Bored Members - Guests | Media | White Bored | Interview | Bored Anthem - Songs | Boredwaani | Cartoons | Facebook | Twitter | Login

Who is your Bradman?

by Bored Member

by Ottayan

I grew up idolising G.R.Vishwanath.To me he symbolises all things cricket. A gentleman cricketer to the core, his square cuts were legendary. In his prime, he was reputed to have two shots for each delivery.Similarly, when he danced down the wicket, particularly to wily bowlers like Derek Underwood it was treat to watch him adjust to the drift and length of the delivery.

Against fast bowlers, his defense was impeccable.Despite being short statured his handling of the short-pitched ball was a impeccable. He would raise himself on his toes and defend the ball coming at his throat so delicately that the ball would drop down dead and lie there unmoving at his feet like a loyal puppy.


Most of my memory is now reduced to three vivid images.The first one is a photograph of Tony Grieg lifting him up on scoring a century. The second was the innings he played against the West Indies at Cheapuk and the third was sadly the image of seeing him fall time and again to Imran Khan for meager scores to what turned out to be his last series in Pakistan.

To me he was and still is the epitome of batting and undeniably the 'Bradman'.

So who was your 'Bradman'?



Technorati Tags

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the way to describe the "ball coming to GRV's throat" which he tamed to a loyal puppy. Very sweet.

As for me, need I really say? Ok, there's a bit of a story here.

I started out as a mad fan of Ganguly's batting, but shortly afterwards (within a year or so), I started taking notice of Dravid. I never really got that people had them confused in the late nineties. I never mistook one for the other - to me they seemed starkly different from one another. As Ganguly took the helm as captain, the transition for me was complete. I revered Dravid more as a wholesome batsman than a I did Ganguly, who I still looked upon with awe as captain, but as captain first, batsman second. There were many times in the '99-05 stretch of Dravid's career when the forward defence would yield a four. I still look upon those late cuts and trademark wristy square drives with nothing other than awe.

There are three innings that come to mind when I think of Dravid; strangely, two of them are ODIs: That 145 against Sri Lanka at Taunton (WC'99) when he and Ganguly mauled the bolwing, the 233 against Australia in Australia, and 92 at Bristol in the summer of 2007. The last, I remember rather vividly as it was one of power and confidence, not of jaded hero that many accuse him to be today.

Without a doubt, Rahul Dravid has been, is, and will be my Bradman!

Anonymous said...

Sunny Gavaskar when I was growing up. And then Sachin Tendulkar.

Anil Singh said...

To be honest, I was never considered a good cricketer in my childhood days. In short when it came to cricket, I had two left hands.
But I enjoyed reading your write-up. :)

Soulberry said...

Vishy

Soulberry said...

The loyal puppy was a brilliant masterstroke played with gyrii as supple as Vishy's wrists.

That's a worthy quote.

Ankit Poddar said...

"Julia, come here! Don't you think he reminds you of me!"

So, said Sir Donald Bradman for Sachin Tendulkar, and So say I!

straight point said...

i too will go with VM (with permission of course ;-))

i feel that Dravid is our bradman...

he is yet the get the credit he deserve...

when world was going gaga over tendulkars...etc...he was doing job quietly...

he knoecked the door till the point...that world stood and took notice of him...

he is the most aggressive player i have come across...people tend to link aggression with fours and sixes...its takes aggression to different level when you force not only bowler bt whole team to stand helpless...with the knowledge that come what may...you are not going to get me...out...and he wont budge till the job is done and dusted with...like sand slowly slips from ones hand...and he cant do anything about it...that kinda helpless feeling...

no wonder he was called the wall...for nothing...

others flourished around him...knowing for sure that one end is secure...

no player in recent history has saved or won matches than dravid...

no surprise that no other player in recent history has been involved in so many epic partnerships than dravid...

Dravid you are my BRADMAN!!

i salute you...

thanks OTT for providing such a nice platform...

Gaurav Sethi said...

Be a mix of cricket skills, achievements and aura management.
And grt timing for callling it quits.

SMG.

Put SMG in SRT's time zone, reckon he would've been an even bigger Kar. Karta dharta of Indian cricket!

Sure would've liked to say SRT, and the way Ankit put it, but the last few years have taken the shine off.

Guess in a way, the answer to this, is still a work in progress. In a year or two, it could be Sachin, it could even be Dravid, but I think, it’ll still be Sunny.

Bhaskar Khaund said...

SMG to me remains up there ..Sachin (and Dravid circa 2000-2005)get close but all things considered - and considered really hard :mental strength to go with technical soundness , the commensurate statistics : a 50 average in that era is easily 60 in this one ... - it'll have to be he , him and himself Sunny

Anonymous said...

To me the one and only azharuddin... I badly miss watching him play. I was so totally into football and it was azhar that got me watching.

Anonymous said...

@SP, permission granted ;-) Btw, loved your analogy of sand slowly slipping from the hand. Cheers!

@Scorpy, I was surprized no one had mentioned Azhar yet. He was truly magnificent wasn't he? Pity he did what he did. Unfortunately, I got to watch only the waning Azhar of the late 90s and never understood his class, or why some of my "purist" friends were raving about him while I was suggesting that he be sent packing, not until I watched some of the older videos.