VVS Laxman calls it a Day, two Years Late


Submitted by Madan G Singh
August 18, 2012 - 39 weeks 5 days ago

Today many Indians were surprised that all of a sudden VVS Laxman called it a day at a special news conference. Just after being selected for the test series against New Zealand, this is a bit of a surprise though, not entirely unforseen. It appears that one of the selectors advised him to retire as there was every possibility of him not playing in the final XI in the coming test match at Hyderabad.

Laxman was average plus player, but he had long outlived his utility. In fact in both the away tours of England and Australia in 2011/2012 Laxman failed miserably. Time and again his reflexes let him down and he floundered badly. Frankly most cricket Pundits feel Laxman should have retired more than 2 years back.

Geffory Boycott had once commented that a good player averages one century for every 5 tests. Laxman played 134 test matches with 17 centuries, way below the mark of an average +player, yet he continued in the team. This is an enigma and even Sunil Gavaskar had earlier adversely commented on his technique. But in the quota system in force in India,Laxman kept his place in the team, when more gifted players like Surinder and Mohinder Amarnath were shown the door earlier, befor Laxman appeared on the scene.

Laxman's golden moment was in 2001 when in a match at Calcutta he hit 281. But after that he could not repeat the same heroics though he had a few good innings in Australia. We can sum and say that Laxman was an average player who made it to the Indian team. Its good he has retired and now some youngster can take his place.


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Comments

RANA PRATHAP's picture
RANA PRATHAP

Sir, to be frank, I cannot agree with your views. Whenever the team was in trouble, whenever the team needed some good innings, whenever the team needed a partnership, VVS Laxman provided the team what it needed. We have got examples of many instances where VVS Laxman fought alone and helped the team not to loose that game. You were telling about the last 8 test matches were Laxman could only score two half centuries. Let me ask you, who else had performed in those series? A performance analysis of the Indian top order shows that most of the Indian top order. The only century that came in those series was from Virat Kohli. The statistics of Laxman shows that he has got only 17 centuries. But those 17 centuries came in right time-the time when team India needed them the most. I am not a VVS Laxman fan but I always enjoyed watching him play. I still believe that India could become test No.1 because of VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid.

Submitted by RANA PRATHAP on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 11:09.