Jan 03, 2003 09:09 PM
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(Updated Jan 03, 2003 09:09 PM)
Sadagopan Ramesh after a few struggles survived the reverse swings of Younis,Akram,Akthar,Vaas,Mullaly,Walsh and a host of other bowlers, and at many times went on to prosper.But this southpaw from Tamil Nadu was clueless when he faced the lethal reverse swing of BCCI,and he stays OUT for ever.Ramesh is one among the long list of players done in by the whimisical selection policies of the BCCI selection panel.
Ramesh hailed from a family of cricket freaks,his father an ardent fan of the game,and three brothers who are proffesional cricketers.His elder brother Suresh,the present Tamil Nadu captain is a senior spinning all rounder.His next brother Mahesh was a nippy paceman who made a mark with his pinch hitting abilities.Off all his brothers,Ramesh was different,he was not that well built,but he was definetely more gifted than his brothers.
Ramesh started his career as an off spinner,and took care to bat well during the tail,and never compromised on batting left handed.It was during one of the junior matches,he was asked to open in the absence of the regular opener.Ramesh made a big hundred in an convincing manner and never looked back.He rapidly progressed to State,National, and Zonal levels,and played many memorable innings leaving a great impression.One of his impeccable innings was when he and Sharath knocked off 385 runs in the last day of Duleep Trophy match in 1998 against Central Zone to help South Zone win.
Ramesh's rise to stature coincided with the great Indian opener hunt,Sidhu,Rathour,Mongia,Manjrekar,Raman,Jadeja,Laxman,Dravid and a score of other batsmen were tried as openers and no two pairs survived more than two innings.During the historic Pakistan tour,Ramesh was chosen to pair Laxman ahead of names like Gandhi,Das etc,and Rames did warm up in the practice match with a telling half cemtury.And for the first test,the whole nation focussed to Chepauk to see this new opener.Ramesh was an instant hit,a hot property after his first five innings.He drove and flicked with great pannache against the strong Pakistan bowling line up.He got into record books,got into ODI side as well,ad life seemed to be a bed of roses to him.While I thought,he was lcky enough to grab a World Cup berth,lady luck saw him play a few matches at Sachin's cost.From the World CUp till the disastrous Australian tour,Ramesh was an vital part of the scheme of things in Indian Test and ODI teams.Ramesh batted poorly like his seniors in the tour,and was out of series with serious injury too.After a long break,Ramesh returned to partner with Das,and they formed a formidable pair.Though the pair made good starts,the technically proper Das went on to prosper and Ramesh unluckily went out early.The critics started calling for ramesh's head,and two poor innings in Zimbabwe was enough for his dismissal.But even now,Indian team is searching for two world class openers,after trying Das,Jaffer,Williams,Dasgupta,Bangar,Sehwag etc.And now Ramesh is not in the scheme of things at all,and he has surprisingly gone into acting.
To lament upon Ramesh's abilities and techniques,he was blessed with two vital things,a beautiful sense of timing and high level of self confidence.Combining the above two,Rames was easily able to create an impact.His soft hands and watching eyes supported him,and he put them to effective use, making batting look easy for the viewer.His hallmark was the typical Ramesh leg side flick which would easily fetch boundaries.Ramesh was not a batsman of great techniques.His footwork wouls seem very ordinary, or even awry at times.He could hardly play 50-60% of the shots in the book.But Ramesh strengthened his assets,ignored his limitations and made runs with great skill and confidence all around the globe.He has runs in England,South Africa,West Indies and England,all varying conditions.He was a drafter in tests,and did improvise on run making in ODIs.He developed into a good close in fielder.
Ramesh is definetly not the best player,we are lookin for.But of the current options,he would make a better choice.Ramesh does need another chance to scroll in,and the people abnd critic should be little patient till he gets into the groove.As the great Sunny himself said''look at his technique,All the same Look at his runs''.
Before I end my review,I would be failing in my humanity if I dont thank Karthik(mskmsks100) officially for his review on my request,and specially the dedication.I would like to pay him back in the same coin(his coin definetely has a higher value),and thereby dedicate this review to the heart of mouthshut.com KARTHIK SUBBIAH.
