Mark Twain once said jokingly 'Giving up cigarette smoking is very easy, I have done it several times'. Azar out-did him by saying once very seriously 'My form is very good, no problems with that but I am not able to get any runs!'
No other cricketer has gone from being my one of the favorite to the one I just hate! This review is to track his career & also give reasons about why I hate him. Mind you my hate for him is not only due to the match fixing episode but plain cricketing reasons that I am going to elaborate here
Let me start with saying that Azar was the sweet dream-come-true for Indian cricket in the England's series of India in 1984-85. He got in as he scored a century against England in the preliminary game (presidential team). Despite winning the first test, we managed to loose 2nd & the last, England won the series by 2-1. Sunil Gavaskar was going thru a very bad patch, despite playing out WI bowlers for years, here he was being troubled by average bowler like Norman Covens. (Neel Foster came in for the last test & won by taking 14 wickets! Shivaramakrishan took 6 wickets 3 times in this series.)
Azar did his debut in the Kolkata test, despite huge crowds & drama he was at ease & scored a beautiful century, he repeated the feat with 2 more consecutive centuries! While one of the sun (Sunil) was all set to go down we were blessed with a newcomer who we could look for future. (Sunil recovered from the bad form, won us the 1985 B&H 'world-cup' & even scored centuries in Australia series after that). He is the only player in the world ot have scored 3 consecutive centuries in his debut.
Azar was breath of fresh air, he played wristy shots, reminded of Gundappa Wishwanath to Indians & was termed right-handed Zaheer Abbas by the Pakis. Even today Zaheer says he liked Azar the best. His cover drive was magnificent. So was the on-drive. The best one though was the one going to square leg with a flick of the wrist. He used to take complete pace off the ball by this artistic sort way of touch. The way he quickly used to get in position for the cover-drive was also worth watching. His game against the spin balling was special.
A single was always there for Azar. He always played with a very good pace unlike Dravid. So most often he used to score runs there was a enough time for bowlers to get opposition out. During those days tests & overall cricket/batting was played rather in a slow manner. Azar was a fresh-blood in that respect too. His fielding abilities were often neglected due to focus on batting.
After a while he settled at number 3, he took a lot of load off of Sunil & Dilip V. Soon after scoring 3 centuries he lost the form & struggled for almost 10-12 tests without a century. Meanwhile his weakness again the fast bowling was also brought to light due to WI series.
He was highly uneasy against the rising ball & did some funny moves like jumping at least 2 feet in the air & at the same time trying to put his head in the legs/knees. It looked awful in slow motion. Many experts tried to help him but it took many tests/months for him to adjust & start ducking properly. He never played the bumpers well but was at least ducking them in a proper fashion now. Also, I think like Ganguley, opposition didn't try as much dose of rising deliveries to Azar.
After playing under Sunil, Kapil, Dilip & Shrikanth, Azar was named the captain of Indian team mostly due to his shy nature so that he wouldn't argue with the board & take their selection & all decisions laying down. It proved correct. He never challenged them & they also never challenged him even he played with careers of players like Siddhu & even Kapil. I think captainship & related power deteriorated the shy, respectful, enthusiastic person in him. Here is why I hate Azar from the cricketing aspects:
[A] Cricketing Facts
(1) Played around with Siddhu (dropped him without reasons, talked him down in meetings, ignored him totally etc, Kapil: gave him 7/8 number in batting, sent him to boundary for fielding, used to give him only 5/6 overs many times in ODIs & then used to go to him for say 49th or 50th over.
(2) Along with Ajit Wadekar, took 3 (4 at times!!) spinners in home series with tailor made pitches to win against England 3-0, then Zimbabwe 1-0. Almost never won in the foreign land. Unlike Sachin/Sourav, Never took effort to encourage fast bowlers & didn't give them enough chance. Azar & Ajit W used to claim India as the top-most team after series win at home! (Shame, Shame!)
(3) His fielding placement was worse than Ganguley, no sense at all. Once we took first bowling saying 'Kapil is getting his out-swing very well & there is moisture ion wickets & air is cold etc etc'. => Kapil's first over, no slip fielder!! Robin Smith got a 4 on a beauty by Kapil => Still no slip fielder even after Kapil asking for it..Next ball again a 4 on a beauty by kapil. This was deliberate which happened several times but he was always stupid in fielding placement with no logical explanation for some tactics (or lack of).
(4) Played Venkatpathy Raju longer than useful limits just bcos of he is from his home team.
(5) What he used to say before & after the match: Even he couldn't have got the meaning of it! I think Ajit & Azar used to bet before they spoke 'Let see how many people don't understand what I say!' It was a close call with both trying their best to defeat each other from time to time. What I got from this is total lack of any reasonable thought process (fact confirmed when I saw his horoscope 3 years back).
(6) Couldn't score a single century against WI all these years (I think he has got only one century against them..not sure). Same with Aus in Aus. Got only one in the last match in 1991, he got 4 lives in that innings.
[B] Match-Fixing
A look at the Tehelaka.com would give you enough information on what this biggest villain of Indian cricket did.
(1) He involved Nayan Mongia in it Jadeja was also an easy customer to fool, (3) Involved Hansie Cronje:introduced him to Mr. Gupta the fixer.
(3) He knew Sachin's not going to 'get in' (confirmed by his Punters who must have called Sachin many times) so he sent him to opening slot so that whatever he does at the top, he can 'take care' down the line!! Match-Fixing was also the reason why just 5/6 overs to Kapil (He wasn't involved!)
(4) Ajit W knew about it all along. They also ignored the fact that Prabhakar used to bowl 4/5 full-toss balls in an over.
(5) Azar/Jadeja playing under Sachin, used to get run-out by running foolishly between the wickets, they were prob'ly the best fielders & runners between the wickets!
(6) He worked with Salim Mali to fix 99 world cup India-Pak match. Also managed to fixed Ind-Zim match by sending a message to hit-out & try to finish match in 49th over itself. He himself got out trying to give catch to keeper on a wide ball. (He got 4 when he tried that first, then he tried more carefully!!) That whole world cup was the best?? the match-fixing had to offer!
(7) Along with Jadeja used to be in touch with agents on cell phones.
(8) He tried to play minority-card when he was exposed by Cronje.
(9) Upon asked by press reporters he asked them by a bookie was present in Sachin's marriage? How did he know that person was a bookie is a separate story!
Con
