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Saturday, August 30, 2014

​Is Dhoni or Bevan a better finisher in one dayers?

Is Dhoni or  Bevan  a better finisher in one dayers?

For sanity's sake any evaluation must take into credit in any field /walk of activity two vital elements first the inherent attributes/qualities/essence of the thing/art/ person evaluated and second the impact that thing or person has created on humanity.

That's why no historian can ever avoid Hitler or Mahatma Gandhi because people who make history or whose names are etched in history are those who had a very great degree of both, namely inherent quality and impact [we are not judging whether they are good or bad which is relative] and manifested that with conviction and clarity and in great quantity consistently. Same is the case with Madame Curie [ everyone must read her entire biography] Cheiro, Benjamin Disraeli, Swami Vivekananda, Adi Shankara, Ramakrishna paramahamsa etc.

I use to give a small example to all adults when I was teaching I used to ask girls in college to write in a few words something important about the class room all of them would be writing about board, chalk piece, duster, windows must be closed to avoid distraction or must be opened for ventilation, comfortable chairs, paying attention to teacher, teacher must be friendly, teacher must be pleasant in presentation etc but none will mention about learning and teaching. Incidentally a classroom is primarily meant only for that. Then I used to ask them to write about kitchen again all gadgets will be mentioned and not cooking. [I used to say crudely do we lit up the stove to warm up our buttocks? So that they will never again in their life forget to give importance to the vital elements inherent qualities/essence and impact and importance]

This a malady that manifests in all spheres at all levels just two days back when I wrote a rejoinder to another nonsense by TMK here in this link, it is a lesson on  Evaluation 

 Wherein I would like to quote a small paragraph

“For example if one were to evaluate one’s parents should one do so based on whether they [the parents ] had qualities which had the potential to compare them with great film stars/great sports persons/ millionaires/greats artists/ great musicians/great thinkers/great scientist etc. No, not at all, the evaluation must be how they were as parents in relationship to the concerned person in terms love, care, compassion, emotional attachment etc”.


When you eat Dosa what primarily matters more is the taste and the quality of ingredients more than its shape, size, how it is served, the side dishes, table ambiance etc[ though all these things are also important but they are not primary factors]

Why I say this wrong approach manifests in all spheres and at levels is because of this nurtured negative quality or ignored method of evaluation a very well known and respected music critic wrote something in the Hindu and I did not let it go scot free. Here is what I wrote with a link to the article that appeared in the Hindu too.


As grown up we must also grow out of some unflinching loyalty to any prejudice or person if not through knowledge and wisdom at least through experience and the realization of the fact we cannot carry on like that in life.    


Now coming to the subject Bevan or Dhoni, since my humility or false modesty and lack of time prevents me from writing about the relative merits I have decided to just refer three links:-


Two interesting paras of that long and nice article:-
a] ​ “The greats like Inzy and Ganguly were ridiculed for not taking singles and running faster (I salute Ganguly for never grounding his bat, yeah, the bat is for hitting fours and sixes, fuckers).

Due to the success of Bevan, the days of percentage cricket had arrived. Like some actor said in Bollywood, I can dance, I can fight, what if I cannot act? Only 33 percent is missing. Hell, forget the cuts and drives and glances. Just run, motherfuckers, just run. Run, run, run. Run and fucking ground the bat. Why the fuck you want to watch a 22-yard dash motherfuckers? I would rather watch Usain Bolt if I am interested in sprints”.

b] “The sheer fucking idiotic monotony of it just kills me. Everyone is a fucking pundit of the game now. No more suspenses. Just look at the number of overs. Hey, over number between 15-35, oh yes, we are going to watch a lot of risk-free, full of singles percentage cricket. No motherfucker will lift his bat. They will just block and run. 

To restore the game to its glory, we need to banish the spirit of Bevan from it. The game just needs one rule change. Just ban the 22-yard mad dash 1-run. No more 1-run and let's see how you bat then!”

2] Statistical performance analysis since I don't have time to make the graph I am mentioning the links the beauty is even in bowling the economy rate of Dhoni is not far behind that of Bevan 




Research and healthy unbiased debate is always welcome and important.


“Everything changes as you move through three stages of awareness:
first, that beliefs are the result of conditions;
second, that beliefs are the cause of conditions;
and third, that beliefs are themselves conditions.”
― Eric Micha'el Leventhal





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