VVS Laxman announced Retirement

[icyman]

Overated player who had two torrid series against Eng and Aus. 16 hundreds in 17 years is not a good record. A good player but by no means a great. Good to see him stepping aside for the youngsters though.

God only knows what by measure you can call him over-rated. I'd say under-rated and he did score against Australia and that too, heavily. His tons versus Australia came at a time when the Aussies were at the un-surmountable peak of World Cricket and most batsmen shat in their pants at the thought of the Aussies.

16 hundreds coming from a player who batted mostly at No.6 is a very decent effort. People like you and many more seem to only judge a player by the number of centuries he scores. Look at quality ,not quantity and thats where we Indians lack the most.

 

[Satan666]

Overated player who had two torrid series against Eng and Aus. 16 hundreds in 17 years is not a good record. A good player but by no means a great. Good to see him stepping aside for the youngsters though.

I agree some posters are holding him in high esteem but I think when you look at the batsmen India have produced since inception he certainly ranks amongst the best, he did played some brilliant inns agaisn the strong AUS sides, before the 2000/2001 series AUS were leading with 16-0 test match wins a long streak broken by the Indians and Laxman was the man who made it possible, he may not be a Viv Richards or Bradman but where Indian cricketers is confide I rank him above Sachin and maybe just below Dravid.

 

[vorgaphe]

Yes he was a good player who had a great record against the Aussies but the people calling him a great are wrong. Compared to the true greats of the decade (Waugh, Ponting, Tendulkar, Lara, Kallis) he's no where to be seen. His conversion rate is poor and that means that he can never be considered a great.

 

[SaiSrini]

Overated player who had two torrid series against Eng and Aus. 16 hundreds in 17 years is not a good record. A good player but by no means a great. Good to see him stepping aside for the youngsters though.

He has batted so much with the tail and towards the lower part of the batting order. His value is not about his hundreds. His value shines out through the no. of times he has bailed India out of trouble and has won games for us.

He is not overrated. In fact among the Indian public, he has been grossly underrated.

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Yes he was a good player who had a great record against the Aussies but the people calling him a great are wrong. Compared to the true greats of the decade (Waugh, Ponting, Tendulkar, Lara, Kallis) he's no where to be seen. His conversion rate is poor and that means that he can never be considered a great.

Are centuries your only measure of greatness? You talk about conversion rate as the only measure.

 

[Satan666]

Yes he was a good player who had a great record against the Aussies but the people calling him a great are wrong. Compared to the true greats of the decade (Waugh, Ponting, Tendulkar, Lara, Kallis) he's no where to be seen. His conversion rate is poor and that means that he can never be considered a great.

Personally I dont consider Sachin a great of this or any other time.

 

[icyman]

There again you have brought up the topic of conversions- whne will you ever get past 100's ?

 

[VC the slogger]

Yes he was a good player who had a great record against the Aussies but the people calling him a great are wrong. Compared to the true greats of the decade (Waugh, Ponting, Tendulkar, Lara, Kallis) he's no where to be seen. His conversion rate is poor and that means that he can never be considered a great.

If you go by statistics then surely Laxman's nowhere near the likes of the batting legends like Tendulkar, Kallis etc. But if you see how he made his 8781 Test runs, then its something different. He has played many gems to rescue India from trouble and was one of the most stylish batsmen of the past decade. Lara, Sachin & Kallis etc have never been able turn a nearly lost match the way Laxman did when he made 281 vs Australia in 2001 when India were following on but still managed a victory all because of him & Dravid. That is true greatness which numbers don't always tell.

 

[Satan666]

If you go by statistics then surely Laxman's nowhere near the likes of the batting legends like Tendulkar, Kallis etc. But if you see how he made his 8781 Test runs, then its something different. He has played many gems to rescue India from trouble and was one of the most stylish batsmen of the past decade. Lara, Sachin & Kallis etc have never been able turn a nearly lost match the way Laxman did when he made 281 vs Australia in 2001 when India were following on but still managed a victory all because of him & Dravid. That is true greatness which numbers don't always tell.

I agree in some ways the 281 was probably the best inns of test cricket but Lara and Kallis have turned many a matches from the jaws of defeat, (something which Sachin has never done).

 

[VC the slogger]

but Lara and Kallis have turned many a matches from the jaws of defeat

Sure they have but they've never been able to do a near impossible task making their team win after being forced to follow on, have they?

 

[icyman]

There is some controversy with regards to his retirement, I feel he has been forced into it. Look at the news articles coming out everywhere.

And whats with the line - He could not reach MSD ? If that is true, its really very shocking that a person who is the captain of the Indian team could not be available for his players when they needed him the most.

 

[Satan666]

Sure they have but they've never been able to do a near impossible task making their team win after being forced to follow on, have they?

No they havent mate, only Laxman has and this is one of the reason why I consider him a legend of the game and better than Sachin, lol!

 

[VC the slogger]

There is some controversy with regards to his retirement, I feel he has been forced into it. Look at the news articles coming out everywhere.

And whats with the line - He could not reach MSD ? If that is true, its really very shocking that a person who is the captain of the Indian team could not be available for his players when they needed him the most.

I read in the paper that one of the Indian selectors had sent him this message - "You've served Indian cricket exceptionally but after the failure in Australia, we were expecting you to quit.. This committee doesn't want to end your career, but there is no guarantee how our successors will act... So it is up to you."
Maybe this caused him to retire because he was preparing for the Tests by playing some matches for Hyderabad XI and looked in good touch scoring 169 vs KSCA President's XI.

 

[Prithvi]

Overated player who had two torrid series against Eng and Aus. 16 hundreds in 17 years is not a good record. A good player but by no means a great. Good to see him stepping aside for the youngsters though.

Try saying the same to Ricky Ponting.

Yes he was a good player who had a great record against the Aussies but the people calling him a great are wrong. Compared to the true greats of the decade (Waugh, Ponting, Tendulkar, Lara, Kallis) he's no where to be seen. His conversion rate is poor and that means that he can never be considered a great.

You can never compare two players. Their positions are different. The records of Sachin, Sehwag, Dravid and the #2 are only due to Laxman batting at #5.

There is some controversy with regards to his retirement, I feel he has been forced into it. Look at the news articles coming out everywhere.

And whats with the line - He could not reach MSD ? If that is true, its really very shocking that a person who is the captain of the Indian team could not be available for his players when they needed him the most.

BCCI and MSD treat everyone as n00b apart from Sachin Tendulkar. Why not Tendulkar- his time has already come and he also failed equally in Australia & England.

I read in the paper that one of the Indian selectors had sent him this message - "You've served Indian cricket exceptionally but after the failure in Australia, we were expecting you to quit.. This committee doesn't want to end your career, but there is no guarantee how our successors will act... So it is up to you."

This is as shitty as hell. I know, he is old enough, but what was the reason behind forcing him to retire before there was a home-town game for him? It would have been awesome retirement, ain't it?

Also, what could youngsters prove in a series of two test matches? If they are 4-5 test matches in a series, they could do something, so that even if they fail in the beginning, they will have room to cover their mistakes one by one in the upcoming tests.

 

[Gurjot95]

Overated player who had two torrid series against Eng and Aus. 16 hundreds in 17 years is not a good record. A good player but by no means a great. Good to see him stepping aside for the youngsters though.

I will just ignore this comment.

Laxman was indeed forced to make retirement, let's say Laxman had 2 bad series and so did all other players in same series. So why not let them retire too?? You can judge how corrupt board is by seeing how they treat their senior players.

 

[Fenil]

Yes he was a good player who had a great record against the Aussies but the people calling him a great are wrong. Compared to the true greats of the decade (Waugh, Ponting, Tendulkar, Lara, Kallis) he's no where to be seen. His conversion rate is poor and that means that he can never be considered a great.

You know what? No player, no matter how genius, can win a match on his own. When a Laras plays, there is always a Chanderpaul or Sarwan at the other end who lets Brians play the way they do. When Sehwag plays, there is always a calm and composed Gambhir at the other end who lets Viru bat freely. When a McGrath bowls, there is always a Jason Gillespie who is tightening things up from the other end. No player can be successful if doesn't get an able partner. VVS was like that partner who remains his shadow and does all the work for the team and the so called legends. If you ask the cricketers you mentioned or other cricketing legends, they will tell you that it was their partners who let them do what they end up doing. Imagine, if Ponting is batting nicely and Australia is suddenly 20/5? What good can Punter do? What if Vaas is bowling beautifully but Muralitharan keeps leaking runs? Its not about greatness or being a cricket cognoscente but its about the importance of your contribution to the team.