Kambli's case not an isolated one in Indian cricket

MUMBAI: Vinod Kambli, the maverickformer India batsman and Sachin Tendulkar's childhood friend, has been in thenews of late for all the wrong reasons. Ever the flashy person,Kambli has stirred the hornet's nest by telling a TV reality show that championbatsman Tendulkar had not done enough to prevent him from self-destructing inhis prime. The flamboyant cricketer, however, denied to reportersassembled at a five star hotel in the Mumbai suburbs on July 14 for the officiallaunch of the 2011 Cricket World Cup logo that he had accused Tendulkar of nothelping him enough. But Kambli has been found on sticky wicket nowfollowing the airing of a brief video footage of the programme in which he says"I think, yes" when the anchor of the show asks him whether Tendulkar could havedone more to save him from his self-destructive habits. Kambli'sramblings could be attributed to self-appraisal that he did not live up to thepromise shown at the Test level when he struck back-to-back double hundredsearly in his career before allowing it to plummet due to his indisciplinedpersonal habits. Kambli had two double tons and two other hundredsto his name in his first seven Test matches before the short-pitched bowling athis ribs and throat by the West Indian quicks led by Courtney Walsh and KennyBenjamin on the 1994-95 visit to India exposed the left-handed stylist.He played in only one more Test rubber, against New Zealand at homein October-November 1995, but could not do anything significant, and went out ofreckoning for the subsequent visit to England in 1996 when the duo of SouravGanguly and Rahul Dravid made dazzling debuts. To Kambli's addedmisfortune, the arrival of the wristy VVS Laxman, had made the middle order intoa tightly packed compartment, despite averaging 54-plus in 17 Tests, with fourhundreds and three half tons in it. Kambli's captains at that pointof time were Mohammed Azharuddin and Tendulkar and, though he continued to be inand out of the ODI squad, he was never recalled into the Test batting line-upafter November 1995. The fact that Kambli made only three overseasTest visits -- to Sri Lanka and New Zealand in 1993-94, under Azhar, and toLanka again in 1997-98 when Tendulkar was captain -- is somewhat baffling.Kambli was neither the first Indian cricketer to go down the wrongpath after seeing the goodies too early in his cricket career, nor would he bethe last unless the right counselling is given to the youngsters in these daysof the cash-rich Indian Premier League.There were the examples oftalented spin twins of Maninder Singh and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan as well aswicket keeper Sadanand Vishwanath who shone like shooting stars before sinkingquickly into cricketing oblivion in the 1980s. Siva is a respectedTV commentator now while Maninder does his bit as an expert on private TVchannels after trying his luck at umpiring along with Vishwanath.All these players had the cricket world at their feet and chose toself-destruct. In contrast, there were at least two batsmen who madesplendid impressions at the start of their Test careers only to be ignoredtotally later for reasons not explained so far. Incidentally boththese batsmen -- Madhav Apte and Deepak Shodhan -- were members of the Indianteam on its maiden visit to the Caribbean under Vijay Hazare and never played aTest after the squad's return. Coincidentally, both batsmen alsomade their debut against Pakistan in 1952-53 at home. Apte averagedclose to 50 in seven Tests, including five in the West Indies as opener in the1952 tour under Vijay Hazare, and inexplicably never played again for India.An industrialist, Apte used to play for the Cricket Club of Indiatill well into his sixties in the well-known Kanga League cricket, held annuallyduring the Mumbai monsoon weather. As opener, Apte scored three halfcenturies and an unbeaten ton (163 not out), during India's maiden visit to theCaribbean where he tallied 460 runs at an average of 51-plus, to be second inthe Test averages behind Polly Umrigar. But incomprehensibly, he wasnever picked to play for the country again. So was the case withShodhan, a left-handed batsman from Gujarat who made a century on debut againstarch-rivals Pakistan during that country's first visit to India in 1952-53,batting at number eight. Shodhan scored 45 and 11 in the first Testof India's subsequent series in the West Indies, at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.After not being picked for the next three Tests, he was included inthe last Test of the series, scoring 15 not out in the second innings batting atnumber 10. Like Apte, he too was ignored after the team's return.Incidentally, that squad to the West Indies was praised for its finefielding, an unheard of things in those days. In an interview someyears ago, Shodhan, now 80, had hinted that a top player in the team was againsthim. "Though I scored a ton on my debut, I could play only threeTests and that's because of politics," he had told theinterviewer."There were some cricketers who did not want me in theside and particularly one cricketer, a great cricketer indeed, had spoiled mycricketing career," Shodhan had said. But those were the days whenIndian cricket was full of intrigues and players were openly accused ofdeliberately dropping catches in Tests off bowlers who they did not like.It was also the era when, amazingly, four captains led India in afive-Test series. That unprecedented episode happened at home against the mightyWest Indies side in the late 1950s. Ghulam Ahmed, the captainappointed for the five-Test rubber, withdrew on the eve of the 1958-59 seriesopener to leave Umrigar to carry the mantle. Ahmed took over fromUmrigar and led in the next two Tests but, after the team suffered heavydefeats, retired from the game. The selectors then named Umrigar asthe captain who, however, resigned on the eve of the fourth Test, dissatisfiedwith the selection of a player. Vinoo Mankad led in that match andin the fifth Test Hemu Adhikari was handed the captain's job to make Indiancricket the laughing stock in the world's eyes. Kambli's turn camemuch later and he went out of the reckoning partly because of his own making,partly because of the packed middle order and partly because of the selectorialwhims and fancies.QnA: Who is to blame for Kambli's failure?