Sport Today

There's one Pakistani who's pleased about the doping scandal which has
sidelined Shoaib and Asif: Mohammed Sami, who has been recalled to the
Pak squad for the Third Test against WI and surely wouldn't have been
if the decent bowlers were allowed to play.

Sami is obviously aiming at the Most Comebacks record. I can't work
out the current Test record-holder, although one assumes Mark
Ramprakash is in with a shout, but I'm pretty sure that the
first-class record is held by one FA Sinatra.

Cheers,

Mike
--

Mohinder Amarnath rates a mention here; he has scored centuries in
three comeback Tests, a 64 in a fourth, and was hit-wicket for 2 trying
to hook a bouncer in a 5th (as a bonus on that last Test, while wearing
a ridiculous piece of headgear, what is called a "sola topi" in India).
He's also been dropped for a Test or two in the midst of a series here
and there, but I don't rate that as a real drop; he was a fringe player
at that point, and fringe players often do miss the odd Test. And he
was in the touring party or the four*** for a home Test in most of
those cases.

He began his Test career with one Test against Australia at home in
1969-70, and didn't return to the playing XI until the series in New
Zealand in 1976. He then played the next few series until being dropped
from the side.

After being dropped for four Tests against the West Indies in 1978-79,
he returned for the 6th Test at Kanpur, and contributed to the dullness
of an extremely boring Test with a laborious 101*, which was the 3rd
century of the Indian innings. The Test is mostly remembered for Faoud
Bacchus breaking down in tears when he was out hit wicket for 250; he
was sure he was going to go on to break Sobers' record of 365.

After playing a couple of Tests in England in 1979, Mohinder was
recalled for the last Test against Australia at home in 1979-80, made
his brief fashion statement, and left the Test arena once more.
Returning for the first Test in Pakistan in 1982-83, he top-scored with
109, and added centuries in each of the last two Tests as well, easily
being India's highest rungetter for a series in which India went down
3-0 to Imran. He continued his good form in the West Indies in 1983,
and was again India's leading run-scorer, and then went on to win the
Man of the Match award in the World Cup semi-final and final.

West Indies toured India in 1983-84, Amarnath couldn't buy a Test run,
or more precisely, couldn't buy a second Test run. Scores of
0,0,1,0,0,0 led to another dropping (or two). He played the first and
second Tests, was dropped for the next two, returned for the 5th, and
dropped again for the 6th.

Returning for the series against Pakistan in 1984, he scored 101* in
the second innings, and was then pretty much a regular until he was
dropped for the final time in 1987. Technically, we can perhaps argue
about whether that was a real comeback; he only missed one Test that
India played in the meantime (the 6th Test against the West Indies in
1983-84). But philosophically, it certainly felt like a real drop and
comeback.

Also see DeFreitas, PAJ.  It was claimed (I can't be bothered checking) that
he was dropped from and recalled to the England side 15 times.

<snip>

Andrew

tapped the keyboard and brought forth:

Referred to back in England by old India hands as a "solar topee",
with the consequence that it was many years before I found out that
the "solar" bit had nothing to do with the sun.

The implication of that, from which I don't recoil, is that this
record cannot be awarded simply by examining statistics of consecutive
appearances and breaks. One has to assess whether or not missing a
single Test (as in your final paragraph on Mohinder) or being in and
out of the side as a promising fringe player count as instances of
comebacks, which one can only do by reference to circumstances.

<snip delightful potted Amarnath history>

Cheers,

Mike
--

snip

lol.
Where is he now? Therapy or cricket admin?

alvey

Sami has solid political backing. That would get you in the Pakistan
team more often than not

On Fri, 24 Nov 2006 10:25:29 +1300, "Andrew Dunford"

After his debut, he played in 15 Tests having not played in the
previous one, a lot of the "comebacks" being between 1987 and 1989
when England went through 15 Tests picking him in every other one.
There were also a couple of occasions later on when he missed a single
match.

In nearly every case where he missed a single match, he was making way
for a second (or third) spinner and returned on a more favourable
track for the next game. This wasn't always the case, though: in
1987-88, he was replaced by Neal Radford for the Auckland Test, but
I'd prefer to hope he was injured than find out that they really
thought Radford was a better bet.

He was given a little run to start with, then he had a reasonable gap
followed by the period of alternate matches, after which there are
four significant breaks in his career.

It would probably be more accurate to say that he had four comebacks
rather than fif***, which is still a fair amount.

Cheers,

Mike
--

Given Sami's sterling service down the years, it's only fair he should be
given an opportunity to raise his average above 50.

<snip>

Andrew

He's only in the squad in place of some one who didnt play.
He wont either. (unless one of Gul, Nazir, Razzaq gets injured )