greatness

Rafael Nadal endorsed by John McEnroe and Andy Murray: An Anticipated Retort

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Rafael Nadal has been endorsed twice in the past few days.

John McEnroe has gone on record terming him the best athlete among the current lot of players; probably as good as his contemporary, Bjorn Borg.

He has rated him above Federer in that respect.

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Is India’s No. 1 ranking truly deserved?

Is India’s No. 1 ranking in Test cricket , a fair assessment of their status in the pecking order of Test playing nations?

Does it reflect consistent performance? Is the Indian team head and shoulders above the competition?

Can Team India lay claim to greatness? Or is it an aggregation of some great individuals who have not always jelled together as a fighting unit?

Is India’s bowling truly world-class? Would India’s bowlers walk into a world eleven on the strength of their performance?

Are the accumulated points over a window of three years enough for cricket crazy fans in Indian to tom-tom India’s superiority and paper over the inconsistencies and sometimes abysmal losses?

Very, Very Special Laxman does an encore

On Laxman

Cometh the hour, cometh the man!

How trite it sounds, how repetitive , how boring.

But there is nothing trite about VVS Laxman,nothing monotonous and his sublime touch has cricket fans transfixed and spellbound.

He has always seemed the bridesmaid,never the bride.

Even though he has that very,very special 281 and that blinding, blistering 167, both against the Aussies, one at Kolkata, the other at Sydney in 2000 when he opened the innings at the outset of his career.The 167 denotes a period when the selectors persisted and insisted that he take up the opener’s role.

This at a time when although the Indian team had a multitude of contenders to the middle order , finding a regular opener to see off the new ball was an exercise in futility. Laxman, however, put his foot down and signaled his intention to stake a place in the middle or not play at all. For a lesser light it would have meant a premature eclipse to a budding career, but neither Laxman nor his claim to greatness could be denied, would be denied.

The 2001 home series against the Aussies cemented his place in the pantheon of cricketing greats. Laxman will always be identified by that defining, unbelievable, edifying knock against an Aussie side that seemed nigh invincible.

Steve Waugh’s kangaroos were made to bleed from a thousand cuts by a cavalier Laxman; the Eden loss also ended the Australian team’s run of sixteen victories on the trot. Interestingly, Australia’s world record of sixteen consecutive victories , was ended by India twice over. There really is something about an Aussie-India series; it brings out the best and sometimes the worst in both sides. A rivalry to match and perhaps surpass the Ashes.

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