Saturday, February 19, 2011

Opinions on... Suresh Raina

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It doesn't matter how good a batsman you are. To be a great Indian batsman, or viewed as a long term prospect in India, your name counts. I mean the way it sounds.

Suresh Raina isn't going to cut it.

Its a name good enough to make a successful actor; may be. A respected poet; perhaps. A singer too.

A batsman's name conveys is imminent stature amongst his peers, the kind of batsman he will likely become and the longevity he is likely to enjoy. Suresh Raina's name suggests an eager, dutiful but airy-fairy-wafty batsman who is highly regarded by Australian selectors

Look at some of the names that are considered undoubtedly great when it comes to batsmanship; in Indian cricket. Merchant, Hazare, Pataudi, the Manjrekars, Borde, Vengsarkar, Gavaskar, Vishwanath, Dravid, Azharuddin, Tendulkar (not the way Sanjay Manjrekar says it), Venkatasai Vangiparappu Laxman....

I forgot to mention the Amarnaths...

And and if the sound of Amarnath is not good enough; add Lala to it. Notice how between Lala, Mohinder and Surinder, the standings of each men in the history of the game in India is in descending order of the "weight" in the sound of the name. I mean sure you have "Amarnath" as the last name but Surinder kind of dilutes the collective impact. The overall result is simply a century on debut. Entirely on the weight of the name "Amarnath". I have no doubt that if Lala and his wife had named him "Balwinder" or something similar, he would have had a better career than Mohinder Amarnath and who knows India might have won the Oval Test in 1979.

Ganguly, isn't much of a name. It's got too many curves and soft on the edges and men don't seem like men when they say the word "Ganguly". So Ganguly's success as a batsman is hard to explain till you realize that with "Dada" and "Maharaj" for nick names; even if Ganguly's real name were "Pai" for example, it wouldn't have mattered. My due apologies to all Pais aspiring to be batsmen.....give it up. You won't make it. Stick to your books.

Essentially the name has to have a good feel to it. But that's not enough; for it also can't be a common name....

Workmen like names, Contractor, Engineer, Sharma, Joshi, Patil aren't going to help you achieve greatness in the context of Indian cricket.

Suresh Raina's problem is that the names Cheteshwar and Virat convey batsmen who will last the distance. True to their names one scored the fastest fifty on debut in a test match fourth innings in a successful chase and the other scored a century on a World Cup debut.

Suresh Raina should be confined to IPLs

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Unknown said...

First up,i have to admit im impressed by your creative thinking........first time i have heard or seen someone trying to judge cricketers by their name...but to the contrary,your judgement is absolute rubbish !! yea,you mean raina isn't a good name for a cricketer and that he isn't good ?? give me a voluminous break ! he will be one of the biggest stars of indian cricket and one of the most elegant and fine tuned batsman of all times....and names like vangipurappu,merchant,manjrekar and all seem to you as great names for batsmanship ?? hahaha....funny !!! btw,kohli's century was against bangladesh !! he's mediocre when it comes to strong bowling attacks as his stats will show and can't play to the situation almost mentioned about pujara and kohli making some achievements,but have they ever been recognised by wisden at the age of 19 like raina has been to be the one of 10 international players to dominate world cricket ?? have they scored centuries in all 3 formats ?? so,virat and pujara wont stay for long in cricket and that aint all,virat+ pujara not equal to even a half of raina !!

Govind Raj said...


Don't take things too seriously. Opinions are opinions. This is one of the most original thinking ever, even though it is a light hearted one. It is after all Andaaz apna apna !

Gol kya andaaz hai Bhai :-)

Golandaaz said...

Man, you reminded me of my favorite comedy of all time!!

Coupled with India's win today...could not ask for more

I suspect Mohit's last name is Raina.

But Mohit, thanks for stopping by. Don't take this post seriously man just built my thoughts on the fact the name "Suresh Raina" is more suited to a TV saas-bahu serial than a batting star for India