Tendulkar, Ganguly in Warne’s greatest Indian Test XI

The iconic Sachin Tendulkar was an expected pick for the No.4 slot while Sourav Ganguly was preferred in the leadership position in Australian spin legend Shane Warne’s greatest Indian Test XI.

Warne, who has been naming his preferred XIs from different countries on his facebook page, turned his attention to India in the latest post. The criteria for selection was that Warne must have competed against the selected players.

Not surprisingly, cricket’s highest run-scorer Tendulkar was Warne’s choice for the No.4 spot in his side. The opening slots went to Virender Sehwag and Navjot Singh Sidhu followed by the ever-dependable Rahul Dravid at No.3.

Tendulkar, who scored a whopping 15,921 runs with 51 hundreds in 200 Tests, was hardly a surprise. But Warne said he was left in a dilemma on whether to go for V.V.S. Laxman or Mohammad Azharuddin for the No.6 position.

“This was the hardest team to select as I played against a few legends at the end of their careers like Vengsarkar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Ravi Shastri, Manoj Prabhakar as well as current players like Zaheer Khan too,” Warne wrote on his Facebook page.

“The Indian side I’ve selected is a very strong one & would be tough to play against. The hardest position to select for me was the number 6 spot between my great friend VVS or Azharuddin.”

The maverick bowler said it was this confusion which prompted him to name a 12-strong squad for India.

“Hence I named 12 and would choose the 12th man on the day!,” he said.

Also making the cut in Warne’s squad were legendary all-rounder Kapil Dev and current limited-overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Dhoni has not played international cricket against Warne but made the cut owing to the IPL face-offs between the two.

Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and Javagal Srinath formed the bowling attack of Warne’s line-up.

Warne’s Greatest India Test XI: Virender Sehwag, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Mohammad Azharuddin, Kapil Dev, M.S. Dhoni, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and Javagal Srinath (VVS Laxman 12th).

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Sachin was clearly ahead of his time but did not grow as I wanted him to’

Kapil Dev is pained that his compliment to Sachin Tendulkar has been misinterpreted and led to widespread criticism.

He recalled the “Kapil can’t get another Test fifty” remark from Sunil Gavaskar. “It was for my good. He was challenging me to raise my game. I got a fifty in the next match (a sterling 79-ball 69 in his next innings at Bombay against Pakistan) and one more two Tests later (a 98-ball 84 and 11 wickets as India beat Pakistan at Chennai too).

“Gavaskar used to say that I should have scored 5000 runs more than what I did. In hindsight, I agree I should have taken my batting seriously. But importantly, I didn’t take Gavaskar’s remark in the wrong sense. He challenged me and I accepted it.”

“Needless is the word. Sachin, I’ve always said, was a fabulous cricketer and more talented than Viv (Richards). He had the calibre to be as ruthless, or more, but did not deliver as much as I had expected. He got 100 international 100s but his potential was greater.”

“How else could I have described him? He was an underachiever and that I maintain was a compliment. He could have done better. Am I wrong?”

Digging into the past, Kapil recalled, “He was just about making waves and I was up against him. He drilled me over mid-off for a six. I was stunned. He hit me as if I was an off-spinner and I marvelled at his talent.

“Sachin was clearly ahead of his time but he did not grow as I wanted him to grow. I loved the Sachin of Sharjah 1998 when he clubbed the Australians. His dominance was complete and stroke-play so imperious. He made good bowlers look ordinary, could hit boundaries at will but that Sachin was lost somewhere as his career progressed.”

Praise for Mumbai cricket

As for the remark on Mumbai cricket and cricketers, Kapil explained, “I would be silly if I doubted their caliber. Has Bombay not won 40 Ranji Trophy titles and 15 in a row? What an awesome record!

Players from outside Bombay learnt to be professional from them.

The Bombay batsmen believe in playing correct cricket — technically supreme, no reverse sweeps or upper cuts. But the game has changed. You have to be ruthless now.

With the exception of Sandeep Patil and to some extent Vinod Kambli, Mumbai has not produced ruthless cricketers. Now we have Ajinkya (Rahane) and Rohit (Sharma) batting differently, wanting to dominate.”

Elaborating on his views on Mumbai cricket, “I respect Mumbai cricket and cricketers. They laid the base for the growth of Indian cricket but the game has changed and it is time we all realized and accepted it.

“We also need to rise above petty regionalism. Mumbai is mine too. We would like to see Mumbai cricket and cricketers to move on. It is not about Mumbai, Haryana or Delhi.. It is about Indian cricket... Also, (Ajit) Wadekar Sir should please understand that I am a true Indian and Mumbai is part of us. I am a Bombaywalah too.”

Remembering an anecdote with noted lyricist Javed Akhtar, he said, “I told him once I would have been more successful if I had worked harder because I got so much affection from my countrymen. He said an 80-year-old man could have lived to be 100 had he cared more for his body.”

“There comes a time when one says enough is enough. In Sachin’s case it was never enough.”

“He was worth much more and that is what I meant.”

“Does he not call me Paaji? Can an elder brother not say what he feels about his younger brother? I did precisely that.”

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Sachin didn’t do justice to his talent: Kapil Dev

Former India captain Kapil Dev says the iconic Sachin Tendulkar “did not know how to make double hundreds, triple hundreds and 400 though he had the ability” to scale such peaks and was “stuck in the Mumbai school of cricket”.

“Don’t get me wrong, but I think Sachin didn’t do justice to his talent. I always thought he could have done much more than what he did,” Dev was quoted as saying by the ‘Khaleej Times’.

“He (Sachin) got stuck with Bombay cricket. He didn’t apply himself to the ruthless international cricket. I think he should have spent more time with Vivian Richards than some of the Bombay guys who played just neat and straight cricket.

“Sachin was a much better cricketer but somewhere along the line he just knew how to score hundreds. He didn’t know how to make it a double hundred, or a triple or even 400s,” added the 1983 World Cup winning India captain.

The great all-rounder, under whose captaincy India won its maiden World Cup in 1983, said he would have advised Tendulkar to play like Virender Sehwag.

“He (Sachin) had the ability. He was technically sound but I felt he was there to get his hundred and that’s it.

Unlike Richards, Sachin wasn’t ruthless, he was more of a perfect, or rather correct cricketer. Had I spent more time with him I would have told him ‘go enjoy yourself, play like Virender Sehwag’. You will be a much better cricketer.”

The 56-year-old Dev made these remarks before a select crowd at the Cove Beach Club at Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai alongside three other cricketing icons — Shane Warne, Wasim Akram and Ian Botham.

Spin legend Warne remarked that Tendulkar was special.

“He is a wonderful player and in my 20-odd years of playing, he is the best batsman that I played against. The expectations he was under and the skill he had against fast and spin. The way he judged the balls. He was great for the game of cricket and he was a fantastic and wonderful player.

He dominated bowlers in the mid-90s and he was just outstanding against any bowler. He also played exceptionally well against Australia,” said Warne.

“I now see Sachin’s different side as I am now doing business with him. He is a wonderful friend,” he added.

Pace bowling great Akram regretted for having played much against Tendulkar.

“One of the regrets Waqar Younis and I had as a bowler is that we never played Test cricket against Tendulkar for nearly 10 years,” he said.

“We played against Sachin when he made his debut in 1989 when he was 16 and then, we played Tests against Sachin in 1999 in India. As Warne said, he was the best in the game and 100 international hundreds speaks volumes of his talent.”

When the former greats were asked to name the best they had played against, Kapil said: “I think Viv in my time is the best I have seen. More than his cricket, it was the way he played the game and his attitude. I loved to take his wicket all the time.”

Botham echoed similar sentiments: “Viv Richards is certainly the best player I have seen in all formats of the game. I don’t think there has been anyone better. I remember in Old Trafford we left him in the raps and Michael Holding came out to bat and 200 runs later, Richards was 189 not out — which was obscene. You bowl him outside the off stump with a packed field, and he will flick you into the grandstand on the leg side. He never read the MCC coaching annual.”

Akram added: “When I started out, it was the great Viv Richards and the Little Master Sunil Gavaskar. I got out him out only once. In the 90s, it was (Brian) Lara and Tendulkar.”

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