Tributes to Ajit Agarkar – India’s greatest all rounder since Manoj Prabhakar

(Wrote a modified report like version for fakingnews. Not yet published) 

Within 2 days of announcing his retirement, tributes have been flowing in from all quarters for Ajit Agarkar. I decided to do my own bit and collect all the best quotes(jokes) that have ever been showered on Ajit Agarkar. Sources of some of them could have misplaced:

• Had fakingnews, facebook, twitter been this popular 10 years back, Ajit Agarkar would have christened as the original SIR – Sir Ravinder Jadeja

•  He was the best brand ambassador we could ever have. We will never find any other celebrity who was so perfect for endorsing eggs – Chief Marketing Officer – National Egg Coordination Committee

•  Watching Ajit take all those wickets in ODI’s, gave me inspiration. I knew if he could do it, I can as well – Vinay Kumar, India’s premier fast bowler.

• If only an over constituted 5 balls instead of 6, Ajit Agarkar would have ended up as India’s most successful bowler ever. This proves how a stupid rule can change your life – Author of a world famous management book “Randomness of success”

• You will always be my favorite bowler Ajit. Batsmen around the world have missed you since you went out of India reckoning. Its sad now even Ranji trophy batsmen will not get a chance to face you  – Mathew Hayden

• Whenever we needed a wicket and I had no other choice left, I used to look to Agarkar. I knew batsmen will take him lightly and throw their wicket away – Sourav Ganguly

• We pledge today that we will not your legacy down – Ishant Sharma & Ashok Dinda

• His, Sanjay Bangar and my performance were pivotal in India reaching the World Cup Final of 2003 – Parthiv Patel

• Agarkar could have been india’s best ever all rounder. Unfortunately, he had the worst captain during his tenure – Bishan Singh Bedi.

• I saw him on TV, bowling his out swing in same way I used to do it. Then when he came out to bat, he had exactly the same stance. I called my wife from the top floor. Unfortunately, he was out by the time she came down. But she too agreed, yes he plays exactly like you – Manoj Prabhakar, Former India all rounder. 

• It is only because of people like you that people like me are so popular.Thanks Ajit for all the memories - Pagal Patrakar. 

What’s with this crazy fascination for Sachin Tendulkar??

At the outset let me make it clear that I am myself a Sachin Tendulkar fan. I have absolutely loved watching him play over the years and have admired him throughout my life. However, I do not consider him GOD and neither do I think he has been the best player of our generation. Thanks to the above opinion, Sachin “fans” consider me as one of those cynics who unnecessarily criticize Sachin for being useless. I am confused because I am neither here nor there. On the issue of Sachin Tendulkar, I am strictly a fence sitter.

I wrote about it in the past on fakingnews.com. Here is the link to article. http://www.fakingnews.com/2012/04/man-forced-to-attempt-suicide-for-making-an-anti-sachin-comment/

I was actually scared to put it on my own blog as I did not want to respond to ridiculous comments. But what happened today at Kotla today incensed me so much that I chose to write about it again. When Pujara got out, crowd started shouting “Sachin, Sachin” for no apparent reason. Initially, I was extremely amused at the lack of knowledge of these “fans” because Sachin almost never comes out at No 3. The amusement soon turned to anger when Kohli got out. There was huge celebration in the entire ground at the fall of an Indian wicket, which in this case was also a local boy. The match situation itself had turned precarious. Nathan Lyon was in the middle of a very decent spell on a seriously dodgy wicket. Australia was coming back in the test match and one more wicket would have turned the game on its head. But no one seemed to care. All they cared about was their little master coming out to bat. The Indian team’s position was secondary. When Sachin was still on nought, Vijay completed a very well compiled 50. No one seemed to notice. Everyone was concentrating on Sachin getting his first run. Why the hell was his first run so important. It only adds up 1 to the team total. I wanted to shout at the top of my voice and ask the unruly spectators a few questions. With the fear of getting of mobbed, I restrained myself. I would have asked them:

If you want to chose between a and b what will you choose:
                    a. India winning and Sachin scoring a 0
                    b. India losing and Sachin scoring a 100
      When asked in isolation most people will say a, but many of them are the same people who celebrated    Sachin’s 100th 100 in the Asia Cup match which India lost to Bangladesh and went out of the tournament itself. In case you chose b, you are probably not a cricket fan in the first place and watch the game only for Sachin. Hence you can be pardoned.

This mad fascination with individuals and records is perhaps the reason why we don’t do well in other team sports. Cricket is probably the only team sport where individual contribution is so unequivocally honored. Thanks to cricket’s popularity we have produced some of the world’s best cricketers in the past 50 years. Despite this however, we have dominated world cricket (in strictly playing terms) only for very limited periods. If only we respected team performances more than individual contributions we could have become a much greater threat in world cricket. Sigh!!

To end on a lighter note, I can imagine a very young right back growing up in India being hounded with questions like – “So are you a footballer? How many goals have you scored?” The poor kid would find it extremely difficult to explain to people that despite being a footballer his primary responsibility is not scoring a goal. He would probably end up becoming a pathetic striker in a C grade team instead of a world class right back in an A grade team.