Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif

[Richard]

So he should be picked ahead of superior players who also have performance to their name?

 

[Manee]

Just looking at Kaif's first class record, it is not too impressive and he needs to improve ot get a selection, not saying he won't though since he has good (not great) potential as a Jonty Rhodes character who is in the team as a finisher and fielder.

I am sorry I cannot find the source for this article since I found it on another forum but here is an interesting article on Kaif.

Six Months and a Life Less Ordinary - Kaif Interview

It is the house at the end of the road. The black gates are firmly barred; the security guards outside look suspiciously at every passer-by. They can't be bothered to do more than glare though — it is far too hot on Tuesday, even in the shaded avenues of this posh colony.

When you state you're there to meet Mohammad Kaif, one guard ostentatiously mops his head, creaks himself up and lets you in after checking on the intercom.

The house is beautiful, an interior decorator's dream in muted cream and bronze, a sudden splash of colour lending it an artist's touch. It is a different world from the 6 feet by three pigeonhole, separated from the rest of world by a threadbare piece of cloth, that was Kaif's home for several teenage years — his piece of a tacky Green Park hostel room in Kanpur. Kaif walks in, in the familiar royal blue of India's training kit.

You ask how it feels to call a veritable mansion like this home. He smiles. “It is home”. And what of Allahabad and the crowded, familiar sights and sounds of the town he once lived in? “That is home too, it is different of course, but they are both home.” And then he adds, looking around anew, “I have been blessed.” And smiles wryly.

The feeling is genuine, the smile perhaps a tad self-deprecatingly, after all, he is well aware that it is exactly six months to the day that he played his last one-day international for India. November 29, 2006, at Port Elizabeth.

“It's been very tough,” he agrees, asked the obvious question. “It's been my longest ever break from the team. The last year-and-a-half hasn't been good. I've not been in the XI consistently, played a couple of games and then been out for a few, it's been a rollercoaster ride, a time of ups and downs, I've had to come to terms with a lot of things, learnt some things about myself.”

He insists though that it hasn't got him down. “I would be lying if I said it hasn't affected me at all, of course it has, but I've decided to use this time to just work harder, work on things I think needed to be worked on. “

So what does he think went wrong? “I'm not sure. I hear this and that but unfortunately, have never been told specifically that this was the exact problem. That would have really helped. But being out of the team is also beneficial if you take it in the right spirit. You can sit back and take stock, play state and company matches, train, have the time to experiment, work on you game. On my eldest brother Asif's advice, I've adjusted my grip slightly, a minor shift that gives me far greater power, done a little bit with my stance. I made 151 not out against Rajasthan in a one-dayer for UP hitting a few sixes, I'd never made 150 in my life! It is a power game now and I needed to work on that and what I've done seems to be working.”

Kaif says that while he's happy with whatever he's contributed so far to India's cause, he's also realised that there were some things he could have done better. “Life is so unpredictable. There have been times when I've been doing really well, feeling in the zone, getting some runs, but for some reason or the other, I've found myself not in the playing XI for the next game. Positions have moved up and down, you lose that rhythm. Every batsman wants to bat when he's feeling good about it. Then again, there have been times when I could have used an opportunity better and did not. Having said that, these things happen in cricket.”

And, he's decided to be philosophical about it. In fact, as he says, his getting his first big break itself (making the eventually, World Cup-winning u-15 India squad), was by chance. “When you go for these age-group trials, luck plays a huge part. You have 700 (now about 2000) boys each facing about four balls each before someone decides if they move to the next round. One unplayable ball somewhere and you could be facing life as a lower division clerk somewhere instead of a cricketer.”

And then, almost inaudibly, he murmurs. “I sometimes wonder about that”. The dreamy look is gone and he looks up. “I didn't make the probables camp of 40 but was called back by Sarkar Talwar, a selector and the u-15 coach. God knows what he liked about me but whatever it was, I had had my first brush with fate. I did well in the camp and practice games and later, being part of that squad gave me a slight edge when I played grade cricket for UP. My journey began there. But I still had to work really hard, there's no substitute for that.”

It's been a strange journey for Kaif, a man often dubbed a future India captain till recently — not just because of an ability to keep a steady head on his shoulders in pressure-cooker situations and win matches for India coming in at a difficult No. 7, but also because he showed none of the off-field quirks of character or unsteadiness that some of his contemporaries displayed.

Now though, life has taken another twist and the future seems less certain. He seems unperturbed. “Everything is an experience and you are moulded by how you use them. I think I've used this time well. I've been able to understand myself and my reactions, I've calmed down through the years, am less bristly with people, more accepting, I've been growing and growing up with all these experiences.”

“Let's see… I believe in myself and more importantly, so many ordinary people, on the streets, in trains, in planes, at functions, they come and tell me they believe in me, that I belong with India. Often, I don't sleep straightaway. I lie in bed thinking about life, about what could have been and what is. And finally, I always say, if it wasn't for cricket, I wouldn't have been me. This has been my life and it always will.”

 

[Anil]

So he should be picked ahead of superior players who also have performance to their name?

if he is performing better than them, yes. he was performing more than enough to keep his place in the test side when he was dropped...

 

[Richard]

So why did whoever was brought in instead of him get brought in?

 

[Anil]

So why did whoever was brought in instead of him get brought in?

i think he made way for yuvraj who was returning from injury(?)...everyone else in the team was apparently untouchable so kaif had to go....he had just hit 91 in the previous test...

 

[Richard]

Yes, he did. I remember that series pretty well.

Yuvraj, did he not, deserved the place more than Kaif? Having played more than the single good innings that Kaif had played.

 

[Anil]

Yes, he did. I remember that series pretty well.

Yuvraj, did he not, deserved the place more than Kaif? Having played more than the single good innings that Kaif had played.

not really...

1. yuvraj averages 33.20 after 19 tests, he has some potential, he hasn't really translated that into any sort of consistent performances yet, so based on what are you saying he deserves the place more?

2. there were other people who failed in that test, to boot out the person who saved the team in the 1st innings and was a huge factor in saving the test for india was a totally unfair move, keeping yuvraj on the sidelines for the next one would've been much better than doing that(if no one else could've been taken out)...and yuvraj didn't exactly set the grounds alight in mohali after replacing him and hasn't ever since...

 

[Richard]

Yuvraj had scored a century in his previous innings, and averaged 41 up to that point. I don't really think you could justify keeping someone on the sidelines just because of one innings in his own most recent Test.

The only other batsmen who failed in that Test where Kaif scored were Tendulkar and Laxman. Laxman was cast off anyway, and I honestly don't really think you could justify dropping Tendulkar, even now, never mind then, to accomodate the mighty Mohammad Kaif. So the only option would have been to not go from four bowlers to five. If that's what you'd have done instead, fair enough, and Piyush Chawla didn't exactly set The World on fire in that Mohali game.

 

[Jamee999]

Off-topic, but Kaif's older brother (Saif) is playing for my club this season. He is a really nice guy!.

Is he called Saif Kaif?

 

[PhoenixFire]

Is he called Saif Kaif?

No, it's Clarence Normington IIRC.

 

[Richard]

Skull.

IMO.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Jesus Christ. I just typed in Clarence Normington on Google, and the first result was for a cricket club about 2 miles away from where I live. Scary.

 

[Richard]

 

[Anil]

Yuvraj had scored a century in his previous innings, and averaged 41 up to that point. I don't really think you could justify keeping someone on the sidelines just because of one innings in his own most recent Test.

that 122 against pakistan was an excellent innings but there was absolutely no pressure and it was a completely lost cause...and that average dropped off significantly after he came back into the team as i showed earlier...

The only other batsmen who failed in that Test where Kaif scored were Tendulkar and Laxman. Laxman was cast off anyway, and I honestly don't really think you could justify dropping Tendulkar, even now, never mind then, to accomodate the mighty Mohammad Kaif. So the only option would have been to not go from four bowlers to five. If that's what you'd have done instead, fair enough, and Piyush Chawla didn't exactly set The World on fire in that Mohali game.

i didn't say anything about kaif being "mighty" , i just said he put in an excellent performance which he most emphatically did...and i was not talking about reducing our already paltry bowling options, i was saying that they should've kept yuvraj out and given a performer another opportunity to perform....

 

[Richard]

that 122 against pakistan was an excellent innings but there was absolutely no pressure and it was a completely lost cause...and that average dropped off significantly after he came back into the team as i showed earlier...

Yes, indeed. But what was to happen hadn't happened yet, had it? Yuvraj at that time, from what I can see, deserved the place more than Kaif. Since then that might well have changed.

i didn't say anything about kaif being "mighty" , i just said he put in an excellent performance which he most emphatically did...and i was not talking about reducing our already paltry bowling options, i was saying that they should've kept yuvraj out and given a performer another opportunity to perform....

The "mighty" was just in context of Tendulkar, TBH. Say Laxman had scored in that game - then it'd have been bringing Yuvraj back in for him (or not, as the case may have been). In that case, you'd have had to drop Tendulkar for Kaif, and well... at that time you'd have had to have been a bit better than Kaif to be preferred to Tendulkar IMO.

 

[Anil]

Yes, indeed. But what was to happen hadn't happened yet, had it? Yuvraj at that time, from what I can see, deserved the place more than Kaif. Since then that might well have changed.

are you trying to deliberately miss the point? that century however stroke-filled and pleasing to the eye it was was not half as valuable as the near-century kaif scored against england...so there is no way you can say with any degree of certainty that yuvraj deserved to replace him, especially at that juncture...

The "mighty" was just in context of Tendulkar, TBH. Say Laxman had scored in that game - then it'd have been bringing Yuvraj back in for him (or not, as the case may have been). In that case, you'd have had to drop Tendulkar for Kaif, and well... at that time you'd have had to have been a bit better than Kaif to be preferred to Tendulkar IMO.

why do you keep bringing tendulkar into this? i was not talking about him, i am saying, if it was absolutely necessary to bring singh into the team(and it wasn't really all that necessary), then it shouldn't have been at the expense of a performing batsman...

 

[R_D]

So why did whoever was brought in instead of him get brought in?

Kaif's from one of the state's which have less influence with the BCCI so he's culable where's Yuvraj's the star . I hope he finally starts delivering because indian crciket has invested too much into him yet he still makes those same old mistakes he used to.This england series is going to be very important for alot of indian batsman.

 

[Richard]

are you trying to deliberately miss the point? that century however stroke-filled and pleasing to the eye it was was not half as valuable as the near-century kaif scored against england...so there is no way you can say with any degree of certainty that yuvraj deserved to replace him, especially at that juncture...

Right, so you're saying that the Kaif innings was better than the Yuvraj innings and so Kaif had more credit in the bank for you at the start of the Mohali game. Fine. No, I'm not deliberately trying to miss the point, and I hope I've got it this time.

why do you keep bringing tendulkar into this? i was not talking about him, i am saying, if it was absolutely necessary to bring singh into the team(and it wasn't really all that necessary), then it shouldn't have been at the expense of a performing batsman...

So, let's say Laxman had scored in that Nagpur game, and you wanted to play five bowlers - would it still have been unfair to leave Kaif out? Because I don't think it would. No Yuvraj; Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman are all undroppable.

 

[Sanz]

Yuvraj; Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman are all undroppable.

And why is Yuvraj undroppable ?

 

[sledger]

tbh i've always quite like kaif but never sure why....similarly i've never much cared for yuvraj, both are better than mahendra dhoni mind you.