[lloydofcochin]

Originally Posted by swarnava.m

With due respect to everyone who is flawing Sachin here, please note that he is still the highest ranked Indian batsman in the ICC Test Rankings, at #18. This in spite of performing below his customary level over the last 2 years or so, which I will not deny.

One really cannot question his work ethic, which is probably as strong right now as it ever has been. Apart from that, another thing that he said about a year or so back is that while most people say that you should quit at the top of his game, he thinks that is selfish. That amounts to having more importance for your stature rather than for what you can contribute to the team. He will continue playing till he feels he has no more contributions left for the team. Specially at this time when the reserve cupboard is pretty bare, I think he should be allowed that much.
.

Well said friend. Armchair experts can't appreciate Sachin

Originally Posted by amitoj

People using lack of form of other players as an excuse for Sachin's long run of poor form are ignoring the fact that others have age (and thus time) on their side to bounce back whereas Sachin at nearly 40, literally has his back against the wall.

And one more thing that scares me even more is the probability that if and when Sachin will make a big score, it will be at such a low pace that it will end up doing more damage than good to the team.

Nobody is asking Sachin be given a longer rope b'cos others are performing badly. When Dravid had a dry phase Suresh Menon had written that even Sachin would not get such a long rope. Luckily for Dravid when he had a lean patch the team wasn't doing badly. Like Dravid Sachin too is looking good when he goes out to bat it is just that he has not clicked to score a major one.

Everyone wrote Sachin off few years back and he came back in spectacular fashion and millions of his fans are expecting an encore.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-...ry/594436.html

Quoting from the above article - Tendulkar arrested his slide in extraordinary fashion at the end of the first phase by scoring six centuries in 15 Tests between the Sydney Test in January 2008 and the Cape Town Test in January 2011. In 11 of his 28 innings, Tendulkar passed 50 and averaged 62.84. The present slump is, if anything, far more pronounced than the poor run he experienced between 2006 and 2008. Given his track record though, it would be hard to bet against him bouncing back again.

[Ananthang]

Sachin is all time great, I dont remember how many times he saved India, during the period 1995 to 2000.

Remembering 1996 World Cup - Oh Sachin is really a Cricket God..Wait to me he is ODI GOD.

Test GOD is our Dravid. He is a great player, SELFLESS (remember he doing the WC job in 2003 to include a specialist batsman) and the really a Strong Wall.

Like many of you said, I do not want to see Sachin going through all the criticism and finally selectors dropping him.

He should not put the onus on Selectors, so they get the Fire from media and elsewhere. So Sachin bhai, take it easy and Call it a Day.

We people in India are crazy cricket fans, we will defintely watch cricket and will not ignore just because Sachin is not there.

Contribute to Indian Sports (Read Sports) in some other way. There are lot of talent in India which goes waste because of corruption and scandals, may be become the Sports Minister and strengthen the Indian sports contingent (not just cricket).

[msdivy]

"Only those who've played at least 150 Tests should be analysing Sachin's game"
Bishan Bedi, who played 67 Tests, disqualifies himself from the Tendulkar debate

Source:http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine...te/594489.html

I agree with Mr Bedi. So no comments on Sachin from me

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by lloydofcochin

Nobody is asking Sachin be given a longer rope b'cos others are performing badly.

Quoting from the above article - Tendulkar arrested his slide in extraordinary fashion at the end of the first phase by scoring six centuries in 15 Tests between the Sydney Test in January 2008 and the Cape Town Test in January 2011. In 11 of his 28 innings, Tendulkar passed 50 and averaged 62.84. The present slump is, if anything, far more pronounced than the poor run he experienced between 2006 and 2008. Given his track record though, it would be hard to bet against him bouncing back again.

But thats what every other article is doing, including the one you quoted earlier. They are all saying why point fingers at Sachin when Gambhir, bhajji (who has played just one test match recently), Zaheer and every other Tom, Karthik and Hari are performing poorly. I think thats pretty lame excuse.

All predictions of his comeback are not taking his age into consideration. And i would consider it a comeback only if he gives a match winning performance, and not just achieves another personal statistic. Because he has been known to do that.

Originally Posted by msdivy

"Only those who've played at least 150 Tests should be analysing Sachin's game"
Bishan Bedi, who played 67 Tests, disqualifies himself from the Tendulkar debate

I agree with Mr Bedi. So no comments on Sachin from me

LOL. Thats hilarious.
So, tomorrow if someone says that only those who have driven a formula 1 car should be analysing Formula 1 drivers, you'll agree?

[BinFord]

With due respect to Sachin –the God of cricket I would say it is time for him to hang up his shoes. Look at the way he is playing now. Every bowler is eager to bowl at him now a days and they know sooner or later his wicket is going to fall. This is a sad fate for a genius like him and before everyone criticize and corner him ,he should retire from International cricket.

Look what Ricky Ponting has done.

Time up Sachin. Hats off to you and thank you so much for your valuable contribution to Indian Cricket for a long 23 years.

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by joslicx

Buddy the same criticism applies to Kallis as well. He hasnt really inspired SA to very many great things. They have not won any international tournament of repute in my knowledge and have only recently climbed to top of test rankings when all others have faded. Just like Sachin, Kallis has also accumulated statistics!!!

Originally Posted by selfdrive

So effectively Kallis is Sachin + Zaheer put together. And I think at some level he would still bowl faster than Zaheer.

Till an England tour a few years back, he was never really out of form.

There is some truth to this. But at the end of the day, the numbers are way too overwhelming. It's like he's a mix of Tendulkar (our main batsman for 20 years) and Zaheer Khan (our strike-bowler for over 10 years!)

Whatever said and done, that is just ridiculous!

And Tendulkar has been playing International Cricket for 23 years! That's as long as I've been alive for God's sake!

[lloydofcochin]

Originally Posted by amitoj

But thats what every other article is doing, including the one you quoted earlier. They are all saying why point fingers at Sachin when Gambhir, bhajji (who has played just one test match recently), Zaheer and every other Tom, Karthik and Hari are performing poorly. I think thats pretty lame excuse.

All predictions of his comeback are not taking his age into consideration. And i would consider it a comeback only if he gives a match winning performance, and not just achieves another personal statistic. Because he has been known to do that.

Pls wait my friend. Sachin's bat will give you the answer shortly. He has always let his Bat do the talking and this time too it wouldn't be different

[faustus77]

Addyhemmige
Hi.
After a series of flops M.Amarnath was unceremoniously dropped.
He reacted by calling the selectors a bunch of jokers.
AFAI remember the players at that were paid rs 10000(1979/1980)per test.This was hiked in early eighties.It was calculated that in the last few tests he got rs 10000 per run scored.
Regards

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by msdivy

"Only those who've played at least 150 Tests should be analysing Sachin's game"
Bishan Bedi, who played 67 Tests, disqualifies himself from the Tendulkar debate

Totally illogical from Bedi but then, when was he ever logical? Where does he get this 150 number from??

PS: Unless you are Mr. Bedi himself and in that case, my apologies

Originally Posted by suhaas307

There is some truth to this. But at the end of the day, the numbers are way too overwhelming. It's like he's a mix of Tendulkar (our main batsman for 20 years) and Zaheer Khan (our strike-bowler for over 10 years!)

Whatever said and done, that is just ridiculous!

To me the numbers alone do not make him "greatest" as some here are purporting. The "greatest" should rise above mere greats and should have done things worthy of "greatest" tag. SA in Kallis time have won nothing of repute (no champions trophy, no world cups). And its not like he was part of a shady team. They had the likes of Kirsten, Donald, Pollock, Smith etc. Still he couldnt inspire them to greater glory. For me, that leaves him a mere great!

The thing that made Maradona the greatest football player ever was not his winning the world cup only. He went to a fairly ordinary Napoli team in Italy and made them champions! And this was when Italy had strongest teams in Europe in AC Milan and Juventus. So the greatest should be able to inspire other mere mortals around him and then should be able to collectively achieve great things! Thats the true parameter of greatness.

And even if you just want to talk numbers he is behind Sachin and Ponting. Ponting has better batting record plus he was a supreme fielder (probably the second best ever). Surely that is equivalent to Kallis achievement of taking those 300 wickets.

I think batsmen have a rather limited role to play when it comes to tests (for they can score but that will still not be enough to win unless you can take 20 wickets). Thats the reason despite scoring 15000 runs Sachin still has not featured in as many test wins as he should have (for India did not have an attack capable of taking 20 wickets consistently). On the contrary its the one day game that is all about batsman!!! You only have to outscore the opposition to win in an ODI, so batsmen become more important. I think if you really want to evaluate how batsmen can inspire great things, you have to look at their One day record (and not just test record as a batsman's test record can be misleading). Kallis falls very short of guys like Ponting, Tendulkar, Jayasuriya and even Inzamam in that respect.

[Naturalist]

I think Team comes first more than a player. When a player is not able to contribute people will start questioning him.
Even ACB was planning to remove Ponting from the team in all 3 formats. We all know that he is a worlds great batsman but they didnt care about that, because team comes before a player period.

[harry10]

I am one of the biggest fans of SRT. In fact i started playing cricket cos of him and in the 90's when he used to get out me and my dad use to switch off the TV cursing the bowler who got him out. That was his impact. Can't recall any other player who has made people switch off their TV sets or made them walk out of stadiums after his dismissal.

Yes, he is struggling for runs.
Yes, it pains my heart to see him struggle in front of an average bowler like Monty(no offense to him but i grew up watching Warne, Kumble, Murali and Monty is no where close to their class)
Yes, in my opinion as well he should retire with dignity on a high.

But at the end of the day this guy has carried expectations off a billion people for 20 years. I don't think in the history of sports there is a sportsman who has to deal with so many expectations for such a long time.
So why can't we the people give him a little breathing space and see if he can get out of this slump.

And if he doesn't am sure he will go out with honour.
My gut says he is gonna score good in the coming test match.

[msdivy]

Ponting, Sachin of Australia, is playing his last innings in cricket (right now). Now out for 8.

Originally Posted by harry10

But at the end of the day this guy has carried expectations off a billion people for 20 years. I don't think in the history of sports there is a sportsman who has to deal with so many expectations for such a long time.

That's a propaganda created by his efficient PR machine. Another one created is that he is God. All done to position his brand and extract maximum juice from the marketeers. Nothing wrong but cricketing people must be able to see the line where the abilities end and the legend takes over.

Coming to the concept of 'weight of expectation of nation', few questions:
1) Why there is weight of nation, or pressure only on Sachin, not on captain, or bowler, or any other player?
2) If the player is worried about burden on his shoulder, can be focus and concentrate on his batting? Hope that is not an excuse for failure.
3) How many times Sachin has carried the weight successfully, vis a vis other players like Dravid or Laxman, or even Ganguly.
4) How is this weight on Sachin different from weight carried by Gavsakar, Kapil Dev, who were in teams of lesser abilities?
5) If the weight of nation concept is to be believed, the country with least population must produce greatest batsmen, since there is less pressure. Isn't it?

[vinu_h]

Truly a gentleman's game. Thank you Ponting.

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by msdivy

That's a propaganda created by his efficient PR machine.

Totally agree with you on this! It is so silly to attach the so-called tag of "weight of expectations of a billion people" with Sachin. He belonged to an era when India had decent batsmen - the likes of Azhar, Dravid, Laxman were no less and we also had Ganguly, Sehwag etc as well to share batting duties. It was not like Sachin was a one man army standing up to opposition every single time.

If anything Sachin did manage to catch fancy of a billion people with his batting exploits in early part of his career when he was at his fearless best. People had not seen an Indian player like that before (given that we were so used to 180 ball 36 Gavaskar or the ilk). Rest is all, as you say, PR machinery or actually the media milking Sachin for their own benefit. To me this tag is handiwork of neanderthals like (Atul) Wassan/(Chetan) Sharma/(Ravi) Shastri & Co.

[Naturalist]

It was very emotional to see Ponting walk off the field today for the last time. He was the best by far. Hope Sachin creates the same emotional impact before something goes wrong.