely makes him an exciting prospect at the
very least).
>Did you know there are 2 Irfan Pathans from Baroda, Gujrat? One is
>Irfan Safi Pathan(LM) born in 1978 and the other one is Irfan Khan
>Pathan(LMF) born in 1984. The more famous one is known from time to
>time as Irfan Pathan Junior
>
Yep. People used to think they were brothers, but they arent.
Not really, definitely not at the moment. He is a right arm medium pacer, who
doesnt play a whole lot. You can tell that from the figures itself - he made
his debut in 1999, and in the past 4 or so years of domestic cricket he has
played only 10 matches for Baroda, all at the Ranji level. His figures have
been very good - but Baroda is loaded with pace prospects nowadays, and Irfan
Pathan Sr hardly ever gets a chance to play for them. They have Zaheer Khan
(when available), Rakesh Patel (who is an India-A regular, and was in the
Indian 14 for the NZ ODI tour right before the World Cup), Irfan Pathan Jr (who
is an India-A regular as well now, and was India U19s spearhead before that)
etc. If they use a 4th seamer it is often Shekhar Joshi - who has also done
well, but doesnt get to play very much either. Thus Irfan Sr has slipped
further down the scale. For no real fault of his own, other than the knowledge
of people in Baroda who watch a lot of cricket that he isnt as good a prospect
as Irfan Jr (who is left arm, and much younger) etc. Irfan Sr is about 25
already, so he has no "youngster with potential" reason to push him etc.
There were rumours a year ago that he was leaving to move to Railways - but I
dont think he did. Not that that would have helped a whole lot either, Railways
has Harvinder Singh (former India paceman) and Santosh Saxena (former India-A,
who also bowls nearing 140 IMHO), so there too Irfan Sr would have been #3
paceman at best. At the moment the best he can hope for is to get to play for
Baroda again this season - which is not all that certain either. Baroda will
probably have Irfan Jr and Rakesh Patel around for the season as it is possible
neither will be touring Australia with the Indian team. And then they have
spinner Valmik Buch, and have just recruited spinner Rajesh Pawar from Bombay
too. That gives them their 4 bowlers - and if veteran offie-allrounder Tushar
Arothe hasnt retired, he will be their 5th I would expect. There is a chance
that Irfan Jr's younger brother (at least I think he's his younger brother) ,
Yusuf Khan Pathan (an offspinning allrounder) could make it to the side as well
- he has been one of the better Baroda U19 players in the past 2/3 seasons.
And it will be interesting to see if Munaf makes it to the Gujarat side. They
already have Siddharth Trivedi - India U19s left arm seamer from a year or two
ago (used to pair with Irfan for a while) - Trivedi is also among the 9 young
guys invited to be net bowlers at the seniors currently. And they have a
veteran Lalit Patel who has done quite well in the past couple of seasons.
Might make Gujarat a fun team to follow in the Ranjis this season as well (and
they are in First Division this year too, having retained the spot they won a
year ago).
Sadiq [ maybe they can have 7 Patels again, like they did 3/4 years ago ] Yusuf
>Shariq
>
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R. Bharat Rao
"Cric8wala" <cric...@aol.com> wrote in message
> Sadiq [ maybe they can have 7 Patels again, like they did 3/4 years ago ]
Yusuf
About 6 years ago, SGCC (the South Gujrat Cricket Club) in the New Jersey
Cricket League, had one non-Patel in their roster of 27 players. He was
promptly nicknamed "Patel-bhai"..
Bharat [wondering if players from North Gujrat were allowed to join?]
umesh dandekar
saurashtra - atleast they used to have sitanshu kotak a while ago - or
is he still there?]. But I don't remember any good player from gujrat in
a while - can anyone remember the last player who played for gujrat and
went on to represent india?
~umesh [really weak mumbai side once SRT, Agarkar? and Jaffer? go on
indian duty. Hoping that vinod kambli can be the backbone of this
team along with muzumdar and repeat last year's performance]
Madhusudan Singh
rec.sport.cricket (<5c8da115.03090...@posting.google.com>):
>
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=160120
>
> Does not give his age: just says he is under 25 and regularly clocked
> between 140 and 150 ks
>
>
Does he chuck (Brett Lee) ??
Ambrish Sundaram
> Wow! When was the last time I had heard *anyone* say that about gujrat [or
> saurashtra - atleast they used to have sitanshu kotak a while ago - or
> is he still there?]. But I don't remember any good player from gujrat in
> a while - can anyone remember the last player who played for gujrat and
> went on to represent india?
>
Dhiraj Parsana was a useful allrounder for Gujarat who went on to play
two Tests (albeit not too successfully) for India, against the West
Indies in 1977-78.
After retiring as a player, Parsana, recently, even served on the
Pitches committee of the BCCI. Don't know if he is still on the committee.
Prior to that one can think of Nari Contractor and the one-Test wonder
Jasu Patel who played for Gujarat.
Karsan Ghavri and K.S. Indrajitsinghji played for Saurashtra at one time.
samarth harish shah
> umesh dandekar wrote:
>
> > Wow! When was the last time I had heard *anyone* say that about gujrat [or
> > saurashtra - atleast they used to have sitanshu kotak a while ago - or
> > is he still there?]. But I don't remember any good player from gujrat in
> > a while - can anyone remember the last player who played for gujrat and
> > went on to represent india?
> >
>
> Dhiraj Parsana was a useful allrounder for Gujarat who went on to play
> two Tests (albeit not too successfully) for India, against the West
> Indies in 1977-78.
Took the words out of my mouth. But was Parsana playing for Gujrat or
Saurashtra when he was chosen to play against WI in 1978-9? I think he did
play most of his career for Gujrat.
> After retiring as a player, Parsana, recently, even served on the
> Pitches committee of the BCCI. Don't know if he is still on the committee.
He was the groundsman at Ahmedabad, wasn't he?
> Prior to that one can think of Nari Contractor and the one-Test wonder
> Jasu Patel who played for Gujarat.
Has Parthiv turned out for Gujrat yet? :-)
> Karsan Ghavri and K.S. Indrajitsinghji played for Saurashtra at one time.
As did Dilip Doshi. But maybe not during his India-days.
<snip>
-Samarth.
Shripathi Kamath
"samarth harish shah" <shs...@students.uiuc.edu> wrote in message
news:Pine.GSO.4.31.030907...@ux13.cso.uiuc.edu...
> On Sun, 7 Sep 2003, Ambrish Sundaram wrote:
>
> > umesh dandekar wrote:
> >
> > > Wow! When was the last time I had heard *anyone* say that about gujrat
[or
> > > saurashtra - atleast they used to have sitanshu kotak a while ago - or
> > > is he still there?]. But I don't remember any good player from gujrat
in
> > > a while - can anyone remember the last player who played for gujrat
and
> > > went on to represent india?
> > >
> >
> > Dhiraj Parsana was a useful allrounder for Gujarat who went on to play
> > two Tests (albeit not too successfully) for India, against the West
> > Indies in 1977-78.
>
> Took the words out of my mouth. But was Parsana playing for Gujrat or
> Saurashtra when he was chosen to play against WI in 1978-9?
He played for Gujarat. In fact, just prior to the tour, one of the things
that was said to have influenced his selection (rumor) was his performance
in a sub fc match. He scored a double hundred, a hundred, took 6 wickets
and 8 wickets in the four innings of the match.
> I think he did
> play most of his career for Gujrat.
>
> > After retiring as a player, Parsana, recently, even served on the
> > Pitches committee of the BCCI. Don't know if he is still on the
committee.
>
> He was the groundsman at Ahmedabad, wasn't he?
>
> > Prior to that one can think of Nari Contractor and the one-Test wonder
> > Jasu Patel who played for Gujarat.
>
> Has Parthiv turned out for Gujrat yet? :-)
>
> > Karsan Ghavri and K.S. Indrajitsinghji played for Saurashtra at one
time.
>
> As did Dilip Doshi. But maybe not during his India-days.
>
Yes, at the time he played for Bengal.
--
Shripathi Kamath
Ambrish Sundaram
samarth harish shah wrote:
> On Sun, 7 Sep 2003, Ambrish Sundaram wrote:
>
>
>>Dhiraj Parsana was a useful allrounder for Gujarat who went on to play
>>two Tests (albeit not too successfully) for India, against the West
>>Indies in 1977-78.
>
>
> Took the words out of my mouth. But was Parsana playing for Gujrat or
> Saurashtra when he was chosen to play against WI in 1978-9? I think he did
> play most of his career for Gujrat.
>
You are right in the sense that he played his two tests in the 78-79
season. But Parsana was playing for Gujarat when he was picked to play
against the West indies. He played for Saurashtra in the 1980-81, 81-82,
and 82-83 domestic seasons. In 1982-83 he did not play Saurashtra's
first game against Gujarat. His last game was against Maharashtra in the
82-83 season where he was, perhaps, Saurashtra's best bowler on view
(especially when Maharashtra batted first), with figures of 27.4 - 10 -
55 - 4 in the first innings and 13.5 - 0 - 65 - 2 in the second innings.
Note - These figures are from Cricinfo Archives.
Surprisingly he did not play any further in the season, in the matches
against Baroda and Bombay (now Mumbai).
>
>>After retiring as a player, Parsana, recently, even served on the
>>Pitches committee of the BCCI. Don't know if he is still on the committee.
>
>
> He was the groundsman at Ahmedabad, wasn't he?
>
>
>>Prior to that one can think of Nari Contractor and the one-Test wonder
>>Jasu Patel who played for Gujarat.
>
>
> Has Parthiv turned out for Gujrat yet? :-)
>
:-)
>
>>Karsan Ghavri and K.S. Indrajitsinghji played for Saurashtra at one time.
>
>
> As did Dilip Doshi. But maybe not during his India-days.
>
India-discard Sujith Somasunder played for Saurashtra in the 2001-2002
season.
Ambrish
>
samarth harish shah
<snip - replying via Umesh's post because Sadiq's didn't make it to my
server - server's been really acting up of late>
> > BTW, Munaf has gone up the ladder playing better quality cricket already, in
> > the past 6 months or so. He did bowl to Steve Waugh in the nets when he visited
> > MRF, for instance (Waugh was surprised at his nippiness too :-) He played U25
> > cricket in March/April, which he had never played before - U25 teams are
> > allowed only about 2 Ranji players each maximum, so he had limited viewing of
> > fc level players. He then has played First Division Madras League cricket this
> > summer, which gave him more exposure to fc level cricketers. And he basically
> > really came into prominence a week or two ago, when he took 7/78 in the finals
> > of the Buchi Babu tournament for Indian Airlines in a losing effort (that 7/78
> > came against S Ramesh, S Sharath, Badani etc - they did put up 317 on first
Hemang plays for Jolly Rovers (Chemplast). The other recognized batsmen
for SPIC were Badrinath, S. Suresh, Vidyut and Sunil Viswanathan.
BTW, the CricInfo article on Munaf Patel mentions that a senior Indian
pace bowler tried to have Munaf "unlearn" everything he learnt at MRF in
Madras during the camp at Bangalore. Anand Vasu says this was a major
cause of worry. Any ideas who this senior pace bowler was? :-)
<snip>
-Samarth.
samarth harish shah
<snip>
> India-discard Sujith Somasunder played for Saurashtra in the 2001-2002
> season.
ODOs count? In that case, perhaps the last player from Saurashtra to play
for India was probably Ashok Patel who played in a few ODOs in the
mid-80s.
-Samarth.
Shariq A. Tariq
> Naah, we dont want him to be a totally obvious chucker, or to give up 18 runs
> in the first over of the World Cup Game of the Century. Desi Brett Lee is just
> fine :-)
>
>
Fine let him be the Desi Brett Lee but remember comparisons of new
Indian cricketers to former Aussie greats have been bad omen for
anyone not named Sachin Tendulkar :-) Agarkar hailed as the new
Lillee...Kambli being hailed as new Bradman...etc. :-)
I read that he is Munaf Mirza aka. Munaf Patel aka. Munna and speaks
only a smattering of Hindi/Urdu whatever you may call it. Also read
that Ganguly asked him to go just for pace and not worry about
movement - I found that rather weird because
1. ) Ganguly is not a bowling coach
2. ) He is well aware how Akhtar was torched doing exactly what he is
asking Patel to to do
Do you think he will be fast tracked into the cricket team for the
Australian tour or will the BCCI bring him slowly along. If the
reports are to be believed, he is ready to be gambled upon for the
Australian tour
Shariq
Shripathi Kamath
"Shariq A. Tariq" <shariq...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:fe23ec8f.03090...@posting.google.com...
<snip>
> Fine let him be the Desi Brett Lee but remember comparisons of new
> Indian cricketers to former Aussie greats have been bad omen for
> anyone not named Sachin Tendulkar :-) Agarkar hailed as the new
> Lillee...Kambli being hailed as new Bradman...etc. :-)
>
Au contraire, Monsieur Tariq. Aggy was hailed as W+W. Kambli *was* second
only to Bradman once.
> I read that he is Munaf Mirza aka. Munaf Patel aka. Munna and speaks
> only a smattering of Hindi/Urdu whatever you may call it. Also read
> that Ganguly asked him to go just for pace and not worry about
> movement - I found that rather weird because
>
> 1. ) Ganguly is not a bowling coach
He is the captain.
> 2. ) He is well aware how Akhtar was torched doing exactly what he is
> asking Patel to to do
>
He is also aware how Akhtar decimated the world's best batting lineup twice
doing exactly that. Once in tests, once in ODIs.
> Do you think he will be fast tracked into the cricket team for the
> Australian tour or will the BCCI bring him slowly along. If the
> reports are to be believed, he is ready to be gambled upon for the
> Australian tour
>
I hope not! I mean whatever happened to the Avishkar "next McGrath" Salvi?
What has he done wrong?
Let Munaf play *one* domestic game at least, and if he does exceptionally
well like 12 wickets including Tendulkar twice for ducks, then we can think
of gambling.
--
Shripathi Kamath
No gambling in Australia, ZK, AN, JS, AA, and AS for pacers if they take 5.
Junglee Boy
> cric...@aol.com (Cric8wala) wrote in message news:<20030905190958...@mb-m07.aol.com>...
>
> > Naah, we dont want him to be a totally obvious chucker, or to give up 18 runs
> > in the first over of the World Cup Game of the Century. Desi Brett Lee is just
> > fine :-)
> >
> >
>
> Fine let him be the Desi Brett Lee but remember comparisons of new
> Indian cricketers to former Aussie greats have been bad omen for
> anyone not named Sachin Tendulkar :-) Agarkar hailed as the new
When and by who was Agarkar compared to Lillee, or was it another
case of your failure in Sarcasm 101. I would like to have the link
please.
> Lillee...Kambli being hailed as new Bradman...etc. :-)
>
> I read that he is Munaf Mirza aka. Munaf Patel aka. Munna and speaks
> only a smattering of Hindi/Urdu whatever you may call it. Also read
> that Ganguly asked him to go just for pace and not worry about
> movement - I found that rather weird because
when and where did you read this. Can you give me the link again.
Cuz just yesterday all Papers had it that Ganguly was NOT IMPRESSED by
Munaf and would want to test him in Challenger Series.
>
> 1. ) Ganguly is not a bowling coach
> 2. ) He is well aware how Akhtar was torched doing exactly what he is
> asking Patel to to do
>
> Do you think he will be fast tracked into the cricket team for the
> Australian tour or will the BCCI bring him slowly along. If the
> reports are to be believed, he is ready to be gambled upon for the
> Australian tour
Which report says he is being geared for Australia? Can you give me
the link.
>
> Shariq
Karthik Sankaran
> BTW, the CricInfo article on Munaf Patel mentions that a senior Indian
> pace bowler tried to have Munaf "unlearn" everything he learnt at MRF in
> Madras during the camp at Bangalore. Anand Vasu says this was a major
> cause of worry. Any ideas who this senior pace bowler was? :-)
If that description includes an ex pace bowler my guess would be
Kapil. Kapil should not be allowed to go anywhere near young upcoming
bowlers.
- Karthik
Shripathi Kamath
"Karthik Sankaran" <ksan...@myfirstlink.net> wrote in message
news:3b46ea81.03090...@posting.google.com...
<fx: Gary Coleman, getting his eyebrows closer to each other, frowning>
Whatchu talking about, Karthik?
--
Shripathi Kamath
R. Bharat Rao
news:5809a478.03090...@posting.google.com...
> shariq...@yahoo.com (Shariq A. Tariq) wrote in message
news:<fe23ec8f.03090...@posting.google.com>...
> > Indian cricketers to former Aussie greats have been bad omen for
> > anyone not named Sachin Tendulkar :-) Agarkar hailed as the new
>
> When and by who was Agarkar compared to Lillee, or was it another
> case of your failure in Sarcasm 101. I would like to have the link
> please.
You are right -- it was wasn't Lillee. It was Wasim and Waqar (put
together?) -- and searching google with Agarkar+Wasim+Waqar or
"W+W" and Agarkar should get you tons of hits....
Bharat
samarth harish shah
Yes, it was a "former Indian fast bowler". See:
http://www-usa.cricket.org/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2003/SEP/248471_IND_05SEP2003.html
Wonder who.
-Samarth.
Spaceman Spiff
samarth harish shah <shs...@students.uiuc.edu> drummed on his chest and
bellowed:
> On 8 Sep 2003, Karthik Sankaran wrote:
>
>> samarth harish shah <shs...@students.uiuc.edu> wrote in message
>> news:<Pine.GSO.4.31.030907...@ux8.cso.uiuc.edu>...
>>
>>> BTW, the CricInfo article on Munaf Patel mentions that a senior
>>> Indian pace bowler tried to have Munaf "unlearn" everything he
>>> learnt at MRF in Madras during the camp at Bangalore. Anand Vasu
>>> says this was a major cause of worry. Any ideas who this senior
>>> pace bowler was? :-)
>>
>
>
>
http://www-usa.cricket.org/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2003/SEP/24
8471_IND_05SEP2003.html
>
> Wonder who.
>
mohammed nissar.
there are no former indian fast bowlers.
--
stay cool,
Spaceman Spiff
Well my mama told me, my papa told me too,
Now my mama told me, papa told me too,
Well I shouldn't be here tryin' to sing these railroad blues.
Junglee Boy
This Shariq bloke has made a lot of useless and meaningless statements
in the past claiming them to be from the media.
I just want to find out where is he getting all this information from?
I am hoping he is referring to a nation called 'India' on some other
planet and not here.
Or as somebody had pointed out before, he fails to understand jokes
and takes them serisouly. But still I am waiting for an answer
especially the Ganguly and Munaf crap that he got. Just 2 days ago
Ganguly had said that he is taking a 'Wait and Watch approach'.
> Bharat
Shariq A. Tariq
Yah it sounds like Kapil - but then again it could be either Javagal
Srinath or Venkatesh Prasad who both hail from Bangalore. It could
even be Roger Binny who is reputedly a bowling coach and is from
Bangalore. BTW is India's Under 19 batsman Stuart Binny related to
Roger Binny?
Shariq
Shariq A. Tariq
> When and by who was Agarkar compared to Lillee, or was it another
> case of your failure in Sarcasm 101. I would like to have the link
> please.
Excuse me JB but this is not the center of all world cricket news.
When Agarkar broke Lillee's record for being the fastest to 50 wickets
in ODIs there were several people who claimed that he was India's
answer to Lillee. These posts/articles came around the time Agarkar
reached the landmark. The number of times it was repeated that he had
broken Dennis Lillee's record was minboggling
>
> when and where did you read this. Can you give me the link again.
> Cuz just yesterday all Papers had it that Ganguly was NOT IMPRESSED by
> Munaf and would want to test him in Challenger Series.
Musa claims at first he didn't even know his son was in
Bangalore training with the Sachin Tendulkars and Sourav
Gangulys
of this world. 荘He called me to say he had been sent to the MRF
Pace Foundation in Chennai and is currently training with the
Indian team in Bangalore. It came as a surprise to me,'' he
says.
Incidentally, Munaf called home on Saturday to tell his family
that he had bowled to his heroes Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. The
India skipper told him to keep bowling fast without bothering
too much about movement.
More can be found at
http://web.mid-day.com/sports/national/2003/september/63283.htm
Shariq
Shariq A. Tariq
>
> This Shariq bloke has made a lot of useless and meaningless statements
> in the past claiming them to be from the media.
>
> I just want to find out where is he getting all this information from?
> I am hoping he is referring to a nation called 'India' on some other
> planet and not here.
>
> Or as somebody had pointed out before, he fails to understand jokes
> and takes them serisouly. But still I am waiting for an answer
> especially the Ganguly and Munaf crap that he got. Just 2 days ago
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Ganguly had said that he is taking a 'Wait and Watch approach'.
Oh yah? Then what is this all about...
http://web.mid-day.com/sports/national/2003/september/63283.htm
So either the Midday Mumbai is full of crap or the publication that
you quoted from is
I appreciate a good joke just as much as anybody but I don't enjoy
jokes that are in poor taste and stink of insults and diatribes
Shariq
Shariq A. Tariq
>
> Au contraire, Monsieur Tariq. Aggy was hailed as W+W. Kambli *was* second
> only to Bradman once.
>
He was hailed as W+W? When? I recall reading him breaking Waqar's
record of being fastest to 50 wickets in number of days from making
his debut but don't recall any mention of W+W in articles about
ABA..unless ofcourse India and Pakistan played
> He is also aware how Akhtar decimated the world's best batting lineup twice
> doing exactly that. Once in tests, once in ODIs.
But then again so did Harbhajan in 3 tests....why did he not ask Munaf
to bowl off-spin :) Seriously though isn't it a bit stupid to tell an
upcoming bowler to concentrate just on pace? Shoaib did not destroy
the Australians because of pace but because he was able to
successfully swing and reverse the ball at pace. Here is the article
where Ganguly made his statement
http://web.mid-day.com/sports/national/2003/september/63283.htm
But with all these flying at us it hard to discern what is authentic
and what is a figment of the writer's imagination or the extent of
exaggeration
Shariq
Shripathi Kamath
"Shariq A. Tariq" <shariq...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:fe23ec8f.03090...@posting.google.com...
news:<U417b.22768$n94.6758@fed1read04>...
>
> >
> > Au contraire, Monsieur Tariq. Aggy was hailed as W+W. Kambli *was*
second
> > only to Bradman once.
> >
> He was hailed as W+W? When? I recall reading him breaking Waqar's
> record of being fastest to 50 wickets in number of days from making
> his debut but don't recall any mention of W+W in articles about
> ABA..unless ofcourse India and Pakistan played
>
Check rsc archives, dude :-)
> > He is also aware how Akhtar decimated the world's best batting lineup
twice
> > doing exactly that. Once in tests, once in ODIs.
>
> But then again so did Harbhajan in 3 tests....why did he not ask Munaf
> to bowl off-spin :) Seriously though isn't it a bit stupid to tell an
> upcoming bowler to concentrate just on pace?
No it is not, just concentrating on pace is probably fine for that raw a
bowler. And by that I mean delivering fast deliveries on a line or length
with consistency. The tricks and subtle techniques can come later
(obviously before they play in a test).
Control over your pace is the first thing. To become a good bowler you need
good control. To be a great bowler you need that swing and reverse-swing,
outswinger, inswinger, reverse-swing with the new ball, yorker and all those
things.
Case in point: Aggy. He presumably has the latter stuff, and only if he had
some control over his line and length we wouldn't even need Munaf :-)
I have seen many a sage dispense the advice on up and coming pitchers in
baseball: "Get a fastball son, and get some control. They'll teach you
everything else you need to know in the big leagues."
> Shoaib did not destroy
> the Australians because of pace but because he was able to
> successfully swing and reverse the ball at pace.
Nonsense, the sheer pace was too much to handle. It is the one thing that
you cannot have enough of. That I believe is the only reason Lee plays over
Bichel, for instance in tests.
> Here is the article
> where Ganguly made his statement
>
> http://web.mid-day.com/sports/national/2003/september/63283.htm
>
> But with all these flying at us it hard to discern what is authentic
> and what is a figment of the writer's imagination or the extent of
> exaggeration
>
Does it really matter? :-)
--
Shripathi Kamath
Spaceman Spiff
> jung...@yahoo.com (Junglee Boy) wrote in message
> news:<5809a478.03090...@posting.google.com>...
>> When and by who was Agarkar compared to Lillee, or was it another
>> case of your failure in Sarcasm 101. I would like to have the link
>> please.
>
> Excuse me JB but this is not the center of all world cricket news.
> When Agarkar broke Lillee's record for being the fastest to 50 wickets
> in ODIs there were several people who claimed that he was India's
> answer to Lillee. These posts/articles came around the time Agarkar
> reached the landmark.
can you point some links to these posts/articles? i couldn't find them in
google.
> The number of times it was repeated that he had
> broken Dennis Lillee's record was minboggling
>
was it a false statement?
--
stay cool,
Spaceman Spiff
Love, love in the afternoon
Outside the window an organ grinder's tune
Yuk Tang
> Control over your pace is the first thing. To become a good
> bowler you need good control. To be a great bowler you need that
> swing and reverse-swing, outswinger, inswinger, reverse-swing with
> the new ball, yorker and all those things.
The impressive aspect of Harmison at The Oval was that he was bowling
at 88+ mph with excellent control. 19 overs for 33 and 4 wickets in
the 2nd innings didn't flatter him; if one went overboard, it was
reminiscent of Ambrose in his last series.
Now he needs variety (of which he has shown none) and the ability to
bowl thus over a series (of which he has shown a little). But the raw
material is there.
For Spiff and others: Flintoff was like this for the first half of the
series (until he was finally knackered out in the 2nd innings at
Headingley). Unfortunately, most of the chances he'd generated were
dropped, whereas Harmison was well backed up at The Oval. Sadly,
neither has much variety at the mo, hence their averages, but hopefully
they'll improve from a basis of pace, bounce and accuracy.
--
Cheers, ymt.
Andrew Dunford
Ah. That's what "W+W" stands for.
Andrew
Ramakrishnan G
>
> Yah it sounds like Kapil - but then again it could be either Javagal
> Srinath or Venkatesh Prasad who both hail from Bangalore. It could
> even be Roger Binny who is reputedly a bowling coach and is from
> Bangalore. BTW is India's Under 19 batsman Stuart Binny related to
> Roger Binny?
>
A son, I believe. I recall reading that Kirmani has a son who is interested
in playing cricket too.
> Shariq
Ram Jaane
> He was hailed as W+W? When? I recall reading him breaking Waqar's
> record of being fastest to 50 wickets in number of days from making
> his debut but don't recall any mention of W+W in articles about
> ABA..unless ofcourse India and Pakistan played
Actually, Agarkar was mostly compared to Kapil in his early days
by the media because of his all-round skills which he had proved
in A-tour to Pak.
RJ
Amol Cricketwallah
> "Cric8wala" <cric...@aol.com> wrote in message
> > Sadiq [ maybe they can have 7 Patels again, like they did 3/4 years ago ]
> Yusuf
>
> About 6 years ago, SGCC (the South Gujrat Cricket Club) in the New Jersey
> Cricket League, had one non-Patel in their roster of 27 players. He was
> promptly nicknamed "Patel-bhai"..
>
Yes, we have a team here too called simply GCC (actually "GCC Bouncers" -
where the GCC stands for Gujarat Cricket Club. Theyre 4th in the league
at the moment, though many feel theyre actually the best team, but
they started the season 0-2 since they didnt have their full team,
and have lost only once since - which was the 2nd game of a 2-day
back-to-back affair that included a 4 hour road trip :-) Anyway, this
GCC usually has 9 Patel's to their 11 (plus a Mehta and sometimes a
Mankad IIRC).
Further afield, in some league in England I hear, there was a case a
year or two ago where a team of all 11 Patel's actually played against
another team of all 11 Patel's.
> Bharat [wondering if players from North Gujrat were allowed to join?]
Well, from what one hears GCC is fairly strictly only Gujarati (the
official position is, I hear, "Gujarati with some possible exceptions" :-)
But I have spoken to at least one guy from a different team who got
a phone-call at the start of the season, where the first question asked
of him was if he was Gujarati or Marathi (he is the possessor of a good
Gujarati first name, but his 2nd is Vaidya which can go both ways). And
he claims that when he responded saying he was actually Gujarati, the
team-manager at the other end laughed and said he was glad, cos he
would have hung up right away if he had been Marathi :-) They then had
a 45-minute chat where the manager tried to convince him to come play
for them, but he refused. So anecdotal evidence, at least, suggests
it *is* exclusively Gujarati, with no exceptions allowed. Iam sure
SJCC is probably similar, no matter the official posture :-)
Not entirely unusual either, of course - there is also a "Hyderabad
Deccan" which is entirely a Hyderabadi side, and no doubt "Muslim
Gymkhana" is entirely Muslim (actually the XI seemed to be entirely
Pakistani-Muslim). Presumably "Pak Gymkhana" is also entirely
Muslim and presumably entirely Pak-Muslim too (and yes, for those
who might wonder, they actually *do* play against each other when
the schedule calls for it :-)
Sadiq [ The "Bears" won this week, on one field at least ] Yusuf
samarth harish shah
<snip>
> Well, from what one hears GCC is fairly strictly only Gujarati (the
> official position is, I hear, "Gujarati with some possible exceptions" :-)
> But I have spoken to at least one guy from a different team who got
> a phone-call at the start of the season, where the first question asked
> of him was if he was Gujarati or Marathi (he is the possessor of a good
> Gujarati first name, but his 2nd is Vaidya which can go both ways). And
> he claims that when he responded saying he was actually Gujarati, the
> team-manager at the other end laughed and said he was glad, cos he
> would have hung up right away if he had been Marathi :-) They then had
> a 45-minute chat where the manager tried to convince him to come play
> for them, but he refused. So anecdotal evidence, at least, suggests
> it *is* exclusively Gujarati, with no exceptions allowed. Iam sure
> SJCC is probably similar, no matter the official posture :-)
Actually Chetan Mankad is a former Saurashtra Ranji player who has been
hired by the GCC Bouncers as "coach." He's not part of the original team,
as such. He's been brought over especially from India (on an H-1??) to
"coach" this team, although he also plays for them. The team has one
Gujrati Muslim amongst its members. His last name is not Patel; it's
Lalliwala or some such. There's also one guy with the last name Bhakta.
The rest are all Patels. Last season, however, they had one Gult playing
for them - Bhanu Nagendra Prasad of Indiana University, Bloomington (IN).
I think he was very quickly discarded, or maybe he left. :-)
I hit 28 and took 1/18 in 5 overs against the GCC Bouncers here in
Champaign. We lost to them. (They beat everyone in their group except
Purdue and the team they separated from - their parent association -
Columbus, Indiana.) At the end of the game, one of their members asked me
if I was Gujrati. I said I was. The next statement I won't forget in a
hurry: "Gujrati thayi ne aa team maate kem ramo chho?" ("Being a Gujrati,
why are you playing for this team?"
Their team is not "based" anywhere, BTW. It's a bunch of Gujratis from
various places in Indiana and Illinois. You just have to be Gujrati,
remember, you don't have to be from a particular location in the US or
anything. :-) Thus, what you said about a 4-hour drive is not really
true. What's a 4-hour drive for one player in their side, is actually only
a couple for another. (Are you talking about their drive to
Springfield/Peoria, BTW?)
Also, they have a bunch of players. Any Gujrati is welcome and there's
tons of those in the US. :-) So, they have a huge roster, which is what
permits them to play in multiple leagues here in the midwest. Their
president, Jatin Patel (with whom I share a pretty good rapport actually),
has an amazing knack for organization and keeps tabs on the happenings in
all the leagues. He then forms teams in such a way that the stronger one
travels to and plays the harder game and the weaker one can play the
easier game in the other league the very same weekend.
-Samarth.
Amol Cricketwallah
> > already have Siddharth Trivedi - India U19s left arm seamer from a year or two
> > ago (used to pair with Irfan for a while) - Trivedi is also among the 9 young
> > guys invited to be net bowlers at the seniors currently. And they have a
> > veteran Lalit Patel who has done quite well in the past couple of seasons.
> > Might make Gujarat a fun team to follow in the Ranjis this season as well
> saurashtra - atleast they used to have sitanshu kotak a while ago - or
> is he still there?]. But I don't remember any good player from gujrat in
> a while - can anyone remember the last player who played for gujrat and
> went on to represent india?
>
The above has already been answered, since I didnt check in for a few
days :-)
But really, things have changed a lot in Indian cricket - everything
is different, which is one reason why the future of Indian cricket is
very rosy in a lot of ways (the main reason is that there is more money
in Indian cricket now, and it is unquestionably the #1 sport and
drawing a lot of talent to it - the second reason is that it is a
declining sport in a few other country's IMHO and will continue in
that way. So long-term our own personal cricketing future is probably
great, even if it isnt great for the rest of the world :-)
In the old days cricket was mostly just a city game - but now it has
really expanded across the country, much more than it ever had before.
And there is now a lot of money in cricket and everyone knows it, which
makes it a very attractive sport to the masses, especially the ones
who arent so well off, since it is potentially a way out of the
poverty (just like soccer has been to many in different countries - or
even like basketball has been in the USA to downtrodden minorities at
various times, first the Jews and then the African-Americans).
However, cricket is still a relatively expensive game to play, in terms
of equipment etc - and that hasnt been completely fixed yet (a start has
been made in terms of subsidizing equipment for some who cant afford
it, but nowhere near sufficient yet). When that is fixed, then the
talent will really come flying in.
But until then - Gujarat has as good a chance as any to provide some
great young cricketers in the future for India. It is a very wealthy
state, among the richest in the country. And, just like the rest, it is
a cricket-mad state. This equates to a crazy cricket following in the
entire state, but also a larger than usual proportion of people who
can actually afford to "go for it". (An example would be Nayan Mongia,
a Baroda player but still from Gujarat after all. He was a young talent,
and he was also allowed to go for cricket fulltime- because his family
ran a business, and his older brothers could run it while he concentrated
on cricket, and if it didnt work out he would have options. This is not
something available to a lot of players in the rest of the country).
Gujarat's cricketing talent has started to emerge in the past half-dozen
years already - entirely different from earlier Indian cricketing
history. About 3 years ago, for example, Gujarat U19 played Hyderabad
U19 in the quarters of the national tournament. They dismissed Hyderabad
U19 for about 230, and passed the score with only 1 wicket down - and
ended up getting something like 650/4 declared or some such ridiculous
total, in a dominating performance. Now the question is, even 10-15
years ago, could one have conceived of a *Gujarat* team dominating
a Hyderabad team, at any level? I mean, Hyderabad has long been a power
of Indian cricket, regularly providing players to the national side
for 50 years. During those periods they would have dominated Gujarat
type sides at every level, U19s included. But at the U19 level that
has already changed, with Gujarat stepping up in major fashion there.
The fc level is always the last thing to change - and that hasnt
happened yet. But Gujarat, IMHO, is getting there even at Ranji level
now.
Only one team from each zone gets to the knockout of the U19 tournament.
For WZ Gujarat has actually done better than any other WZ team over
the past few years, consistently being the WZ representative! They
have reached the finals of the U19 tournament a couple of times,
been eliminated in the semis a couple more.
Among their players, Niraj Patel was one of India U19s best batsmen
when we won the U19 World Cup a few years ago (others in the side
were Kaif, Yuvraj, Sodhi etc) - he is still only about 22 or so
really. Parthiv was India U19 captain, and has already moved on to
international cricket (he was a dominating force in U16 cricket for
Gujarat, and did quite well at U19 cricket as a 16 year old as well).
Siddharth Trivedi was the best paceman for India U19 a couple of years
ago - he is now a regular in the Gujarat side. When Parthiv Patel isnt
in the side (and he has never been, so far :-), their wicketkeeper is
Pallav Vora - who was India U19 keeper 3/4 years ago!
If you look at their team last year, they had batsmen like Kirit
Damani, Hem Joshipura, Niraj Patel etc - all in the 22/23 age
range (their best bat was still old warhorse Mukund Parmar though,
who has been putting up huge Ranji scores for nearly 20 years now).
They had bowlers like Siddharth Trivedi, Shymal Bhatt etc - also about
22/23 years old. There are a couple more in the wings too (young LAS
Kevin Desai is only about 20 or so IIRC, and he might turn out ok as
well).
Gujarat is already a First Division Ranji side, which is not all that
easy to achieve (note that Karnataka was not a First Division side
last year - and Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa etc will
not be in the First Division this year, all of them with internationals
in their midst). And Gujarat has done it so far with mostly some good
young players who have come thru - last year they held on to their
First Division spot quite easily, and there is no reason why they
shouldnt do it again this season as well. Throw Munaf Patel into the
mix, and if he is any good at all Gujarat's attack actually looks
quite ok for a Ranji side, with potentially a pace attack better than
most!
> ~umesh [really weak mumbai side once SRT, Agarkar? and Jaffer? go on
> indian duty. Hoping that vinod kambli can be the backbone of this
> team along with muzumdar and repeat last year's performance]
>
The batting looks very weak, yes - it really is time for Mane to step
up and have a good season. The bowling is up in the air a little bit -
last year we still had Mhambrey, and Salvi emerged and had an outstanding
season that served us well. This year Mhambrey has retired (he was
appointed coach of Bombay U25, and he just left that post a week ago
because he was offered and accepted the position of Maharashtra Ranji
team coach), and Salvi could possibly be away with the national side
as well. If that happens the pace bowling will be *completely* up in
the air - there is nobody else around with any first-class experience
at all (Swapnil Hazare IIRC has 1 Ranji game to his name, Rajesh Verma
and the others have yet to debut). At least the spin has a few old
names around - Bahutule, Ramesh Powar and Nilesh Kulkarni should all
still be around, and all will be asked to take a heck of a lot of
wickets and provide a lot of runs with the bat as well. It looks like
potentially a very rough season in prospect, however.
Sadiq [ maybe Jaffer can be around for us after all ] Yusuf
> > (and
> > they are in First Division this year too, having retained the spot they won a
> > year ago).
> >
> >
> > Sadiq [ maybe they can have 7 Patels again, like they did 3/4 years ago ] Yusuf
> >
> >
> > >Shariq
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
Amol Cricketwallah
No idea who it was, but whoever it was more power to them :-) There
are still a lot of us who think MRF screws people up more than helps
them a lot of them time, ya know - and to those of us this "young Munaf
off to MRF" is more a worrying factor than something that gets us
excited :-)
Still, if he has a good head on his shoulders and is getting such
fine advice as "dont follow anything youre getting from MRF", maybe
he *will* actually turn into a good bowler for India someday. After
all, Zaheer Khan managed to turn out quite ok despite his MRF trip
(no doubt because he listened to these good-advice-givers rather than
to the TAPs of the world :-)
Sadiq [ quite pleased about it ] Yusuf
> Shariq
Ram
"Amol Cricketwallah" <cricke...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:a374a779.03091...@posting.google.com...
> No idea who it was, but whoever it was more power to them :-) There
> are still a lot of us who think MRF screws people up more than helps
> them a lot of them time, ya know - and to those of us this "young Munaf
> off to MRF" is more a worrying factor than something that gets us
> excited :-)
what specifically about MRF pace foundation bothers you ?
their training? do you think they make everyone the same in a mold?
just curious