The Tendulkar era

Harsha Bhogle (cricket commentator and columnist) wrote 2 very good articles on great man - Sachin Tendulkar. One was written just prior to his announcement of retirement from One Day cricket and other was written just after the announcement.

Both the articles very well written.
Before the announcement - It's not just Tendulkar's decision

After the announcement - The Tendulkar habit

As a true fan I would forever want to see 90's Tendulkar on the field but all good things must come to an end. Let us relish his whites while he is still playing.

Message from England! BCCI - Are you listening?

I read an interesting side story after recently concluded England-Bangladesh test series.

http://www.cricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/462319.html

An excerpt

"Steven Finn has had an impressive start to the summer and will now undertake a strengthening programme similar to that recently undertaken by Stuart Broad," said Geoff Miller, England's national selector. "This will also rule Steven out of the NatWest Series against Australia and Bangladesh before his preparation for the npower Test series against Pakistan."

 Finn is a young lad with oodles of talent. He has been undoubtedly the best bowler of both sides and has been the find of the series. Much like Ishant Sharma or Irfan Pathan in their early days. And what does England do - send him for strength training without even considering him for domestic tournaments.

Is it strange? Far from it.

It is the right way to nurture young talent. He is being told that success is not easy so the young lad should better work on it.

There is a lesson for BCCI, Indian Media and India team fans. We have a unique affinity for young talent. Whenever a young player bursts on the scene, we want him to participate in each and every game, however insignificant. We shower him with excessive praises and slowly burn him out. We always try to find the next Kapil Dev or Sachin Tendulkar.

Look where are our yesteryear bowling talents today? Munaf has dropped pace, so has Irfan, Sreesanth has attitude problem as got too much praise initially, RP Singh in no longer accurate and Ishant is wayward.

It is easy to blame all these players but we have to look within ourselves to find a solution.

We should give some time and mentor a new player properly - play him in full domestic season, slug it out on the ground with no fans, train hard, give him chance to play in few internationals so as to acclimatise him different cultures and grounds, take tips from senior players.

BCCI - Are you listening?

Let us pray!

India vs. SA
3rd ODI
Season 2009-10

This post is a continuation from the last post

Headlines and the art of selling news

I also want India to win and make a clean sweep but I have certain apprehensions. The first ODI was close. India, of course, had an upper hand till 44th over or so but they became complacent and let the advantage whittle away. While batting also the batsmen gave away good starts otherwise the total could have been higher. The second ODI was put beyond SA reach by only one man - Tendulkar. Remove him from the equation and you have evenly matched teams. And introduce new and inexperienced blood, it is advantage SA.

We already have depleted team with injuries to Gambhir, Yuvraj and Zaheer - all top 10 players as per ICC ranking. On top of it the selectors have rested Sehwag & Tendulkar and have extended Harbhajan's rest. Again all three are top 10 players. Tendulkar's rest is justified but resting Sehwag and Harbhjan when team is already depleted is not a good idea. If anybody needed rest it was Dhoni. He has been playing non-stop in all form of the games and he has a tough schedule ahead.

It is true that the replacements are worthy and talented but all of them lack experience. It is a good idea to test the reserves and give bench some chance to secure a team for future. But wholesale replacements are not good even if it is a dead rubber. We must learn from Australia of old. They also had a rotation policy but never at the expense of a game. They never got complacent and were so ruthless that many games were won even before starting. We must make winning a habit.

We can still win today's game but chances have diminished. Let us pray for today's win.

Tendulkar's Double - The moments of agony

India vs. SA
2009-2010 Season
2nd ODI

Experts have written and filled many a reams to eulogize Tendulkar's double. So much praise, bordering upon adoration, has been showered on him that I do not want to add more to it.

Sachin's double has broken many records and along the way it had its side effects as well. One of the pleasant side effect was Cricinfo's servers breakdown. Here is a truthful admission from Cricinfo

Tendulkar breaks Cricinfo records

I was among the many unfortunate ones who was not able to watch Sachin's innings live on TV. So I did the next best thing by following it online on Cricinfo. And Cricinfo's server glitch left me heartbroken. I had to go through many agonizing moments when I couldn't follow the online commentary.

May I have many more 'Sach' agonizing moments.

Tendulkar and Pakistan

I wanted to share two very good articles. First one is an anlysis of Tendulkar's batting in Ist test with Bangladesh and another is an essay on current state of Pakistan cricket.

When familiarity breeds respect

Pakistan's fielding caught in a time warp

Most Hundreds in tests

Who holds the the record of scoring most hundreds in his test career?
There are no points for guessing the right answer. The record is held by one and only "Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar". At the time of posting Tendulkar has 42 test hundreds against his name.
More important question is when will "number of centuries" record be broken?
The answer is never.
Unless there are serious changes in the way test cricket is played the record will never be broken. Maybe they start playing with wider bats or white ball; maybe boundaries are shortened or number of fielding players are reduced. All these scenarios are unlikely.
In current form of test cricket, the record will never be broken. It took brilliance of Sunil Manohar Gavaskar (who retired with 34 centuries against his name) to break decades old record of Sir Donald George Bradman of 29 centuries. None of Bradman's or Gavaskar's peers came close to breaking their record. It took Tendulkar's brilliance and his love for the game to break the record.
Can anyone match or exceed Tendulkar's talent in future? Yes.
I am an optimist and an avid cricket fan. I think many more players will come who would be as brilliant as Tendulkar, maybe more so. But it is highly unlikely that anyone be able to play as many test matches as Tendulkar in future. With the advent of T20 cricket and dying interest in tests, I don't think, anyone will be able to surpass Sir Bradman's record let alone come close to Tendulkar's record. In near future a player would play lesser number of tests per year. I am not against test cricket; in fact I like test cricket as much T20 but given the current trend T20 holds more public interest.
Is there a remote possibility for record to be broken?
Only Ricky Ponting (37 centuries) and Jacques Kallis (31 centuries), who are plying active cricket have outside chance of coming close to Tendulkar's record. Ponting has better chances than Kallis but I still think they too will not be able to break the record. On the other side Kevin Pietersen or Mahela Jayawardene may go past Sir Bradman's record but that too seems unlikely.