Playing the Numbers Game

[mcgillianaire]

The Sourav Ganguly tamasha that has afflicted Indian Cricket this past year has generated a lotta media hype, emotional reactions and whatever else you can think of. The man himself backs his case with random centuries against teams like Zimbabwe, Namibia and Kenya. He insists this is evidence of being good enough at the highest level.

Is he correct? To find out, I decided to slip into the shoes of S. Rajesh and play the numbers game...




Can't fool StatsGuru mothaf*cka!

Comments

[kshah.livejournal.com]

Whoa! Twisted stats alert! I don't think even Ganguly rates himself as a great test batsman.

Would suggest taking a gander at his one-day stats. That's where he was one of the world's greatest. Anybody who reaches 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000, 8000, 9000 and 10000 runs faster than Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Inzamam ul Haq, Rahul Dravid and Sanath Jayasuriya cannot really be just an average player.

Granted -- the past two years have been lean for him and, as of now, he does not deserve a place in the team. That, however, is no reason to water down a man's achievements by presenting only half the facts.

Yes, Dravid is a great, great player too. That does not make other great achievers... ummm... mothaf*ckas. This is a line frequently taken by a lot of die-hard-Dravid-fans (most notably ggollerkeri and hemantk), though - so I understand where you're coming from on this.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

I'm not a die-hard Dravid fan. The problem is you rate ODI cricket as highly as Test cricket. ODIs are frivolous. As far as I'm concerned, how good you are as a player is measured by how you do at the Test level. That's the real test.

ODIs... they're jokes. Good entertainment and money churners, but nothing more. The good thing about cricket is that there are 2 forms of the game. One which makes enough money to let us keep the traditional, real cricket and the other let's us leave our brains at work and enjoy some slam-bam, thank you maam tamasha @ home.

Is Ganguly good enough to play Test Cricket? I don't think so. Is he good enough to play ODIs, that's a whole different matter.

Let's not forget, he's been replaced as the Test Captain now as well. I can't believe he's fighting for a Test place. If anything he should have a better chance to get into the ODI team than the Test team.

While i would prefer for him not to make the ODI team either, I don't think there is any doubt that he has been one of the best ODI players ever. But that was in the past and unless he can prove at the domestic level that he's cut out for another good showing, it's time to give him an honorable exit... a benefit match of some type and move on with the good work that's happening under Greg & Rahul.

[kshah.livejournal.com]

All this is moot anyway. He's back in the test team as a... get ready for this... "batting all-rounder".

No way does he belong there.

And, yes, test cricket is the best definition of cricket.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

I know eh. What a joke man. All rounder? Here's the irony. On the day More decides that, the guy takes 5 wickets (http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/IND_LOCAL/RANJI/ELITE/ROUND1/MAHA_BENG_RJI_23-26NOV2005.html) for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy. :)

[smilingbuddha.livejournal.com]

a lean patch doesn't last 2 years.... and it is reason enough to give others a chance.

So called Ganguly-baiters aren't really concerned with his past record,.. but moreso his more recent lack of form/lean patch/exposed weakness against short balls.

[kshah.livejournal.com]

his more recent ... weakness against short balls
More like his recent weakness against ANY balls! (heheh, including those shown by Chappell and Dravid)

I still think, though, he was one of the greatest one day players ever.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

I still think, though, he was one of the greatest one day players ever.
Oh definitely. I don't think there's ANY doubt about that. One of the few players who would come down the wicket and smash top fast bowlers over the off-side for four/six. But just because he was good before doesn't mean we have to pick him in the future.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, he was one of the greatest ever.

[pappubahry.livejournal.com]

I have a couple of problems with your presentation. Firstly, I recommend giving this sort of thing in text format, not an image. It means that copy-pasting is possible, if we would like to do stuff with it.

I noted that you highlighted his record against Bangladesh. It is good to know that he averages 81 against them. What we would be more interested in is how he does against non-(Bangladesh and Zimbabwe) teams. As I recall, StatsGuru says that you can do this, but you have to do it manually (ie, write down the numbers, subtract, divide).

Also, highlighting home as captain isn't fair, because his away as captain record is quite good. And away tests are the big problem for India.

So anyway, I agree he doesn't belong in the test team.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

I recommend giving this sort of thing in text format, not an image.
http://s60.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1SYA6FBUVHRA436DCISPXSNBMK

As I recall, StatsGuru says that you can do this, but you have to do it manually (ie, write down the numbers, subtract, divide).
Does it? I wanted to do it but then I realized I didn't want to do all the dividing and subtraction.

because his away as captain record is quite good.
Yeh, that surprised me as well. He's scored centuries in Australia and England and his last series in the Windies wasn't too bad.

[smilingbuddha.livejournal.com]

you said "tamasha"...yay!

Tamasha is one of my favorite words..

Non Hindi speakers: There is no exactr english word for it....the precise meaning is roughly somewhere between circus and spectacle....also drama.

or farce

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

:)