Famous Five: Cricketers who changed the way world cricket is today

Cricket is a game of conventions. While T20 makes that more debatable by the day – essentially the game is played within some rules, and greatness is often achieved by discipline and skill. Yet, once in a while sheer individual brilliance changes the existing norms of the game and sets a new benchmark.
Each era has produced its share of greats who’ve bucked the trend. Here’s a look at five modern era cricketers, who’ve changed the way we play cricket today:

Waqar Younis (Pakistan) – When Waqar burst into the scene as an eighteen year old tearaway – the rule of fast bowling was to bowl fast and short, and push the batsman back into the crease. Those tall and raw-boned greats from West Indies (pick your favorite), Lillee and Thomson (Aus), Willis and Botham (Eng) – they all operated likewise. Waqar cooked his own recipe: fast and full, and added his spice – reverse-swing to it. They’ve done it before, and they’ve done it since. But no one quite did it like the Burewala Bombshell in his pomp. Armed with extreme pace, he swung it in and threatened batsman’s toes instead of his head. His mantra was simple – “aiming for the head won’t fetch me a wicket, aiming for the toes would”. And so it was. It took England and rest of the world another decade to realize the high-art. Death over bowling in ODIs have never been the same since.


Stat-spot: Test match career strike rate 43.4 - no man in last hundred years has come anywhere close, especially with 350+ career wickets. (Dale Steyn has an outside chance) ODI career strike rate: 30.9 – again, no challengers in the 400+ career wickets club. Only Brett Lee has done a little better for 350+ club.


Shane Warne (Australia) – Warne single-handedly made spin-bowling fashionable. There were great spinners before him, and few who played with him. Murali finished with more wickets than him – but none quite did it like Warnie. He had magnificent command over his craft – legbreaks, sliders, googlies, wrong’uns, varying degree of topspinners and sidespinners – but his most potent tool was his mind. He preyed on the batsman’s mind until the fear of mystery often got the man. In the last quarter of 20th century when everyone wanted to be a fast bowler – Warne made the kids dream of being a spinner again. And oh! He was perhaps the best captain Australia never had. Rajasthan Royals didn’t mind that.

Stat-spot: The first man to 700 test wickets, he has the most number of wickets in a single calendar year for any bowler, ever – 96 wickets (2005)


Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka) – Perhaps a moot point, but 
without the Matara Marauder we’d probably never have T20 cricket, batting powerplays and IPL. Kris Srikkanth, Mark Greatbatch and Gordon Greenidge might take offence, but pinch-hitting openers became a necessity due to this man. Unlike the technically correct openers with forward defense, here was a man who made opening the bowling the most-hated profession, and ended several careers. The Sehwags, Gayles, and Warners of today have much to thank to this man who at various points held the records for quickest 100, most sixes in an innings and most runs in an over in ODI cricket.


Stat-spot: Jayasuriya is the only man to have scored 30 or more runs in an over, on two different occasions. He still has the ODI record for fastest 50 (off 17 balls!).


Jonty Rhodes (South Africa) – Rhodes made the most unfashionable, overlooked art in cricket look sexy. His fielding was like a reel full of YouTube moments. Not that there weren’t excellent fielders before. But Rhodes took it to another level. He could anticipate the direction of the ball by looking at the stroke batsman was shaping to play, always stealing those few extra milliseconds and covered incredible ground (and airspace) with his amazing athleticism. His running out of Inzamam (World Cup 1992) was immortalized by a postage stamp. However, in a career full of stunning catches and stops it’s near impossible to pick one moment. Teams have since seen value in specialist fielders like Collingwood, Mohd. Kaif, Ruwan Kalpage and Dwayne Bravo – even if their primary skills weren’t always up to scratch.


Stat-spot: His team-mates reckon, by conservative estimate Rhodes saved at-least twenty runs per match in the arc between point and backward point. For a 245 match career where he scored nearly 6000 runs, add those twenty per match and his total stands at nearly 11000!


Kevin Pietersen (England) – Pietersen was never designed for conventions. His cricketing ambitions saw him cut ties with his home country and live alone in an alien environment to establish himself. He’s also probably not an undisputed great like the men above. Yet, he makes this list courtesy that one shot: Switch-Hit. It’s a shot which made those hallowed lawmakers in MCC scramble back to the rule books for first time in years. Make no mistake – this is a shot of serious courage, skill and execution. Unlike the scoops and reverse sweeps where you still get your strong hand to be the bottom-hand – imparting power and precision, switch hit requires you to switch your stance, hands and anticipate the line and length of the ball, all the while with the ball coming at you. That he has executed it against a spinner like Murali, and a pacer like Morkel is testimony enough. Let’s put it this way: no-one has invited as much debate about a single shot since Ranji’s leg-glance had the puritans talking.