Millions of hearts are ready to die
Legendary soul your smile is shy
As the roaring lions are tamed with a whip
You handle pressure all with a sweep,
Shakespeare of cricket write poems in air
turn dreams into reality with passion and care,
A marathon run on rulers’game
nothing stands,thy Hannibal will to blame,
No fire can melt thy icy cool look
your eagle eyes miss not a pool or hook,
tonnes after tonnes you grind like a mill
thy colossus height can past wounds heal,
Age can not wither the charm of your stroke
In midst of storms you stand like a rock

Poetic justice in deed, Prof!

The entire Mohali cricket stadium was on its feet acknowledging cricket’s most awaited event in the current calendar year.  Tendulkar was in the company of his old team mate Saurav Ganguly at the non-striker end and one of Australia’s most prolific batsmen Ricky Ponting in the field.

The cricket authorities made elaborate arrangements for the milestone by setting off fire crackers in time for the feat. With the current record Sachin has broken most of cricket’s batting records including highest runs in ODI cricket.

Almost an year back, Sanjay Manjrekar had written a column where he doubted Sachin’s commitment. Sachin came back at him with a brilliant 100 off 76 balls which won India the series against the West Indies. Manjrekar had to retreat for a season until recently when he blabbered in his column with a similar criticism.

And this time around Sachin has come back at him even harder with a classic hundred against the world champions in the final of the tri-series. So Manjrekar jii, where are you? Get well soon!

Now, nearly two decades on, it is almost as if they have adopted him as one of their own. There have been other visiting champions during this age, such as Brian Lara of the West Indies, but none has attracted quite the sort of rapturous applause that has greeted Tendulkar every time he has walked out onto a cricket ground in Australia during this series. Yes, much of it has to do with this tour probably being his last, but it was much the same in the 2003-04 series, and in 1999-2000.

Just what it is about Tendulkar that the Australians so love? The reasons have as much to do with Australia as with the man himself.

Bill Lawry, the former Australian captain, points out that Australians have always had time for champions. “We’ve always enjoyed champions and they could be in any sport.” Peter Roebuck, who captained Viv Richards and Ian Botham at Somerset, and enjoys something approaching Tendulkar-like status in cricket writing himself, reckons it has to do with the sentimentality of Australians. “It’s a new country, and its people get excited when they see great innings like Tendulkar’s.” He goes on to stress that the likes of Lara and Shane Warne were “mixed blessings”, while Tendulkar is not.

Gideon Haigh, historian and cricket writer, agrees that his countrymen admire anyone who does well against them, but presents a unique point. “It is partly a mark of respect, partly a symptom of national narcissism. I think Australians are also fascinated by Tendulkar’s status in India. Australian cricketers are hugely popular in their own country, but they do not need protection from their fans in the fashion Tendulkar does. His fame, to us, makes him an emblem of Indian extremity and exoticism.”

There is also the matter of two ringing endorsements, delivered by Australian greats.

When Tendulkar was at his peak in the mid-to-late-1990s, one day Sir Don Bradman called his wife Jessie to the television set and said how he could see himself in the young man he was watching play on the screen. Then Warne, talking about his contests with the Indian, said Tendulkar gave him “nightmares”.

Mark Taylor, another Australian captain who played against Tendulkar and has been an admirer from the day he first watched him play, thinks the Bradman compliment was a major head-turner. “Suddenly people thought, ‘Hold on, you don’t have the greatest batsman saying things just like that.’”

Taylor also points out that part of the admiration has to do with the sheer amount of runs Tendulkar has made in Australia. Six of Tendulkar’s 39 Test centuries have come in Australia, each worth its own photo album. Haigh’s personal favourite was the MCG Test of 1999. “The Indian batsmen struggled awfully. [Rahul] Dravid was lifeless, inert,” he remembers. “But Tendulkar was so immediately at home that it was almost like the Aussies just gave up trying to get him out and decided to work around him.” Haigh calls Tendulkar not just a great batsman but a fascinating batsman: “so correct, so compact, as intricate and exquisitely functioning as a Fabergé egg.”

Tendulkar came to Australia for the 1991-92 series as a impressionable youngster. His legend was already on the way to being established, thanks to the world record he had set with Vinod Kambli in school cricket. When he arrived in Australia, people wanted to see the young phenomenon. “People loved him then because he seemed to be still a boy but played brilliantly,” recollects Mark Ray, a senior Australian journalist.

Ray, the author of Cricket Masala, a brilliant photographic travelogue of his various cricketing tours, touches on another aspect of Tendulkar’s appeal. “His modesty is a bit old-fashioned these days and appeals to many Australians. We have an image of being tough, very self-confident sportsmen, but most of the public here still prefer the modest champion. He stands out in that regard.” Jim Maxwell of ABC Radio believes it’s Tendulkar’s flawless character that has defined him. “Australians like the humble, the laconic, no-complaining types, which Tendulkar is.”

Mike Coward, the eminent cricket writer, says: “Humility and civility have followed him all his life.” For Coward it is Tendulkar “who has raised awareness about Indo-Australian cricket, given it a profile more than anyone else. He is someone people can relate to.”

Tendulkar for his part has valued the importance of gaining the respect of the most feared opponents around. Ravi Shastri, a team-mate at the time, recalls how Tendulkar, even on his first Australian tour, wanted to take the fight to the Aussies. “We were at the SCG and the contest was getting heated. Both of us were batting well and the Aussies were shooting sledges from all directions. I told him that I would take care of them while he focused on his batting. He was mentally charged. I still remember him saying, ‘Let me get past my 100, then I will give it back’, in Marathi. Let me point out again that he said he wanted to get to the century and only then would he distract himself.”

When asked recently if Australia ever felt like a second home to him, Tendulkar said, laughing: “I only have one home. But it’s truly a special feeling to walk in to such a reception, when I don’t know if I am batting on zero or on 100.”

In private conversations with friends Tendulkar has talked about his appreciation for the respect he has been accorded in Australia. He told a senior Indian journalist friend how satisfying it was to score his 39th Test hundred at the Adelaide Oval, the home of Bradman, who would have been close to a hundred years old if he were still alive. Tendulkar wouldn’t admit that in the public lest it was mistaken for false modesty, but thereby he adds another layer to his greatness.

General Peter Cosgrove, a former head of the Australian Defence Force, delivering the 2008 Sir Donald Bradman oration at the University of Western Australia two weeks ago, said, “Australians are among the most overtly competitive people on the planet. Cricket defines our approach to competition: it has rules and teams, it demands focus and self-confidence. It entails an intense desire and will to win; it needs an abundance of skill, stamina, courage and perseverance.” Indeed, these are the qualities Sachin Tendulkar has come to define for Australians among others. And in so doing, he has come to represent an unreachable ideal.

Greg Baum, columnist at Melbourne’s Age, wrote in Wisden Asia Cricket magazine a few years ago: “Here is a man not susceptible to human failing in any endeavour, a man not so much invincible as invulnerable.” He ended his appreciation by calling Tendulkar “the game’s secular saint”.

Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at Cricinfo

India’s champion batsman wrested the initiative away from world cricket’s number one team in the second Test of the series with an undefeated 154, sculpted in almost seven hours at the crease off 243 balls with 14 boundaries and a six.

Supported by some determined lower-order partnerships, Tendulkar rallied India to 532 and a handy 69-run innings lead with two days to get a result.

Australia went to stumps on the third day at 13 without loss with Phil Jaques on eight and Matthew Hayden not out five.

Bradman, who finished his Test career with a 99.94 batting average, said he considered Tendulkar the closest to himself in technique and temperament shortly before he died in 2001.

Tendulkar is constantly compared with world cricket’s greatest-ever player, but he reverentially brushed aside talk of being compared with Bradman.

“I don’t think anyone can be compared to Sir Don,” he told a press conference.

Tendulkar raised his arms in the air and looked to the heavens with relief upon reaching his eighth century against Australia and third century in four Tests at the SCG.

“It was a little different this time because in 2007 I missed a lot of hundreds and I didn’t want that to continue,” he said.

“I wanted to move on into 2008 and it was extremely important that it came at the right time so I am happy about that.”

Tendulkar, who was given a rapturous ovation by the appreciative Australian crowd as he reached his century, extended his SCG average to a stunning 326 runs from six innings with four not outs.

On India’s last tour to Australia in 2003/04 Tendulkar scored an unbeaten 241 at the SCG and he also hit an unconquered 148 in the drawn 1992 Sydney Test on his first tour of Australia.

“It was truly a pleasure to be out there in the middle and get runs in front of the Australian crowd,” he said.

“Australians are known for enjoying good cricket. They enjoy competitive cricket and they know and understand the game very well.”

Tendulkar followed teammate VVS Laxman’s knock of 109 on Thursday to restore confidence to the Indian team after their ignominious 337-run hiding in last week’s Melbourne Test.

“We believe in our ability. We knew that one bad match doesn’t mean we can’t bounce back,” he said.

“We’ve got faith in the team. It’s so important. It’s a long tour, it’s going to be a tough tour. We’re prepared to be mentally tough.

“Australia are the best side in the world. It’s good when you perform well against the top side in the world. It’s a great challenge and I’ve enjoyed the competition.

“It’s a challenge to rise up to the occasion and beat them. That’s what the whole (cricket) world is trying to do.”

Tendulkar revealed he had been troubled by a facial allergy in the days before the Sydney Test that required a trip to the hospital.

“I had this terrible allergy on my face. If you’d seen on the 30th and 31st (December), you wouldn’t have recognised me,” he said.

“It was all over my face. I had to go to the hospital and settle it down. I’m quite happy it’s ended up OK.”

Tendulkar, halfway through his 144th Test match, has now amassed 11,520 runs and he is just 433 away from retired West Indian Brian Lara’s world record of 11,953.

He stretched his world record number of centuries to four more than Lara and fellow Indian Sunil Gavaskar.

There was an air of inevitability about a century by Sachin Tendulkar in this series. Over the past year, he has been in such fine form that it was a surprise that he was dismissed in the 90s seven times (six of those in ODIs), which led to endless debate and theorising among aficionados, largely specious.

For a player of his calibre — and somebody who has 37 hundreds to his credit — this ‘conversion failure’ was easily labeled as a jinx, which belied the fact that such things are not so uncommon in cricket, especially in such a long career.

But I suppose that Tendulkar himself — even if he does not subscribe to such mumbo-jumbo — must be mighty relieved today. His elation at reaching the three-figure mark at the SCG certainly suggested that.

Tendulkar’s superbly controlled hundred not only enabled India to acquire a handy first innings lead, but helped make a statement that his team was not down and out; indeed, it was up and about to putting the pressure on the Australians. There are two days remaining in the Test, and thanks to the bold effort by the Indian batsmen, Australia are not necessarily the favourites to win.

At the individual level, Tendulkar’s century may have helped reinforce his status amongst the Australian followers of being the best batsman of his era.

The gifted VVS Laxman and the doggedly determined Rahul Dravid would run Tendulkar close where run-scoring against Australia by Indian batsmen is concerned.
But I suspect that the Aussie fans have a special regard for the Little Master, not the least because Sir Don Bradman had suggested that Tendulkar reminded him of himself.

Is Tendulkar really the Don of the modern era? The Indian maestro modestly dissuades such comparisons. Which is sensible, because this can be overplayed, overhyped, and override all good sense.

The statistical highlights of Bradman’s career (is a Test average of 99.94 gettable by anybody ever?) make any comparison with him of any batsman from any era odious. In terms of technique too, there is not too much common between Bradman and Tendulkar.

Yet, there are similarities: In their physical stature, their voracious appetite for runs and records. Also the rasping square cut and the lightning quick short-arm pull, for instance, which, Tendulkar discovers so readily on the Australian wickets where the pace and the bounce is true.

But for me the `biggest’ similarity between Bradman and Tendulkar is the manner in which both have coped with the phenomenal pressures of personal and public expectation and lived up to it.

No two wickets in the history of the game have been as coveted by opposing teams as theirs; no two wickets in the history of the game meant so much for so many people for so long.

In that sense, Tendulkar must be the Don of the modern era.

Sachin Tendulkar, the man we so fondly call the “little master” has once again proved to be the “grand master” of Indian batting by scoring an unbeaten hundred at the SCG. Along with the stylish Laxman, Sachin has not only guided India to a huge total but also made the visitors presence felt on the Australian soil.

These two knocks will go a long way in boosting the team’s morale for the entire series. The Indian team now has a golden chance of either drawing the match or even winning it but never losing it from here! If the team goes on to win the current test match then this test will be remembered for years. And if we draw it then bravo! we havent done bad!

For Tendulkar’s admirers however, this will go down as one of his best.

Sachin should retire ‘To make way for younger players’.

Sorry, you do not retire from your job to make way for a youngster if you are still performing to your potential and to the satisfaction of the management. In jobs, you have a retirement age. In sports you don’t have any. Those who are fit and performing, last longer. Those who fall out are sacked. Sachin has been performing whenever he is fit. Whenever he gets injured, he spares no effort to get back into full fitness. Do you think money plays a role here? No, it can’t be anything other than his love for the game.

He should quit ‘Because He has slowed down considerably and takes a long
time to settle down’

Come on folks. See his strike rate. Look at his career rate and the rate at which he has been scoring his runs these days. If you find there is a huge dent there, call for his head. Not many players with plenty of runs to their credit have a better strike rate than Sachin. Again, by citing just a few matches where he may have scored his runs at a ‘leisurely pace’ don’t try to belittle his performance. The situation in those matches would have warranted such a display. In such matches see how other ’stars’ had performed.

‘He is playing only for records’

Well, What is wrong in it? ‘Sachin gets a century, Team score : 250 – 100 = 150′. Will it be like that? Or, by scoring a century or some 50 plus runs, is he depriving any other team member his runs? Haven’t you seen Sachin rotating the strike splendidly even on days when he finds it tough to beat the field and score his boundaries? If you say you haven’t then it means you haven’t seen the matches properly.

‘Gavaskar, Steve Waugh, Lara, Chappel brothers, Hadlee, Warne and many
other legends retired gracefully when at their peak form. Why not Sachin?’

It may not be correct to say that all the legends who retired when they were performing to their best did so on their own. In some cases, lack of fitness could have been the cause. In some, lack of motivation or passion could have driven them to the decision. Some may have quit due to reasons other than cricket, like, to spend more time with their families or to concentrate on their business interests. Constant touring does rob quality time and not many families would love to see their member staying away from them for long. If Sachin is not performing, sack him. If he is not fit, do not consider him for selection. If he is fit and performing and his family,
friends and the team management are not complaining, why should we make a hue and cry over his willingness to be a part of the team?

‘He wants to continue playing in order to get more endorsements and thus,
more money’

Who doesn’t want money? No sponsor would spend money on something or someone if they feel they may not get the kind of value they wish to get in return. If Sachin is not performing, he will lose his place, and quite naturally, his contracts as well. If he is playing for money, he has to keep performing and this will only help the team’s cause. So there should be no issues on that.

The BCCI, certain State Governments and a few High Profile Politicians, all showered money on our Twenty20 heroes. Nobody grudges their fortune now. Take the three stalwarts Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly out of the team and make all the Heroes play the regular ODIs and Tests for sometime. May be, they would perform well. What if they fail to perform and get beaten time
and again? Won’t the same people cry for their heads?

‘So many people, the knowledgeable and not so knowledgeable followers of
the game, some retired legends and those who are simply jealous of Sachin’s
exploits want Sachin to hang hits boots or be sacked by the selectors at
once. But neither Sachin nor the Selection Committee appears to be
listening’ – What’s the way out?

A better option for these Sachin baiters to ease the master out of cricket would be to motivate all the opposition bowlers to raise their standard by a few notches and prise him out the moment he settles down to take the first ball. If they can do this and emerge successful in their attempt, these baiters can throw some of the renowned coaches out of work. In any case, our ‘knowledgeable fans’ know more about Coaching and Motivating players than those who are currently at the job. Right?

After India’s disastrous show at World Cup 2007, Ian Chappell said Sachin should stand before a mirror and find out for himself if he still had something to give as a batsman. Sachin will surely be looking at the mirror, but then, being Sachin, he will only be using it to practice his
strokes like he did when he was young and raring to go.

Article by Balakumar. He can be contacted at ksbkumar@hotmail.com

The answer to this lies with the BCCI who have made the offer. What an irony! If BCCI was in my list of future employers, I would never choose them. Their bad habits refuse to die. Such are the levels of internal politics that even the most loyal cricketers like Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly are not spared. All the three have had some bad experiences with the board in the last 2 years.

The board which is headed by a seasoned politician who can only squeeze in time for prize distributions and governed by a self-centric ex-cricketer has managed to snub not just the players but even the coaches, administrators, service providers(ESPN & Zee) and the government of India! So, what really makes BCCI a good employer? Money? But who got them the money?

The Indian captaincy is one of the toughest jobs in the cricket world not because of the poor bench strength but because the captain works for one of the worst crickets boards in the world. The most unprofessional bunch of businessmen, politicians and ex-cricketers who often decide the fate of the Indian team based on the popularity levels and regional feelings. This rare cricket article by Kuldip Nayar explains the state of affairs in the BCCI back in 2000. The article seems to be  relevant even today.

A cricketer like Sachin certainly needs a better employer in order to succeed. A professional, organized and committed unit which works with conviction. For the greater good, I second Sachin’s stand that we should look for younger options. But is Dhoni ready? I dont think so. Test cricket is a different ball game and it’s hard to keep the cattle together for 5 long days. But Dhoni is a man who will take the offer because he is young and has nothing to loose. We can only hope that he will do well, if not win the series, at least save the team from an embarrassment.

Arjun

I am not a great fan of Britney Spears but this song goes well with the current form of the Indian team. I dont want to sound like a RSS-mold cricket fan but when you watch our batsmen crumble to such a paltry figure it does shoot up your anxiety levels.

148 all out on a placid batting track which had 300 written all over it. How bad should you be to have not reached even 150 when all your opposition needed was 3 batsmen and half the alloted overs to get there. It has happened today as it did in the past. And it might happen in the future because neither the real cause nor the actual effect will be looked into as is the custom with Indian cricket.

Cricket is a funny game and there is every possibility of our Desi band making a come back. But we all know the usual Aussie song, don’t we? Unless the Kangaroo stays put, which is so unlike it, our fate is sealed in this series.
If you follow the pattern of the Indian team in the last couple of years, we have relied on come backs more than good starts to win a series. A pattern which makes us less of contenders and more of dark horses in almost all the tournaments we play in. Not so concerning for the Indian fan though as it sets up for a bollywood ending.

Add this to our famous habit of excessively depending on conditions to win matches and you get a real picture. I am not saying other teams are performing differently, in fact most teams depend on conditions but not everyone gets the hype and hoopla as we get and not everyone claims to have the talent like we do.

In today’s match, the Aussies proved to the world why they deserve the special treatment they get from the ICC and why they care the damn for other teams. Simply because they are more professional and talented than the rest. They slog in the nets and it shows on the field. If they talk big thats because they ARE big.

Match this with the Indian approach of sledging back to them. Shouldn’t we give it back in terms of slogging in the nets and performing on the field? Now, these are questions which can be addressed only by the Indian team.

So, while the selectors use the same old phrases to save their backs and the Indian media goes berserk with its criticism, keep yourself busy with Britney – in all the right sense.

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