cricket

Rahul Dravid: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

Rahul Dravid relives a tale of Multani Mitti.

What he said:

“If I charged a penny for every time I was asked about the Multan declaration, I would be a multi-millionaire by now.”

Rahul Dravid responds to yet another query about the controversial declaration against Pakistan when he was the stand-in skipper that left Sachin Tendulkar stranded on 194. “The Wall” was present at the release of Sachin’s autobiography, “Playing it my way” together with Saurav Ganguly and VVS Laxman.

Rahul added:

“My greatest memory of that Test is asking Sachin to bowl the last over of the day after the declaration. He got Moin Khan out and he was visibly overjoyed because he was again doing what he did so many times – helping India win. We walked off as a team.”

What Dravid really meant:

 “I’ve been asked this question so many times now that I ought to just pen an autobiography myself and put all questions to rest. I’m sure it’d sell at least a million copies.”

What he definitely didn’t:

 “It was a collective decision; we knew Sachin was no Sehwag to bring up his double ton with a six.”

Aaron Finch: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

Aaron Finch is almost eye-lined by a pyrotechnics eruption.

What he said:

“I might need to touch up my eyebrows.”

Australian T20 skipper Aaron Finch is understandably furious at nearly being singed by a coloured flame-thrower during the first T20 game against South Africa at the Adelaide Oval.

Finch said:

“It shocked me quite a bit. I sort of stood off, waiting for them to go off.And they didn’t. It wasn’t until I started to walk in. It gave me a bit of a fright.

I thought they must have pulled the pin on them for that time – and then bang. It was a shock, I can tell you. I might need to touch up my eyebrows.

I think it might have been last year or the year before when Dave Hussey almost got his head blown off. Probably a bit more care has to be taken towards the players and anyone who is nearby.”

Cricket Australia responded quickly:

“We have apologised to Aaron for the incident last night.We have clear operating procedures in place for the use of pyrotechnics at matches.

They include strict rules about safe operating distances with respect to players and fans.

Clearly there was a breach of that last night which we take very seriously and have addressed with the contractor concerned.”

What Finch really meant:

“I’m not flame-retardant especially not my eyebrows nor my hair.”

What he definitely didn’t:

“Now, that was a fiery game of cricket, wasn’t it?”

Sachin Tendulkar: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

English: Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar Wax Statue in Madame Tussauds London (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sachin Tendulkar: The 100 percent man.

What he said:

“I think whatever things I knew 100 per cent I have revealed because I back up those things. But the things I am not aware of fully, it would be unwise to comment on those.”

Sachin Tendulkar refused to address match-fixing controversies in his much-awaited memoirs, ‘Playing It My Way’.

The Little Master clarified:

“I should have some evidence, I should know something in detail to talk about it because then it makes sense and it will be appreciated by people. But if I just start talking then it will not have any value.”

English: Mohammad Azharuddin Sangeeta Bijlani (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja and Nayan Mongia were summarily punished by the BCCI with bans of varying durations in the aftermath of the match-fixing scandal  in the 90s.

Asked whether some players deliberately performed:

“No, I mean the guys fail, but who doesn’t fail in life, everyone fails. It would be unfair to just pinpoint at someone and say that he was under-performing, didn’t try his best, I can’t. I have played the sport for 24 years and failures do happen.”

On why he never took a stand on major issues:

“If you see in my book, issues on which people believed I should have taken a stand, the only things which I was 100 per cent sure of I stood for that in my book.

If you have read some of the articles I have expressed myself whole-heartedly but on things which were not first-hand information, it is unwise to do that, it is (like) a loose statement and I didn’t want to fire loose statements.”

On why he spoke up now:

“Difficult, because there were times I felt like talking. I felt like I should focus on my game because one article would be followed by another article and I didn’t want to get into that tangle. It was always wiser, I thought, that I follow up with bigger scores rather than better articles.”

English: Image of Australian cricketer Ian Chappell. Courtesy of the National Archive of Australia. The NAA has given permission for the image to be used under the GDFL license. Confirmation of this permission has been sent to the OTRS system. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Ian Chappell’s comment that `Sachin should look at himself in the mirror‘:

“I don’t think much about him. I showed him the size of the mirror in the VB Series in 2007. He has got nothing do with Indian cricket. Sometimes I feel people are given too much importance.

I don’t want his sorry . But in Durban, in 2010, when I was working out in the gym, we just bumped into each other and he said, `This is the secret of your success.’ I said, `You have conveniently changed sides.’ “

 What Tendulkar really meant:

“In life, unlike on the batting pitch, I have to be on a strong ton before I start playing my shots.”

What he definitely didn’t:

“See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”

Greg Chappell: What he allegedly said, really meant and definitely didn’t

Greg Chappell is ringmaster to Sachin, the Lion.

What he allegedly said:

“Together, we could control Indian cricket for years.”

Sachin Tendulkar dropped a bombshell in his autobiography, “Playing it my way” charging former coach Greg Chappell with playing politics and plotting to depose Rahul Dravid from Team India’s leadership in 2007.

Extracts from the maestro’s memoirs were released by his publishers, Hachette India, to the Press Trust of India on Monday.

English: Sachin Tendulkar at Adelaide Oval (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tendulkar wrote:

“Just months before the World Cup, Chappell had come to see me at home, and to my dismay, suggested that I should take over the captaincy from Rahul Dravid. I was surprised to hear the coach not showing the slightest amount of respect for the captain, with cricket’s biggest tournament just months away.

He stayed for a couple of hours, trying to convince me before finally leaving.

Sachin added:

“I suggested to the BCCI that the best option would be to keep Greg back in India and not send him with the team to the World Cup. That is not what happened, of course, and the 2007 campaign ended in disaster.”

On Chappell’s equation with the other senior pros:

“Chappell is on record as saying that he may have got the job be cause of Sourav but that did not mean he was going to do favours to Sourav for the rest of his life.

Frankly, Sourav is one of the best cricketers India has produced and he did not need favours from Chappell to be part of the team.

Chappell seemed intent on dropping all the older players and in the process damaged the harmony of the side. On one occasion, he asked VVS Laxman to consider opening the batting. Laxman politely turned him down, saying he had tried opening in the first half of his career because he was confused, but now he was settled in the middle order and Greg should consider him as a middle-order batsman.

Greg’s response stunned us all. He told Laxman he should be careful, be cause making a comeback at the age of thirty-two might not be easy.

In fact, I later found out that Greg had spoken to the BCCI about the need to remove the senior players, no doubt hoping to refresh the team.”

On Chappell’s love for the spotlight:

“I also remember that every time India won, Greg could be seen leading the team to the hotel or into the team bus, but every time India lost he would thrust the players in front. In general John and Gary always preferred to stay in the background, but Greg liked to be prominent in the media.”

Greg Chappell responded to Sachin’s allegations in a statement released to Cricket Australia.

Chappell said:

“Whilst I don’t propose to get into a war of words, I can state quite clearly that during my time as Indian coach I never contemplated Sachin replacing Rahul Dravid as captain. I was therefore very surprised to read the claims made in the book.

During those years, I only ever visited Sachin’s home once, and that was with our physio and assistant coach during Sachin’s rehabilitation from injury, at least 12 months’ earlier than what was reported in the book. We enjoyed a pleasant afternoon together but the subject of captaincy was never raised.”

English: Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rahul Dravid, in an interview to EspnCricinfo, said:

“I haven’t really read the excerpts of that book. Also I am not privy to any private conversation between two individuals. I have not heard about this before and I have no idea what happened and I would not want to make any comment.

It’s been a long time and it does not make much of a difference to me now.

Not looking forward towards reading this but yes anything that Sachin writes on batsmanship and things like what made him the best in the world. I am more interested in reading those parts.”

 What Greg Chappell (allegedly) really meant:

 “Allow me play kingmaker to the uncrowned king of Indian cricket.”

What he definitely didn’t:

 “Cricket’s a team game and we should all work together to move Indian cricket forward.”

Steve Waugh: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

Steve Waugh tries hard to soften the blow.

What he said:

“The hard thing about Pakistan is that they throw up these cricketers that you’ve never seen before.”

Steve Waugh is hard-pressed to explain away Australia’s batting collapse against an inexperienced Pakistani bowling attack in the first Test at Dubai.

Waugh said:

“Their legspinner Yasir Shah looked a fantastic find, he bowled as good as anyone in the last couple of years in Test cricket and we hadn’t even seen him. They had an attack that had just eight Test matches between them yet they performed very well. So they are always a dangerous side.”

What he really meant:

“Australians pride themselves for their preparation. But it’s difficult to be prepared when you have no idea who’s going to show up. Better the devils we know than the devils we don’t, eh?”

What he definitely didn’t:

 “Now if only the Pakistanis would play the IPL…We’d have an idea of their talent base… All our batsmen and bowlers now play the IPL and then graduate onto Aussie honours.. What an idea!”

Virat Kohli: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

Virat Kohli is not even remotely concerned about his batting form or technique.

What he said:

“Either they think I don’t deserve to be in the bad phase or they think I have a remote to score runs in every match.”

Standing in as skipper for MS Dhoni in the first three ODIs against Sri Lanka beginning today, Virat Kohli believes that his travails in England in the Tests was about lacking confidence against the moving ball rather than any failings in his time-tested technique.

Kohli answered his critics thus:

“Talks are for people to discuss. I mean there has to be something for people to talk about. I’m not really bothered.

I don’t know how I got 25 hundreds with the same technique, you can start a debate on that as well. I worked on my fitness. It’s not a nice thing to break down the whole batting when something has been working for you. Something that I’ve done is to work on my confidence a lot rather than going into technical stuff.

I don’t know why there’s been so much of hype about my bad phase. Either they think I don’t deserve to be in the bad phase or they think I have a remote to score runs in every match. I know what all I’ve learnt from that phase. I take everything normally, good or bad performance. It’s just a day in life.Yes there’re some things that I felt personally to work on. It’s just been a process to get my confidence back.

It’s much about mentally and not much about technique as otherwise you start spoiling your game.”

What he really meant:

 “I’m quite disgruntled with my disgruntled fans. Do they think that Virat Kohli’s bat has a remote control switch that can be turned off and on at will and the runs will flow? Am I a run machine?”

What he definitely didn’t:

 “I’m a confidence man.”

Yuvraj Singh: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

Yuvraj Singh is healthily out of the Indian squad—for now.

What he said:

“Playing on one lung and playing on two lungs are completely different.”

Dashing left-hander Yuvraj Singh has never felt better in his life. The southpaw believes that he is currently at peak fitness.

Yuvraj said:

“I’ve trained quite hard. It’s been two years of hard work. I’ve never felt so good. I’m in much better shape than I was when I played the 2011 World Cup. I promise you that. Playing on one lung and playing on two lungs are completely different. As I said, I’ve given my comeback my best shot and I’ve never given up on anything. I have to keep fighting and keep believing in myself even when others don’t believe in me. That’s what I’ve always believed in.”

The 2011 World Cup man-of-the-series added:

“Of course, there is a possibility that I may never play for India again. I have considered that. But there is also the possibility that I might play for India again, and as long as I believe that I can come back and I have it in me, I’m going to keep pushing myself.”

On his recovery from lung cancer:

“This is definitely a second chance at life. Maybe I was destined to come back and play for India, and that’s why I’m still alive. I don’t know what the reasons are. There are times when I go to a YouWeCan event, I talk about cancer and awareness and early detection, which is important. But also, sometimes I do wish people understand that it’s also important for me to just focus on the game and playing it. When people come up to me and say ‘Oh Yuvi, what happened to you …’ and that kind of thing, I understand the emotion, and it’s great, but I also have to be positive and think about the future.”

What he said is what he meant.

What he definitely didn’t( Do we need this?):

Stephen Mangongo: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

Stephen Mangongo is warily hunting the Bengal tigers on their home turf.

What he said:

“They are called the tigers, which is a tough animal; you mess around with a tiger, it kills you. We have to respect tigers, especially in their own forest.”

It is the battle of the minnows of Test cricket; Zimbabwe tour Bangladesh playing three Tests and five ODIs.

Although the South African nation has a winning record against the South East Asian country, their coach Stephen Mangongo is unwilling to underestimate their capabilities.

The Zimbabwean side are visiting abroad for only the third time since their return to Test cricket three years ago.

What he really meant:

 “I don’t care what the Bangladeshis are elsewhere; at home, they are a handful. Tigers at home are dangerous indeed.”

What he definitely didn’t:

“The Zimbabwean cricket squad wholeheartedly supports the WWF campaign: ‘Save Tigers Now.'”

Geoff Marsh: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

Geoff Marsh keeps it all in the family with a hat-trick of baggy green caps.

What he said:

“Speak to my wife, we should have kept going!“

Geoff Marsh is pleased as punch to present the baggy green cap to his second son, Mitch, who made his debut for Australia against Pakistan in the first Test at Dubai on the 22nd of October.

Marsh’s elder son, Shaun, was bestowed the honour by his father in 2011.

Marsh said:

“It was quite tough, really. It was a real honour to be asked to do it. It was just pleasing, more pleasing that he’s got the opportunity to play Test cricket.

I’m pleased for both my boys. They followed me around while I was playing Test cricket and coaching Australia. Deep down you could see it in their eyes they wanted to follow in those footsteps and now they’ve both been given that opportunity. Hopefully there’s a lot of cricket left in them.”

On Michael Clarke’s assertion that Mitch could be a future captain:

“It’s nice to hear the Australian captain say things like that.I said to Mitch you’ve just got to take every day in Test cricket one day at a time. Test cricket puts out a lot of challenges, you’ve got to meet those challenges and you only do that through good focus and concentration and working hard.

He’s only a young boy. He thinks about the game a lot. We’ll just wait and see. He’s got to get through a lot of hurdles. He’s only young, hopefully he can just perform well and consistent and see what happens after that.”

What Geoff Marsh really meant:

“It would have been even better if  the Australian side were simply a Marsh XI.”

What he definitely didn’t:

 “Hindsight is eleven-eleven.”

Andrew Haldane: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

Andrew Haldane is a front-foot proponent of back-foot play.

What he said:

“Three months on, it is time to update the batting averages. Ian Bell’s batting average has remained at 45 – the front foot recovery has remained on track. But over the same period, Joe Root’s has risen to 51. Cricket statisticians and financial markets are agreed. While still a close run thing, the statistics now appear to favour the back foot.”

Andrew Haldane, chief economist of the Bank of England, appears to obfuscate while outlining the UK’s monetary policy outlook for the coming year.

He said:

“In June, when evaluating the UK’s monetary stance, I used the metaphor of a batsmen in cricket deciding whether to play off the front foot (raise rates) or the back foot (hold rates). And I compared the averages of two English batsmen, one who played from the front foot (Ian Bell), the other from the back (Joe Root), to illustrate the dilemma. At the time, Ian Bell averaged 45 to Joe Root’s 43. In other words, while it was a close run thing, the data narrowly favoured the front foot. Cricketing statistics are not the sole basis for my views on the appropriate stance for UK monetary policy. Nonetheless, on balance, I felt the same front-foot judgement was appropriate for UK interest rates at the time.”

English: Joe Root makes his Yorkshire debut at Headingley, against the Essex Eagles (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

He added:

“On balance, my judgement on the macro-economy has shifted the same way. I have tended to view the economy through a bi-modal lens. And recent evidence, in the UK and globally, has shifted my probability distribution towards the lower tail. Put in rather plainer English, I am gloomier. That reflects the mark-down in global growth, heightened geo-political and financial risks and the weak pipeline of inflationary pressures from wages internally and commodity prices externally. Taken together, this implies interest rates could remain lower for longer, certainly than I had expected three months ago, without endangering the inflation target.”

What he really meant:

“I follow cricket and its related statistics with as much interest as the economy. Maybe, it will help enliven my dry speech and perhaps have you wondering what in heavens am I meandering about so much so that you will ignore the gravity of the message conveyed. You see, I’m on the defensive and can only hope (unlike Joe Root) that things will work out for the British economy from here. This way I can backtrack on whatever I say should things turn worse and if things get better, it’ll simply be a case of ‘I told you so, didn’t I?'”

What he definitely didn’t:

“I’ll be catching up on the cricket this winter and next summer. Haven’t you received my memo? My arm-chair coaching should certainly help England regain the Ashes.”