kerry o keefe

hi all,

now, why did i hv the title as ' kerry o keefe', after seeing yesterday' s ricky ponting knock against pakistan. keefe instantly came to mind as a person who had tremendous 'foresight'.

if title sounds strange ' kerry o keefe'. let me give a brief intro abt keefe. keefe represented aussie cricket team in 19 70's. keefe's cricketing prowess is not well-known or documented, u cant of course compare keefe with superstars in cricket.
but in the commentator s box, keefe is top-of-the-charts.
sometime back they broadcasted a channel called 'australia television' and in that channel there was a program titled 'at the wicket'. it s a cricket chat-show, which featured lots of aussie superstars commenting about world cricket and the cricketers. some of the comments are undiplomatic. and keefe is the leader of the whole team when it comes to slandering any cricketer. of course his views are brutally honest.
in 1999 when india toured australia, i had the opportunity to see 'at the wicket' quite regularly.
that tour had indian team performing badly in bowling or batting or fielding. during that series, ponting thrashed india. he scored his runs very fast even in test matches. at that time, keefe made a point in one the 'at the wicket' shows that 'ponting' is the best player in world cricket. some of the other cricketing greats in that talk show include greg mathews, geoff lawson. when keefe made this point the rest of the crowd in the studio were surprised and mentioned the name of 'sachin tendulkar'. it was only few months back then, that bradman himself said that 'sachin is the best'. and sachin made it a habit of thrashing aussies also. but during that series, sachin was pathetic, particularly in the adelaide test when he played his first-of negative innings.
sachin didnt try to score runs of mcgrath. he kept leaving most of the deliveries. and to make matters worse, dravid was in the other end. and dravid also played slowly. so the post-tea session when sachin and dravid played india had a run-rate of maybe 1 or 2 runs per over.
i liked that point that kerry o keefe made about 'sachin being not the best' and 'ponting is the best'. sachin is good enough only in indian wickets. infact nowadays, sachin bats negatively even in indian wickets.
somehow ever since then, i didnt really like the sachin s negative game. but to be honest, sachin s straight drive(in early 90s), and sachin s down the wicket sixes of spinners are really a treat to watch, too bad he doesnt play them often. i am sachin s fan when sachin gives scant respect for bowlers just like maybe richards or powell or ponting. but not when he trembles whether he plays shoaib or mbangwa.

now to summarise, keefe is correct according to me in calling 'ponting as the best'.
another point about keefe is that he s a lousy commentator but popular among masses. i think his frankness isnt appreciated, maybe that s y he doesnt figure in channel 9 line-up of commentators for major international matches. some aussie survey on best commentators two people who featured prominently include keefe and richie benaud. another commentator who surprisingly was favorite among aussies was 'harsha bogle'. i dont like harsha much because he kindof supports superstars even if they play bad. i dont like 'ravi shastri' s commentating in particular bcos of his inconsistent opinions.

bfn