while i was visiting my friend soulberry's latest post on Duleep Trophy Experiment...
it got me going to don the devil's cap again...
...and this time its for Kaif...
does this name ring a bell to you??
...yes...the same forgotten man of indian cricket...the best captain india will never have...the player who is still carrying the scars of being labeled as failure...
i wanted to put it earlier but somehow kept it on hold...but soublerry's mention in his post and topicality of the issue made me come up with post...
topical did i said?
if you saw yesterday's between india and srilanka match live there was discussion going on...between i guess harsha and gavaskar... regarding labeling the failures...that system should also keep discarded players like him in radar coz they have got valuable experience and know what to expect in different conditions and certainly are not that old...and then Kaifs name came up...
i found myself nodding to what they were discussing and needless to say agree with them...
kaif have not done that badly in recent times at domestic level...he has the experience and still is live wire in the field...add to that a team man to core...basically every quality our current setup is carving for...but seems to have no takers...
what more he should do to be in the reckoning again unless selectors have completely forgotten him...he can be our ready made replacement of dravid type batsmen...at least in ODIs...
current system, on the look of it, somehow seems to favor the dashers and quietly but surely alienating itself from this genre?
the other day dhoni said that by giving these youngsters their chances now we will have crop of players by world cup who will have experience of 80-100 ODIs...would have gone through almost all situations game can throw at them and they will be knowing exactly what to expect from them and what is expected from them...
no problem with this vision...
but here is a guy who fits all these requirement to the 'T' and still spending his time in wilderness...
i know there were some faults in him as well...but who is perfect?...
don't you think the players like him should at least be given another chance to redeem themselves before its too late...given the feelers that they still belong to the system...the setup...
or more importantly...
do we really don't need players like Kaif??
it will be interesting to know your views...
A case for Kaif...
shared by straight point on Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
28 comments:
I agree cent percent! I still dont know why he's out of the team. He had a rough patch and the selectors dropped him.
How is he doing at the domestic level?
thanks q...
evey player faces rough patches but he was dropped so alarmingly as if he was stinking...
i guess it pays to be a name...to have some backing...
on domestic front i would say he isnt doing as badly as say sehwag or rohit were doing...
i dont have anything against these names...but just to highlight a point...
Pan,
Vengsarkar in an interview acknowledged Kaif as an option.
I consider Kaif to be a better option than Yuvraj.
its a great news OTT...
its very nice to know that selectors are seeing him as an option...may be one fine day we will see him playing too...
Sp, Kaif is in the reckoning according to vens as Otts also confirmed. He is in the top 5 batsmen in the domestic league as per several of the rankings... maybe he is to get a test recall.
He has done enough now to earn his spot... hoping there is a nod coming soon.
yea Scorpy...
i wish it happens sooner than later...
OTT, Scorpy
can you please forward that link to me...
Greetings. The Village Cricketer is looking for nominations for the first ever ‘The International Village Cricketer Awards’. Categories include the Village Cricketer of the Year, Most Village Emerging Player of the Year and the Spirit of Village Award. It'd be great to get your thoughts posted at http://thevillagecricketer.wordpress.com/
welcome TVC...and thanks for dropping by...hope to see you more often...
i will surely visit and do my bit...
Thanks for the post SP... Its good to know that a lot of my fellow bloggers believe that Md. Kaif FIC, is good enough to make a come back into the Indian cricket team..
Made my day..
Cheers
thanks homer...
you made my day too...and i was thinking i will be laughed at this suggestion...
He will come back...mark my words SP...but as a test player. He may be 30 by that time but he'll play till 36-37.
Does he deserve a place in the current Indian ODI team? Certainly....I wasn't too enthused about his test performances but hadn't many complaints about his ODI performances when he was dropped. I felt then that hit a rough patch and would work himself out.
His kind of player is an asset...not a big hitter (he can belt the ball but is not the biff-bang guy) but he rotates the strike. Players like him are pricelss when there is a collapse or the ask is high...and I haven't counted in his fielding yet.
He'll be back...don't be surprised if he is recalled within the year or the next.
My only sneaking worry is Kaif himself looked disheartened after he failed to get a nod for the Oz series. There was a zip about him last season and this till then...but watching the Ranji finals, one got the impression that he was ready to heave-ho and go. I hope he tides over this period of shani and simply makes his game stronger and scores plenty of runs.
Before the next season begins, after the Duleeps, he should play somewhere...IPL or county/league.
In fact maybe Kirsten can be instrumental in getting him a SA league contract in the off season.
I am not ready to discard him just yet. But I need a bit more from him for what i expect of him now. he'll be the senior member of the team and must contribute accordingly...50's and 60's in domestic will not catch the eye...he needs those big ones his career graph is so short of. The lack of big knocks has stood against him always. Those kind of things matter...big innings guy...everyone thinks that way while selecting a team.
Sehwag had those big innings which made it impossible to ignore him despite an average domestic season.
Kaif has also suffered at the position he played in mostly but he got his chances up the order during GC's tenure.
thanks SB you made my day too...i like the way you arrange your thoughts in words...
we must not let the players like Kaif...got disheartened infact we all should back him to be in team ASAP...
If and when Kaif makes a comeback, suspect more folks would will him on to succeed - and not only coz he's mr nice guy, but too often he was the fall guy of indian cricket. my mind always goes back to that crazy zim tour. Btw here's a piece written in mid September,
http://nakedcricket.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/10/the-new-pakistani-flavour-in-indian-cricket-.htm
Those were strange days.
welcome NC and thanks for comments...
you have hit the nail on its head...he was often the fall guy...i remember oz series in india where he scored some good runs but got dropped next series...
i hope his comeback is special this time...
sure, straight point!
Here's the same post on blogspot: Sept. 2005.
http://nakedcricket.blogspot.com/2005/09/new-pakistani-flavour-in-indian.html
NC
thanks for the link...i read it and must say some of the things are relevant even today...
i always thot he had what it took to lead india one day........
4, 9, 91, 13, 46 (n.o.), 148 (n.o.), 0, 13 and 6.
Batsmen have done far worse and retained an Indian cap!
That 91 turned out to be so important in the context of the series. Imagine, we'd have lost a series at home against India.
That's a good argument. And this is about the right time to call him in again, lest he'll be too old to play.
hey din..welcome again!!
The link to vens interview
http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/06/stories/2008020653822200.htm
I think the full version will come in sportstar
SP...Kaif has been recalled to the test team. OK, it is a stop gap injury replacement types...may not get to actually play...but still the door is beckoning Kaifi again!
soulberry, Kaif's in for?
this really is a great news, SB!!
Post a Comment