Thursday 16 May 2013

Hard work is rewarded - what the feckless three didn't get.

Ajit Chandila, Ankeet Chavan and Sreesanth. Another spot-fixing three, to add to the three Pakistani players Amir, Asif and Butt. Most of the attention has been on Sreesanth, the former India player, and the most high profile of the three, but the two spinners are just as interesting.

Spinners have to work hard for their wickets, they have chosen to do things the hard way in cricket. Not for them the life of a new ball bowler, but the testing, challenging role of a twirlyman. Yet, these two spinners took the easy way out, the easy buck, rather than the long challenging apprenticeship of a proper spinner.

As Sidvee put it...

"Sreesanth and Chandila had a golden chance to accept the baton. Here was their chance to inspire cricketers from the boondocks to the limelight. Here was their chance to get young boys and girls to dream – “not by fantasy but aspiration”.

But no. That’s too hard. To slog your backside off conscientiously is too passé. It’s too old-school. Instead they chose the easier route. And, sure as hell, blew it."

In perhaps the greatest irony of this case, the only person who will stand to gain from this is a man who's had to slog his way to the top, the hard way. Pravin Tambe, the 41 year old leg-spinner, has just Harmeet Singh as competition for his place in the Rajasthan Royals team now they are lacking two other Indian spinners, one of whom has generally been ahead of him in the pecking order.

I don't know anything about Pravin Tambe as a person. All I know, is that he didn't take the easy route. Being a leg-spinner isn't the easy route, continuing at the age of 41 depsite always having been overlooked for top level cricket isn't easy either. Taking contracts playing club cricket, out of his comfort zome, in England isn't the easy route

Pravin Tambe didn't take the easy route. A place in the Rajasthan team in place of these feckless fools is his bitter-sweet reward,