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Indian cricketer in focus: Stuart Binny – turning the tables around

Stuart Binny

Being the son of a celebrity can never be easy, especially a celebrity cricketer. The weight of a billion expectations hangs over your shoulders, and the eyes of a billion people are perpetually on you.

Every one of your moves is under constant scrutiny, and each one of your decisions is carefully dissected under a microscope. Your life is never completely your own – it almost always is strangled by the steely unwavering grip of your surname.

Stuart Binny though, was spared all that. Seldom was his name printed in bold following any half-decent performance, and seldom did his omission from teams or squads create any sort of uproar.

Despite being a fairly successful Test cricketer in his own right, and being the highest wicket-taker in India’s victorious 1983 World Cup campaign, Stuart’s father Roger Binny had managed to stay away from the limelight for the most part of his career. And therefore, Stuart too, was never treated like a goldfish in a bowl, and never had the world gawking at him, oohing and aahing as he took his first steps onto the cricket field.

Thrust into the Karnataka Ranji Trophy team at the tender age of nineteen, Stuart Binny did not have an auspicious beginning – a duck in his first innings certainly did not augur well. Although he was in the team as an all-rounder, he was not trusted with the ball for a better part of the season.

His performances were not inspiring and coincided with a poor phase for Karnataka cricket. His complete failure to produce the goods meant that there was always a question mark regarding his place in the team, and being under such constant pressure meant that he could not perform to his potential. It was a vicious cycle.

With every passing season, his batting average dipped and his bowling average deteriorated. Inevitably, the tongues began to wag. He’s in the team only because he is Roger Binny’s son, they said. He’s wasting a spot in the squad, they said. He has no determination and lacks the willingness to put in the hard yards, they said. And eventually, following exceptionally unproductive seasons in 2003/04 and 2004/05, Stuart found himself left out of the Karnataka team with alarming regularity.

Out in the wilderness, away from the cosy comfort that the Karnataka dressing room provided, Stuart headed back to where he started his journey – the Bangalore United Cricket Club. He played a few good innings for the first division team at BUCC, but his consistency remained questionable. His deceptive off cutters did rattle a few stumps, but there were no performances good enough to demand attention.

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