The Responses

Mohandas Menon:
The first-class career records updated to the end of the 2000 English season are:

Lara (debut: 1987-88)

Mts	Ins	No	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50	Runs	Wkts	Avg	Best	5i	10m	Ct
184	306	8	14664	49.20	501*	40	65	411	4	102.75	1-1	0	0	234

Walsh (debut: 1981-82)

Mts	Ins	No	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50	Runs	Wkts	Avg	Best	5i	10m	Ct
414	532	151	4473	11.74	66	0	8	37995	1755	21.64	9-72	103	20	116

Wasim Akram (debut: 1984-85)

Mts	Ins	No	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50	Runs	Wkts	Avg	Best	5i	10m	Ct
240	334	37	6908	23.25	257*	7	24	21275	985	21.59	8-30	69	16	92

Shaun Pollock (debut: 1991-92)

Mts	Ins	No	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50	Runs	Wkts	Avg	Best	5i	10m	Ct
98	142	23	3743	31.45	150*	3	19	7992	372	21.48	7-33	16	1	60

Mohandas Menon:

Players	Test avg	ODI's avg	Mean avg
Tendulkar	56.95	42.59	49.77
Ganguly	44.02	44.28	44.15
Dravid	53.82	36.76	45.29
Laxman	37.14	23.56	30.35

Home and Away avgs in Tests

Players	Home avg	Away avg	Diff. in avg
Tendulkar	61.61	53.02	+ ( 8.59)
Ganguly	40.79	47.67	- ( 6.88)
Dravid	51.46	57.00	- ( 5.54)
Laxman	41.33	31.27	+ ( 10.06)

Note: Ganguly and Dravid have better averages in away Test matches

Home and Away avgs in ODI's

Players	Home avg	Away avg	Diff. in avg
Tendulkar	48.06	39.94	+ ( 8.12)
Ganguly	49.31	42.67	+ ( 6.64)
Dravid	39.97	36.67	+ ( 0.30)
Laxman	37.00	10.13	+ ( 26.87)

Note: Ganguly and Dravid have better averages in away Test matches

Mohandas Menon:
Out of the 25 Test matches hundreds scored by Sachin Tendulkar - India has won six, lost seven, while the remaining 12 matches were drawn. In ODIs out of the 28 hundreds, India has won 22 matches, while six matches were lost.

Mohandas Menon:
It does seem that the Indian ODI team always depend on Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid while they have to chase scores over 250. However in the recent times batsmen like Hemang Badani and on occasions Yuvraj Singh and VVS Laxman are also capable of scoring runs in ODI matches.

Mohandas Menon:
Although actual tally of runs in the last 10 overs of earlier ODI matches have not been recorded, India had scored 128 runs in the last 10 overs (from 245-1 to 373-6) against Sri Lanka at Taunton on 26-5-1999 which is believed to be the maximum runs scored off the last 10 overs in ODIs.

Mohandas Menon:
The first and second innings performances of Test batsmen are as follows, which tells its own story:

Sobers (WI)	Ins	No	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
1st innings:	93	7	5109	59.41	365*	18	15
2nd innings:	67	14	2923	55.15	198	8	15
Total	160	21	8032	57.78	365*	26	30

Gavaskar (Ind)	Ins	No	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
1st innings:	124	3	6159	50.90	236*	23	23
2nd innings:	90	13	3963	51.47	221	11	22
Total	214	16	10122	51.52	236*	34	45

V Richards (WI)	Ins	No	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
1st innings:	121	2	6045	50.80	291	18	30
2nd innings:	61	10	2495	48.92	182*	6	15
Total	182	12	8540	50.24	291	24	45

J Miandad (Pak)	Ins	No	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
1st innings:	123	8	6504	56.56	280*	19	28
2nd innings:	66	13	2328	43.92	160*	4	15
Total	189	21	8832	52.57	280*	23	43

G Chappell (Aus)	Ins	No	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
1st innings:	86	4	4791	58.43	247*	18	18
2nd innings:	65	15	2319	46.38	144	6	13
Total	151	19	7110	53.86	247*	24	31

A Border (Aus)	Ins	No	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
1st innings:	154	13	6803	48.25	205	16	39
2nd innings:	111	31	4371	54.64	163	11	24
Total	265	44	11174	50.56	205	27	63

D Gower (Eng)	Ins	No	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
1st innings:	117	3	5311	46.59	215	12	31
2nd innings:	87	15	2920	40.56	173*	6	8
Total	204	18	8231	44.25	215	18	39

Tendulkar (Ind)	Ins	No	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
1st innings:	80	3	4835	62.79	217	17	20
2nd innings:	51	10	1885	45.98	155*	8	6
Total	131	13	6720	56.95	217	25	26

B Lara (WI)	Ins	No	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
1st innings:	79	-	4342	54.96	375	11	22
2nd innings:	62	4	2191	37.78	153*	4	11
Total	141	4	6533	47.69	375	15	33

S Waugh (Aus)	Ins	No	Runs	Avg	HS	100	50
1st innings:	134	21	6988	61.84	200	23	33
2nd innings:	81	18	1977	31.38	134*	2	9
Total	215	39	8965	50.94	200	25	42

Mohandas Menon:
At the end of the 2000 English season, as many as 24 batsmen have over 100 first-class hundreds during their career. However in the last 20 years, the following six batsmen have achieved this landmark: New Zealander Glenn Turner (in 1982), Pakistani Zaheer Abbas (in 1982-83), Englishman Dennis Amiss (in 1986), West Indian Viv Richards (in 1988-89), Englishman Graham Gooch (in 1992-93) and Englishman Graeme Hick (in 1998). For your information, Englishman WG Grace was the first batsman to score 100 hundreds in 1895. Among the current players other than Hick, Australian Mark Waugh (73) has the maximum hundreds. At the end of English season 2000, nine current batsmen have over 50-plus hundreds. Among current Indians Mohammad Azharuddin (51) has most first-class hundreds.

Mohandas Menon:
You are absolutely right when you say that a bowler is normally termed "fast" based on his reputation and not by his current speed. Some classic examples were the cases of New Zealander Richard Hadlee and West Indian Courtney Walsh. During the early part of their career they were termed as "fast", and when they switched to "fast-medium" stuff at the later stage in their career, they were still termed as "fast". Another example was England's Brian Statham, who began his career as a fast bowler and then went on to bowl at medium pace. He was still termed as a "fast bowler".

Mohandas Menon:
Japan became an Affiliate Member of the ICC in 1989, although South Korea is yet to be given any such status. Club cricket is being played in these countries by expatriates from the Commonwealth nations. In fact cricket has been played in Japan as early as 1863. In the recent years (since 1993) a competition is being held in Japan and some decent University sides have emerged from this tournament.

Mohandas Menon:
Sachin Tendulkar, who was run-out in the Durban Test match in 1992-93. This was the Test match in which the third (TV) umpire was first used in international cricket.

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