The one and only CS Manish brings up an interesting point in his blog about the emergence of the inimitable Azharuddin's sons at school-level cricket in Hyderabad as he wonders whether Asad and Ayaz will succeed in emulating their pater's achievements.
My gut says NO.
The tough part for a son is that success is ONLY defined by surpassing the parent's performance.
Thus while Rohan Gavaskar would have been deemed a success by many measures, his achievements captaining Bengal and playing the odd game or two for the national side pale in comparison to his definitely illustrious father - and so he is a failure.
Likewise with several others including Ashok Mankad, Vivek Jaisimha, and so on...Mohinder Amarnath is perhaps the one player in recent times in Indian cricket who did measure up to his father's achievements and actually lived to surpass it.
On the global scale, Shaun Pollock remains the pre-eminent second generation success - without detracting in any way from his father's achievements, he emerges as a strong equal in terms of his opus over his career.
Even a Shoaib Mohammed must be deemed inferior in his body of achievement compared to his father.
Thus the pressure on our man Azhar's pair of sons is high, and it is more than likely they will not measure up to their father's record of 22 test centuries, an average of 45+ in test cricket, 35+ in ODIs and 50+ in First Class cricket.
But it should not detract from anything they do. Hyderabad cricket could use a breath of fresh air after the infamous Shivlal Yadav has all but butchered it by his shameless promotion of his own son (who needless to add has not even risen to the averagely high level of achievement of Shivlal Yadav).
BTW, noticed that a certain AT Rayudu was in the Hyd team along with VVS Laxman for the ongoing Moin-Ud-Dowla Trophy. Has the one time child prodigy returned after the year turning out for Andhra....hopefully Mr Yadav has seen the futility of nepotism and is allowing merit to shine for the team that he himself turned out for with distinction in his own playing career....
Sunday, September 10, 2006
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2 comments:
Azhar's kids have a long way to go before they even can think of playing at a higher level. I wonder what their teamamtes make of this, especially those that can bat or bowl better but are not even looked at because their parents are not famous.
I was going to do a profile on AT Rayudu (I still might) as a man whose career may have been destroyed by the shenanigans of an administrator.
Finally, can you provide a brief synopsis of the 2006 Moin-ud-Dowla tournament? All I get here are stories that involve the Bengal team and an ex-captain's deeds.
sorry for the delayed response, but the 2006 Moin Ud Dowla tournament coverage in the media, save the aforementioned ex-India captain's failures and successes, has been almost totally MIA.
Here is one useful website for the early rounds at least - http://www.cricketfundas.com/moinuddowlah2006.html
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