Random Cricket Photos Post 60



#RandomCricketPhotosThatMakeMeHappy



30 years ago, Wasim Akram asked a young incoming batsman to the crease 'if he had taken his teacher's permission to be here'. Little did he know that the little boy had been granted permission from above to enthrall cricket lovers around the world for the next 24 years. On 15th November, 1989, Sachin Tendulkar got his first taste of international cricket against Pakistan in Pakistan.

Things, however, could have been so much different.

While the 16-year-old prodigy did admirably well against Imran, Wasim and a young Waqar, one can't deny the fact that the pitches for the Test series, to put it mildly, were docile. Not a single match yielded a result and the 4-match series ended 0-0. The big 'what if' is could a younger Sachin have done better in front of a bowling attack comprising of Marshall, Ambrose and Walsh on the treacherous pitches of West Indies?

Despite talent written all over his batting, Chairman of Selection Committee Raj Singh Dungarpur thought otherwise. Not out of any disrespect for the prodigy's talent but out of, what one can say, a fatherly concern.

With a 15-year-old Sachin piling runs in domestic cricket, there was a strong case of him being handed an opportunity to the team that had toured West Indies in March 1989. But it is said that the committee didn't go ahead with picking him in the squad as they didn't want him to be exposed to the West Indies fast bowlers so early in his career and return demoralized, a lesser cricketer.

While we all know of the blow that Sachin took from a Waqar delivery in the first match itself, one can only wonder how a career so great and so long would have panned out if a 15-year-old Sachin had to face Walsh, Ambrose and Marshall in West Indies. To put things in perspective, India lost the Test series 3-0. Richie Richardson scored 619 runs, the most for West Indies in the series. For India, the most runs came from Sanjay Manjrekar - 200, not even one third of Richardson's tally. No Indian batsman scored more than 200 in the series.

In hindsight, whoever vetoed Sachin's inclusion to the touring party (some believe it was Dungarpur) did Indian cricket, and cricket in general, a massive favor.

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