The Forgotten Boy


Best Birthday Wishes for Sachin Tendulkar: BCCI, IPL teams and ...

You must know Sachin Tendulkar. Well if you don't, he is one of the best cricketers to have played the game. However, he wasn't always the best. Back when Sachin was growing up, there was a player who was earmarked for massive success. His name was Vinod Kambli. You may not know him but many people say that, in his prime, he was much better than Sachin. The reason why he is not well known is the topic that we are discussing today.


Vinod Kambli: When Vinod Kambli used a 'Sholay' dialogue to wish ...
Vinod Kambli (left) and Sachin Tendulkar (right)

 They were in fact best friends. During their school cricket days, they put up a 664 run partnership. Sachin put up 326 and Kambli contributed 338. They both spend their teenage years tearing teams apart with their batting. They both went on to play professional cricket. They both got selected to play international cricket. Sachin's debut was 1989 and Kambli's was 1991. Sachin was 16 at the time and Kambli was 19. They had such similar levels of talent and such similar career paths. So how did it all go wrong for Kambli?

On Sachin's debut, he put up 15 (off 24 balls) until he got bowled by Waqar Younis. On Kambli's debut, he put up 28. Kambli eventually played test cricket for 2 years and ODI cricket for 9 years. At this point of time Kambli had excellent averages, he also had lots of hundreds as well. Kambli could have been a great player, perhaps even greater than Sachin. But why didn't he succeed? He wasn't focused on the game. He had many problems off the field, including alcohol and illicit drugs. His problems off the field let to him being dropped from the national side. He was never able to make a comeback. On the other hand, Sachin is known to be one of the most diligent and focused players in the history of the game. He had set aside all distractions and devoted whole life to the game.

The forgotten boy, Kambli, was destined for greatness. But the fame, glitz, and glam got to him. He strayed off the path to success and ended up lost, alone, and with no-one who remembered him.

 Blog by the Cricket Badgers

Please follow our blog in the sidebar to the left. Your support is much appreciated!
Please subscribe to this blog for more content and check out our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVVRSREcQkTDSpjfrgnit_A


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The West Indies Golden Age

Image
The West Indies is a fairly decent team in the present day. They have qualified for all world cups and have one a T20 world cup in 2016. However during the late 1970 - mid 1990's, West Indies were cricket's most powerful force. This all started when the West Indies were in the 1975 world cup. They ended up at the top of their group's table. They ended up beating New Zealand in the semi-finals and Beat Australia in the Finals by 17 runs. They also went unbeaten during the whole tournament. They were also in the 1979 world cup. They also ended at the top of the group again. They beat Pakistan in the semi-finals. They beat England in the finals by a whopping 92 runs. They again went unbeaten during the whole tournament. During these times they had the best bowling attack in the history of cricket. This bowling attack included Colin Croft, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts and Malcom Marshall. Who have all had a 5+ wicket hall and whose test bowling averages were...
Read more

Once Upon a Time

Image
You guys may all know the sport of cricket. It is a commonly played sport (300 million) around the world, with more than 2.5 billions cricket fans. Cricket has been played for a long time. But its origins are not well known. The origin of cricket is what we will be discussing today.  The beautiful game of cricket in fact originates from England. WHAT A SURPRISE! I'm guessing most of you guys had your minds set on India. Despite the fact that the game originates from  England, India was one of the first countries to play the game.  Image Courtesy - TimesofIndia.com Cricket was created in the late 16th century from south-east England. The game was made by the Normans or the Saxons during the time. The game was first recorded in 1598, in the woodlands of Weald (Located across Kent and Sussex). There have also been some speculations that the game originates from France by King Edward II. It is generally believed that cricket survived as a children's ga...
Read more

When Canada Was On Top of The World

Image
Cricket has a long and illustrious history. In this article we will explore the development of cricket over time, the first EVER international cricket match, and how sheep farming is connected to the birth of the game. The sport of cricket (as it is played now) has a known history beginning in the late 16th century. Having originated in south-east England, it became the country's national sport in the 18th century. International matches have been played since 1844 and Test cricket, the longest and oldest current form of the game, began in 1877. The game has developed into the 19th and 20th into the sport that is viewed and played all around the globe. Let's first take a look at the first ever international match. Surprisingly, the two countries involved were Canada and the USA. British influence had left its mark on both the countries (and Canada was still occupied by them at the time) and it does beg the question, how did cricket disappear from the Americas? But tha...
Read more