Thursday, May 16, 2013
Dubai Shantakumaran Sreesanth is one of Indian cricket’s most talented bowlers who refused to live up to his full potential mainly due to his uncanny ability to repeatedly press the self destruction button. His skill to swing the ball in all conditions and maintain an immaculate line and length had repeatedly won him laurels from almost all the greatest pacers in the world. Unfortunately he had no control over his personality and his career swings and let his reputation crash from the pinnacle of glory to the pits by allegedly getting involved in spot fixing with two of his Rajasthan Royals team colleagues Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila.
Despite hailing from Kerala, a state which hardly figured in Indian cricket as prominent team, Sreesanth caught the attention through his natural talent. He emerged as the pride of this state and today he has become their shame. From the moment he started slipping into one controversy after another through his unruly behavior on and off the field, even his ardent admirers started to detest him.
Today the question is whether he is worthy to be called a cricketer, forget being a role model for budding pacers. Those close to him can hardly believe that he could commit such a huge blunder as spot fixing..
Speaking to Gulf News from Kerala, P. Balachandran, who had played a significant role in shaping the bowling skills of Sreesanth as his coach from early days, said: “Knowing him personally for years he is one who is not greedy and is also one who values credibility though bad behaviour on the field has been one of his major drawbacks. Sreesanth had told me very clearly that he will give his best to come back into the Indian team for the oncoming South Africa tour as he strongly believed it is his last chance and hence it surprises me as to how he could commit such a blunder.”
Balachandran, who was personally honoured by Sreesanth in December last year in Dubai also candidly admitted that Sreesanth’s external influences were harmful for him. “I have to also confess that his choice of friends and his friends’ circles has always not been good and so if evidences are against him he should be punished. Technically he is accused and it is a big set back for Kerala cricket itself. The process of investigation into such allegation takes a long time and players like Ajay Jadeja who got involved in match fixing never played for India again. So I feel Sreesanth’s career is over.”
In 2006 when Sreesanth destroyed South Africa at Johannesburg with spells of 5 for 40 and 3 for 59 to ensure Rahul Dravid led Indian team a 123 runs win, he clinched a place among the world’s best pacers.
In November 2009 when Sreesanth destroyed Sri Lankan batting line up at Kanpur to walk away with the man of the match award, he was admiringly addressed by everyone including Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni as ‘Sree’ and remarked proudly that he is India’s best reverse swing bowler.
Along with success came arrogance and Sreesanth soon began to rub everyone on the wrong side leading to him being even slapped on the field by Harbhajan Singh. Lack of discipline led to series of injuries too. Accompanied by wrong friends and his fascination for late night parties landed him in more controversies like police booking him following complaints from his neighbours in Bengaluru and unruly behavior on flights and in hotels, he soon earned a reputation as the bad boy of Indian cricket.
The result of all these was that despite making his debut in 2005 and achieving the feat of being involved in India’s two World Cup victories he go to play in only 27 Tests and 53 One-dayers. With the spot fixing incident, Sreesanth has literally pulled the curtain down on his career all by himself.
By K.R. Nayar Chief Cricket Writer
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
