Shastri deserves more kudos

I have often wondered why Ravi Shastri gets so brutally trolled on social media especially for all those tweets surrounding his love for the good life which includes his tippleOne itrsquos no shame to enjoy a brew and secondly the former India player captain and current head coach of the Indian team has never disgraced himself in public But then thatrsquos the plus and minus sides of social media mdash you can say what you want about someone without having to get his or her versionYou canrsquot help feeling sorry for Shastri although hersquod need no sympathy In his playing days he was the cricketer who got booed even by his own Wankhede Stadium crowd And now he gets roasted ridiculed and rammed on Twitter Sure he had his forgettable moments in his cricket flannels and yes hersquos not won everything as head coach But his achievements on both platforms have been underratedFor starters how many batsmen can claim to have become a regular opener for their country after starting out as a No 10 in the batting order for his first series Shastri canAs a leftarm spinner he claimed six wickets in his debut Test v New Zealand at Wellington as an 18yearold having arrived the night before the game armed with a Polly Umrigarborrowed India sweater to deal with the chilly conditions in Kiwiland Shastri had figured in as little as seven firstclass matches before his first game for IndiaAnother example of Shastrirsquos grit was the way he responded to captain Sunil Gavaskar telling him to open the innings a few days before the sixth Test on the 198283 tour of Pakistan after recovering from a split webbing He did so by scoring a hundred against Imran Khan and Sarfraz Nawaz and as some of those players who were on that tour like to remind us India were facing an attack which included umpires Shakoor Rana Khizer Hayat and Javed AkhtarShastri was not part of the victorious playing XI in the 1983 World Cup final against WI at Lordrsquos but he was a useful member of the squad and two years later achieved his pinnacle in oneday cricket by being adjudged Champion of Champions in the 1985 World Championship of CricketHad it not been for an injury to Dilip Vengsarkar in 1988 he would have fallen in the category of the wiliest of cricketers not to have captained their country in Test cricket Shastri got his opportunity for the final Test against the mighty WI in 1988 He marshalled his troops mdash which included three debutants mdash to a 255run victory Indiarsquos first against WI in nine seasonsShastri is one of the reasons for the 1986 Test against Australia at Chennai ending in a tie when he took a single off the third ball in the last over after which India needed one run for victory This got No 11 Maninder Singh on strike which did not impress the pundits simply because Shastri was the more accomplished batsman But in Shastrirsquos mind this was exactly what Australia did not want mdash to be denied of an opportunity to win the game Or rather India could not lose from here As it happened the game was tied and Shastri had no qualms in heading to the umpiresrsquo room at Chepauk and giving V Vikramraju a blast for adjudging Maninder out leg before to Greg MatthewsHe was quite a stalwart in domestic cricket as well having been part of three Ranji Trophy wins for Mumbai The last one in 199394 was achieved with a young bunch that still swear by their skipper who played through knee pain in his last season of firstclass cricketIn the 198485 final against Delhi hosts Mumbai conceded a 65run first innings lead and the advantage caused one of the Delhi key players to say something like ldquopolish that trophy we are taking it homerdquo Shastri heard that took responsibility with the ball and claimed 891 to beat Delhi by 90 runsTwo series which India lost witnessed sterling performances from Shastri On the 1990 tour of England a touring Indian journalist wrote about Indiarsquos opening batsman needing to get a big hundred after his 100 184 balls 245 mins 12x4 1x6 in the opening Test at Lordrsquos which India lost thanks to Graham Goochrsquos 333 The second Test at Manchester was drawn and in the final one at The Oval which was also drawn Shastri helped himself to 187 Irsquove heard that he walked up to the writer and asked him if he was satisfied with his big hundred No he didnrsquot gloat but was glad to have lsquoobligedrsquo him Shastrirsquos two hundreds as an Indian opener in a Test series in England was a feat which only got accomplished by Rahul Dravid in 2011India were smashed 40 in the 199192 series Down Under but the bright spots were Sachin Tendulkarrsquos hundreds in Sydney and Perth Shastrirsquos double century in Sydney too was a highlight for India He gave debutant Shane Warne a caning which the greatest legspinner of all time hasnrsquot forgotten ldquoRavi Shastri smashed me all over the park it was sort of embarrassing I didnrsquot bowl long hops or full tosses not many anyway I bowled mainly pretty good balls but got hammered everywhererdquo wrote Warne in No SpinEventually Shastri fell to Warne for 206 The caught and bowled chance that he offered at 66 according to Warne proved costly as Warne returned figures of 1150Shastrirsquos postplaying career has a thick successful ring around it too He rose to be one of the leading Indian voices as a commentator across the globe just like his first Test captain Gavaskar and has lent more than a helping hand to Indian cricket in terms of advice and key appointments Then he became coach and though coaches donrsquot score runs take wickets and catches they contribute immensely to strategy Yes Shastri has made some eyeballrolling comments about his team but that is I suspect strategy too mdash the modus operandi of praising them in public so that they are motivated by it while he runs a tight ship behind the scenesTrolls may want to derive satisfaction by continuing to display their angst towards Shastri But be kind to him at least today Itrsquos his 59th birthdaymiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper