The trend-setters of cricket

When did Sean Connery stop portraying the role of the British secret agent, James Bond on screen? Well, that was around four decades ago when the veteran bond actor chose to pass on the mantle to his successor, Roger Moore. Since then, we have seen so many actors enacting the suave secret agent’s role to perfection, not sacrificing their own style. However, for most of the movie buffs, the buck stopped with Sean Connery. They simply aren’t prepared to accept anyone else, other than the first ever bond actor, for the role of 007. Even though Connery himself had gone on record saying Daniel Craig was better suited for the role, the fans, as such, did not seem to agree with him.

When someone sets a trend for the first time and succeeds, it is natural for the people to be obsessed and awed about it. So much so, that even if the work of the pioneer was perfected in due course by his successor, no one would be really interested in gauging and applauding the latter’s efforts. This theory is applicable in every field, even in cricket. Whether it is batting or bowling or for that matter even fielding, the game has undergone tremendous changes of late, thanks to certain cricketers who had the penchant to invent something new, eschewing from the mundane progressions around them. Sometimes, the entry of a few God given talents changes the face of the game itself. When such inventions and novelties penetrate in to the game, the enjoyment grows manifold for its die-hard fans.

Those who were responsible for such changes in the game would always be remembered and revered. Our hearts would resist giving credit to those set of individuals who strived hard emulating or perhaps even outdoing their predecessors. Here are some pioneers who changed some facets of cricket by their extraordinary skills:

1. Jonty Rhodes’ fielding:

“Is it a bird or is it a plane?” – That’s what everyone wondered on seeing South Africa’s Jonty Rhodes effecting the run out of Inzamam-ul-Haq during the 1992 World Cup. Almost flying from the backward point region, he threw himself onto the stumps while bringing about one of the most mind-blowing run outs ever heard or seen in cricket. From thereon, his name was synonymous with great fielding. Due to some incredible saves which he used to exhibit on the field, he established himself as the best fielder ever to have played the game. Moreover, the backward point was often described as “Jonty Rhodes’ area” by some of the TV commentators, like Sunil Gavaskar. The South African gave a totally new meaning to the word “fielding”.

Inspired by the fielding prowess of Jonty, all the cricket playing nations started producing extraordinarily talented fielders. If you look at the fielding standards of players in the current era, it is way better than how it was during 80s and 90s. AB de Villiers, for instance, is a fielder of remarkable brilliance who can position himself at any place in the cricket field and can even keep wickets. Some of the catches he has taken in his career so far are out of ordinary. Same is the case with many cricketers nowadays whose dexterities in the field are hard to be described in words. Even a country like India which was always criticised in the past for deploying slothful players in the field, has upped the ante in producing world class fielders. Unlike Jonty, some of them do not confine themselves to one particular area on the field either. They are more than comfortable stopping the balls at any fielding position. Yet, when we talk of fielding, are we able to exclude the name of the great Jonty Rhodes? In fact it is his name which comes to our memory first up. Isn’t it?

2. Waqar Younis’ reverse swing and yorkers:

No one would have fancied his chances with swinging the old ball three decades ago. The concept of reverse swing and bowling in-swinging yorkers is not an old one. Probably those tactics were there but were not handled effectively before the 80s. It was only when Wasim Akram started using it consistently and more importantly, to a meaningful effect, that reverse swing came into prominence.

However, the person who really brought this art to the limelight was another Pakistan paceman, whom we all know as Waqar Younis. There was a point of time during the early 90s when all the batsmen around the world were left totally clueless when confronting Waqar in full flow. Not only was he fast but he also used to swing the ball in the air, yorking the batsmen at will. So many times, the stumps of the batsmen, especially of tail-enders, were rearranged by the in-swinging yorkers which he used to deliver.

His departure from the game did not put an end to this art, however. We have bowlers like James Anderson, Zaheer Khan (till some years ago), Malinga and many more who are adept at bowling reverse swing pretty well. Particularly, Malinga, who is so deadly with those yorkers which he is able to bowl with 100% accuracy. In terms of consistency, he looks to be a touch above Waqar. However, all said and done, when it comes to discussing reverse swing and yorkers, we can hardly miss out his name, can we?

3. Michael Bevan’s running between the wickets:

Run making is not all about striking boundaries and sixes. An innings can be built upon by clever running between the wickets also. This is what Michael Bevan taught the cricketing world. There had been many brisk runners in the past too but unlike the Aussie, they could never inscribe their authority in stealing ones and twos. The speciality of Bevan was not just his quickness, but his thoughtfulness as a runner. He could even assess the capacity of his partners and alter his running accordingly.

He was able to instil in his partners the same sort of confidence in completing quick ones and twos. We neither used to see him getting run out often nor did we come across instances of his partners falling short of the crease. Whenever Australians have had their tail-enders left with run a ball to chase down the target, he was the batsman who they had looked up to for completing the task for them. He used to pace his innings very effectively with the tail-enders, keeping a track of the situation all the time. By taking measured risks, he won many matches just because of his ability to run fast between the wickets.

Though he started it, there are many players around the world right now who look equally efficient in the running between the stumps. Since there are many such cricketers, it is very difficult to hand pick and name a few. Kevin Pietersen of England, AB de Villiers of South Africa and M.S. Dhoni of India are some of the quickest runners between the wickets currently. Yet, Bevan’s name has left an indelible mark on the list of all time great runners between the wickets.

4. Shane Warne’s ball of the century:

We might have heard commentators describing brilliantly bowled “wicket taking deliveries” in so many ways, exploring the dictionary to do justice to them. However, if we have to talk about one mind-blowing delivery ever bowled in cricket, immediately our memory goes back to the Old Trafford Ashes Test in 1993 when Shane Warne’s ball hit the top of Mike Gatting’s off stump. That ball which turned viciously from leg to off was described as the “ball of the century.”

Shane Warne himself bowled another beauty during 1999 World Cup semifinal to dismiss Gibbs, which was almost a carbon copy of the delivery which he bowled to Mike Gatting. Shoaib Akthar ripped off the leg and middle sticks of Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar respectively, back to back in a Test match. Allan Donald brought a fiery ball into Mike Atherton in a Test match to shatter his off-stump. Likewise, one can give so many examples to list out top deliveries bowled by world class bowlers.

Each one of them was unique and incomparable to the other. Still, there was only one ball which still is tagged with the phrase “Ball of the Century” and that was, like I said, Warne bowling out Gatting in the Ashes.

5. Sri Lanka’s explosive opening combination of 90s:

In 1996 World Cup, the Sri Lankan opening pair of Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana totally annihilated the bowlers of all the teams by their explosive batting, taking advantage of the fielding restrictions. Every other country was caught in a tail-spin, unable to control the flow of runs which came off the willow of the deadliest opening pair. No bowler was spared and everyone was caught unaware by this sudden attack which was unheard of in top order batting earlier. It was then that every other country looked into the possibility of promoting at least one of their destructive batsmen to an opener’s role to cope up to the demands of the situation.

Captains weren’t worried about the technique of the batsmen playing at the top of the order now. Throwing bat at every other delivery became the order of the day. In fact, ‘proper’ cricket players like Saeed Anwar and Sachin Tendulkar too started smashing the balls all over the park. The trend was set. Australia developed one of the most destructive players in Adam Gilchrist to open the innings. So many permutations and combinations were thought of before deciding the openers by all cricketing nations.

But again, if there was one opening pair which remains etched in our memory even now, then it is the combo of Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana, the pioneers of explosive batting at the top of the order.