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James Franklin –
The Tricky Talented Tribesman |
By Karthik Narayan
Just as the cricket opera houses open their
gates to the wide audience that flock in
millions to watch a game of bat versus ball,
watch out for a battering ram that has been
outlining the fortunes of his team over the last
few tests – and this guy bears the name of every
well known scientist in the world – James Edward
Charles Franklin. (Hmm, perhaps Einstein might
claim his right in that name!)
And maybe, as you wonder, maybe this guy has a
little bit of science about him – a left handed
bowler, one of those rare sights in cricket
these days from the Black Caps. I think the last
left arm fast bowlers for New Zealand was Shayne
O Connor and Geoff Allot and those two did not
last all that long to really earn the fame that
other contemporary left armers enjoy.
His test debut and ODI debut came in the same
season – test debut against Pakistan in Auckland
in the first test in 2000-01. And his ODI debut
came against Zimbabwe at Taupo in the same year.
There was nothing really in those matches to
fancy his skills at the highest level.
After making his debut in 2001, he was given the
boot for three years – with some good
performances in the domestic circuits he made a
wonderful comeback to the side (also some real
setbacks to the team with injuries to the
bowlers helped him). Franklin emulated Wasim
Akram, that eternal guru of Left Arm Seamers for
all times, when he bowled a magnificent hat
trick in test cricket. It came against those
minnows Bangladesh, but in cricket, a record is
a record. He completed those three consecutive
magic balls when he wiped out the tail – two
wickets came off the last ball of his previous
over and one off the first ball of the next over
was how his Triple Threat Tragedy was meted out
to the Bangladeshis. (This was only the 4th test
of his career). His victims were Manjural Islam
Rana, Mohammed Rafique and Tapash Baisya.
This left hander has a little bit of everything
in him – he has the will to bowl endlessly with
zeal and control together, and he does a
sterling job as a tailender batsman. He has
played just 11 tests, bagging 41 wickets at
28.70 apiece and has a decent strike rate of
46.00 – around 8 overs for a wicket. He has
carved out a nice 55 as his highest score, which
shows he is not bad at batting skills. His short
international career thus far includes 30 ODIs –
29 wickets with a five-wicket haul mark that
stint.
In the absence of Nash and Shane Bond who were
the Kiwi’s pilots with the new ball for quite
sometime, the emergence of this youngster
prominence and promise in him. And he has bowled
with enough fire to lit up the winter fireplaces
in New Zealand.
Zealous is the middle name of the youngsters,
and Franklin is no less stingy with that term –
he gives enough tugs at the hearts of the
batsmen who face him first up, and his hearty
laughs over the fall of his victims with the
vicious deliveries makes him the perfect
candidate for being out rightly voted “Heart
throb of the Year”! And his looks and locks are
a total bonus as well.
At arms’s length, you wonder if Einstein might
haunt him from the grave over the names
databases that this cricketer holds in him.
James Franklin might not be of so much eminence
like all his surname-sakes, but then he shall
very well learn the influence of making his name
count a lot for himself – if he ploughs out his
best performances in this great game of cricket.
This game is the pure essence of science –
confidence grows over diffidence and then
patience with a touch of endurance brings in
experience along with conversance of incidence.
And that in all makes the difference! Now it a
matter of time that Franklin gets his residence
in the Kiwi resurgence!
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