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The curious case of VVS



Times change and in sports they change very quickly. VVS Laxman who during the inaugural Indian Premier League chose to play for his home franchise Deccan Chargers than any other team was not only ignored by every other team but also the Chargers.

The reason given by them was that they wanted youngsters in the side. Darren Lehmann, the coach of Deccan Chargers for which Laxman played, said that his franchise was happy that it has got a younger player in Australian Brad Hodge in place of the Indian.

“VVS is a great player and I’m sure he will be bought by some franchise down the line. But we bought a younger player in Brad Hodge in place of Laxman. We are happy,” he said

But when one looks at the age difference of Laxman and Hodge it comes to light that the former is only 58 days older. While Laxman is 37 years and 97 days old, Hodge’s age is 37 years and 39 days.

So it was clearly not the age issue. It was an indication and a big one for a player of Laxman’s stature that not many are interested in him as far as the shortest version of the game is concerned.

However, he too is partly responsible for any franchise not picking him in this year’s auction. Inspite of being out of form in the recent outings he had Down Under, he set his base price at $400000, which many think, was too high a price paying which they could buy a younger and a fitter player in the T20 format.

At the last year’s auction too Chargers didn’t pick him but a now defunct Kochi Tuskers Kerela took him. Reason then could be his experience (which has obviously increased by an year) but the form certainly has dipped.

With the auctions over Laxman can now only hope that a franchise approaches him and a deal is cracked, like it happened in the case of former India captain Sourav Ganguly last year (after being unsold was later picked by Pune Warriors).

Even if that doesn’t happen then he is an intelligent player to know what lies ahead for him, as far as Twenty20 format is concerned.

By Shalabh Manmocha

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Posted by Hindustan Times on Monday, February 6, 2012 at 1:06 am 
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  • Anonymous

    The real reason Sujata doesn’t like Mamta is because she refuses to lick feet of SoniaG, a requirement for any politicians to be views favorably by paid media.

    [Reply]

    Raj Reply:
    January 14th, 2012 at 4:51 pm

    @RajeevS I thought the article wss very sympathetic to Mamata Banerjee. No nuance of any dislike comes through

    [Reply]

  • Abu Ahmed

    I dont find VVS case to be curious at all – its what happens when one goes on playing greedily without yielding place to the new. If he has any grace left, he should announce his retirement from 20-20, 50-50 and the tests. May be he would join the up and coming new format of the future – the 10-10s !

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  • Debdeep

    VVS is being given the Sourav Ganguly treatment, which I find is ironic to the core, as this man has been the ‘Hero’ behind the rise of ‘Team India’ from 2001 onwards. The reasons lie purely with the cricketing cabal that keeps on deifying a Marathi under-achiever, and a non-cricketing cabal that sees no money-milking potential from a hardworking straight-talker. Maybe VVS should go back to Ranjis, score a few double/triple centuries, and the board members would come grovelling back.

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