Saturday, November 20, 2010
Ranji - the most underrated cricketer of all time?
The name Ranji immediately conjures up a smallish brown man of royal lineage who lit up the English cricket fields with his brilliantly unorthodox strokeplay about a hundred and ten years ago. He is widely regarded as one of the game's great early innovators and a very popular cricketer in England at the turn of the century.
But pundits don't normally invoke Ranji seriously while discussing all-time greats. Recently, Cricinfo picked an "All-Time XI" for each of the major international Test playing countries. I was flabbergasted to learn that Ranji was not even nominated as a middle-order choice for the All-Time England XI!!
English cricket lovers are not exactly known for their ahistoricism, unlike Indian fans who tend to focus on the here and now. It is very hard to find any English cricket writer who hasn't turned in a few lines on the likes of WG Grace, Sidney Barnes, Gilbert Jessop, Jack Hobbs among others. In fact, Wisden went to the extent of picking Hobbs as one of the five greatest cricketers of the Twentieth century!
Being an Indian with a fair share of interest in English cricket, I wondered - Where does Ranji rank in the pantheon of great English cricketers? Is he widely known today primarily on account of his exotic Indian origin? Are we guilty of overrating his stature in the context of English cricket history? After all, he was the first person of colour to play Test match cricket.
I turned to Cricinfo Statsguru to better understand Ranji in terms of hard numbers. The idea was to move beyond the romantic prose penned by the cricket writers of his time and judge the man using figures alone.
What one discovers is a true cricketing colossus!
Here is a man who played First class cricket in England for 25 years spanning from 1895 to 1920. A man who scored nearly 25,000 First class runs at an average of 56.37!! (yes, you read that right) These figures are very impressive even by today's English first class standards, notwithstanding the fact that English pitches in Ranji's time were a lot livelier by most accounts, even when unaffected by rain. Just to put that average into perspective, Graeme Hick, the most prolific English first class batsman of the past 20 years averages 52.
During his time, Ranji played Test match cricket with/against names like Grace, Trumper, Jessop, Fry and Hobbs among others. All these guys represented the cream of talent the world had on offer during that period. How does Ranji compare with each of them?
I must say Ranji trumps them all going by the first class averages. In fact, he is miles ahead of the rest.
It is a very revealing table! Ranji is about 6 runs ahead of the next best batsman. That's a really huge margin. The most striking revelation is that Ranji averaged a good 17 runs more than the great WG in his First class career and about 12 runs more than the celebrated Australian legend - Vic Trumper.
The two guys who approach him in consistency are Jack Hobbs and CB Fry. However, Hobbs scored the bulk of his runs post WW-I during the twenties, when batting became a lot easier thanks to the improved pitches of the time. It is quite likely that Hobbs averaged well below 50 if one considers only his pre WW-I record. CB Fry had an outstanding First class record, but disappointed in Test cricket with an average of barely 32.
How does Ranji rank among all the great first-class cricketers of the past 150 years?
To attempt an answer to this question, I looked at the top 10 batsmen with the highest first-class averages in cricket history (with a minimum run aggregate of atleast 20,000 runs). Ranji ranks sixth in this list.
Ranji is the only person on this list who made his first-class debut prior to 1920. In fact, he played nearly all his cricket before World War I. Now that was an era when an average of 35-40 used to be regarded as a very good record in first-class cricket.
I think these tables ought to be better known. Ranji was so much more than a mystical Oriental talent who played unorthodox strokes. He was, without doubt, the foremost batsman of his generation. In fact, it can be argued that Ranji was the most dominant and consistent batsman the world had seen until Bradman came along in the thirties.
Surely it's a career that deserves more recognition by cricket historians and greater mindshare among cricket fans (especially English cricket fans)!
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The name Ranji immediately conjures up a smallish brown man of royal lineage who lit up the English cricket fields with his brilliantly unorthodox strokeplay about a hundred and ten years ago. He is widely regarded as one of the game's great early innovators and a very popular cricketer in England at the turn of the century.
But pundits don't normally invoke Ranji seriously while discussing all-time greats. Recently, Cricinfo picked an "All-Time XI" for each of the major international Test playing countries. I was flabbergasted to learn that Ranji was not even nominated as a middle-order choice for the All-Time England XI!!
English cricket lovers are not exactly known for their ahistoricism, unlike Indian fans who tend to focus on the here and now. It is very hard to find any English cricket writer who hasn't turned in a few lines on the likes of WG Grace, Sidney Barnes, Gilbert Jessop, Jack Hobbs among others. In fact, Wisden went to the extent of picking Hobbs as one of the five greatest cricketers of the Twentieth century!
Being an Indian with a fair share of interest in English cricket, I wondered - Where does Ranji rank in the pantheon of great English cricketers? Is he widely known today primarily on account of his exotic Indian origin? Are we guilty of overrating his stature in the context of English cricket history? After all, he was the first person of colour to play Test match cricket.
I turned to Cricinfo Statsguru to better understand Ranji in terms of hard numbers. The idea was to move beyond the romantic prose penned by the cricket writers of his time and judge the man using figures alone.
What one discovers is a true cricketing colossus!
Here is a man who played First class cricket in England for 25 years spanning from 1895 to 1920. A man who scored nearly 25,000 First class runs at an average of 56.37!! (yes, you read that right) These figures are very impressive even by today's English first class standards, notwithstanding the fact that English pitches in Ranji's time were a lot livelier by most accounts, even when unaffected by rain. Just to put that average into perspective, Graeme Hick, the most prolific English first class batsman of the past 20 years averages 52.
During his time, Ranji played Test match cricket with/against names like Grace, Trumper, Jessop, Fry and Hobbs among others. All these guys represented the cream of talent the world had on offer during that period. How does Ranji compare with each of them?
I must say Ranji trumps them all going by the first class averages. In fact, he is miles ahead of the rest.
| First-class Averages of Ranji and his Contemporaries | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ranji | 56.37 | |
| Jack Hobbs | 50.70 | |
| CB Fry | 50.22 | |
| Charles MaCartney | 45.78 | |
| Vic Trumper | 44.57 | |
| Clem Hill | 43.57 | |
| Frank Woolley | 40.77 | |
| WG Grace | 39.45 | |
| Archie MacLaren | 34.15 | |
| Gilbert Jessop | 32.63 | |
It is a very revealing table! Ranji is about 6 runs ahead of the next best batsman. That's a really huge margin. The most striking revelation is that Ranji averaged a good 17 runs more than the great WG in his First class career and about 12 runs more than the celebrated Australian legend - Vic Trumper.
The two guys who approach him in consistency are Jack Hobbs and CB Fry. However, Hobbs scored the bulk of his runs post WW-I during the twenties, when batting became a lot easier thanks to the improved pitches of the time. It is quite likely that Hobbs averaged well below 50 if one considers only his pre WW-I record. CB Fry had an outstanding First class record, but disappointed in Test cricket with an average of barely 32.
How does Ranji rank among all the great first-class cricketers of the past 150 years?
To attempt an answer to this question, I looked at the top 10 batsmen with the highest first-class averages in cricket history (with a minimum run aggregate of atleast 20,000 runs). Ranji ranks sixth in this list.
| Highest First-class Averages of all Time (Qual.criteria : 20,000 runs) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Don Bradman | 95.14 | |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 59.63 | |
| Darren Lehmann | 57.83 | |
| Geoff Boycott | 56.83 | |
| Ricky Ponting | 56.73 | |
| Ranji | 56.37 | |
| Bob Simpson | 56.22 | |
| Wally Hammond | 56.10 | |
| Rahul Dravid | 55.89 | |
| Len Hutton | 55.81 | |
Ranji is the only person on this list who made his first-class debut prior to 1920. In fact, he played nearly all his cricket before World War I. Now that was an era when an average of 35-40 used to be regarded as a very good record in first-class cricket.
I think these tables ought to be better known. Ranji was so much more than a mystical Oriental talent who played unorthodox strokes. He was, without doubt, the foremost batsman of his generation. In fact, it can be argued that Ranji was the most dominant and consistent batsman the world had seen until Bradman came along in the thirties.
Surely it's a career that deserves more recognition by cricket historians and greater mindshare among cricket fans (especially English cricket fans)!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
On Ganguly's Legacy and the "Great Man" theory of Leadership
Saurav Ganguly's retirement from international cricket spawned many finely written tributes, most of which emphasized his role as a Lutheran figure who transformed Indian cricketers from a bunch of designer track bullies to the world's second best team. Apparently it was he more than anybody else who made the Indian team believe that it could win abroad on a regular basis.
These claims are backed by facts that are very impressive on the surface. 15 of India's 31 overseas test triumphs have been in this decade. Writers who subscribe to the "Great Man" theory of Leadership believe that great leaders arise when there is a great need. The emergence of the leader in Ganguly happened at a time when Indian cricket was at its lowest ebb what with the 3-0 loss to Steve Waugh's Australia and the implication of certain players in the match fixing controversy. Since Ganguly's appointment as captain coincided with the reversal of India's abysmal cricketing fortunes, the "Great Man" theory dictates that he be hailed as a "great" captain. Post hoc ergo propter hoc.
A closer examination of Indian cricket history reveals that the "Great Man" theory exaggerates Ganguly's legacy a great deal. It was just over two decades ago that the Indian cricket team was a fairly formidable force both at home and abroad. In a span of 10 months in 1985-86, India won three overseas test series against SriLanka, Australia and England rather comfortably. At that point India was probably the second best team in the world after West Indies. The key to their success was balance. A great opener in Sunil Gavaskar, a strong middle order with Vengsarkar, Amarnath and Azharuddin, a hard hitting allrounder in Kapil Dev and a very well balanced bowling attack led by Kapil again. Things began to fall apart in the late eighties with the retirements of most of the stalwarts in this team. By the early nineties, only Azhar remained and the batting replacements for the rest simply weren't good enough, with the sole glorious exception of Tendulkar.
So, between 1989 and 1996, the Indian side was a very indifferent one, heavily reliant on one man Sachin Tendulkar to put the runs on the board everytime it toured abroad. No wonder we won zilch outside the subcontinent during that period. 1996 was a transformational year. Three very good batsmen debuted for India that year - Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman. They filled a gap that had remained ever since the retirements of the batting bulwarks in the eighties. Indian performances outside the subcontinent improved remarkably from that year onwards.
Now, the natural question would be - why did the Indian team win so little abroad between 1996 and 1999 despite the much improved batting order? Why didn't we start winning until Ganguly took over captaincy? I attribute that mainly to chance more than anything else. We should have won in England in 1996 when we were clearly the better side after the first test loss (Dravid and Ganguly did not play in the first test). We were up against a very strong SA side in 1996 (possibly the best eleven South Africa ever assembled since its return post apartheid) and yet we nearly managed to win the third test at Johannesburg. We were very unlucky with the umpiring decisions in Australia in 1999. The series was nowhere near as one-sided as the 3-0 scorecard suggests.
Now, let's examine Indian overseas results after Ganguly took over captaincy. 7 of the 15 wins overseas since 2000 have been against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. The Indian team of the mid/late nineties didn't get to play that many games against these teams. 2 more wins have been versus Pakistan, a country we didn't visit during the nineties. The series draw in Australia in 2003-04 was against an Australian team in transition, with McGrath and Warne injured. And we lost series in West Indies, Srilanka and South Africa with Ganguly at the helm.
So, it's quite clear that the "Great Man" theorists have got it wrong here. Yes, we are performing better overseas than we used to. But the seed of this improvement was planted in 1996 and not in 2000.
Moving away from cricket, we find "Great Man" theorists at work everywhere. Alan Greenspan is often hailed as the greatest of all central bankers on the basis of the remarkable performance of the American economy during the eighties and nineties. What's often overlooked is that Greenspan's period at the helm was also marked by the personal computer revolution and the internet which drastically improved the productivity of the American economy and helped rein in inflation. Funnily, Greenspan gets the credit for what was largely the handiwork of the impersonal force of technology.
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Saurav Ganguly's retirement from international cricket spawned many finely written tributes, most of which emphasized his role as a Lutheran figure who transformed Indian cricketers from a bunch of designer track bullies to the world's second best team. Apparently it was he more than anybody else who made the Indian team believe that it could win abroad on a regular basis.
These claims are backed by facts that are very impressive on the surface. 15 of India's 31 overseas test triumphs have been in this decade. Writers who subscribe to the "Great Man" theory of Leadership believe that great leaders arise when there is a great need. The emergence of the leader in Ganguly happened at a time when Indian cricket was at its lowest ebb what with the 3-0 loss to Steve Waugh's Australia and the implication of certain players in the match fixing controversy. Since Ganguly's appointment as captain coincided with the reversal of India's abysmal cricketing fortunes, the "Great Man" theory dictates that he be hailed as a "great" captain. Post hoc ergo propter hoc.
A closer examination of Indian cricket history reveals that the "Great Man" theory exaggerates Ganguly's legacy a great deal. It was just over two decades ago that the Indian cricket team was a fairly formidable force both at home and abroad. In a span of 10 months in 1985-86, India won three overseas test series against SriLanka, Australia and England rather comfortably. At that point India was probably the second best team in the world after West Indies. The key to their success was balance. A great opener in Sunil Gavaskar, a strong middle order with Vengsarkar, Amarnath and Azharuddin, a hard hitting allrounder in Kapil Dev and a very well balanced bowling attack led by Kapil again. Things began to fall apart in the late eighties with the retirements of most of the stalwarts in this team. By the early nineties, only Azhar remained and the batting replacements for the rest simply weren't good enough, with the sole glorious exception of Tendulkar.
So, between 1989 and 1996, the Indian side was a very indifferent one, heavily reliant on one man Sachin Tendulkar to put the runs on the board everytime it toured abroad. No wonder we won zilch outside the subcontinent during that period. 1996 was a transformational year. Three very good batsmen debuted for India that year - Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman. They filled a gap that had remained ever since the retirements of the batting bulwarks in the eighties. Indian performances outside the subcontinent improved remarkably from that year onwards.
Now, the natural question would be - why did the Indian team win so little abroad between 1996 and 1999 despite the much improved batting order? Why didn't we start winning until Ganguly took over captaincy? I attribute that mainly to chance more than anything else. We should have won in England in 1996 when we were clearly the better side after the first test loss (Dravid and Ganguly did not play in the first test). We were up against a very strong SA side in 1996 (possibly the best eleven South Africa ever assembled since its return post apartheid) and yet we nearly managed to win the third test at Johannesburg. We were very unlucky with the umpiring decisions in Australia in 1999. The series was nowhere near as one-sided as the 3-0 scorecard suggests.
Now, let's examine Indian overseas results after Ganguly took over captaincy. 7 of the 15 wins overseas since 2000 have been against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. The Indian team of the mid/late nineties didn't get to play that many games against these teams. 2 more wins have been versus Pakistan, a country we didn't visit during the nineties. The series draw in Australia in 2003-04 was against an Australian team in transition, with McGrath and Warne injured. And we lost series in West Indies, Srilanka and South Africa with Ganguly at the helm.
So, it's quite clear that the "Great Man" theorists have got it wrong here. Yes, we are performing better overseas than we used to. But the seed of this improvement was planted in 1996 and not in 2000.
Moving away from cricket, we find "Great Man" theorists at work everywhere. Alan Greenspan is often hailed as the greatest of all central bankers on the basis of the remarkable performance of the American economy during the eighties and nineties. What's often overlooked is that Greenspan's period at the helm was also marked by the personal computer revolution and the internet which drastically improved the productivity of the American economy and helped rein in inflation. Funnily, Greenspan gets the credit for what was largely the handiwork of the impersonal force of technology.
