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The first time I really noticed Ravi Shastri was via a scorecard I pored over on June 19, 1983. A day earlier, Kapil Dev had authored a cricketing miracle in Tunbridge Wells against Zimbabwe. My dad, my uncle and I were parsing the scorecard to get a handle on how the game had played out.We habitually disagreed on everything cricket, but the family quorum was unanimous on one point - Ravi Shastri, who had scored one run off six balls and given away seven runs in his only over, was a waste of good food.Our judgement was vindicated - he didnt play another game in that World Cup. My sister, who had a poster of Shastri on her bedroom wall - with two unsightly slits in the middle from when she had ripped it out of a magazine without regard to the staples - lost interest.The Benson & Hedges World Championship, two years later, reinforced our visceral dislike. When he scored 2 and 13 in the first two games, we nodded in agreement with common consensus - he was in the team only because of Sunil Gavaskar. When he scored 51 against Australia, we contrasted the 94 balls he faced against Kris Srikkanths innings of 93 off 115 - now thats how you do it. In the final against Pakistan, we vented in disgust as he used up nearly half the innings to stodge his way to 63 not out, mostly by flicking the ball off his hips, while at the other end Srikkanth buccaneered his way to 67 off just 77.My sister ooh-ed in delight as she watched Shastri collect the keys to the Audi that marked his coronation as the Champion of Champions. We three aah-ed in disgust. Dad thought Srikkanth should have got it; my uncle advocated Laxman Sivaramakrishnan; and I made an impassioned case for the charismatic Sadanand Viswanath. Anyone but Shastri, really. He is selfish, we agreed. Limited. Boring. Cant bat. Cant bowl. And in the outfield, god, by the time he condescends to bend down from that great height…Five years later I was a young editor at Mid-Day and Harsha Bhogle was our man in England. Shastri had responded to Graham Goochs monumental 333 in the Lords Test with a century of his own, but was shaded by Mohammad Azharuddins electric 121 off just 111 balls. Then, in the third Test, Shastri batted for nine-plus hours, faced 436 balls, and scored 187.It was a monument to true grit. So? Do you like grit in your eye?Watching Shastri bat is like admiring the Qutub Minar: tall, timeless, solid, Bhogle wrote then. You admire it for the virtues, not for its style.I clipped that piece and mailed it to Dad. I remember the response, in his laboured cursive: Have you seen the Qutub Minar? You can look at it for all of two minutes. After that, its just this thing thats there… In the mental gallery of cricketers I have followed, first as fan and then as reporter, that remark captions the image of Ravi Shastri - just this thing thats there. Who in hell admires something simply because it exists?And yet, even as I attempt to distil my atavistic dislike into words, a contrarian highlights reel plays out in the back of the mind. It starts with a 19-year-old landing in New Zealand on February 20, 1981 - one day before the first Test against Geoff Howarths side. His debut series, which began with a maiden to the New Zealand captain, saw him shade the likes of Richard Hadlee, Lance Cairns and Kapil as the highest wicket-taker on either side.In the space of the next 18 months his grit - that word again - saw him climb up the batting ladder from No. 10, through every single position, all the way up to No. 1. He joined forces with Mohinder Amarnath to save the first Test of the 1984-85 tour of Pakistan, and followed it up with a century, part of a 200-run partnership with Sandeep Patil, in the next. Back home, he scored what was only the second ODI century by an Indian, after Kapils iconic 175 not out against Zimbabwe. And he followed up that century against Australia, in Indore, with another hundred two months later, against England in Cuttack.His 142 in Bombay set up a Test win against England; his encore was another century in the third Test, in Calcutta, that anchored a record-setting 214-run partnership with Azharuddin. He batted on all the five days of that Test, his 111 taking him the better part of seven and a half hours.Those highlights sum up the quintessential Shastri - a monochromatic player whose monumental presence at one end allowed the stars the freedom to shine at the other. But there was more to his play than that single note, just as there was more to his batting than the utilitarian push off the hips, enshrined in lore as the chapati shot. In a Ranji Trophy game in early 1985, he scored his first 100 off just 80 balls and then raced to his double-century in a further 43, including the storied over off left-arm spinner Tilak Raj that disappeared for six consecutive sixes. It was the fastest double-century in first-class cricket then; it remains the joint-fastest till date - who woulda thunk, huh? In the final of the 50th year of the Ranji Trophy, in 1985, he took a match-winning 4 for 91 and 8 for 91 to go with a fighting 76 in the second innings to earn Bombay their 30th title.I can get plenty of first violinists, ace conductor Leonard Bernstein once said. But to find one who can play second violin with enthusiasm - thats the problem. Yet if there is no one to play second fiddle there is no harmony.When he had to, Shastri could step up and lead the orchestra. But he was an equally committed second fiddle - to Srikkanth, Gavaskar, Viswanath, Vengsarkar, Azharuddin and Tendulkar among others with the bat; to the likes of Siva and Maninder Singh with the ball.The highlights reel spins its way to Bridgetown 1989, where Shastri was at the receiving end of one of the greatest sledges ever. It was on a venomous Kensington Oval track, against an attack led by Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, abetted by Ian Bishop, the most recent addition to the overstocked arsenal of brutal pace. Facing a 56-run deficit in the first innings, Shastri came out to bat with India 0 for 1 (Sidhu). Marshall, in the midst of a masterclass in the lethal beauty that is true pace, produced a ripper that bored into Shastris groin. The fielders crowded around Shastri as he writhed on the ground. Desmond Haynes bent low and, in a voice of infinite concern, said Ravi, that girl you were to date tonight, can I have her number? You are no use to her now, maan! Shastri laughed as he writhed in agony. And then he got back on his feet and played one of the most defiant knocks by an Indian, ever - an epic that lasted close to seven and a half hours, in which his first 17 runs took nearly three hours, even as Arun Lal, Vengsarkar, Azharuddin, Manjrekar and Kapil were scythed down at the other end. He took everything the pace quartet could throw at him, and ended with a Man-of-the-Match century in a lost cause.The reel winds down in a soft whirr of nostalgia, and the rational part of me recognises that enduring legends have been constructed of less compelling material. Perhaps if he had walked off into the sunset after that last Test, against South Africa in Port Elizabeth in December 1992… Perhaps if he had left me to savour the memories, to miss him a little on the innumerable occasions when the team could have done with a bit of his doggedness, his grit, his guts… Perhaps then, in the light of the rear-view mirror, admiration would have been unalloyed.But no, he came right back, an over-loud presence in the commentary box spraying a limited set of stock phrases, like so many tracer bullets, all over the action. And he reminded me of what he used to do on the cricket field - make very little go a very long way. A rare and valuable quality, no doubt - and I admire hate the man for it.Illogical, yes. Irrational, certainly. But that is how it is, and I cannot explain why. The closest I can get is to recall the English poet Tom Brown. Caught in some schoolboy mischief by John Fell, dean of Christ Church college in Oxford, and challenged to extemporaneously translate a famous Martial epigram to avoid expulsion, Brown produced this:I do not like thee, Doctor Fell The reason why, I cannot tell; But this I know, and know full well I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.Thats my problem - the reason why, I cannot tell. Maybe if this argument were to go right down to the wire… Air Max 90 Scontate .ca! Hi Kerry, Heres an interesting one. I know its common knowledge that all players are responsible for their sticks. We witnessed that when Zack Kassian hit Edmontons Sam Gagner in the face after a missed check. Scarpe Scontatissime Online . After a lengthy wait, persistent rain finally forced the postponement of the Nationals game against the Miami Marlins on Saturday night. 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Air Max Saldi Outlet .Gather a group of friends, or find a league to join online, draft your team, set your lineup and compete in a number of different formats.Hampshire 213 for 3 (Alsop 117*) trail Surrey 329 (Burns 101, Wheal 4-100) by 116 runs ScorecardIf Hampshire do go down, which they so easily could have done last year and have looked like doing for most of this one, all is not lost. Unlike various sides around them, their direction of travel in Division One - even if it turns out to be too little, too late - is upward; at times in mid-season, they looked one of the weaker sides in recent top-flight memory, a collection of waifs and strays. Now, they look a team with plenty to be optimistic about.Chief among the causes for optimism is 20-year-old Tom Alsop, an organised and stylish batsman, who scored a magnificent maiden first-class century to keep their hopes of survival alive. Hampshire have won twice this season, both against Nottinghamshire; in the first, at the Ageas Bowl, Alsop made his first Championship 50 to anchor the first innings, while at Trent Bridge in August, he made his previous highest score, 93. This innings gives them a mighty fine chance of claiming a third, season-saving win.Conditions for batting - much of the day was baked in sun, and the typically Ovalish pitch seemed to flatten as the ball came on nicely - were much improved. On day one, Surreys eventual 329, topped off before lunch by a roistering unbeaten 41 from Gareth Batty, looked a very fine score. But by the close of the second, Alsop had run Surrey - who largely bowled extremely well - ragged; not only was he dropped twice - at second slip on 72, and at square-leg on 91 - but he was the beneficiary of four overthrows late in the day, too.Alsop came to the crease in trying circumstances, as Tom Curran bowled a magical spell after lunch, beating Jimmy Adams outside edge - from over and round the wicket - numerous times, before finally finding it. Alsop was himself beaten, but soon settled, cleanly cutting Mark Footitt twice through backward point. Anything on his legs was flicked from fine-leg to wide mid-on, while his driving was crisp and precise - all the way from point to down the ground, off front and back foot - too. He raced to 55 in 60 balls, but then as Hampshire lost Will Smith - with whom Alsop shared 92 before Smith edged Footitt behind - then James Vince, he did not score for 40 balls. It was a case of getting through, he said. It requires patience, and Im not always the most patient person so Im pretty pleased to get there.Having done jjust that, he put on a counter-attacking unbroken stand of 88, from another unsteady position, with Sean Ervine, who plopped Batty into the Pavilion for six.dddddddddddd With the weather set fair again, they have the chance to go big on on Thursday.Tom Curran made it very difficult, nipping it away from the lefties, he said, then you have Meaker and Footitt bowling 90 clicks, its pretty difficult whatever the track is. You play some teams and you think you can get through this spell and have a look at the others, but then they bring those two on. Theres no real break.Both in personality and skill (he is also an excellent short leg), it is perfectly clear why Hampshire - who in Mason Crane, Joe Weatherley and the Brads, Taylor and Wheal, have plenty of other talented youngsters - and England rate Alsop so highly. On the back of his maiden List A century, also against Surrey, he jumped the queue to receive a Lions call-up in July and it was hard to believe, watching this innings, at such a vital juncture in his teams season, that it was his first Championship ton.I got close a few weeks back, Alsop said, and you do wonder if youll get another chance, especially with just a few games left this season. I took it ball by ball and am completely over the moon. I really wanted this, and its happened. They say the first ones the hardest and its definitely felt that way.Vinces was an altogether briefer, more confused innings. Few truly believe we have seen the last of him as a Test cricketer; he is, after all, a batsman of immense talent and an impressive character - indeed the youngest current county captain.But before he is to return he must stop edging full, wide deliveries. It is that simple. By all accounts, the great strength of the century that so dazzled James Whittaker - and got him selected for seven Tests this summer despite modest numbers - at Headingley in April was his abstinence, at least until fully settled, from his seductive cover drive.This looked the perfect opportunity for another day of chastity but, having edged short of first slip already, he was roughed up by some short stuff and could not resist the big drive. Ben Foakes, stood a touch wide as if anticipating the gimme, did the rest. It was a mightily slow, almost disbelieving trudge off. ' ' '