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Mark of a cricketer

by RajaB

Most of the cricketers these days look at picking up a couple of endorsement contracts when they are in their 20's, sign a lucrative contract with their respective boards by their mid 20's and move on to IPL or ICL when they are closing 30 and retire into a commentary box when they are about to touch 35.

There are a blessed few whom their parents christened Shane, Adam & Mathew who after passing 35 and retiring from international cricket start their career afresh. Playing what is dubbed the 3G version of cricket, the T20 and being a force to reckon with.

There are a few not so blessed...

When I say not so blessed I mean, when god made them he said may you have all the talent in the world... But... But, you shall always lack luck. These are the guys who show tremendous potential but they always have detractors crying a false start. But most of the guys in this category got their chances, they had at least one set of favorable board in their entire career that they got a good run with their national teams. Case points being Vinod Kambli of India & Graeme Hick of England.

But here is one cricketer who would have fared better had be been a football in EPL. He was kicked all over, his share of international cricket came in piece meal installments. Whenever England didn't want any favorite sons get to the abattoir, Ramprakash was called in. Be it a difficult Ashes (the Gatting's magic ball Ashes) or a doomed Indian tour, he was called in as the sacrificial lamb.

The class act he is, closing 40 in a matter of another 121 days he still churns out 100's for his team Surrey. I am not sure if I would even have some motivation to play street cricket when I am 40. Given the fact that till date his name comes into the discussion tables of ECB whenever a test team is selected, only to strike his name off due to one reason or the other, I wonder what makes him tick. What makes him score all those 100's.

Ramps scored his hundred number 104 (I hope I'm right with this number!!) against his former team Middlesex day before (May 06). A team he captained for quite a while, including those days when the English press were going gaga about the arrival of who would be the best of English captains in the future.

Makes me wonder if he is a man or machine. Mark Ravin Ramprakash, would remain the enigma of English cricket.

10 comments:

Bhaskar Khaund said...

intersting and enlightening , sir Raja B ...never knew that nor cudda guessed ..Mark Ramprakash has 100x first class
100s ?

Gaurav Sethi said...

Every time i watched him bat he scored 27, will never tire saying that, 27, and his test avg was always 27. And that for me is the most interesting stat with Mark Ram'

But boy does Nas hussein love him.

RajaB said...

Well NC you've asked an interesting question...

Does Nas hussein love him...

The answer is an instant NO

Ramps was the captain of a England U-19 which had not treated hussein the way he expected to be...

Ramps was the cynosure of every eye in England, he was signed by Middlesex when he was 17. Those days 17 in English county parlance was equal to 7 months in your moms tummy. A 17 year old signing a contract was amazing on one side and fishy on the other for the members of the English press & public.

Very early into his contract, Gatting was again in the thick of TCCB action again and hence Middlesex needed a captain... Soon Ramps became the MAN. All of English press was ranting about the man English cricket had found. The captain of the future.

And then the whole English cricket mixer starts working... From Gatting, to Gooch, Stewart, Arthurton, Hollioake and any others whom I might have missed to Nasser Hussein.

During all these transitions there were about 4-5 managers who changed, and many of whom didn't like the abrasive Ramps... The counties too didn't like the wild child in Ramps... So except for Bumble nobody could handle Ramps and Bumble had to leave when Ramps was just about responding... In came Fletcher and there a coterie of favorites was born.

Ramps became garbage and Nasser, the man. I would say Nasser was also lucky enough to get his odd scores to impress Flech during those days. Ramps unfortunately was always the Bakhra.

Therefore, Nasser always saw Ramps with some suspicion... would he, would be not overtake...

Luckly for Nasser, Ramps never...

Q said...

Nc 27? I remember associating 16 with Ramprakash.. thats funny but for some reason he always made 16 when I watched him play test cricket!

Bhaskar - it was a crazy summer last year in England wih Ramprakash trying to get his 100th ton.. it took him a while, a few matches into the season. It was a long wait. He had ended on 99 the summer before.

Rajab - doesn't Hick also have a 100 100s?

RajaB said...

Yes Q you are right... There are 23 others in this hundred 100s club. Hick was the last, before Ramps to reach this milestone...

The other notables one would be interested include WG Grace (who was the first), Bradman, Boycott, Viv Richards, Gooch & Zaheer Abbas.

Notably there is not a single Indian in this long list of 24 players

Another interesting point is that the 27's NC is speaking about are his doomed India tour and thereabouts...

And the 16s you are talking about are from another eventful journey he embarked on to New Zealand

Prabhu.S said...

Hi!I too liked some of him...but dont think he proved himself at the highest level...

the number of 20s he got showed he did not utilise his chances well...

100 100s is fine but the number of matches they play every year in England and the quality of bowling they have there, its not necessarily something significant..

Indians dont play that many local matches every year and neither do they at the frequency that is played in England

they are professionals there. so its like work for them. Once out of playing cricket, they have to do something like writing, or tv commentary!!!!

so playing at 40 is no great surprise
Prabhu
Prabhu

Q said...

i think both NC and me are a bit off here...

according to Ramprakash's test record - he got out on 27 only twice - in both the innings of his debut test!

and he never got out on 16! :-/

http://stats.cricinfo.com/statsguru/engine/player/19323.html?class=1;template=results;type=allround;view=match

Even in ODIs - he has only 1 score each of 27 and 16..

Gaurav Sethi said...

Q, First impressions.

Sure I watched all three innings, and they have stayed with me.

Btw while you're at it how often did he out do himself in the 20s

Also, I'd like to know if he favoured 27 in the counties.

Long as that test avg stays at 27, i can live with remarkable debut, and know i was there.

Q said...

Ur right about the average NC...

And funnily enough it is 16 scores in the 20s for him in tests!

For the country records - its a bit too many matches to go through..

Gaurav Sethi said...

Q, counted 15-16 times in the 20s, and a good few in the teens.

He was forever the young un when it came to making a run