15 December,2009 12:38 PM IST | | Clayton Murzello
Dhoni is not happy with his team's fielding, but he could well have some funny tales to tell like these
Fielding and catching errors can cause much consternation for captains and bowlers. Hence, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's post-match blast for his side's fielding after the second Twenty20 game against Sri Lanka in Mohali was
fully justified.
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"I have never seen a team dropping so many catches. But there was something funny going around, something fishy. Sri Lanka also missed so many run-outs. We have to improve our bowling, apart from fielding. Not only in T20s, but also in ODIs," Dhoni, was quoted as saying after India squared the two-match series.
To say India's fielding woes have been on the rise would be the understatement of the year.
That the Board of Control for Cricket in India decided to do away with Robin Singh as fielding coach is another matter. Now, baseball expert Mike Young, who has been roped in as consultant, will be looked upon as a miracle man. It is the players who have to come up with acts of Houdini through sheer hardwork if India are to look an impressive unit on the field.
While those efforts will be no laughing matter, MiD DAY culls out some amusing instances of poor fielding and catching:
England fast bowling great Fred Trueman was as vocal as they come. When the ball went through a slip fielder's legs all the way to the boundary, Fiery Fred is believed to have told the repentant fielder: "It's not your fault. Your mother is to blame!"
How the Yorkshireman elaborated on two legs being apart is unprintable.
VIV Richards was no cool dude when it came to captaining the West Indies. During the World Series Cup competition in Australia in 1983-84, Richards was asked to lead the team in the absence of the injured Clive Lloyd.
Already livid over a few fielding lapses which allowed Australia to creep back into the game, Richard Gabriel's lapse near the Melbourne Cricket Ground boundary line caused Richards to crack up. He gave the young batsman the glare and then gesticulated that he return to the dressing room. Gabriel had no choice but to walk back. In came Gus Logie when he should have been resting his hurt arm in the dressing room. That's how ruthless Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards was.
WIT and former India batting great Vijay Manjrekar went hand in hand. But that did not mean he tolerated poor cricket. Apart from figuring for Mumbai, Bengal, Andhra, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan in first-class cricket, Manjrekar also did a stint with Maharashtra.
In one of his early matches for the state, one of his teammates dropped a few sitters which displeased Manjrekar no end.
At the end of the day, the 'culprit' was asked whether he was related to noted filmmaker V Shantaram. The player was quick to deny it. Manjrekar then asked him to go home and confirm with his parents.
He agreed hesitantly but still insisted he was in no way related. First thing next morning, Manjrekar was duly informed that there was no question of being related. Manjrekar turned around and said, "I thought you were, because when catches came to you, your hands were moving like the opening of the lotus before every V Shantaram film.
This one is from Ian Chappell's book on anecdotes called The Best of Chappelli:
"As one of the best and most travelled Australian cricket journalists, Ray Robinson has a keen appreciation of crowd humour. Ray was at a game in the West Indies in 1955, when a fast bowler by the name of Hilton had just been sentenced to death for the murder of his wife. West Indies fieldsman, John Holt dropped three catches off Australian opener Colin McDonald in the Barbados Test. The spectators soon had a humourous but macabre banner erected 'Hang Holt, save Hilton.' "
On a serious note...
THE West Indies were always known to be an athletic unit, but they had their share of ageing players on the 1968-69 tour to Australia where they lost 1-3.
Captain Sir Garry Sobers admitted in the DVD Cricket in the 1960s that his team dropped 30 catches. Tony Cozier, the celebrated West Indian journalist said: "It was not a united team and it showed in the field of play.
Dropping catches is not a good sign."u00a0
When Australia went to South Africa from their India tour in 1969-70, they not only found adjusting to quicker wickets tough.
The poor conditions they had to put up with in India took a toll on their health, reckoned captain Bill Lawry.
u00a0
"We dropped 16 catches in four Tests and that's because of mental and physical fatigue and not ability," said Lawry. The Australians lost 0-4 to Ali Bacher's Springboks.
