Mohammad Azharuddin has every right to celebrate his lengthy campaign to overturn a lifetime ban from cricket imposed in 2000 by the BCCI for match-fixing. Mind you, I haven't seen any quotes where he maintains his innocence. However, as a parliamantarian a shady past isn't always a virtue and there must be more votes in being a legendary batsman and captain of your country rather than a sleazy cheat. By the way, why is it that some international cricketers tainted by dubious practices seem to gravitate towards politics? Hmm, hard to answer that one....
Back to Azha, he really was one of the all-time great Indian batsmen. In my book, he would eclipse both Ganguly and Laxman in the fantasy middle-order. His Test career began and ended with a hundred, but his misdemeanours robbed him of reaching the milestone of 100 Tests just one short. That 'missing' appearance will be with him all his life, as will the reason for it. It would be so much more rewarding to be remembered instead for the start of his international career.
He made his debut aged 21 at Eden Gardens against England in December 1984 in a side captained by Sunil Gavaskar. While the result was a rain-affected draw, he struck 110 and shared a double-century stand with Ravi Shastri. In the next game, Fowler and Gatting each passed 200 but the young Azharuddin responded with a second innings 105 but couldn't stave off defeat. His very next knock, at Kanpur, was 122, and featured his third 150+ partnership. Unfortunately his next three Tests in Sri Lanka yielded a paltry top score of 43, but you can't have everything. History had already been made.
He reached three figures in successive Tests again in 1990, and in three out of four in 1986-7. There were 22 hundreds in all, many beautifully crafted. The 111-ball 122 at Lord's in 1990, consisting of 22 fours, should be remembered by all who witnessed it, but will be a mere statistical footnote to a game which featured Graham Gooch's 333 and 123! He enjoyed a great record against England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in particular, but struggled against the West Indian pace attacks. He certainly wasn't alone in that failing!
As well as the five-day game, he also represented India in 334 ODIs, scoring more than 9000 runs. In a fifteen-year career there were no bookending hundreds in this format, and of course he didn't get a chance to play Twenty20, where his inventive play could have produced many wristy flicks to the boundary. His athletic fielding would have been an asset in any form of cricket and only Ganguly has skippered India on more occasions in Tests.
I don't know what he is like as an MP but he was a batsman in the classical mode who apparently got greedy in a time when bookies were getting their hooks into many top players, from Jadeja to Cronje, and many more who managed to avoid serious punishment. No excuses for that but just watch Azha in full flow and wonder why it all went wrong.
