The Unforgiven Srinivasan
Today’s short blog post is a retelling of events (with extra Pshaws) observed at the Lilavathi Barista last night:
Customer looking at TV during IPL match: Who is that thin, dark, scrawny commentator?
Barista (the common noun): Oh that’s Srinivasan…
Customer: Srilankan dude?
Barista: I don’t think so. I have no idea. Only that he is Srinivasan.
Customer: Must have been a spinner.
Barista: I don’t know man.
Customer: Must have been a spinner or something. Thin fellow. Why do they get these country types to commentate?
Barista: I have no idea!
Customer: Pshaw!
Barista: Pshaw indeed!
Sigh. From “Srinivasan’s” Cricinfo entry:
At 17 years, 118 days he became the youngest Indian Test player against West Indies in Antigua later that season. He was not yet 19 when he won a Test match for India with 12 for 181 runs against England at Bombay in 1984-85 – by the end of the series he had 23 wickets and was adjudged man of the series. The icing on the cake came when he was in the Indian one-day squad that won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia in 1985 – he played a leading part in that triumph.
But thereafter it was downhill. He played one Test in Sri Lanka in 1985 and did little of note. He was an even bigger disappointment in Australia a few months later. The magic was gone and the little bowler, who seemed set to break all kinds of records, was but a shadow of what he had been 12 months before. He made a brief comeback as a member of the 1987 World Cup squad but he was not a success.
Nobody loves poor Laxman Sivaramakrishnan anymore. And here’s a link to a 1997 Panicker Rediff interview with the man on what went wrong. Click on the link at the bottom to page ahead.
p.s. That Barista guy sure knows nothing.
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