Sachin..Sachin..
Sachin Tendulkar 1, Mumbai crowd 0...read the headlines on The Hindustan Times the day after India’s first innings debacle against England at Mumbai.
Well, the reason behind the headline…Sachin was booed off the field for scoring a solitary run off 21 balls in his home country and home ground..how many people have been given such a treatment?? Does he actually deserve it?
Let’s have a look at the stats…..miserable scores in the last 8 test innings….
Moreover, not even a single 50 or a 100 in these innings…. A tagline which would bemuse bowlers world over….Tendulkar himself wouldn’t be proud of this…
Reporters at home craving for his neck, giving headlines such as ‘Endulkar’, ‘lacking in confidence’... In my opinion, this is all absolute rubbish…
For a man who has been a good son to Indian cricket for 17 years now, is this the treatment that his home crowd gives him? Absolute shame on Mumbai. How can they ever do this? Indian cricket fans tend to suffer from amnesia of some sort...and most cricket fans say that he has never scored a match winning knock….
Now, lets rewind 16 years back….to Sialkot in 1989...a 16 year old kid facing Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram…possibly the fastest bowlers around that time...scoring a 50 against that sort of an attack...the world then noticed a special talent that India had...a batsman who would infuse fear in the bowlers’ mind, giving them nightmares before they even bowled to him...A one man demolition army…
Comment: Sachin hasn’t played a match winning knock to date…
You call that an accusation?…..how many times have you enjoyed watching Sachin play...praying all the time that he stay at the crease...have you forgotten all that?? Have you?
For a long time, Sachin used to stand tall amidst Indian ruins….and the Indian public would not notice the way the whole team has played, but would simply tell that he hadn’t played any match-winning knock..A match winning knock would necessarily need some support from other batsmen...but when nobody gave him support, how could you expect him to provide that?
Against New Zealand in 1994, when Sidhu was unavailable for opening the innings, Sachin was asked to open….and the result, a stunning 82 from 49 balls faced...winning us the match
Against Australia in 1996 World Cup @ the Wankhede..thrashing McGrath all over the park leaving him frustrated and gnawing at his cap…
Rewind back to Sharjah in 1998…when he single handedly won us the match against Australia…..wouldn’t you love to see that match again and again on Ten Sports ‘ Great Innings?
Bangladesh – Independence Cup 1998 – Sachin thrashed Saqlain Mushtaq for six the very first ball he faced
Against Pakistan in Chennai – suffering from severe back pain and taking India to the brink of victory, only for India to lose…
World cup 2003 - match against Pakistan when he thrashed Shoaib Akhtar out of the park….. But all people remembered was his failure in the final of the World Cup 2003 against Australia…
and there are so many instances...
16 years of hard cricket has taken its toll on his body….major surgeries apart, the battered soldier still has the heart, mind and body of a 16 year old kid on the cricket field…one cannot expect Sachin to play the same attacking way he used to play some time back….
Let me explain the feeling of watching a Sachin in free flow @ the Chepauk against Australia in 1998. I had my Standard 10 exams the next week….but sneaked out of home along with my friends to watch a special knock…
The time I entered the stadium, Rahul Dravid had just got out on 51 and Sachin was not out on 60….Sachin danced down the track and almost played all the shots in the book to Shane Warne, leaving him flabbergasted….watching him play was like a dream come true for me….. I had seen him on TV…but seeing him disband bowlers with such ease was a treat for me..
Comment: Sachin should retire now…
Oh Yeah…and have you found a replacement??...the replacement should be a person who is a great batsman, a swing/ off-spin/ leg-spin/ off-break/ leg-break bowler and a great fielder/ athlete….come one, have you found one? Well, then. Who’s filling up the void…?
The Indian public are nothing short of traitors…. Baying for Sachin’s blood whenever he fails and praising him when he scores…
I believe he still has the energy to keep him going for another 3 years at least….
You must read this article….Watching Sachin leave
And you still believe Sachin must retire? Huh….then God save Indian Cricket…
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4 comments:
Chnadru:
I agree all that. Past laurels can't take you anywhere. Any person calling himself a professional (it applies to corporate sector too) needs to be aggressive and competitive as of the moment (not resting on past laurels). Moreover, we need to put the best XI (who is in best form as of the moment as the situation demands) rather than carry a baggage at the cost of others. Sachin has done the right thing at least now, by making him unavailable for the one day series. Whatever applies to Saurav should apply to sachin too. Let him play domestic cricket and prove his form before considered for selection. Nobody is bigger than the game.
Regards,
Kumar
Love your post man. I can see a lot of emotion and anguish behind it... Kumar does have a point, but I have to say that after all that Sachin has done for India, he deserves a few more opportunities. Everyone goes through bad patches, and Sachin also has been offset by injury. Noone says he's bigger than the game, but he's a demi-God and you cannot toss him lightly! He's done more for the popularity of the game in India that the rest of the team combined. Hail Sachin! The Master will come back!!!
Chandru:
I am coming back to this just to post a reply to karthi. I agree that he is to be treated with respect and strongly condemn the illtreatment meted out to him (they simply don't deserve him) but ... any day a team has to be selected based on present form, the kind of opposition you are facing and your strategy but not on past laurels, inside connections etc... I think it looks like some shock medicine needs to be given to Sehwag-he is too regularly irregular.
Regards,
Kumar
First comment :)
I've been reading this blog regularly since you commented on mine, and your posts have kept me in good humour, and sometimes I wonder if this is the Chandru I knew :) - good work dude.
As for the current post, I understand your anguish. But before I proceed further, let me make my credentials clear - I'm not a Sachin fan, I love Cricket and I believe in being objective.
That said, I've admired Sachin and all his great knocks. World Cup '96, Sharjah '98, World Cup '03 (that cover drive off Waqar still burns in my mind's eye), Chepauk '99, Headingley '02...could go on, not to forget that Hero Cup over, his awesome leg-breaks, his outfielding - to put it simply it is impossible to find as natural a a talent like him in the future.
But again, considering his recent run of form, one is hard pressed to reason why he shouldn't be dropped. Sport is the greatest leveller, they say. It brings the Gods down to the level of mere mortals. And nobody is spared. Not even Sachin. One must use the same yard-stick, for it is very important that the selectors and the Board appear unbiased and impartial. So, looking at it objectively, my opinion is Sachin should be dropped and asked to prove himself in the domestic circuit and then the selectors should consider him for selection. You might feel that there is nobody to replace him, but you're talking of the Sachin of old. The Sachin of today has too many doubts in his mind - he respects bowlers who have no right to be on the same field as him.
That's that - drop him, let him prove himself, bring him back - treat everybody in the same way. By letting him stay on, we are missing out on precious talent e.g. Raina and Dhoni. If we'd persisted with Laxman and Ganguly, do you think we'd have discovered these guys? All I'm asking you and the other die-hard Sachin fans is to keep an open mind.
Think about it.
And keep the posts coming :)
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