10 Selfish Cricketers in History
Jun 26, 2019 at 5:10 PM
10 Selfish Cricketers in History; Well, in teamwork, more often than not, we come across at least one person saying that ”I love the idea of all for one? especially if that one is me.” Yeah, we call them selfish and having such personality in the dressing room is always a tough job for the teammates to let go. With the world being so selfish, we come across those people in every day-to-day life, as they are concerned about themselves only.
Sadly, the game of cricket, where the victory lies in the team-work isn’t an exception. A lot of talented cricketers, who are the current stalwart and legendary players are one of the few members in that chart.
Despite enjoying the legendary status, there are quite a few players in cricket history, who has been booed by the fans for their selfish cricket. There are players, who played the game for continuity of their cricketing career while few tried to get the name and fame by scoring centuries without concerning about their strike-rate.
However, sometimes it’s harmless but there are examples where a player’s actions scuppered their team’s chances of winning for his own personal gain. Unfortunately, the current cricketers, who are enjoying the status of being legends also found their place in the chart.
We figured out a list of 10 cricketers, who have been termed as the selfish players by fans over the years on a few occasions. Despite criticising them for some of their actions, the fans never left their back, as they adored their cricketers over the years.
10 Selfish Cricketers in History:
10. Geoffrey Boycott:
Geoffrey Boycott may be termed as one of the all-time greats that the world cricket has ever witnessed but the flamboyant cricketer was the major headliner in England for quite a few reasons. He always ended up on the wrong side after the meeting with higher officials and never helped his team when the required run rate is high.
Boycott used to play very slow by not taking the team plan into consideration. He never changed his batting approach even if the target is pretty high and need some quick runs. There was an instance when the coach of the England team asked Ian Botham to run out Boycott, who is playing a slow knock in a selfish manner, which tells you the story.
Despite all of this, he still ended his career with more runs and centuries in first-class cricket than anyone else to have debuted since the Second World War.
9. Richard Hadlee:
The Kiwis fast bowler is yet another legendary player to make into the unwanted chart. But, his actions have let him fall into the chart. Just to continue his cricketing career, Hadlee has shorted his run-up. Further, when he took the charge of captaincy, he always went with the numbers rather than watching them closely.
But, there is no denying to the fact that he is the greatest fast bowler during his times. His incredible consistency has kept him at the top by outperforming the batsmen more often than not.
Richard Hadlee signed off by dismissing Devon Malcolm with his final delivery – an apt way to finish a glittering Test career. He transformed New Zealand from the amateur era into a world-class side which could compete with the very best.
8. Steve Waugh:
Waugh is certainly one of the greatest skippers but he also got termed as the selfish by the fans. And also, he was tagged as a selfish player by his compatriot Shane Warne, who wrote in a book that Steve Waugh completely changed after taking the captaincy reigns for Australia.
“He became a completely different person when he took over as captain,” Warne wrote. “It wasn’t that he dropped me. I have no issue about being dropped if I’m not performing; if you don’t perform, out you go. But there was more to it than my performances – I think it was jealousy,” Shane Warne wrote in his book.
7. Douglas Jardine:
The young generation wouldn’t have a clue of him but he injected one of the worst plans to the game of cricket before leaving the game. Douglas Jardine, the English captain, was one of the main heads behind the idea of implementing a bodyline plan.
Back then, when the safety measures were less, Douglas used to ask his bowlers to attack the batsmen by bowling a bodyline. Even though if the bowlers were hesitant to do that, Jardine used to make them do that, as per a few news articles of the 1930s and ’40s.
Unfortunately, it became one of the plans for the teams in current world cricket as well. He has always been remembered as ”Bodyline” more than his name ”Jardine”
6. Steve Smith:
The skipper of Australian cricket was considered as the brand ambassador of the game. However, it all vanished when he made one of the youngsters to use sandpaper for changing the condition of the ball. The ex-skipper was banned from the game for a year by the Cricket Australia.
Earlier, the talented batsman was also under the scanner for quite a few aspects one of them was to ask suggestion from the dugout for taking a DRS call. However, the batsman has changed a lot following the ban and started delivering the goods at will once again.
5. Shahid Afridi:
Afridi has raised many eyebrows with his latest autobiography titled ‘Game Changer’. Be it his views on Kashmir and 2010 spot-fixing scandal or his age revelation, Afridi has been creating headlines ever since his autobiography got released. He has criticised many former players as well.
But, then came the revelation when a few players took their time to claim that Afridi ruined the careers of a few cricketers while leading the team. Afridi used to play with the members, whom he had liked. Besides that, he has always been criticised for making the term ”retirement” a joke.
4. Mahendra Singh Dhoni:
One of the stalwart players of Indian cricket. He has always been lauded for his achievements over the years. Not only in India but also MS Dhoni got quite a fan base overseas. Even though having such a stunning track record, he was also termed as selfish for a few actions, which he committed.
Being a leader of a team, you had to take some tough decisions. Some senior cricketers like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir were excluded when Dhoni was a leader. It was a tough decision to take but Dhoni took it.
It certainly didn’t go down well with a section of fans. Further, his Test retirement and Test captaincy in overseas also a factor for a few people. Of late, he is being criticised for his slow knocks.
3. Brian Lara:
Certainly, Brian Lara is one of the fantastic batsmen of his era. A legend, who inspired Windies youngsters to pick up the bat. Lara will be in the same bracket of a few legendary players in the world cricket. But, unfortunately, he also finds a place in the chart. One of the reasons is because of his epic 400-run knock in Test matches.
Brian Lara had completed 300 in 404 balls. For the next 100 runs, he took 178 balls. At the end of 2 days, Windies were 595/5 in 157 overs. They declared at 757 in 202 overs. 162 runs made in 45 overs. As the innings killed a time in the game, the bowlers couldn’t able to rip the opposition in stipulated time.
2. Sunil Gavaskar:
Perhaps one of the best Indian batsmen is sadly in this list. He has been always criticized for his slowness in his scoring despite what situation the team was in. The most alarming incident was in a World Cup match between England and India when India had to score 334 runs off 60 overs.
In that era, it was not easy enough. Chasing down to such a mammoth score, Gavaskar took too much time in the crease to Settle down. He scored 36 runs off 176 balls. The reason for such a slow inning in such a huge chase still remains in dark.
The then India manager GS Ramchand, had some strong opinions at the time. He said, “ It was the most disgraceful and selfish performance I have ever seen… his excuse was, the wicket was too slow to play shots but that was a stupid thing to say after England had scored 334.”
1. Sachin Tendulkar:
Sadly, the God of Cricket Sachin Tendulkar also finds a name on the chart. He had a glorious career for India and sacrificed a lot to see cheers on the face of the Indian fans. But, still, there are a few incidents, which made him stay in the chart. Unfortunately, his 100th century is one of the reasons.
It was in the 2012 Asia Cup when the moment came, but the manner of Tendulkar’s ton was detrimental to his team’s chances. The right-hander toiled to 114 from 147 deliveries – just under half of India’s innings – leaving the rest to try and boost the side to a winning score
Apart from that, Sachin Tendulkar was criticised for continuing in the team despite the poor performances even after winning the ICC World Cup. His slow batting in Nervous 90s is also one of the reasons to call him so.