Vinod kamblis talent was there to see when he entered International cricket in 1992.
Although 3 years later than sachin tendulkar, he seemed to be more than eager to make up for it by scoring 2 double centuries in the first seven matches he played. The cricketing world was suddenly waking up to a boy who was promising all that it was expecting of sachin the last few years. People started comparing the two boys.
They stared featuring as a pair on newspaper covers, print ads and tv commercials.
A heady concoction to say the least, that too for boys in their early 20's.
Suddenly the honeymoon seemed to be over for kambli though. After a few scratchy performances he found himself sidelined. a drop from the heights of sky to the depth of realities maybe didnt go down too well with him. Stories about his late night drunken escapades started appearing in the newspapers. His antics in the dressing room also started making headlines. Having a colorful personality did its part of keeping him in the news for mostly the wrong reasons.
But its not that only his behavior was questionable; there were some apparently grey areas in the selection too. It wasnt clear why sachin made an early debut while vinod kambli was made to wait nearly three years before getting a chance. Even if this aberration is ignored, the bcci doesnt present a strong case for itself if we see the random way in which the team was selected in the nineties. Being a big fan of sachin - kambli, I combo wished to see them bat together. After his omission from the team, my agenda used to be reading the newspaper to track whether the next team selection featured vinod kambli or not. To my utter chagrin it always turned out to be surprising.
Even with some decent shows under his belt in the domestic seasons, vinod kambli was systematically ignored for few times. I dont blame the BCCI for discriminating but there could always be people who dont necessarily see the bigger picture. Going by the selection goofups my faith in the cricket administration waned to such an extent that i started to feel skeptical about the people in control.
The final coffin in the head was sourav ganguly. The way in which he was introduced in the team was controversial. Till this day i believe that ganguly reaped the benefits of the nepotism shown towards him in his early days. I dont mean to say he didnt have talent; but just that he got the chance to showcase it when it mattered and ahead of his turn. There was a point of time when i used to hate watching ganguly bat since i couldnt forget about the injustice done to another talent from Mumbai. (My disdain for ganguly turned to respect the way he handled the team post the matchfixing scandal and the Lords t-shirt twirling incident. He became "Amar Dada" after that.)
With vinod kambli doing nothing to better his chances of a selection by carrying on with his happy go luck ways, it was just a matter of time before his possibilities of a comeback exhausted. Though its worth mentioning that the moment sachin was made captain he found himself in the team. I even heard that sachin fought with the selectors to get him in the team. With all this support from his captain why did he not get serious about playing for the country.
It didnt take long for him to fizzle out thought.His checkered test career ended before he was 24. Although he made one day appearances till as recently as 2000, his performances were never good enough to cement his place in the ODI side.
If sachin tendulkar is arguably the greatest gift to indian cricket i would call vinod kambli the greatest loss to indian cricket. There have been instances of cricketers that have had things going for them initially and later lost their way inexplicably. Vinod kambli can easily vie for a spot in this infamous club.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
vinod kamblis sachin friendship on sach ka saamna part1
With all the controversy surrounding vinod kambli's comments (confessions?) on the new tv show sach ka samna, i couldnt resist from writing my feelings on the matter. The reason being me being an avid cricket fan since childhood. I dont care where and under what circumstances vinod kambli made such a comment, but i really feel anguished when vinod kambli attributes his failure to cope with his life to sachin not being there for him when needed.
Lets go back almost 2 decades when a star rose on the cricket firmament called Sachin tendulkar. he was the boy wonder back then and still is for many of that generation. A simple boy from a marathi background, cute face with curly hair. Nothing special to take notice if you passed him on the road. But see him play on the 22 yards and you would bet your moneys worth that he was a star in the making. Small build, good technique, fearless attitude, cool temperament and an amazing straight drive. He reminded people of the dream that Indian cricket had lived going by the name of Sunil gavaskar. But the thing that made sachin special was the loads of aggression. So we think. Ask gavaskar himself and he would promptly answer its not sachins talent that has got him all that he has.
Its more than talent you need to produce the numbers attributed to sachin at the close of his career. To say the least the numbers are unbelievably large and Mr gavaskar contributes it to sachins hard work and work ethic. I couldnt agree with Mr gavaskar more. If people see what sachin has achieved, we forget what all he had to sacrifice to attain it. I am no expert on sachins biography but i know how he used to shadow practise his technique in the night. He stayed with his uncle and aunty since he was 12 years old; away from his parents; just because the ground was closer from there. How his coach Achrekar sir used to take him on his scooter to multiple matches in a day just to get that extra batting practice.Probably the reason why Achrekar sir admits no one can match sachins dedication to the game ever.
But what if there had been. We wouldnt have to look far away from Mumbai to get an answer. Infact the answer was in the same school, infact a classmate of Sachins'. They even coached under the augustine Achrekar sir. His name was Vinod Kambli.
Similar in built to sachin, vinod was a southpaw though. The overiding similarity between the two though was the gravity of talent in those boys. One was the quintessential cricketer with all the strokes in the book with copybook precision and timing, supplemented by a sharp cricketing brain. Not to mention a steely determination to be the best even as a seventen year old. The other one equally talented if not more but more flamboyant and somewhat crippled by it too.
All these years down the line i dont need to tell who embodied which qualities but the fact remains talent as a virtue is good at making promises; without any compulsions to realise them. While we see sachin at the peak of the game even after 20 long years, vinod kambli with all the talent he still had few years back is seen doing dancing, comedy and to top it all confessing in reality shows these days. Surely what could have gone wrong with a person with unquestionably rare talent?
Please read my next post for more HERE.
Lets go back almost 2 decades when a star rose on the cricket firmament called Sachin tendulkar. he was the boy wonder back then and still is for many of that generation. A simple boy from a marathi background, cute face with curly hair. Nothing special to take notice if you passed him on the road. But see him play on the 22 yards and you would bet your moneys worth that he was a star in the making. Small build, good technique, fearless attitude, cool temperament and an amazing straight drive. He reminded people of the dream that Indian cricket had lived going by the name of Sunil gavaskar. But the thing that made sachin special was the loads of aggression. So we think. Ask gavaskar himself and he would promptly answer its not sachins talent that has got him all that he has.
Its more than talent you need to produce the numbers attributed to sachin at the close of his career. To say the least the numbers are unbelievably large and Mr gavaskar contributes it to sachins hard work and work ethic. I couldnt agree with Mr gavaskar more. If people see what sachin has achieved, we forget what all he had to sacrifice to attain it. I am no expert on sachins biography but i know how he used to shadow practise his technique in the night. He stayed with his uncle and aunty since he was 12 years old; away from his parents; just because the ground was closer from there. How his coach Achrekar sir used to take him on his scooter to multiple matches in a day just to get that extra batting practice.Probably the reason why Achrekar sir admits no one can match sachins dedication to the game ever.
But what if there had been. We wouldnt have to look far away from Mumbai to get an answer. Infact the answer was in the same school, infact a classmate of Sachins'. They even coached under the augustine Achrekar sir. His name was Vinod Kambli.
Similar in built to sachin, vinod was a southpaw though. The overiding similarity between the two though was the gravity of talent in those boys. One was the quintessential cricketer with all the strokes in the book with copybook precision and timing, supplemented by a sharp cricketing brain. Not to mention a steely determination to be the best even as a seventen year old. The other one equally talented if not more but more flamboyant and somewhat crippled by it too.
All these years down the line i dont need to tell who embodied which qualities but the fact remains talent as a virtue is good at making promises; without any compulsions to realise them. While we see sachin at the peak of the game even after 20 long years, vinod kambli with all the talent he still had few years back is seen doing dancing, comedy and to top it all confessing in reality shows these days. Surely what could have gone wrong with a person with unquestionably rare talent?
Please read my next post for more HERE.
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