Great Legends Great Sons

Stuart Broad , the baby faced Englishman joined the elite club of ‘Special 400’ and made it sure that the dream every father lives all through his life that son makes a name for himself better than what the father achieved came true. Chris Broad , the stubborn Englishman of yesteryears who had a short but impactful career as an opener was due for a long career. He made a difference to the English team in Ashes of 1986 but faltered enough to be sidetracked never to join the playing 11 for England. In last few years , Chris has come back to limelight and  has lead a partially successful career of match referee. It’s a general trend that the father – son duo do not often make an impact on the international scene and reach a level where it becomes difficult to comment who was better. Many times this comes due to the fact that the son can’t handle the paparazzi or the attention of being a son to great father. Classic examples of failures would be son of legendary Sir Don  whose son changed his name to Bradson and never touched the game of cricket. Ian Botham’s son Liam left cricket to join the game of Rugby to make a name for himself. Colin and Chris Cowdrey and our very own Sunil and Rohan Gavaskar would add to this ever unending list.

However , there always are exceptions to the rules and we had few amazing pairs who made an equal impact on the international scenes . Top 4 of my favorite pairs along with Cris and Stuart , I have tried to enlist here :

1) Lance and Chris Cairns:

Lance was a gritty all-rounder and a fighter. He was hard at hearing from the age of 17 but it never had an impact on his match winning skills . Never ever any foul appeals or any emotions on the field. He introduced people like us what is meant by hostile home conditions. He deserved more but probably with New Zealand not having enough zeal, has always played less cricket than others .

Chris made a complete all-rounder and was backbone on the kiwis attack. Extremely injury prone and lazy too, he had a class of his own and the smile after beating the master would always be there to remember. He missed more test matches than he played , else he was a classic material in the mold of Sir Richard Hadlee.

For me the sad part was to come to know Chris was blamed for match fixing scandal and it was a big blot on this mighty talented cricketer.

2) IAK and MAK Pataudi : 

The nawabs are nawabs and whether they are on the field or of it, the tiger is always a tiger.

IAK didn’t play too much of international cricket but had a unique distinction of representing England as well as India. He also captained Indian team only to have this feat replicated by his son MAK making it to the list of unique duo of father -son who captained the international teams.

MAK was the real cynosure of Indian Cricket and showed us what is meant by stylish cricketer. He lived the 22 yards Tiger size. He was the youngest Indian captain ever and his blindness never deterred him from making an impact on the ground. 

Let’s see whether we see TAK on the silver screen or a green platter.

3) Mickey and Alec Stewart :

Mickey was one of the popular coaches who shaped the profession of cricket coach which otherwise was of administrative title previously. He bought the professionalism and   made it a point that coach plays an important role on the ground too. 

Alec was the typical Khadoos Englishman, who proved how a grit and determination can make a career out of any commitment. It was never easy to make a place for himself in star studded English side. But Alec for me was British Dravid, ready to take on any role whether as an opener, middle order or a wicket keeper. He retired as one of the game’s great keepers and opening bat. Hope to see this highly committed cricketer in some coaching profile someday.

4) Hanif Mohammad and Shoaib Mohammad:

The original little master Hanif was one of the few players known for spending long hours on the batting strip. His highest of 337 against West Indies still remains one of the most complete knocks of all times and his 499 way back in 1960’s remained highest ever first class score before Lara overtook the crown by scoring 500.

Shoaib was a gifted bat and highly talented fielder before we saw the rise of Jonty Rhodes. He made a quick mark and played for quiet a time making an impact as an opener. Though not par with his father , he had a place for himself in the history of the game.

The future looks bright though with the junior Lehmans, Waughs, Chanderpauls, hogging the limelight at the international level and being a true Indian keeping fingers crossed for the young Dravids, Joshis and Tendulkars go a step ahead of Indian greats and make their fathers as well as India proud.

- Jayawant