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Mark Ravin Ramprakash, the man refuses to score anything less than three figures these days.
See what he has done now...
At 39 and 256 days, he has scored a 94 ball 102 in the Friends Provident Trophy. With 50 of those runs split 50:50 between those balls sent over and across the rope.
I am sure Ramps would be a "discussion point" when the selectors sit for the next England ODI or T20 team.
He would be one player whose "name" frequented the selection meetings more than coffee's and donuts / biscuts
PS: We at BCC! have neither coffee or donuts while we discuss cricket, see how many times his "name" has cropped up in our discussions
Showing posts with label Mark Ravin Ramprakash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Ravin Ramprakash. Show all posts
And, he's back again...
Mark of a man - Some more stats
As NC rightly pointed out in one of his comments, Ramps is getting very good coverage for himself at 40. Thanks to BCC!.
Well now, we have 3 issues to address
1) Can or Can’t England produce a guy who would average mid to high 40s?
It is a million dollar question, I am not sure if I would want to take-up the challenge of answering the question. I would recommend we keep this as a separate discussion. With the thumping win over West Indies (another wooden spoon team) in the first test, I am not sure if this is the right time to start that discussion. For, this positive (one test) might pull some wool over our discerning eyes. So let’s wait for the series to get midway at least.
2) How can they continue to play a batsman who averages 27 for over 50 tests?
The batsman in question is Ramps. Let’s look at some numbers again. A couple of mosaics, easy to read.
Some takeouts
a) Ramps got to play for England in 9 installments. 4 poor, sub 20 outings, 3 in 20s and 2 hovering 40s outings.
b) The longest run was 15 matches at 26 which included a decent Ashes campaign in Australia at 32.
c) Both instances when he averaged 40, he got dropped immediately. While this would make one think that the others might have fared better than this 40, it is not the case.
So how do we explain the selectors dropping a player who averaged 40?
3) Talent pool: I would differ slightly, with the view most of us have. In thinking England has a small talent pool. Let us do one small exercise, take the current T20 team of India and England. Tell me how many players from U-19 levels have gotten in to the teams?
The answer is...
The probability of finding a U-19 player is more in the case of the sub-continental teams & New Zealand, than in Australia, England & West Indies (WI's case is completely different, let's leave them alone for the moment). The reason is simple these countries have a larger talent base to select their players from because their domestic leagues are far more organized than what we have.
I would say Tesco is definitely a thing of the past as far as the current England set-up is concerned.
Why?
There is no Duncan Fletcher.
He won Ashes alright, but he was the Buchanan of England for a great part of his coaching career.
I would say Tesco is definitely a thing of the past as far as the current England set-up is concerned.
Why?
There is no Duncan Fletcher.
He won Ashes alright, but he was the Buchanan of England for a great part of his coaching career.
May be you missed the Mark(s)
Do read all and score full Mark(s)...
* There is a minor glitch in cricinfo, while their cumulative for Ramps shows 2350 runs at 27.32, when you go matchwise it throws what I have shown here. But that variance is only minor and it would go in Ramp’s favour.
Mark of a man – The number game
“ Ramps never utilized his chances, he got his starts but never pressed on.”
An interesting case point put forth by NC, Q & Prabhu. Now some numbers
First let us see a chart that would show the first class records (matches, innings, 100s, matches & innings taken for a hundred) of some of finest cricketers in the recent past.
200 first class matches is the cut-off.
Some take-outs
1) Ramps has played nearly the same amount of cricket Gavaskar & Miandad played
Some take-outs
1) Ramps has played nearly the same amount of cricket Gavaskar & Miandad played
2) He has reached 100s more frequently than the two legends.
3) Ok, English county bowling is a bit sub-standard but I am sure you would have to apply the same yardstick to Sunil and Javed too.
Out of the 220 domestic / county first class matches Gavaskar played, at least 50% would be those he played against the Gujarat’s, Maharashtra’s & Baroda’s of the West Zone and as an overseas player for Somerset. And we should remember that 47 of his 81 hundreds came from his domestic / county performances.
So how many would you want to discount from 47?
Javed’s case is a little more pronounced, he played 280 of his 402 I class matches locally (in Pakistan or Glamorgan). He got 57 hundreds playing these.
So it would be a bit unfair to say that Ramps scored against a not so good bowling
On the number of matches bit, yes we (the subcontinent) have been a little obsessed about earning money than looking at grassroot level cricket. Therefore we don’t have enough domestic cricket to back us up.
Out of the 220 domestic / county first class matches Gavaskar played, at least 50% would be those he played against the Gujarat’s, Maharashtra’s & Baroda’s of the West Zone and as an overseas player for Somerset. And we should remember that 47 of his 81 hundreds came from his domestic / county performances.
So how many would you want to discount from 47?
Javed’s case is a little more pronounced, he played 280 of his 402 I class matches locally (in Pakistan or Glamorgan). He got 57 hundreds playing these.
So it would be a bit unfair to say that Ramps scored against a not so good bowling
On the number of matches bit, yes we (the subcontinent) have been a little obsessed about earning money than looking at grassroot level cricket. Therefore we don’t have enough domestic cricket to back us up.
Now look at the number of years Sachin, Dravid, Sourav have been playing and the number of matches they have played till date. Can we compare these numbers with a Gavaskar, Miandad or an Abbas, it is pathetic.
Next point made was about the number of false starts Ramps had.
I agree that he did choke in the 20s, but those were the ones we saw (the various installements he got from the TCCB / ECB). Unfortunately this man never got his due in international cricket. All he got was 4-5 installments of a series or a series and a half here and there. Most of the time he was fed to the wolves. Like, bringing him to India or taking him to New Zealand and then immediately dropping him citing 3-4 non-performances without even looking at that one innings where he stood tall when every English batsman bite dust.
Had he been given a consistent run may be he might have been successful. Now let’s look at some numbers to validate
Here we compare Ramps and Sourav. What we see is the number of tests played, test innings played, number of 50s & 100s, matches and innings taken for the 100 by these two players.
Next point made was about the number of false starts Ramps had.
I agree that he did choke in the 20s, but those were the ones we saw (the various installements he got from the TCCB / ECB). Unfortunately this man never got his due in international cricket. All he got was 4-5 installments of a series or a series and a half here and there. Most of the time he was fed to the wolves. Like, bringing him to India or taking him to New Zealand and then immediately dropping him citing 3-4 non-performances without even looking at that one innings where he stood tall when every English batsman bite dust.
Had he been given a consistent run may be he might have been successful. Now let’s look at some numbers to validate
Here we compare Ramps and Sourav. What we see is the number of tests played, test innings played, number of 50s & 100s, matches and innings taken for the 100 by these two players.
We can see that both Ramps and Sourav have almost the same 50s rate. But the difference is that Sourav’s 113 matches came in as one bundle and Ramp’s 52 came in installments of 5-8 tests each time.
We all know how nervous a batsman would be when things are uncertain, the would I be playing or not would constantly be working on his minds.
Now look at his first class record, it would make sense for you. Yes, he got an uninterrupted run in first class cricket. And therefore he has uninterruptedly scoring 100s.
We all know how nervous a batsman would be when things are uncertain, the would I be playing or not would constantly be working on his minds.
Now look at his first class record, it would make sense for you. Yes, he got an uninterrupted run in first class cricket. And therefore he has uninterruptedly scoring 100s.
Data thanks to www.cricinfo.com
I am a seasoned marksman
At odds with John Buchanan during his brief and turbulent reign as county coach, Ramprakash endured a torrid time as Middlesex captain between 1997 and 1999. In 2001 he crossed the Thames, partly to play in the first division (relegation in 2005 was not in the script), partly in despair at what he considered Middlesex's lack of ambition. Joining a star-laden Surrey team was "the best decision I've ever made". The pressure, crucially, "was not all on me, which helped me relax and express myself ".
We saw what the mark of a cricketer looked like, on top we see what a marksman of good cricketers looks like.
Ramps is a strong man, determined to play cricket till date, and score all those hundreds at will... At 39+ (age and not average!!)
Is Brendan McCullum strong enough??
Mark of a cricketer
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.
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