The Sachin Effect

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Sachin - Still a long way to go....

The recent test series between Sri Lanka and India has raised a lot of questions regarding the fabulous four and in particular Sachin Tendulkar.
"He has passed his peak"
"His mind is not on the game anymore"
"He cannot play Mendis and Murali"
These are the kind of conversations that are taking place passionately all over the country. The biggest problem about being an Indian cricket fan is that everybody is a self-professed 'expert of the game' - where his/her opinion and advice is what is going to save the Indian team whenever they go through a rough patch. I was seeing a talk show last night on the television. This was a show where people can call in and express their views about the burning issue of the day with regards to cricket. The topic for yesterday's show was "Sachin - is this the beginning of the end?"
The kind of opinions that came in from people all over the country ranged from hilarious to really sensible. The funniest one came from a gentleman residing in Bengaluru and i quote "Sachin's feet are not moving when he is at the crease". Perfect example of the breed of people i cited in the earlier part of the post. It was astounding as to what people could say on national television about a person who has been a humble servant of the sport for the past 19 years!
For all the cynics, there a few things that i would like to elucidate that we should keep in mind before criticising someone of his stature . Firstly, none of us know what it is like to face a leather ball coming right at you at 140 kmph in a stadium with 90,000 screaming fans. The only people who know that are ex-cricketers and none of them have asked for him to retire. So we have absolutely no moral right to pass judgement on something that we have never experienced. Secondly, when someone has served the country for 19 years and has played tirelessly the least we can do is have some respect for him and his ability rather than jump onto him for a failure. Some people say that he has crossed his peak, but they tend to forget that geniuses have no peaks. They set their own standards and are expected to better them time and again. Sachin is a genius, there is no doubting that but apart from that the sheer commitment that he has towards the game and the country is admirable - within a day of his father's funeral he was back in national colours at the world cup in England. Public memory is very short , such deeds are meerily forgotten to focus on his poor form. There was a statistic in yesterdays show focussing on his poor performances. There were 9 series they shortlisted in which it was felt that he wasn't in the best of form. This was from the time he made his debut in 1989. In 19 years he has had 9 'poor' series ( i quoted poor because in some of those series he averaged 30 which for a normal batsman is decent )that works out to 1 poor series every 2 years!!! That is appauling and is testimony to the fact about the high standards he sets for himself.
Lets have a little respect for this man who moved away from his parents at the age of 12 so that he could play cricket regularly. Let us not shun a man who used to be ferried by his coach from one ground to another in the sultry heat of Mumbai to bat in different matches throughout the day. Let us not tell a man who has the best cricketing brain seen so far as to when he should retire. Let us treat a man who has been praised by none other than The Don himself with a little respect.
At the risk of sounding prophetic I would like to predict that Sachin is going to be around till the 2011 cricket world cup. He knows that the world cup final is slated to be played at his home ground,the Wankhede stadium, it will be poetic justice for him to play in that match and lead India to victory- bit like a similar genius from tennis - Pete Sampras, who finished on a high after clinching the US Open at Flushing Meadows.

After 7 P.M now what??

Have you been feeling a strange void since the beginning of this week?That of not looking forward to watching a cricket match at dinner time(because I certainly am)! And im pretty sure im not the only one who's feeling it.That is what 44 days of non stop "cricketainment" can do to you and the credit for this should go to Lalit Modi.
When the IPL was conceptualised a lot of people thought that this would be an overdose of cricket for the viewers, this could have held true in other cricket playing nations but not in India, where the gentleman's come is a religion (sometimes bordering on fanaticism).
A lot has happened in these 44 days - blitzkrieg batting performances, brilliant bowling spells, world class fielding, nail biting finishes on one hand and completely boring and insipid performances on the other. A lot has also been written about the controversies off the field, with the concept of ownership of teams and players being taken to new levels. This is definitely a renaissance period of sorts for international cricket,this can be substantiated with three instances that occurred during the course of the tournament which we never would have dreamt of otherwise:
1)In the opening match of the tournament between Bangalore and Kolkata Ishant Sharma yorked the living daylights out of Rahul Dravid and Ricky Ponting ran towards Sharma from first slip to congratulate him on bowling a beauty of a delivery.Rewind back to 2 months when Ishant was tormenting Punter down under, with Rahul Dravid getting catching practice in the slips! Who would have ever thought that Ricky Ponting would have the oppurtunity to be on the other side.
2)During the middle of the tournament in the match between Kolkata and Delhi(which was Shoaib Akhtar's IPL debut) Akhtar got Manoj Tiwary plumb LBW with an express delivery. This is nothing abnormal, but now comes the fun part, the match was being played at the Eden Gardens(Tiwary's home ground,though he was playing for Delhi) and when Shoaib got his wicket the crowd went delirious with joy. An Indian batsman in his home ground being castled by a Pakistani bowler and the crowd is actually backing the Pakistani bowler(a new high for Indo-Pak diplomacy?)I found this to be one of the defining moments of the IPL.This after Shoaib Akhtar had silenced the same crowd a decade ago after he cleaned up Dravid and tendulkar in consecutive deliveries.
3)The last moment came in the final of the tournament when Yusuf Pathan got a wicket the wicket keeper(Kamran Akmal) jumping onto him as a mark of celebration.This again would never ever have happened in a Indo-Pak cricket match.
If somebody had predicted such instances before the IPL they might have been asked to get psychiatric help, but then thats what the IPL can do. Its definitely a refreshing change infused into cricket and I am looking forward to the future editionS!

WHAT A WEEK!!!

The events of the past week have thrown up a lot issues which thrust cricket into the background and other cricket related issues have been hogging the headlines. It all started off with umpire Stevie Wonder.. oops did i say Wonder?? I'm sorry I meant Bucknor!! But then again you wouldn't fault me for calling him that had u seen the 2nd test between India and Australia. Stevie's partner in crime was Mark Benson, who until now wasn't heard of but I'm sure that he has become so famous out here that he definitely will not be planning his next vacation to India.
Then we have the 'honest' guys of world cricket viz. Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Mathew Hayden and Andrew Symonds. We all know that the Aussies are a bunch of sore losers but what we didn't know was that their so called playing in the 'spirit of the game' has a totally different meaning from that of the rest of the world. They stay when they have edged the ball to the keeper or the even the slip fielders, until the umpire has confirmed it and they also grass catches and appeal as if they have just completed one of the best catches ever taken.
The third thing learnt was that when the going gets tough for the Aussies they will stoop down to unimaginable levels to play mind games with the opposition. When their egos were bruised because a batsman of the calibre of Harbhajan Singh was whacking their bowling, they decided to convict of him racially abusing Andrew Symonds. The kind of taunts that the Aussies have thrown(taunt is a very mild term) at their opponents through the years makes someone calling Symonds a monkey sound like a sermon.
If anybody ever had a doubt as to why Mike Procter didn't attend law school then all those doubts should have been cleared after seeing the way he passed judgement in the Harbhajan issue. Only Symonds heard it, none of the umpires heard it, the stump microphones didn't pick up anything and Sachin Tendulkar categorically stated that Harbhajan did not say the m word. Even a layman can guess then what the correct verdict should have been. And after passing the judgement Mr.Procter says that he is from South Africa and knows what racism means, well that is exactly what can be held against him also!!
We also saw how the BCCI is one of the most powerful cricket boards around when they managed to get Steve Bucknor replaced for the third test. In another display of its power the BCCI has also given the ICC a week to get Harbhajan's name cleared of the racial charges and if that doesn't happen then the tour will be called off and Mr. Pawar will not be afraid to wield his power.
On the cricketing front Sehwag found some of his form with a century in the practice game, but even he knows that the Aussie attack on a Perth pitch is going to be a few notches tougher. Nevertheless a century is a century in any form of the game against any attack. On Tuesday night the Indian think tank will be in a quandary, should they give Yuvraj another chance and continue to tinker with the batting order?? Or should they bring back Sehwag so that Dravid and Laxman can go back to their original positions in a game they would desperately want to win??
Well the coming week should be as exciting as this week, we will get know if Mr.Pawar can pull off a coup in international cricket and relive the days of Jagmohan Dalmiya and Mike Denness!!

FROM PRINCE TO KING

I couldn't resist the temptation of writing some more about Sourav Ganguly. India won the test series against Pakistan 1-0, it could have been 2-0 had the Bangalore weather not intervened on the last day. Quite fittingly, Dada was chosen as the man of series.

In March 2005, the last time these 2 teams played a test in Bangalore, Dada's rough patch had begun. I was present at the stadium for that match and I vividly remember how he got out-he had just come out to bat and the first over that he faced of Danesh Kaneria he tried to hit himself out of bad form by going down the pitch for a pretty ambitious shot. As the case is when a player is in bad form, he missed the ball completely and was comprehensively stumped. The joke around the stadium that day was that nobody even realised when Sourav came and went.

About 32 months later, the same gentleman brought the entire stadium to its feet when he came out to bat in both innings. His double century in the first innings was followed up with a brisk 91 in the second innings, narrowly missing Sunil Gavaskar's record of scoring a double century and a century in the same match. This is the beauty of cricket- in all probability you get the chance to redeem yourself, and if you make the most of it all is forgotten about the past. Dada's timing, while batting, is his God given gift. The timing of his double century was even better. To come back the ground where was the butt of everyone's jokes and score a double and ensure a series victory- sounds more like a fairy tale comeback.

Cynics still say that the Australian tour is going to be his litmus test. I would beg to differ. He has proved himself in the past one year in South Africa, England and at home against the Sri Lankans, Australians and Pakistanis. Yes the Australian tour is definitely going to test his skills but that should be used as the benchmark to idolise him or shun him.

The bottom line is that in the 16 years of cricket that i have seen, a comeback of this proportion has never occurred. I was never a huge fan of Sourav Ganguly, but now you can put me on that list.

CORRIGENDUM:

In the previous post I had said that his century at Brisbane in 2004 was the last one before the one at Kolkata. The last one before his Kolkata century was actually in Zimbabwe, which had started off all the controversy about the tiff between him and Greg Chappel. And also the Brisbane century was in December 2003. So i stand corrected on both counts.

DADA REINVENTED

I am writing this post on the 2nd day of the 3rd test between India and Pakistan being played at Bangalore. About 15 minutes back Sourav Ganguly played a trademark cover drive and achieved something that had eluded him in 11 years of international cricket, a double century.

Its been almost a year since Dada has come back into the team after his unceremonious dismissal from the unit which he had formed. India were in South Africa that time and the likes of Nel,Ntini and Pollock definitely did not want to give Dada a warm reception back to the international arena. He scored a gritty half century in that low scoring game at Jo'burg and was the pick of the Indian batsmen on that tour. What was amazing to see was the way Dada had re invented himself as a batsman. He was looking much more confident and and at ease at the crease. The biggest change for me was the way he changed his pull shot, it is very crucial to have that shot in your armoury on the bouncy pitches of South Africa. Earlier, he would get the bat below the ball and invariably sky it, now he plays it more conventionally with the face of the bat in the direction of the boundary.

One year into his comeback he has cemented his place in the team(again). Even in the shorter version of the game, the Tendulkar-Ganguly opening combination came back to terrorise the bowlers. He has been very consistent throughout the year and it is very difficult to point to a particular phase when we could say it looked like he was struggling. Even in the disastrous World Cup campaign he stood out with a couple of solid half centuries. He continued the good form against England and was very close to the elusive century but Simon Taufel made a rare mistake and Trent Bridge wasn't destined to be the place of his comeback century.

The past two weekends have been amazing for him. Last saturday, he achieved a long cherished dream, that of getting a test century at the Eden Gardens, his celebrations showed how much it meant to him, it was very similar to his celebrations in Brisbane (which incidentally was his last century before this one), way back in 2004. The grit and determination showed in that innings was commendable. The timing couldn't have been better, both literally and figuratively. Which Indian cricketer wouldn't want to score a test century against Pakistan at his home ground??

Coming to this weekend, Dada came in to bat yesterday with 3 wickets down in the first session itself, with Laxman being the 4th to go he and Yuvi came together and engineered a fightback you generally would not associate with the Indians. By the end of the day they had put on 300 hundred runs and bailed India out of a precarious situation. Apart from his own century what would have made Dada feel satisfied was the way Yuvraj staked claim for a test spot. Yuvi was brought into the team wen Dada was captain and Dada was a staunch supporter of Yuvi who came in for a lot of criticism during the initial phase of his career. It was definitely a special moment to see both of them get centuries.

Today, the 2nd day he went on to score his maiden double test century and this time his partner at the other end was another young gun whom he had mentored, Irfan Pathan(ironically he too was making a comeback in test cricket and believed in Yuvi's way of doing it, by scoring a century). One more coincidence was that his century in Kolkata, the century and double century in Bangalore, all were brought up by cover drives. Even in the bowling department he is being utilised appropriately now and has been used as a partnership breaker to good effect.

The amount of respect i have for him now has grown manifold. I will be the first one to accept that i was in the group of detractors when he did an ad on TV for Pepsi after he was dropped,in which he asked us to continue cheering for India. I found that ridiculous. But then after coming back he has silenced all of us.

This may seem out of context but i would equate his comeback to SRK developing a six pack for OSO. Its not easy at the age of 42 to do that.Similarly for Dada, when he was dropped from the side he was 33, the normal age for retirement for a cricketer.The easy way out would have been to announce his retirement, after all he had achieved quite a lot in 10 years of international cricket. But he took the decision of working his way back into the team. He went back to the basics and worked extra hard on his fitness. Not many people know this but he had told his physical instructor to keep asking him whether he wanted to get back into the team or not whenever it looked like he was getting too tired and wanted to give up. It worked wonders for him and he came back, a changed player at the age of 34.

One year is a fair amount of time to decide whether a player is good enough for international cricket. And Dada has proved that he is here to stay and will retire on his own terms.

OFF THE FIELD, ITS NOT WAR.

Came across an article in today's paper which suggested that when India and Pakistan play cricket, its war only on the field. Virender Sehwag lost his father a couple of days ago and Pakistan's captain Shoaib Malik along with the team manager and media manager went to Sehwag's place to offer their condolences. This was a very nice gesture on their part. This goes to show that the camaraderie between players of both teams is really healthy and all rivalries are restricted to the cricket field.
On behalf of all Indian cricket fans I would like to offer my deepest condolences to the Sehwag family,which is must be going through a mixture of emotions right now(the birth of Viru's son preceeded his father's death by a week). For inspiration Viru need not look too far, a certain team mate of his attended his father's funeral and came back within a couple of days to represent his country in the world cup and scored a century as a tribute to his father.