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This is an archive article published on July 28, 2002

‘Hazare was the greatest’

ANSHUMAN GAEKWAD Cricketer of the Century:Kapil Dev. There can’t be anyone other than him. For a bowler to be so succesful while playin...

ANSHUMAN GAEKWAD

Cricketer of the Century:
Kapil Dev. There can’t be anyone other than him. For a bowler to be so succesful while playing most of the Test matches in sub-continent is simply outstanding. If his contemporaries like Richard Hadlee and Ian Botham had played most of their cricket on such wickets, they would have lost heart and given up cricket. Moreover, Kapil’s all-rounder status helped him score over Sunny and Sachin Tendulkar

Best batting performance
Sunil Gavaskar’s 221 against England at The Oval. On a difficult track, with wickets falling at other end, Sunny played copybook cricket to save the match for India. I rate his knock above Laxman’s 281 at Eden Gardens because Sunny has played many such innings unlike Laxman, who hasn’t repeated that one-off wonder knock.

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Best bowling performance
If I go with Chandrashekhar it would be being unfair to Bishan Singh Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna. The reason why they are above the other bowlers of the modern era is that they played when there were no lap-tops or television replays to work on batsmen’s mistakes. Yet they plotted their dismissals in an amazing manner.

Team of the Century
I’ll vote for the 1978 team led by Bedi that toured Australia. It was a perfectly balanced team with a bowling attack consisting of Karsan Ghavri, Bedi, Prasanna and Chandra while in batting we had Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath.

Sandeep Dwivedi

Manoj Prabhakar

Cricketer of the Century:
I don’t want to say anything against any individual but the award has gone to the most undeserving person. I don’t agree that by getting or not getting these awards one becomes great or less important. My views about some cricketers remain the same whether they got these awards or were ignored.

Best bowling performance:
I never saw Chandra in action but heard a lot about his bowling performances. A bowler who could bowl googlies at a very fast pace must have been a great bowler.

Best batting performance
Please don’t force me to say things that would get me into any further controversy. How can the judges ignore legends like Gavaskar and Tendulkar for this award. Can you think of any other name when you talk of India’s greatest batsmen?

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Team of the Century
I would have voted for the 1985 team because it had the best combination and some of the best all-rounders. Kapil Dev, Madan Lal, Roger Binny, K Srikkanth, Mohinder Amarnath, Ravi Shastri, Chetan Sharma (he started making runs as well by then). Another plus point in the team was Gavaskar’s captaincy; every single member played as a unit. — S Santhanam

Madan Lal

Cricketer of the Century:
Each of the nominees was good in his own right. If both Kapil and Sachin are great entertainers, Sunny was responsible for laying a strong foundation for the latter batsmen to carry on. But one thing is for sure: There is nobody who deserves the award more than Kapil for the positive manner in which he played the game throughout his career.

Best batting performance
Sunil Gavaskar. For 15 long years he faced some of the most fearsome new ball bowlers of that period and gave us several match-winning knocks. After his retirement, we are still struggling to find a decent and dependable opening batsman. That shows Gavaskar’s calibre.

Best Bowling performance
Chandra for the variety he had in his bowling. Once he got into his rhythm, he was a deadly bowler.

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Team of the Century
The 1983 World Cup winning team. It was balanced. The opposition was one of the strongest. We beat the West Indies (at their peak then) twice, once in the final. Australia had one of the strongest batting and bowling combinations. Even Zimbabwe was a much better team than it is at present.

S Santhanam

NARI CONTRACTOR

CRICKETER OF THE CENTURY
As a jury member my vote went to Vijay Hazare, because he was one of the most technically correct batsmen who faced the fastest bowlers of all time, including Lindwall and Miller. Also, Hazare never had the benefit of a helmet, there was no front-foot no-ball rule and bowlers were allowed as many as four bouncers per over. Hazare also carried the team on his shoulders.

Best batting performance
I don’t think that anyone can contest the claim of VVS Laxman, whose 281 against the Australians at Eden Gardens stands out by itself.

Best bowling performance
It would have been a choice between Jasu Patel’s nine-wicket haul against Australia in 1960 or Subhash Gupte’s nine wickets against the West Indies in the 1958-59 series. Or even Anil Kumble’s perfect ten against Pakistan.

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Team of the Century
I’d segregate the Tests from one-dayers. I feel honouring a Test team would have been more proper and for that I would have chosen the Indian team that chased 404 in West Indies in the seventies or the one which beat Ian Chappell’s side in Australia.

Vinay Nayudu

Yashpal Sharma

Cricketer of the Century
Undoubtedly, Kapil Dev. The kind of knocks he played to win matches, the kind of spells on docile Indian wickets. I cannot think of any other Indian.

Best batting performance
VVS Laxman deserves the award simply because his knock helped India win the Test from a hopeless position.

Best bowling performance
I would have voted for Chandra although it does not in any way minimise the great performances of Bedi, Prasanna and Venkat, who all did the country proud. Chandra was my room-mate when I started my first-class career.

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Team of the Century
I would have definitely gone for the 1983 World Cup team, not because I was one of the members but more importantly it was after that victory Indian cricket looked up.

S Santhanam

CHANDU BORDE

Cricketer of the Century
Very difficult to pinpoint one player. I guess Vijay Hazare would also have come close to winning. But in the end I agree with the selection, for Kapil’s contribution has been exemplary.

Best batting performance
Sunil Gavaskar’s 96 at Bangalore on a spiteful pitch against Iqbal Qasim and Tauseef Ahmed comes to my mind straight away. But if ever there was one innings that changed the course of a Test, then it’s Laxman’s 281. For the first time ever I saw the Aussies struggling.

BEST BOWLING PERFORMANCE
Kapil’s 9/83 at Ahmedabad against West Indies was a very good effort. Also Anil’s (Kumble) 10 wickets in an innings is no mean achievement.

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Team of The Century
I take great pride in saying that two of the biggest wins in Indian history have come when I was the chairman of selectors. If it’s one-day cricket then its got to be the 1985 World Championship side. The Test team of the century has to be the team that beat Australia last year.

Chandresh Narayanan

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