[harry10]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Yes. A model player and a true team player.

Wonder what Mr TonTon was doing that kept him away from this function.

I can see the sarcasm in your post and its sad to see. He was in london cos of his toe injury.
Honestly i am amazed at some of the posts in this thread. A player who is loved all over the world like anything, who has done so much that rarely will anyone would be able to accomplish the same is being criticized by his own people.
Lets see-
Batting- As the stats posted earlier have suggested he still has a decent average in past few years. Its not like he is making ducks after ducks and will easily be in top 3 run getters in current indian team.
Catches- he hardly drops any now also.
Ground fielding- Still has a very good throw and rarely misfields.
Bowling- Still bowls when asked for as been seen in the last odi series.

20+ years of carrying the expectations of millions and he still hasnt given up.
So why should he retire and who is waiting in the wings to do all this with the same amount of passion and dedication.
I am a big big fan of SRT no doubt but i am also the fan of Dravid,the one and only wall which cant be replaced,also a fan of laxman and his grittiness in saving matches for india, also a fan of ganguly for his timing and placements.

These are all time greats so kindly stop comparing or belittling their achievements. its a privelege to watch Srt bat till the time he does and when he retires the complete generation of legends will be gone and all we wll see is the hit and miss t20 ipl products.

[normally_crazy]

Food for thought ?

[amitoj]

LOL. NC, why do you do this man. You know what this will lead to Anything against Mr TonTon is almost like betraying your country

But I really admire ESPNCricinfo. They have the spine to say what they want to say. The way they went after the BCCI for that sham of a T20 in South Africa was really satisfying.

[esteem_lover]

That T20 was organised so that ALL the SA players will be made available for the IPL to make it a GRAND SUCCESS.

[msdivy]

Tendulkar will fill one of 12 seats in the Rajya Sabha that are reserved for those persons "having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art and social service." Tendulkar is the first sportsman to be nominated in this category, which has no election process.

India news: Sachin Tendulkar nominated to Parliament | Cricket News | Global | ESPN Cricinfo

Well, Sachin has to balance his cricket career & his stint as MP.

[.sushilkumar]

Originally Posted by msdivy

India news: Sachin Tendulkar nominated to Parliament | Cricket News | Global | ESPN Cricinfo

Well, Sachin has to balance his cricket career & his stint as MP.

Not sure if What Mr MMS has Done is correct or not But i am sure he will not be able to devote any time to this. He is always busy in Promotions and advertisements. Anyways When MMS himself is a Puppet , nothing less is expected.

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

Food for thought ?

Pretty well thought out & written article IMO. thanks for sharing NC .The Below two quote and photo sums up everything . this is just after that 100 against Bangla desh .



Source : - Mukul Kesavan: Tendulkar's unseemly media blitz in the wake of his 100th hundred | Opinion | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo

But Tendulkar isn't merely a great player; he is the greatest human brand in the history of Indian advertising. So many corporations have so much riding on him that his career can't be allowed to end like Dravid's: it has to be talked up and eked out and wrung dry so that it gives them a fair return on their investment.

There's a bizarrely funny photograph of Tendulkar at a press conference in a shiny shirt, flanked by two anonymous corporate men. One holds a special Coke can that commemorates the 100th hundred and the other man is holding an Adidas shoe. Tendulkar stands in the middle, with a shoe in one hand and a can in the other, like a shaman about to divine the hidden with the help of unlike fetishes.

[esteem_lover]

Match fixing and all that kind of rubble invaded Cricket and more specifically Indian cricket with players like Azhar, Jadeja, Mongia, Prabhakar etc etc being framed and thrown into the incinerator and forgotten.

And the proud and successful South African captain (who owned up to his errors) also ended his life (Not sure if that was an accident).

Now, it is the turn of the poor & talented Pakistani cricketers who are caught and thrown into foreign jails (purely because they too did the same thing, i.e they needed extra money) whereas the culprits here (including someone who is a convicted murderer)hold esteemed positions in Indian legislature and appear in cricket talk shows as if they are as clean as a whistle. Where is justice in this ?

Why wasn't any of the cricketers from India who were already earning quite a bit and also fixing matches never tried or convicted ? Yes, there are not enough laws to try these criminals, but how does our board & fans turn a blind eye to these people ?

And how does someone like shastri and gavaskar who are paid (obscene amounts) by the BCCI to talk about impoverished (in cricketing sense) players and build up their reputation just to boost their appeal and get away with it ? They are the legally paid fixers, IMHO who should be stopped from talking or thrown into the same jail as Amir, Asif and Butt.


@Mods, please feel free to throw this into the bin if you do not like it, else delete this line.

[NinadJoshi]

Innocent until proven guilty.
And to prove guilty, one has to be tried.
And to take one to trial, one has to have proof.
And to make good of any proof you have, the law and judiciary should be sound.

"Fixing" matches, whether for money or for honor has been happening since time immemorial. Cricket, truly speaking, has never been a gentleman's game. It may have been invented by gentlemen but truth is that where there is a rule, there is a moral breach.

My best friend's father was a prominent cricketer of his time, who played extensively at the first class level and also participated at the local levels in the Pune and Mumbai circuits. He mentioned dropping a match, or under performing against a specific team so as to get a suitable opponent in the crucial knockout stages was a common practice then, and perhaps is even so today.

Call it a flaw in the human nature or whatever, but at some point of time the twisting of morals begins to appear to some as a strategic competitive asset - either for personal or team benefit. Imran Khan admits that seam lifting was a common practice in his early days. Everyone is conversant with the John Lever's Vaseline episode. Anyone who is anyone in cricket knows that Wasim Akram's own brother is one of the biggest bookies of the game. Anyone who understood a trifle bit of cricket would have sensed mischief when time and again Aravinda DeSilva raced to 47 runs looking like a God in gloves, only to pop the ball in the air like a sheepish fifth grader for no apparent reason and return without a 50 when he could well have gone on to 250. Why do (Indian) players suddenly report sick from flu or handicapped due to 'hamstring' injuries ? Why do Pakistani bowlers deliver pre-determined no balls ? An article in the Times today asks if it is right for Sachin the MP to sell cola's. So on and so forth.

[rohanjf]

Originally Posted by NinadJoshi

...
My best friend's father was a prominent cricketer of his time, who played extensively at the first class level and also participated at the local levels in the Pune and Mumbai circuits. He mentioned dropping a match, or under performing against a specific team so as to get a suitable opponent in the crucial knockout stages was a common practice then, and perhaps is even so today.

I don't think underperforming and/or losing a match for strategic reasons (that is, when there is a chance to win the next round) should be termed as match-fixing. Of course, it is not in the spirit of the game, because the spirit of any game is giving your best for winning.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by NinadJoshi

He mentioned dropping a match, or under performing against a specific team so as to get a suitable opponent in the crucial knockout stages was a common practice then, and perhaps is even so today.
would have sensed mischief when time and again Aravinda DeSilva raced to 47 runs looking like a God in gloves, only to pop the ball in the air like a sheepish fifth grader for no apparent reason and return without a 50 when he could well have gone on to 250. Why do (Indian) players suddenly report sick from flu or handicapped due to 'hamstring' injuries ? Why do Pakistani bowlers deliver pre-determined no balls ? An article in the Times today asks if it is right for Sachin the MP to sell cola's. So on and so forth.

Everything you said until this point sounded good and genuine and when you mentioned Aravunda and TOI, there it all goes. Of course we are free to imagine what we want to, but selling colas and being MP ? tut tut.

[NinadJoshi]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

Everything you said until this point sounded good and genuine and when you mentioned Aravunda and TOI, there it all goes. Of course we are free to imagine what we want to, but selling colas and being MP ? tut tut.

Imagine yourself reading the post once again. "An article in the Times today asks if it is right for Sachin the MP to sell cola's". Not my opinion, but the Times Of India's.

Aravinda DeSilva, definitely yes. I wasn't imagining anything, I was actually seeing it with the same eyes that saw the repeated Friday debacles of India against Pakistan at Sharjah, year after year

In any case, we are indeed free to imagine what we want to. Ajay Jadeja is a pious human being, as his parents would like to imagine. Navjot Singh Sidhu did not murder/maim anyone as he himself would like to imagine. Shahid Afridi did not chew the ball lie it were an apple, but merely put spit on it as he would like to imagine himself, and Mohammed Amir did not deliberately bowl predetermined no-balls as he would like to imagine. And finally, you are absolutely free to imagine what I am trying to imagine, or not. Cheers.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Yes. A model player and a true team player.

Wonder what Mr TonTon was doing that kept him away from this function.

Sachin as a Mr squeaky clean again eh?
Beware your excessive idolization of one who is after all a mere mortal and hence tends to have feet of clay!

Sachin cannot ever be compared to Dravid, the true gentleman.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Sachin cannot ever be compared to Dravid, the true gentleman.

Beware your excessive idolization of one who is after all a mere mortal and hence tends to have feet of clay!

Dravid and the controverisal ball tampering issue - YouTube

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by carboy

Beware your excessive idolization of one who is after all a mere mortal and hence tends to have feet of clay!

Dravid and the controverisal ball tampering issue - YouTube

Call me biased. I will believe Dravid. I wont trust Sachin. I dont like him and his attitude and his holier than thou manner and the act that he is hanging around though he should retire. I also mistrust his squeaky clean image.. I dislike him despite his cricketing prowess. Endit!

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Call me biased. I will believe Dravid. I wont trust Sachin. I dont like him and his attitude and his holier than thou manner and the act that he is hanging around though he should retire. I also mistrust his squeaky clean image.. I dislike him despite his cricketing prowess. Endit!

All Dravid fans are biased and blind.
All TonTon fans are enlightened beings from outer space.
All non cricket related posts are to be deleted.
Including this one