Team of the Century

In my idle time off-late I have been musing over a queer point - what would be an all time cricketers XI. Actually this thought has been there ever since the turn of the century when every sport was nominating its greatest-Pele for football,Laver for tennis etc.. So i thought it would be great if I can pick such a 'dream team'. Here goes my selection...

1. Sir Jack Hobbs

You just cant argue with a player who has 60000 first class runs and 197 centuries, this in spite of missing out on his golden years due to World war I. In fact there was a saying that the greatest player before Hobbes was Hobbes himself before the war.

2. Sunil Gavaskar

He could pile up runs like pages in a thick book on his day. 10000 test runs and 34 centuries -13 of them against the great west Indian attack - is enough to put the little master in the team. But what these statistics don't reveal is the grit and determination of the man.

3. Sir Don Bradman

The greatest batsman of all time, the great man comes in at one down. Need I add more?! A career average of 99.94 should suffice.

4. Sir Viv Richards

The man who had the 'Me-and-my-chewing gum-against-the-world' attitude comes in after the don. Quite simply the most destructive of batsman who played in the most destructive of sides.

5.Brian Lara

He is one of my favorites. There was competition for this spot what with the likes of - the three Ws,george headley,tendulkar etc. - but i'll go with lara for he's a real math winner and with scores like - 375,501,400 - he has to get in.

6. Sir Gary Sobers

The best cricketer to have graced the field, ever. The no. 6 slot is for an allrounder and so the greatest of allrounders comes in here. He could do everything for you - bat and score hundreds,bowl chinaman, bowl left arm swing,field superbly anywhere.

7. Adam Gilchrist

The greatest no 7 of all-time comes in at 5 down. He has revolutionized wicket-keeping for ever. No more is the keeper a clinical man behind the stumps and keeps the tail enders company in front of it. Now he is the key man in the side and on the same plane as batsmen and the credit for this transformation goes to this man.

8. Shane Warne

Down to the bowlers now and the greatest of them all leads the pack. Another of my favorites. A true genius with the ball in his hands he's the quintessential match winner who can turn the match with his ball as well as his attitude.

9.Wasim Akram

The greatest left-armer of all time comes in as first change. Like warne he's a true blue match winner with close to a thousand international wickets and four hatricks and innumerable super spells.

10. Malcolm Marshall

The new ball will be taken by the best of the west indian fast men. A genuine fast bowler who can bowl close to 100mph at both Perth as well as Peshawar, a truly rare breed of bowler.

11. Dennis Lillie

Sharing the new ball will be 'Dennis the menace'. The great Australian had a big mouth and a bigger heart and raw pace to boot.

Well, I'm done with it and looks like inadvertently I have picked a team which has players belonging to most of the major test playing countries. So there it is the team of the century...Cant see anyone waiting to line-up against them :)

L'amour de jeux

"L'amour de jeux" this was the slogan of the Paris Olympic comitee for the 2012 olympic bid. The bid failed but the slogan stuck in my mind with me being an avid sports lover. It roughly translates to english as 'Love of the games'. It embodies the french spirit of sports and is pretty apt considering the french connection with sports viz. the resurrection of the olympic games, the genesis of the football world cup both of which had frenchmen Pierre de coubertin and Jules rimet respectively behind them.

Sports i feel is a microcosm of life itself as it has all the emotions that life has to offer. Be it Joy,sorrow,heart break,nostalgia you name it and sport has got it all. A sportsman will experience all the myriad emotions in a span of 10-15 years that a normal person expiriences in his entire lifetime.

This explains why sports persons generally have a longer,fitter and wholesome life. Extending this logic from the individual to societies and countries we find that countries that have a sports culture like australia and Italy are more happier ,prosperous and holistic than the others.So the writings on the wall,if you want to be a holistic and healthy society invest in and encourage sports.

The Spell...

For the past couple of months I've been under a spell - not that of some oriental magic - but that of a spell-binding book. This book or rather a Tome goes by the name of 'Glimpses of World History' written by our very own Jawaharlal Nehru. Never have I been so smitten by a book as by this one. I had always preferred Fiction over Non-fiction but of late I've come to believe that fact can be as compellingly interesting as any fiction.

This book is a must read for all the history buffs out there as Nehru remarkably covers the rise and fall of empires and civilizations,discusses great men who made a difference to the world we live in. I was awe-struck by the breadth of Nehru's knowledge and his understanding of history's lessons. And to think of the fact that this book came out as a series of letters from a dingy old Indian prison where Nehru did not have any recourse to reference material you are filled with admiration for the man.

As things stand I'm still mid way through this book and I think I will be as spell-bound by the second half as I was by the first one. Ciao.