When a general of great talent and courage was
recommended to him, Napoleon (or so the story goes), would always ask,
"Yes, but is he lucky?" It is a question that could also be asked of
cricketers. The history of Indian cricket is littered with players whose
careers have been defined by extraordinarily bad luck, so that their
opportunities and overall record have been blighted by disappointment and
underperformance. Unlucky players are those whose manifest ability has simply
not been matched by recognition and reward.
The most obvious kind of bad luck is the accident
of birth at the wrong time. Think of the spinners Padmakar Shivalkar and VV
Kumar, who had the great misfortune of being contemporaries of the immortal
Indian spin quartet of the 1960s. The
accident of birth had nothing to do with Sadanand Viswanath's ill luck. He was
rightly the first wicketkeeper tried out in succession to the redoubtable
Kirmani, and demonstrably the most talented of the seven who would play for
India in that role in the following decade. In only his third Test, against Sri
Lanka, he equalled the Indian Test record of six victims in a Test.
Astonishingly he was never picked again. It was said that his batting was not
up to the mark, but a wicketkeeper who ended his first-class career with 179
victims in just 74 games (and accompanied them with a century and 23 fifties as
well) was hardly undeserving of a more extended run. And then there is the ill
luck of ill-timed injury. If Manoj Tiwary hadn't been unfortunate enough to
crash into a billboard while fielding at the boundary on his maiden tour of
Bangladesh at the peak of his dream first-class season, he might have made his
Indian debut and cemented a place in the side. Instead he has slipped so far
back in the selectors' reckoning that he is no longer even mentioned as an
Indian prospect.
But the all-time Mr Unlucky must surely be the one Indian who
has played a Test without being able to claim he has played a Test. Connor
Williams of Baroda was picked to open for India in the Centurion Test of
November 2001, but the controversy that erupted over India's refusal to accept
the designated ICC match referee, Mike Denness, meant that the Test was
deprived of official status by the ICC. Williams scored a gritty 42 off 83
balls against South Africa's five-man pace attack, but despite playing a
full-strength Test side away from home, his official record shows him to be
uncapped. He was never picked again and now clearly never will be.
Excerpted from
an article in Cricinfo and if you are wondering who the good writer is ……………………..
it is Shashi Tharoor, a former United Nations Under-Secretary General turned
politician who is in news now. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on
Monday removed Shashi Tharoor as AICC spokesperson after the party's
disciplinary action committee recommended it. The Kerala PCC leadership had
demanded "appropriate action" against the Lok Sabha MP for his
"pro-Modi stands", including unilaterally accepting the PM's
invitation to be a brand ambassador of Swachh Bharat campaign. Tharoor, who described himself as "a
loyal workers of the Congress party", accepted his party leader's decision
and said he was treating the issue as closed, making it clear he had no plans
to rebel. By acting against Tharoor, the Congress, apart from satisfying its
Kerala unit, has also advertised it will have zero tolerance against partymen
who unilaterally take decisions on sensitive matters involving the Modi
government.
B u t ……. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi
today praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious 'Saansad Adarsh Gram
Yojana' (SAGY) but felt it would take more than 50 years to cover six lakh
villages in the country. "Modi's Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana is laudable.
However, it would take more than 50 years to cover six lakh villages in the
country," the chief minister's office said in a release, quoting a tweet
by Gogoi.
Then there is another active CM - expressing anger over different
agencies not being quick enough in addressing the situation in the aftermath of
cyclone Hudhud here, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today
said everyone must get their act right to provide expeditious relief to the
affected people.
Naidu told reporters that he has directed all agencies concerned
to attend a meeting here tonight without fail and observed that telecom
operators failed to take adequate precautions to prevent failure of service
which has inconvenienced people.
Cyclone Hudhud which made
a landfall in the port city on Sunday wreaked havoc, leaving it paralysed and
causing extensive damage. Naidu said the agencies, including telephone service
providers, should try to offer help to people who are in distress. With mobile
networks down, the Chief Minister said the telephone service providers should answer
why the towers did not function and were not restored expeditiously.
….. and Indian population
continues to explode. Firstpost reports
that at least 245 babies were born in
different hospitals of Odisha's eight cyclone-hit southern districts on October
12, when cyclone Hudhud made a landfall. The state government had asked the
health department to admit women in advance stage of pregnancy in hospitals for
safe delivery. The babies were born at a time when the entire region was being
pounded by heavy rainfall coupled with gusty wind with about 100 kmph. The
Health department had admitted 397 high risk pregnant women expecting delivery
in these hospitals a day before the Hudhud hit the state. Besides, other
pregnant women were also there in the hospitals.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
14th Oct 2014
