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Sachin is quickly passing, if not already past his 'sell by' date. Frankly, to me, like an old piece of cheese, he and his so called squeaky clean image are beginning to curl around the edges a bit. He does, like most heroes, have feet of clay.
But then, the Indian sportspersons and politicians never ever have the grace to retire in time, till they are literally taken out feet first! They have no grace and will never allow others to assume the mantle from them, however greatly qualified they may be. We have this megalomaniacal trait in us. Just look at politics, a bunch of septuagenarian and octogenarians trying to lead a nation of youths... Exactly the same scene in sports, just take a view of the various sporting bodies and see who runs them, not to forget the actual teams themselves!
I think he should go while the going is good, else he will be laughed at and reviled off the field to the accompaniment of the beating of drums and the sound of trumpets and suchlike...

Wow, what a test match! The SA-Aus test just proved how exciting test cricket can be. Though Ponting ended up on the losing side and not making many runs in his last match, it turned out to be a very eventful, fast paced last match of his career.

Can't our Indian team learn to play test cricket like the SA team or is it asking for too much ? :Frustrati

You said it !! It sure is asking for too much. Indian team last played like a good cricket team way back during the SA tour, since then there has been an inexplicable loss of form for the Indian batsmen, first there were collapse after collapse during the World Cup, where somehow the Indian batsmen (read Yuvraj) managed to hold up against Australia in the QF, and some absolutely woeful bowling from SL in the Finals led the Indians to the WC.

I still cant believe this is the same team which won the World Cup, because since that April 2011 Indian team has been all downhill, absolutely no stomach for a fight.

Sadly the golden phase of Indian cricket is past us, and frankly speaking, with no real exceptional talent coming up, it is going to take a good amount of the next decade for us to reach anywhere close to that playing level which the Indians showed during the SA tour.

Infact watched the highlights of all 4 days of this match. It was really exciting. Didnt bother to watch our own match because it was really boring and no quality players around. Looks like it will take another decade for our team to perform, no quality player on the queue :Frustrati

That's asking for too much! Test Cricket is not really a priority for our Board nor our players. And that is why it is so refreshing to see someone like Pujara do well in this day & age of 20-20.
To do well in Tests you need 4 quality bowlers who can take 20 wickets in the match! We are struggling against good teams in our own conditions & also in recent times the foreign teams have played a lot of cricket in the sub-continent thanks to IPL & other ODI tournaments so they take very little time to adjust to our conditions.

Bang on mate!

We absolutely lack quality bowling. There is no dearth for batting talent in our country, but bowling is a big NO. If we don't find good bowling options soon enough, we'll remain flat track bullies. Even that tag will go away soon, given our recent performances.

Shankar.balan
Hi
Very well put that our heroes have feet of clay.
When the Ferrari was gifted to ST(questions were raised why would the co gift it to him as they did not have a big presence here unless it was a quid pro quo for endorsing Fiat)he asked for a waiver of duty and homologation and mr.Mahajan granted it.He should not have asked for it and that would have been the right thing to do.Even if the initiative was from Mahajan he could have refused.
His Bandra house is under a cloud for some FSI violation.Maybe the whole thing has been swept under.
The great batsman that he is, he will score a lot of runs in the next match and everything will be hunky dory.
The only thing we can do is wait and wish him luck.
Regards
PS:A wee bit off topic.Pullelu the badminton ace,refused to endorse colas because they were harmful.
PPS:In one of my earliers posts I had given a link to an article in the Economic Times as to his reason to prolong his career.It was brand endorsement.

Joslicx
Hi.
You mentioned Maradona as a great captain.
In cricket I would mention Ranatunga.
In 1987/1988 Reliance world cup Sri Lanka was not expected to win any matches and they didnt.
From then to the world cup in 1996 he led his bunch of no hopers to victory.
He led from the front specially in partnership with "Mad Max"Aravinda D'Silva.It was a treatto watch them bat in the middle overs.A nudge here a push there and suddenly you saw runs on the board.No fireworks just plain batting.
Just a point about Kallis,nowhere has anybody called him greatest,but again plain simple chipping,no fireworks.
A batsman is not supposed to take 5 wickets in a match nor is a bowler supposed to score a century.If points are to be given for every wicket and points for every fifty,then he definitely deserves a good ranking.I dont know about his fielding skills but as I have mentioned SA has the best rate for runouts.
Regards

So where are all the Sachin bashers now?

Or do they come out only when he is not scoring :)

A very good read - http://www.cricketcountry.com/cricke...ns-rsquo/20596

I was waiting for somebody to post after Sachin's innings yesterday:-) He is a good player no doubt, but I still feel time has come for him to make a graceful exit. Sadly, there is no worthy replacement for his place in the team. Youngsters must be given a extended run after this series.

Give a monkey a typewriter and plenty of time, it will type out the Shakespeare one day.

76 runs is not a come back; not by any stretch. Although, that can lead to a come back. He's just a man in a game.

I agree.

I agree that it is nearing time for him but he is still not a spent force and unfortunately there is no one good enough to replace him at the moment. The youngsters who have been given the opportunity are yet to make a definite mark.

:)

It is just the beginning of a comeback. He showed the stomach for a fight and those runs were indeed valuable for the team.

LOL. I was also waiting for someone to post about Sachin's innings.
And i agree 76 is not a comeback. Those are valuable 76 runs nonetheless but still, he will need to score at this rate in the next few innings at least.

Ranatunga!! Are you kidding? He was a good captain and an average player at best! (Just like a certain Mr. Janguly). No way he can be termed a great of the game, least be compared with Maradona! Maradona was a titan in a relatively ordinary Napoli side that won championships (they had never done that in 100 years before Maradona and are again ordinary after he left!). Ranatunga was an average player sorrounded by some pretty great players like Jayasuriya, da Silva, Murali, Vaas etc.

I'd say in my lifetime (or say 1990 onwards), the greatest cricket "player" in my view is Sachin Tendulkar. Top scorer in three world cups and a winners medal to show as well. And he has the highest number of man of tournaments (meaning more often he was the best player in the series). Admittedly I am a bit biased here as a stronger case can be made for Ricky Ponting (three world cup titles, 100 test wins, charismatic captain etc). Ricky though remains the greatest "batsman" I've seen playing. Greatest bowler I've seen playing is Shane Warne among spinners and Wasim Akram amongst speedsters.

The "greatest cricket player ever" for me (based on limited video evidence and fair amount of reading about them all) is Sir Viv Richards!

Unlike some people here I am not that impressed with Kallis. Sure he has steller statistics but thats not enough for me. He should have been part of winning sides but he wasnt! I see him as a selfish player playing for his records. Never saw him chase games away from opposition (for example something like Tendulkar did at Sarjah or Ponting did against India at WC final.)