Sachin Tendulkar

After that rather.... depressing.. post, and the rather longish hiatus.. its me back again with more of my stuff.

Lots have been happening, like, Sehwag scoring a triple ton, his mom saying that his fiancee is responsible for it. But whatever, whoever says.... Sehwag is Sehwag... apna Veeru ....and may he entertain non-cricket purists and cricket purists alike for years to come.

What fortunately dint materialise since yesterday's proceedings was Dee war between the Wall Fans and Sachin fans. Team interests and all fine, but it would take a really brave heart to declare when Sachin was just 6 runs away from a silent and overshadowed double century. I, for one, was really surprised to see it. Team India etc fine, but c'mon man... for the great man's sake, keeping in mind his immense contribution to the game, and also considering the fact that he was at worst a coupla overs from the 200 they shoulda played on. Wonder what went on behind the scenes between the acting captain, captain and the coach.

Which brings me to a relevant point.... Are we seeing the beginning of the decline of Sachin Tendulkar? Is there enough signs to prove so? Does he actually not contribute in crunch games?

Lemme try answering these qs one-by-one.
1) No, Sachin is not declining. In my opinion, he is undergoing the transition from being the mainstay to being one more contributor. Team India has progressed to a stage, where he is one more world class batsman in the team, and his failure will not affect the general performance. It does probably take sometime to adapt to a less pressure role from a high pressure role. Imagine an armyman who has come home after being relieved of duties on the field during war. He will take sometime to adapt to the society. I think thats precisely what is happening to Sachin.

2) Well, look at the world Cup, the Aus-NZ triseries and the early stages of the VB series, and look at his test record of 2004 and that is sufficient to prove that there are no signs to prove that he is declining. He is adjusting to his new role wonderfully well, and I am sure he is gonna serve us effectively for at least 4 more years. He had a rotten test performance in 2003, and mebbe in 2002 too(by his usual standards) agreed, and I am sure he has decided to compensate for both the years this year! We have series against Aussies and South Africans later this year, and I am sure he will shine and remove any doubts in any skeptics mind.

3) This is perhaps the biggest bullshit. Unfortunately, statistics seem to support this statement. But, as Sidhu says, statistics are like miniskirts, they hide more than they reveal. :) In international cricket, every game is a crunch game. And when Sachin gets out, it becomes crunchier, and tends to stay in the memory for long. In a multi-nation tournament(like the World cup), every game is a must-win game, if you have to reach the finals. Unfortunately, when he gets out in finals, the fact that we are in the finals because of this great man is immediately forgotten. If the skeptics are ok with him failing in other games and playing well only in finals, then he wont hv any games left to play well, coz usually, he is single handedly responsible for getting the team into the finals. Why do people forget this? What harm has he done to all these skeptics?

So ppl wake up, and acknowledge the contributions of this great guy towards the game of cricket and towards the Indian team's fortunes. Please dont wait with brickbats everytime he returns to the pavilion. May he bring more accolades to the Indian team and may India shine!! :)

--Avi