TOP TEN GREATEST INDIAN CRICKETERS OF ALL TIME

In the country called India, the sports of cricket is the most played and most loved sports ever. This game was brought by British who ruled this country for more than 200 years. Indian national cricket team got membership of ICC in the year 1932 and became the sixth nation to play cricket internationally. CK Naidu was the first ever captain of Indian cricket team. Since then, Indian cricket has seen numerous ups and downs, have secured some great achievements, won three cricket world cups and have played most number of ODI matches. Cricket in India is like a religion and many cricket players get unprecedented stardom and fame within short span of time. All in all, there is a lot much to talk about the Indian cricket, but now let me start writing about ten greatest ever Indian cricketers, which goes as follows. I hope you guys will like it a lot.

10. Bishan Singh Bedi

Bishan Bedi is a veteran cricketer who served Indian cricket from to as a left arm bowler and a great captain. Bishan Singh was a great left arm bowler and a great captain. He captained team India in 22 test matches and went on to take 266 test wickets at an all time best bowling average in Indian cricket history. He was a magnificent left arm bowler and outspoken and brave critic. Bishan Bedi’s contribution in Indian cricket is unforgettable.

Awards and Honors: 

ESPN’s legends of cricket

9. Vijay Merchant

Vijay Merchant was a cricketer at the time of dawn of Indian cricket. H e was an opener batsman and amazing batsman who went on to create many records in the history of Indian first class cricket. He still holds the record of owning second highest batting average in first class cricket just behind Sir Don Bradman. He was a simple and energetic cricketer, who played a very important role in the development of cricket of that era. The men just played 10 tests for India and scored a total of 859 runs at an impressive average of 47 and an all time second best first class batting average of 71. He on record books and classical history of cricket stands far ahead most of Indian cricketers.

Awards and Honors:

 "Cricket with Vijay Merchant" a radio programme hosted in his honor, Wisden cricketer of the year 1937

8. Virender Sehwag

 Virender Sehwag is an Indian cricketer who has been serving the Indian cricket since past 14 years. He is a right handed attacking opening batsman and opens the batting innings in all the formats of cricket for his national side. He is a furious batsman who never values the opposition batsman, playing his natural game always, attacking and killing the bowlers, ha never cares for the future. This very style of his makes him one of the darlings of all time. He is a lovely and humble guy on and off ground.  A brilliant opening batsman, a hard hitter batsman, he scores most of his runs by way of hitting boundaries and over boundaries and thus becomes the super batting maestro and complete entertainer. This guy, undoubtedly, has the capability to lie among top ten greatest ever cricket from the soil of India.

Awards and Honors: 

Arjuna award, ICC test player of the year 2010, Wisden leading cricketer 2008, 2009; Padma Shree.

7. Vijay Hazare

  Vijay Hazare, the father of Indian cricket, was a brilliant cricketer. He was right handed batsman, bowler and a successful captain under whose captaincy, India managed to record their first ever test win. Vijay Hazare was a wonderful cricketer with great versatility in his skillful batting. He was a tough sportsman, who always wanted to last long and went on to score a pair of hundreds in historical Adelaide test in 1947-48 and made India won the first ever test win. A brilliant batsman, impressive leader and amazing artist of cricketer, Vijay Hazare will always be remembered as “the father of Indian cricket”.

Awards and Honors: 

Padma Shree, Vijay Hazare Trophy has been commemorated in his honor, The Father of Indian Cricket.

6. Saurav Ganguly

  Saurav Ganguly is one of the most talked about name of Indian cricket history. A lefty attacking batsman, a courageous player, a worshiped leader, an aggressive captain and a great sportsman, Ganguly transformed the Indian cricket team under his captaincy. He made India learn how to fight, how to win and how to snatch victory from others. As a batsman, he was furious and promising, perhaps the most attacking batsman of Indian history. Well a classy batsman, a shorter over format specialist batsman, the most complete captain and the DABANG cricketer will always be the pride of the nation and last in millions of Indian hearts forever.

Awards and Honors: 

Padma Shree, Banga Bibhushan, Arjuna Award

Greatest Indian cricketers: (10) Bishan Singh Bedi, (9) Vijay Merchant, (8) Virender Sehwag, (7) Vijay Hazare, (6) Saurav Ganguly

5. Sunil Gavaskar

Sunny Gavaskar is a veteran Indian cricketer who played cricket for national side for 17 longer years. He was the very first cricket to complete 10000 test runs and was a run machine of his time. A Shorty, who had a wonderful batting technique, had broken all the batting records at that time. He retired with highest number of test centuries and many other achievements. Sunil was a wonderful master of art of batting, a brave captain, an unbeatable batsman with amazing skills, perhaps the best ever batsman against fast bowling and a great human being. He is still the proud of masses and will always be remembered for what he has given to Indian fans. He is just a veteran replica of Sachin Tendulkar and incomparable batsman of his era.

Awards and Honors:

 ESPN’s legends of cricket, Padma Bhushan, Border-Gavaskar trophy commemorated in his honor.

 

4. Anil Kumble

Anil Kumble is a former Indian cricketer who went on to play cricket for his nation for over 17 years’ span. As a brilliant right hand leg spin bowler and occasional batsman, the great Kumble was full of sport spirit. He holds the national record for taking most number of test and ODI wickets. He was extremely brave cricketer and made India win on many occasions. His bowling spell of 10 for 76 was not less than a miracle in the cricket history. His googly deliveries proved to be the lethal weapon for the opposition forever. Anil was a very talented, brave, patient, hard working, humble and unbeatable cricketer. Anil is not only the darling of Indian fans but also the pride of Indian sports history. He is a name unforgettable at any cost.

Awards and Honors: 

Padma Shree, Wisden cricketer of the year 1996, Arjuna Award.

3. Rahul Dravid

 Rahul Dravid is an Indian cricketer who has recently retired from all forms of International cricket. Rahul Dravid played test and ODI cricket from 1996 through 2012. Rahul Dravid was an outstanding right handed batsman, occasional wicketkeeper and captain of team India. Dravid was an excellent batsman with amazing batting technique, courageous wicketkeeper, a gentleman sportsman, a billion t athlete who maintained perfect fitness, best at defensive stance and a huge performer. Rahul played over 160 test and 300 ODI matches. He was extremely serious and dedicated cricketer and played many great innings on many occasions. Some critics assume him to be the best ever test batsman.

Awards and Honors: 

ICC player of the year 2000,2004; ICC test player of the year 2004, Padma Shree, Padma Bhushan, Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2000.

2. Kapil Dev

 Kapil Dev is a veteran Indian cricketer who represented Indian national side from 1978 to 1994. Kapil Dev was a right hand medium pacer with the amazing ability to outswing the ball and an attacking lower order batsman. He went on to be the captain of 1983 world cup winning Indian team. As a cricketer, they say that he was the most complete cricketer, bearing a “never say die” attitude, full of energy and commitment, too lively, courageous and hard working cricketer. He retired from the cricket with many records to his name including 131 test matches played and 431 wickets taken, highest at that time by a test bowler. He has been the pride of the nation and will always be. He was also elected “Indian cricketer of the century”.

Awards and Honors:

 ESPN’s legends of cricket, Indian Cricketer of the Century by Wisden, Padma Shree, Padma Bhushan, Inducted into ICC hall of fame, Arjuna award, Wisden cricketer of the year 1983.

1. Sachin Tendulkar

“Cricket is my religion and Sachin is my god”.

The above written quote tells complete story about the greatness and craze for Sachin by Indian masses. This name is the most worshiped name not only of Indian cricket but also the world cricket of all time. Sachin started playing cricket in 1989 at an age of just 16 and is still playing. This guy has broken almost all the batting records in international cricket so far. He has played highest number of test and ODI matches and scored more than 18000 ODI and 16000 test runs with highest number of centuries and fifties. There is a lot to say about his stats but his humane characteristics like humility, calmness, dedication and skills as a cricketer make him the greatest ever cricketer of India.

Awards and Honors: 

ESPN’s legends of cricket, part of Bradman's Eleven, Padma Vibhushan, Arjuna award, Rajiv Gandhi khel ratna award, Wisden Cricketer of the Year: 1997, Padma Shree, ICC Sir Garry Sobers Award.

Greatest Indian cricketers: (1) Sachin Tendulkar,(2) Kapil Dev, (3) Rahul Dravid, (4) Anil Kumble, (5) Sunil Gavaskar

TOP TEN GREATEST BATSMEN OF ALL TIME

Cricket is a sport which includes three activities viz. batting, bowling and fielding. A batsman is a player who specializes in batting. He is to watch and hit the ball to score as many runs as possible so as to help his team to build a large score. Since the very start of the history of cricket, there have occurred many changes at many levels, from batting equipment batting styles, attitudes etc... In the very beginning, runs were scored at so slow rate and bowlers were dominant. As the time passed by, new formats like ODI and T20 were introduced later and due to which batsman changed attitudes and played attacking cricket and became dominant. There is a lot to talk about this thing, but let's start sorting out 10 greatest batsmen ever. The list goes as follows:

10. Mahadevan Sathasivam:

M. Sathasivam, nicknamed Satha was former Sri Lankan cricketer who never got a chance to play international cricket. He was a cricketer in the days when Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon and captained Malaysian and Singapore sides too. According to Sir Garfield Sobers and Sir Frank Worell, Satha was the best batsman on the planet ever, who had the ability to outclass,even Sir Don. Its only due to his inability of playing at International level, that he is kept at no. 10; had he played at international level, could have been the greatest batsman of all time. His batting technique was amazingly perfect and could play variety shots, sort of unconventional at that time.

 9. Ricky Ponting:

Ricky Ponting is probably second best Australian batsman of all time after Donald Bradman. In a career of 17 long years, he remained the key batsman in the success of the team. The batsman, averaging more than 50 and 40 in tests and ODI formats respectively has been the second highest run scorer in both the formats after Sachin. Ponting's aggressive batting style makes him the most brilliant cricketer to watch to Sir Vi Richards. He is also a record holder for hitting second most ODI and third most Test centuries. His batting stance is technically unfair but still he qualifies to the list of ten best batsman ever.

8. Sunil Gavaskar :

Sunil Gavaskar, nicknamed 'The Little Master' is the former Indian test and ODI cricketer. He is widely regarded as the best opening batsman of all time and very first to score 10000 test runs. His record of most test centuries lasted for years. He holds a lot of records and ruled the test cricket in 1970s and 1980s as a batsman. He was excellent against the pace attack, in particular and went on to score 12 odd centuries against the West Indian pace attack of that time, the best fast bowling attack of the history. His technique was so genuine and according to Richie Benaud was close to perfect. His square drive and late cut are unmatched shots till date. 

7. George Headley :

George Alphonso Headley was a West Indian cricketer who played 22 Test matches in the 1930s and 1940s. He batted at number three, scoring 2,190 runs in Tests at an average of 60.83, and 9,921 runs in all first-class matches at an average 69.86.  His timing and placement of the ball was perfect and his on drive on back foot was just awesome. He went on to make as many as 25 percent of the total runs and two thirds of the centuries of team. C. Grimmett, the finest bowler of his time has rated him the greatest batsman, he bowled to. The great player was nicknamed as 'The Black Bradman' due to his resemblance to Sir Don.

6. Brian Lara:

Lara is a former international cricketer who is considered one of the greatest batsman of the history. Lara, a left handed batsman mastered in batting technique and compared to Sachin. He holds so many cricket records to his name like  most centuries for a West Indian,  centuries against all Test-playing nations and scored an 20% of his team runs. He is the only batsman to have ever scored a hundred, a double century, a triple century, a quadruple century and a quintuple century in first class cricket out of which 400 not out is the largest individual score in test history.He is one of only three cricketers to receive the prestigious BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year. Muralitharan has rated him as the finest batsman he ever bowled to.

Top ten batsmen :
(6) Brian Lara, (7) George Headley, (8) Sunil Gavaskar, (9) Ricky Ponting, and (10) M Sathasivam

5. Sir Viv Richards :

Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, is a former West Indian cricketer and probably most fearsome batsman of all time. He  was a very powerful right-handed batsman with an extremely attacking style and was termed as the greatest batsman against genuine fats bowling. According to Imran Khan, Lilee, Hadlee, Botham and many other great bowlers of his time, he was the greatest opposition batsman ever. He had a natural ability to guess the speed, bounce and extent of swing of a delivery and responded so quickly with boundaries with his heavy bat. In December 2002, he was chosen by Wisden as the greatest ODI batsman of all time, as well as the third greatest Test batsman of all time.

4. Graeme Pollock: 

G. Pollock is a former south African cricketer who belongs to Pollock cricketing family. He is one of the unfortunate players whose career got destroyed due to apartheid. Pollock represented the proteas from 1963 to 1970. He opened the batting attack and scored 2256 runs in 23 matches at average of 60.97, second best after Bradman. Bradman described Pollock, along with Sir Garfield Sobers, as the best left-handed batsman he had ever seen play cricket. Standing at 6 feet 2 inches, he used to utilize his height and played splendid cover drive with his heavy bat and upright stance.

3. Sir Garry Sobers:

Sir Sobers is probably one of the finest batsmen of history. He, initially left arm bowler, transformed into a fine batsman gradually and shook the cricket world with his performances. His amazing footwork and capability of judging the flight and bounce of the ball and suitably quick response made him a great all rounder. He was a batsman with intellectual cricketing brain and went on to score more than 8000 test runs on an average of over 57. According to Sir Bradman , he was the finest batsman ever.

2. Sir Don Bradman :

Sir Don Bradman is no doubt only batsman in the history of cricket who comes close to Sachin in terms of batting abilities. Some of the critics consider him the greatest.His batting style was unique at that time. He used to utilize the crease that no one could. His batting average of 99.94 is already a great figure in the sports world. But on several grounds, he lags behind Sachin e.g. he did not play as many cricket at International level, he did not face as many great bowling and bowlers, there was nothing like swing, doosra, carom ball kind of bowling in his time. Also, even Australians, in an survey chose Sachin over him by a big margin.

1. Sachin Tendulkar :

Sachin is probably the best ever batsman of all time. Throughout the career spanning more than 23 years, he ruled the cricket world. His amazing batting technique, shot-selection, temperament and reflexes make him the greatest batsman ever. The great cricketer has almost every record in his name regarding batting. He made Indian team win several big tournaments on his own. Several great cricketers of his time and the previous time too, admit him to be the greatest ever batsman. He gave tough competition to almost each bowler of his time and invented many strokes. He is a player who has the ability to hit any sort of deliveries to boundary.

Top ten batsmen of all time:
(1) Sachin Tendulkar, (2) Sir Don Bradman, (3) Sir Garry Sobers, (4) Graeme Pollock, (5) Sir Viv Richards

2012 : A CRISIS FOR INDIAN CRICKET

So here we are; the end of the calender year 2012 is far near and we are gonna enter 2013. This year was a major astonishing in many aspects and the same is true about the Indian cricket. This year remained a major disappointment for the Indian cricket fans. This year, at one hand , we had to face some totally unexpected losses and on the other hand, our very best players of the past two decades retired from cricket. So we can say that this year was a shocking too. We are a bit helpless and sad that we will never ever be able to watch the legends like Draid, Laxman and Sachin batting and scoring lots of runs. Although, Sachin has announced retirement from ODI only; its a major shock for the whole cricketing nation. Many of the veterans have agreed and others seem to be shocked at this untimely and sudden decision of the legend.

   Apart from the retirements this year, if we talk about the performance of the Indian squad, we come to conclude that it was nothing but a "POOR SHOW". Starting from the very start of 2012, we performed poorly well, went on to loss key matches and even got some defeats full of shame. In the month of January  we were playing the very unfortunate series in Australia and lost three test matches in a row, out of which two defeats were awarded with loss with innings and we completed the track of 8 test loss in a row shamelessly. In the subsequent month, we were not even able to qualify to the finals of the CB series. At least  such performances raise questions over the reputation of a team which is a world champion. Now, let's talk about the month of March, when we lost to a team like Bangladesh and could not qualify to the finals of Asia Cup. It was harassing and every fan was forced to criticize the team  Then, we come across the NZ tour of India, where we demonstrated brilliant game against a team which is gonna be new Zimbabwe and largely boasted of our spin attack. Then the same spin attack was killed so brutally in the World T20 by Australian batsman that they could not get even little space for hiding their faces. This was the same spin attack which pretended to trying for getting wickets in the home series against England. Prior to that, series win against Sri Lanka was the consolation win of the year.

    Now, coming to the batting, we find that no batsman other than Virat Kohli performed well in any format. Opening pair, the so called Sehwag and Gambhir, looked struggling for getting runs. Sachin's most anticipated super-hundred made him so nervous that he hardly managed to hit it in a match against Bangladesh that India lost. He too did perform so bad that ultimately had to decide to retire  Ashwin batted well more than to bowl, which is his prime responsibility and his words of inventing a new mystery bowling style proved to be all wrong. Pujara and Bhuvaneshwar were the two biggest gifts for India of the departing year. 

   As far as the captaincy and selection process is concerned, the respected captain of our Indian team, who was considered the lucky charm, proved to be a very fake leader. He, taking from selection of the team to the strategic plans, individual performance, decisions after winning the tosses to the demand of desired pitches, proved to be a fake captain. Boasting of revenge, the beloved team could not even make the series draw against the White people. And how shamelessly smart he is that every time the team lost, our dear captain praised the opposition instead of describing their own failure. There is a lot to say as the reality of the false captain, but I would end my words by simply stating that this captain was good and lucky because of the performances by the fellow players and now its an alarming condition when appointment of a new captain is badly needed.

    So, above all, we are gonna enter the new year with the hope of  Indian team to overcome this crisis and retain the image of being the true world champion.