Harsh Thakor
First Class Star
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2012
- Runs
- 3,519
- Post of the Week
- 2
By the term complete I mean possesing all the components for a total package for a batsmen to be perfect.Every batsman has had minor flaws.Every great batsmen had different qualities.Some were technically perfect like Len Hutton or Sunil Gavaskar,some could tear an attack to the shreds like Viv Richards,some posessed the touch of divinity like Mohammad Azharuddin and some revealed the inventive capacity of a musical composer like Brian Lara.Although in terms of pure merit,statistical performance or technical correctness he was not the best of all Pakistani batsmen no batsmen for Pakistan has posessed all the a tributes in perfect proportion as the legendary Zaheer Abbas.Javed Miandad,Hanif Mohammad,Inzamam ul haq or even Younus Ahmed may have been better batsmen overall .Hanif was technically better Inzamam more pugnacious,Majid more mercurial,Javed a better player in a crisis and Younus Ahmed more prolific but in a total package Zaheer beat them all.Zaheer's stokes posessed the grace of the divine,the beauty and elegance of a rose blooming ,the creativity of a poet and the grammar of an English professor.Zaheer's sheer touches would send the best of balls to the fence and he could bissect the most impregnable of fields like a painter making curves on a board.His footwork was near perfect and few batsmen propelled the bat down at such speed.True Hanif's bat was straighter,Miandad was craftier in terms of overpowering or manipulating the opponent ,Inzamam relished pace more and Majid could have been more inventive but no pakistani batsmen's single stroke took batting perfection to such a zenith.True Zaheer was susceptible on fast wickets against great pace but never forget his 91 against West Indies in 1978 in Packer cricket and 93 against the great Calypso pace attack in the 1979 world cup semi-final.In his best innings like 274 at Edgbaston in 1971,186 at Karachi v India in 1982-83 or 108 v Australia in an O.D.I.in 1981-82 Zaheer blended poetry,artistry and grammar in mythical proportion.A Zaheer Abbas at his best could join the Viv Richards or Sunil Gavaskar's.Not for nothing was he termed the 'Asian Bradman.'
Quoting Wisden Cricket Monthly in 1971
:"Zaheer's love of batting is manifested not through mere sterile occupation of the crease, with runs being scored at a rate dictated by the level of the bowler's competence, but rather through a will to dominate bowlers, almost irrespective of their skill or of the condition of the pitch. This is a characteristic he shares with his great contemporary, Vivian Richards. The shortish ball just outside of stump, which a player more prudent or less talented might studiously ignore, is to him there to be hit, and the same can apply to the straight, good-length ball, from which he scores with an ease and frequency which only Richards and perhaps Greg Chappell have matched in recent years. Such an ambitious approach carries its own penalties. Inevitably, attacking strokes aimed at good balls leave little margin for error. Zaheer, therefore, more that most, can be affected by slight loss of form; the flowing cover-drive, if edged, carries to slip in a way that the careful defensive prod does not. On balance, however, his attitude is fully justified by his record. The spectator must expect the occasional early dismissal, but in compensation he sees, when Zaheer is going well, strokeplay of a beauty which illuminates a utilitarian age.
Like all great players, he has an uncomplicated method. It is based first on correct footwork, so that he is positioned advantageously in relation to the length and line of each delivery. Secondly, though his backswing may not please the purist, the bat's downward path, which is much more important, is so strictly vertical as to satisfy the most pernickety geometrician. His power is derived from a high backlift, sweet timing and wristy acceleration of the blade at the moment of impact. It is this wristiness, together with the consequent free follow-through, that gives his batting its seductive bloom. When watching him, I am constantly reminded of Beldham's photographic studies of the heroes of cricket's Golden Age - of Fry, Trumper, Ranji and MacLaren." -
Below are some quotse on Zaherr abassos batting
Cricket historian Keith Ball:confusedtates “.He is an artist with an artist’s eye for the game. He tries to make every stroke ,a thing of beauty I itself.”His career is based on the desire to be remembered as one of the outstanding batsman of the era. Zaheer could never be described as selfish. He has he same grandeur as Archie Mclaren,the extra-ordinary backlift and full swing of he bat,p powerful forward strokes combined with strong back-foot play.His stance is relaxed but watchful. He adds aesthetic values to the game.
Gloucestershire Captain David Green states:He is as handsome a strokemaker as I have ever seen.. The beauty and elegance of his off-sideplay is such that it’s not difficulat to imagine his gracing Cricket’s golden age. Zaheer is not blessed with the physique of a Dexter or Viv Richards,so he has innovated different methods. He possesses a Edwardian grace to his batting.His strokes are wristy and the follow through is high and freeas by such methods maximum force is applied to the ball with minimum expenditure of pure strength. He wishes to dominate the good balls,which lesser players opt for inactivity.
Tony Lewis in 1976 when Zaheer was at his peak.:When he walks to the wicket his lean appearance e and his spectacles convey an heir of vulnerability. However at the wicket his cover driving is dazzling. His great art is to hit he fairly straight ball which is well p to him through the cover In this form he is impossible to restrain.
David Graveney:The best dispatcher o the bad ball I have ever seen His best shot is off the back foot through he offside.
Quoting Wisden Cricket Monthly in 1971
:"Zaheer's love of batting is manifested not through mere sterile occupation of the crease, with runs being scored at a rate dictated by the level of the bowler's competence, but rather through a will to dominate bowlers, almost irrespective of their skill or of the condition of the pitch. This is a characteristic he shares with his great contemporary, Vivian Richards. The shortish ball just outside of stump, which a player more prudent or less talented might studiously ignore, is to him there to be hit, and the same can apply to the straight, good-length ball, from which he scores with an ease and frequency which only Richards and perhaps Greg Chappell have matched in recent years. Such an ambitious approach carries its own penalties. Inevitably, attacking strokes aimed at good balls leave little margin for error. Zaheer, therefore, more that most, can be affected by slight loss of form; the flowing cover-drive, if edged, carries to slip in a way that the careful defensive prod does not. On balance, however, his attitude is fully justified by his record. The spectator must expect the occasional early dismissal, but in compensation he sees, when Zaheer is going well, strokeplay of a beauty which illuminates a utilitarian age.
Like all great players, he has an uncomplicated method. It is based first on correct footwork, so that he is positioned advantageously in relation to the length and line of each delivery. Secondly, though his backswing may not please the purist, the bat's downward path, which is much more important, is so strictly vertical as to satisfy the most pernickety geometrician. His power is derived from a high backlift, sweet timing and wristy acceleration of the blade at the moment of impact. It is this wristiness, together with the consequent free follow-through, that gives his batting its seductive bloom. When watching him, I am constantly reminded of Beldham's photographic studies of the heroes of cricket's Golden Age - of Fry, Trumper, Ranji and MacLaren." -
Below are some quotse on Zaherr abassos batting
Cricket historian Keith Ball:confusedtates “.He is an artist with an artist’s eye for the game. He tries to make every stroke ,a thing of beauty I itself.”His career is based on the desire to be remembered as one of the outstanding batsman of the era. Zaheer could never be described as selfish. He has he same grandeur as Archie Mclaren,the extra-ordinary backlift and full swing of he bat,p powerful forward strokes combined with strong back-foot play.His stance is relaxed but watchful. He adds aesthetic values to the game.
Gloucestershire Captain David Green states:He is as handsome a strokemaker as I have ever seen.. The beauty and elegance of his off-sideplay is such that it’s not difficulat to imagine his gracing Cricket’s golden age. Zaheer is not blessed with the physique of a Dexter or Viv Richards,so he has innovated different methods. He possesses a Edwardian grace to his batting.His strokes are wristy and the follow through is high and freeas by such methods maximum force is applied to the ball with minimum expenditure of pure strength. He wishes to dominate the good balls,which lesser players opt for inactivity.
Tony Lewis in 1976 when Zaheer was at his peak.:When he walks to the wicket his lean appearance e and his spectacles convey an heir of vulnerability. However at the wicket his cover driving is dazzling. His great art is to hit he fairly straight ball which is well p to him through the cover In this form he is impossible to restrain.
David Graveney:The best dispatcher o the bad ball I have ever seen His best shot is off the back foot through he offside.
