New Delhi: Former Indian cricketer Vinod Kambli (Happy Birthday Vinod Kambli) has turned 51 today. Vinod Kambli is a well-known face in the world of cricket. He started his career with master blaster Sachin Tendulkar. But, his luck did not favor him. Despite being talented, he could not do anything special. So let’s know some special things about him on his birthday today…
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Vinod Kambli was born on 18 January 1972 in Indira Nagar, Kanjurmarg, Mumbai. His father Ganpat Kambli used to be a mechanic. Vinod’s father used to maintain a family of 7 with great difficulty. Vinod Kambli’s cricketing career was short, but strong and full of records. Sachin’s childhood friend Kambli made his debut with him in Mumbai’s famous Kanga League.
Vinod Kambli, at the age of 16, had an unbeaten and excellent partnership of 664 runs with Sachin Tendulkar (15) in the Harris Shield Trophy. Kambli scored 349 runs and Sachin scored 326 runs in that match. But the special thing is that in this match, Kambli also took 6 wickets for 37 runs. Perhaps for this reason Ramakant Achrekar also considered Kambli more talented than Sachin. But today Sachin Tendulkar is called the God of cricket and on the other hand Kambli is counted among the unsuccessful cricketers of India.
Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli may have stepped into the world of cricket together. But, he did not get off to a good start. Where Sachin made his Ranji debut in 1988 for Mumbai against Gujarat. Whereas, Kambli had to wait for a year to make his Ranji debut. In 1989, when Tendulkar was playing a Test match against Pakistan, Vinod Kambli was playing in the Under-19 Youth Cup.
However, Kambli (Vinod Kambli) did not let this opportunity go by hand. He made his place in Team India by performing well. He also started his international career in a very explosive way. He scored four centuries in his first 7 Test matches. Not only this, he is the fastest batsman to score 1000 runs in Test matches. He set this record in the match played against West Indies in 1994. He became the first Indian to complete 1000 Test runs in 14 innings.
Yes, he was the fastest player to score thousand runs. Only Herbert Sutcliffe, Don Bradman and Neil Hervey were brighter than him. But then their stars went into reverse and a rising sun set before it could shine.
Surprisingly, Vinod Kambli’s average in Tests is much higher than even legendary batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag. Kambli has the highest average (54.20) among batsmen who have batted in 20 Test innings or more.
At the same time, it is also said about Vinod Kambli that he could not handle the stardom he got from his sudden success. Then due to some of his bad habits and bad behavior, he himself ruined his career. It is true that he had made comebacks about nine times after being dropped, but he could never cement his place.
However, Kambli later alleged that his career was ruined because of his captain, other teammates, selectors and the cricket board. Whatever may have been the reason, but it was certain that, if Vinod Kambli wanted, he could have become another pole star of Indian cricket. Then who knows then we would have had two gods of cricket.
Vinod’s career in international cricket lasted only for 14 Tests, 104 ODIs. During this, he scored 1084 runs in Tests with the highest score of 227 runs while scored 2427 runs in ODIs. Vinod scored 4 centuries in Tests while 2 centuries in ODIs.