Vinod Kambli

Vinod Kambli Biography

Had it not rained through the five days in Kandy, Vinod Kambli could well have completed 1,000 runs in his first 10 Tests. In any case, after his 10th Test, his aggregate stood at 937 runs at 93.70 with 4 hundreds and 3 fifties. After the 7th Test his average had been 113.28.

However, the next 7 Tests brought him 147 runs at 14.70 and a detectable weakness against the short ball. Additionally, his interpersonal skills could do with lots of improvement. He did not play any Test after that. His international career, which had seen scores of 224, 227, 125 and 120 in his 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th Tests, with the 5th being rained off, did not take off again.

There were several returns to the ODI side, but that was it for him in the Test world. He ended his career with 1,084 runs at 54.20.

It is said he did not have the temperament, was found out and such mythology is widely believed. However, we forget that he continued to score huge runs in First-Class cricket, hammering hundreds till the very end, proving again and again that he had plenty of that curious ingredient no one can quite define but find handy as an excuse for omission — ‘Test-match temperament’.

He did indeed fail in his last 7 Tests, but each and every one of the middle order men who played from the late 1990s through the first decade of the 2000s did undergo patches of bad form far beyond these many matches. For example, from late 2000 to early 2002 Sourav Ganguly scored 482 runs at 22.95 over 14 Tests, double the number that Kambli failed in. Every batsman has such a phase that Kambli went through. Perhaps it was way too premature to dump him forever.

To put things into perspective, in his first 16 Tests VVS Laxman scored at 24.07 with 5 fifties in 30 innings. If he had not hit 167 at Sydney, he could have been discarded forever, much like Kambli was. One shudders to even think of such an eventuality.

Given that he ended with a near-60 First-Class average (which seems quite remarkable given Ganguly ended with an average in the early 40s in First-Class cricket), the temperament argument is rather nonsensical. The lad who collaborated in that superlative partnership with Sachin Tendulkar in his school days was definitely not as exquisitely rounded as the maestro. But, he perhaps had plenty in him to work at the gaps in his technique and forge an international career way more protracted than what he ultimately managed.

He later played for Boland. He contested the 2009 Assembly Election but lost. He also tried his hand in both Hindi and Kannada movies.

Arunabha Sengupta

Vinod Kambli Batting & Fielding Averages

Career	M	In	R	NO	HS	Avg	BF	SR	100s	50s	4s	6s	Ct	St
Test	17	21	1084	1	227	54.20	1816	59.69	4	3	124	6	7	0
ODIs	104	97	2477	21	106	32.59	3444	71.92	2	14	187	20	15	0
T20s	0	--	--	--		--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
World Cup	12	11	205	3	106	25.62	285	71.92	1	0	16	1	1	0

Vinod Kambli Bowling Averages

Career	M	B	R	W	Avg	EC	SR	5WI	10WM	BBI	BBM
Test	17	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
ODIs	104	4	7	1	7.000	10.50	4.000	0	0	1/7	1/7
T20s	0	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
World Cup	12	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--		1/7

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