Want to be a great batsman: Make sure you are not TALL
Donald Bradman
Want to be a great batsman: Make sure you are not TALL
What distinguishes the good and the great batsmen from each other?
Hours of concentration, determination, hard work and technique. If one ever needed proof that good things do come in small packages we don’t have to look beyond the cricketing circle. The following statistic proves the above:
| Height | Test Avg. | Test Runs | ODI Avg. | ODI Runs | |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 5ft 5in. | 54.58 | 12773 | 44.40 | 16917 |
| Ricky Ponting | 5ft 10in. | 55.88 | 11345 | 43.27 | 12118 |
| Brian Lara | 5ft 8in. | 52.88 | 11953 | 40.48 | 10405 |
| Sir Donald Bradman | 5ft 7in. | 99.94 | 6996 | – | – |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 5ft 5in | 51.12 | 10122 | 35.13 | 3092 |
| Allan Border | 5ft 9in. | 50.56 | 11174 | 30.62 | 6524 |
| Sanath Jayasuriya | 5ft 6in. | 40.07 | 6973 | 32.54 | 13377 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 5ft 11in. | 42.17 | 7212 | 41.02 | 11363 |
These men are not just here proving a point; they have crossed the periphery of greatness. At least 7 out of the 8 batsmen mentioned above featuring in the Top 8 run getters in the world be it in the test or one day format. The only one missing out being Sir Donald Bradman but, who can ever question the greatness of THE “DON”.
What is it with these batsmen? Are they able to pick length better or is it just pure co-incidence. Are the good length balls to short for them? It is important for every bowler to change their length depending on the height and the manner in which a batsman plays. What’s the problem here? Perhaps, the bowlers have just not adapted to these “kind” of batsmen.
Is the recipe to being a great batsman being short? Perhaps, one of the shorties could tell.
Indeed, good things do come in SMALL packages.
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Prathik Raj
February 27, 2011 @ 10:29 am
That is just dumb, you want me to show you some real hard hitters and playmakers who made the team win who were all tall?
[Reply]
Arjun Khop Reply:
March 21st, 2011 at 12:46 pm
@ Prathik- With the exception of Viv Richards and Kallis perhaps, name a few?
Maybe you just dont understand the term great, cause you can never get there ever! Jerk!
Hard hitters are not necessarily great, fool!
[Reply]
Prathik Raj Reply:
March 22nd, 2011 at 5:40 am
@Arjun First of all 5’10 and more is considered tall, so take ricky, saurav our.. Sachin is the only short guy there, others are normal.
People like you are a shame for the country, bastards who have no future.
[Reply]
Arjun Khop Reply:
March 22nd, 2011 at 6:32 am
5 10 is only considered short in India, dumb
Little Johnny
March 22, 2011 @ 7:11 am
You both are dumb idiots. Height has nothing to do with producing great Batsman. It just happens that most of the great batsman were short.
5′ 10″ is tall for India where average height is 5′ 8″. 5′ 10″ is normal for a country like England and it is darf for a country like Sweden. In Nepal 5′ 10″ is giant.
So don’t waste ur brain on figure out height and gretness of batsman.
Another reason why great batsman are short is that they can’t bowl. Short players can’t be great bowler so they tend to bat and hence they have majority in batting.
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