700 Not Out
Shane Warne, the Australian
leg-spinner, got his 700th cricket test wicket when he clean bowled England’s
Andrew Strauss, at Melbourne on 26th December, 2006. The feat would be doubly
sweet because it came in the wake of Australia winning the 2006-07 ashes series
against England.
Just a few days earlier, he had
announced his retirement from International Cricket at the end of the current
five-test match series against archrivals England. Obviously, he has several
records to credit. Some of the more prominent records include: most wickets in a
year – 96 in 15 tests during 2005; most wickets playing abroad – 389 in 76
tests; most ‘maidens’ bowled – 1752. On his day he could bat very well and has
scored more than 3000 runs in test cricket; but he has never scored a century.
Warne has done well against all
test-playing countries except India. The Indian batsmen did not appear to be in
any particular difficulty while playing his bowling. In fact, Warne is reported
to have stated that bowling against India’s Sachin Tendulkar gave him
nightmares, after having been mauled by Tendulkar in match after match. With 674
test wickets already to his credit, Sri Lanka’s spinner Muttiah Murlitharan is
the bowler most likely to surpass Warne’s 700-wicket record.
Sporting encouragement
The Board for Control of
Cricket in India, is undoubtedly the world’s richest sports body. Cricket is one
game, which continues to dominate the Indian sports scene and because of its
popularity enjoys the support of corporates. The BCCI has amassed large funds
over the years. Recent news reports indicate that the Board has set aside a
corpus of Rs.50 crores to help sportspersons from other disciplines.
These are the days of marketing
gimmicks and usually the offers and discounts come with the tag – “conditions
apply” in very, very small print. The Boards offer too comes with certain
conditions. However the Board seems to have got it right. The important
condition set by the Board for disbursing funds to sportspersons from other
disciplines, is that the request must come from individual sportspersons and not
their sports associations. This is a healthy condition because a majority of the
sports bodies in India have unfortunately become the personal freedom of
administrators. This condition of the Cricket Board should help in freeing other
sports from their clutches and advancing the performances in such disciplines.
