by The Professor » Sat Nov 02, 2019 3:10 pm
If you've been following the career of Shubman Gill over the last few years you will be used to his title as Indian cricket's next rising star. However the problem with rising stars is that sometimes they fade out of sight rather than bursting into life and, at times, it seemed like Shubman might pass us by and leave our orbit altogether. He has had a largely disappointing year overall and sits 18th on the overall list - however is this all his fault? Inarguably Gill is a talented Cricketer and in his last four games he has registered scores of 90 and over 3 times including his table topping performance of 143 for India C vs India A in the Deodhar Trophy this week. One needs to question, however, if the number of games he plays is hampering his progress. Gill is nominally a Punjab player however apart from a stint in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy he has been turning out for Kolkata in the IPL and a series of India representative teams. I can understand why the BCCI would protect one of their most precious young assets however the fact that he has played ten games since the middle of August means that he is lacking time in the middle. I would have been inclined to send him back to Punjab for the Vijay Hazare Trophy, get his confidence up and then bring him back in for the Deodhar - because when he is performing well he shoots up the list - we just need to see more of him.
I heard the news about Glenn Maxwell as I got of a long haul flight where I had watched the documentary 'The Edge'. This spectacular film focuses on the psychological issues that effected Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott once England had reached the top of the Test rankings in 2010. It brought home to me how the sport we all love can have such a profound effect on the mental health of players. One also wonders if this is especially the case for batsmen - who are out there in the middle with the eyes of millions and the vitriol of an opposing eleven focussed on them. Pietersen and Trott spoke about the fact that it was their form deteriorating that brought about their psychological problems - however Maxwell is at the top of his game at this moment in time. He got the fourth highest score in the week he made his decision and is still over 700 points clear at the top of the list - which brings home the fact that the psyche can attack you even when you're on the top of the world. We hope to see Glenn return before the end of the year but there are some outstanding performances which he will be characterised by in 2019. Think about his 209 runs in 3 T20 matches against India in March, think about his career best bowling figures of 5-40 for Lancashire against Middlesex and think about his five Cricketer of the Week accolades in 2019. Most importantly I think we also need to start thinking about the mental strain on Cricketers because it is not just Maxwell, Trott and Pietersen. This year has seen us return to mental health time and time again. We saw the retirement of Marcus Trescothick who was seen as something of an anomaly when he stepped away from the England team to cope with his anxiety in 2006 and the retirement of Sarah Taylor, one of the finest wicket keepers the game has ever seen, retiring at the age of 30 due to her choosing her wellbeing over her cricket. And yet we still boo Steve Smith and David Warner remorselessly around the country. We look back on the golden age of sledging without considering the effects. We still secretly revel in people getting after global superstars on Twitter. Maxwell stepped away from the game before it detrimentally effected his career in the long term and we hope to see him back in the yellow of Australia or the White of Victoria before the end of the year but we do also need to consider how we protect our players mental health as well as their physical health.
So that's one potential farewell for one player. Now comes a slightly more forceful 'get out!' For a player that has bought our game into disrepute - not that you would know it from the way that some media outlets have covered the story. There have been some fairly unusual occurrences in Bangladesh cricket in the last fortnight; starting with the players threatening to boycott the India series; then the chairman granting all their requests immediately before turning around saying that he regretted complying to their demands. The culmination of this is the seemingly unconnected (but suspiciously timed) announcement that Shakib Al Hasan has been banned for playing for a year - with a further suspended year - due to not reporting three approaches from bookmakers in the last 18 months. This is difficult to cope with. Cricinfo covered this story interestingly posting tweets such as 'Bangladesh without Shakib is like---' asking for humorous responses and the people of Bangladesh took to the streets outside Shakib's house in Magura in protest to the decision. All of this seems unusual to me. It would be hypocritical to lay into Shakib after having just written about protecting players mental health - however not electing to report the approaches seems at best misguided and at worse suspicious. And there comes to an end the journey of one of just six players to have featured in our 2018 and 2019 list, the winner of three Cricketer of the Week awards this year and a further two last year, the player who received the most points during that unforgettable World Cup. The fact that all of this has been tarnished is lamentable. Shakib finishes with 3862 points with a host of players ready to usurp him from his top ten spot by the end of the year.
Week
Shubman Gill - 204
Abdur Razzak - 202
Jonny Bairstow - 193
Glenn Maxwell - 132
Mohammad Abbas - 112
Joe Burns - 1
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp
Jos Buttler - dnp
Callum Ferguson - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Shai Hope - dnp
Shreyas Iyer - dnp
Rashid Khan - dnp
Virat Kohli - dnp
Jack Leach - dnp
Morne Morkel- dnp
Duanne Olivier - dnp
Wayne Parnell - dnp
Jeetan Patel - dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Rohit Sharma - dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp
Kane Williamson - dnp
Kuldeep Yadav - dnp
Overall
Glenn Maxwell - 5712
Simon Harmer - 4974
Jeetan Patel - 4385
Virat Kohli- 3891
Shakib Al Hasan -3862
Rashid Khan - 3781
Joe Root- 3769
Ben Stokes - 3706
Jonny Bairstow - 3622
Rohit Sharma - 3593
Shreyas Iyer - 3000
Duanne Olivier - 2852
Jos Buttler - 2793
Wayne Parnell - 2743
Kane Williamson - 2524
Morne Morkel - 2438
Jack Leach - 2378
Shubman Gill - 2306
Shai Hope - 2128
Callum Ferguson - 2014
Mohammad Abbas - 1969
Kuldeep Yadav - 1694
Abdur Razzak- 1359
Joe Burns - 1325
Headlines
Top scoring DC overtakes pointless Andy to move into 8th and just 17 points behind Ian in 7th
Week
DC - 204
RDJ - 202
MIB - 193
RD- 132
DFM - 112
The Professor- 1
Alviro - 0
Andy - 0
Arthur - 0
GG - 0
Ian - 0
Sussex - 0
Overall
RD - 8150
MIB - 7210
DFM - 6943
Arthur - 6562
Sussex - 6412
GG-AS - 6189
Ian - 6029
DC - 6012
Andy - 5962
Alviro- 4694
The Professor- 4333
RDJ - 4281
"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."
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