A debate and some disagreement

Recently Ricky Ponting crossed Allan Border as the highest test run scorer for Australia. My congratulations to him. He has been a prolific run scorer for his team and has won a lot of matches single handedly for his team. Undoubtedly he stands alongwith Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Jacques Kallis as one of the best batsmen of this era.

A nice article was written about him on Cricinfo. You can read it here. However, what followed was a nasty debate between the australian and Indian cricket fans as to who has been a better batsman over the past years. Heated arguments flowed from both sides. Some Australians and to my shock some Indians as well went on to say that Ponting is the greatest batsman of this era and Sachin Tendulkar is the most over rated batsman world cricket has seen. He has been hyped by media and is no more than a flat track bully making runs against the weakest of opposition like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

I'm not going to provide any statistics, neither am I going to compare the three. But I just want to ask these people how can they be such poor judges of batmanship. Even if we agree that Sachin has been hyped by media, he would not have been lauded by the greatest batsman of all time, Sir Don himself; by the greatest spinner of all time, Shane Warne; by some of the greatest fast bowlers of modern era, including Allan Donald and Wasim Akram. It is one thing to sit in commentary or press boxes to scribble articles heaping praise/criticism on a batsman and it is another to have a first hand experience being out there in the field playing alongside/against him. People may have difference of opinion regarding who was the best, was it the maestro from Mumbai or was it the prince from Trinidad& Tobago and it is appropriate as well. But to label him as a flat track bully makes one wonder if these people really follow cricket or are fully loaded with prejudice.

Again, it is not his records or centuries that make him the greatest batsman (he is for me, if not for anybody else), it is the humility and the grace with which he has carried himself over the past 20 years or so. To live under the eyes of media, carrying the expectations of millions and still be able to maintain the composure is something which is quite unheard of in the sporting world.

Honestly, after Tendulkar, it is only Brian Lara and Mark Waugh whose batting I have enjoyed watching on TV. Ponting may have won more matches than Sachin or Lara did for their respective teams. He may go on to make most centuries and become the highest test run scorer. Ponting is undoubtedly one of the best batsmen of this generation. Nobody can take that away from him.But he failed to win one important thing which both Tendulkar and Lara won in plenty.....hearts of spectators all over the world.

A Joke

India beat Bangladesh in its first match in T20 WC. As was expected, the news channels loyally devoted their whole day showing the highlights of the match. The footages of Yuvraj Singh hitting his sixes and Pragyan Ojha scalping 4 wickets were shown so many times that it seems as if news channels are gearing up to give Star Cricket a run for their money. After all, who else can make a superstar out of someone who played his first match and was awarded Man of the Match for the same?

On the same day, a little earlier, the doubles team of Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy won the French Open Title. This was Leander Paes’ 9^th Grandslam Title. I’m afraid to say that the news channels and newspapers did not care to devote even a fifth of the time they dedicated to this cricket match. The media always blames the government for showing lack of interest in sports other than cricket. But isn’t it doing the same? The fact of the matter is that Government does not show interest in any sport. It only spoils whatever goes into its hands. The media, sadly, comes to the fore only when it finds cases which would increase the TRPs and all the blame can be put upon the government. These hypocrites dedicate a full page of newspapers to cricket, while other sports have to console themselves with a few headlines.

For me, and for probably any other sports enthusiast, the French Open title is far much bigger than a match where India beats a minnow and which is being given so much coverage as if India has won a world cup itself. Spare a thought for the likes of Leander Paes (9 Grandslams), Mahesh Bhupathy (11 Grandslams) and Vishwanathan Anand (multiple times world champion) who have brought more laurels to Indian sport than cricket. Unfortunately, Indian tennis has become synonymous with Sania Mirza, who makes more headlines because of the controversies surrounding the length of her skirts as compared to her performances. No wonder, the future of Indian tennis looks bleak once the two torchbearers (Paes & Bhupathy) of the sport retire. Government killed Hockey; media is doing the same to other sports, albeit in a different manner.

Sensible Memories...

We all know Sanjay Manjrekar the cricketer, the commentator, the writer and the show host. Does anybody remember Sanjay Manjrekar the singer? Way back in mid 90's ,before the rise of Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, when he was an integral member of Indian side, he came out with an album called 'Rest Day'.


Long long back cricket test matches used to be of 6 days. 5 days were for playing while a day in between these playing days was scheduled as a 'Rest Day'. On this day, no cricket was played and cricketers took rest...(I wonder why they rested!!! Cricket was as it is very slow during those days..)

Anyways, I come back to Sanjay Manjrekar the singer. I don't remember much about the album though. The highlight of the album was that Sanjay Manjrekar had sung the favourite songs of all the then Indian Cricket team's players. Only one cricketer apart from him had sung his favourite song in his own voice. That was Indian Cricket's biggest talent lost...Vinod Kambli. I can't recall any songs but two from this album. Anil Kumble's favourite was "Chalte Chalte mere ye geet yaad rakhna", while that of Sanjay Manjrekar was "O Rahi! O Rahi!", both originally sung by legendary Kishore Kumar.

I have searched for this album for quite some time now but in vain. People don't even remember that such an album existed. Many years back I visited Planet M at Ansal Plaza,the then biggest music store in Delhi. I asked the store owner if he had the album.With a puzzled look on his face he asked, "Sanjay Manjrekar को team से निकाल दिया तो उसने गाना शुरू कर दिया क्या???". I couldn't help but smile.

I sincerely request the readers to kindly inform me if they have any idea about the place or website from where I can get the songs of this album. I would be highly grateful.

Have a 'Rest Day'. :)

Senseless Memories Part 2

March 1996..Two grade 4 kids(that's me and Vikramjit by the way...) talking about a cricket match that took place just the other day. Here's the link for you

http://content.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/engine/match/65184.html

For those who don't want to go into details..

It was India vs Zimbabwe, Group A match. World Cup 1996. India batted first.

Sachin, Manjrekar and Azhar were out very cheaply. Navjot Sidhu scored 80, Vinod Kambli scored 106(his second and last ODI century) and Ajay Jadeja scored 44*. Jadeja was the man of the match eventually. India won the match by 40 runs.

Vikram:   Tune match dekha?

Aviral:     haan dekha tha!!! (with a sad look on my face)Sachin keval 3 run par out ho gaya( ...yes!! I was an avid Sachin fan even in those days..)

Vikram:   (with an air of someone who knows it all)Abey, vo isliye kyoki kal India match haarna chahti thi.

Aviral:      (with an astonished look)  pagal hai kya? Zimbabwe se haarenge?

Vikram:   Abey isiliye to Sachin, Azhar, Manjrekar itni jaldi out ho gaye.

Aviral:      match kyo harna chahenge?

Vikram:  Agar match jeet jate to Pakistan se khelna padta naa Quarter final me...(watching India beat Pakistan was a rare sight in those days....it remained that way for a long time)

Aviral:     Fir jeet kaise gaye?

Vikram:  Abey jab Azhar out ho kar jaa raha tha to usne Sidhu se kaha ki yar Pakistan se haare to koi baat nahi, but Zimbabwe se haarenge to bahut beizzati ho jayegi..Isiliye Sidhu ne 80 aur Kambli ne 106 run banaye..

Aviral:     Oh...aisa tha kya!!!

(I nod in agreement. I got his point. I am convinced, Vikram is  satisfied )

3 days later India went on to meet Pakistan in quarter finals and beat them at Chinnaswamy stadium, Bangalore. That match is a legend, something for the history books. Will write about it some other time.

SENSELESS MEMORIES

I'm not good at words. Was thinking about the oldest memory of any Cricket match I have. As it turns out it was some ODI in which Kapil Dev was adjudged LBW. I don't remember anything apart from this fact.

A blurred memory I have of the end result of a match was the one in which India lost to Pakistan. Another thing I remember about this particular match was that Manoj Prabhakar was the person who remained not out in that match while India was chasing. These two hints helped me find a particular match satisfying both conditions.Here's the link to this match

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/engine/match/65929.html

This match was played in 1989 at Eden Gardens Kolkata. I would love to believe that this is the match I was looking for. I may be wrong and the match I think i remember could have been much later.But I hope this is not the case and my love for Cricket goes back to 1989.

This post has been another instance of my joblessness when I sat in front of computer for a long time to search for a particular match. I really doubt if anybody would be interested in this particular instance. But ....who cares...

MY IDOL

Sachin Tendulkar......The man who has entertained us all for so long. For me Cricket is synonymous with Sachin Tendulkar. Some call him God. Undoubtedly he is the most worshipped cricketer of his generation or probably of the entire cricket history. No player has come even closer in matching the respect and awe he generates. 

There have been lot of comparisons between him and the greatest batsman ever i.e. Don Bradman. I don't think they can be justified though. Don Bradman played in an era when the pitches were uncovered. In an era when batsmen faced bowlers ,without helmets, in an era when the number of bouncers in an over were not limited. He faced Harold Larwood in the infamous Bodyline Series. And then he managed mind boggling stats. 6996 runs in 52 tests at an average of 99.94 and 29 centuris. It is highly improbable that any cricketer would even come closer to matching these standards. Sachin is no exception.

Why do I and 100 crore people of India love him so much?? It's because he has entertained us for almost 20 years without stopping. More than half of his life has been dedicated to cricket. And he has done it with perfection. Starting as a kid of 16 years and 205 days he faced some of the most feared bowlers of his generation, Waqar Younis, Imran Khan and of course the legendary Wasim Akram. He faced them with the bravery, audacity and valour quite uncommon to the then Indian Cricket Team. He refused to leave the field when a ball from Waqar Younis hit his nose and his shirt got covered with blood all over. He then came up with a century at Old Trafford against England and saved the test match for India at an age of 17 years and 112 days. His heroics at Perth and Sydney on the tour of Australia proved that we had a Superhero in the making. He became the first foreign player in the 100 years history of Yorkshire Cricket Club. Well, this was just the beginning. He has never looked back since. He was the lone torch bearer of Indian cricket for almost a decade and the whole Indian team revolved around him. This pressure got somewhat lessened when he was joined by Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman and we had probably the best middle order in the world. 

I won't delve into statiscs and the incidents related to Sachin Tendulkar. We all have read them and lived them all our lives. He has enthralled my generation that followed cricket. For the past 20 years he has been compared with the greatest batsmen of his times. Lara, Ponting, Kallis, Inzamam have all been there at different points of time. Only one name remains constant in this list. SACHIN TENDULKAR. 

He has been accused of the fact that he is not the player he once was in the mid 90's. True. But then he has aged over the years and his responsibilities have changed in the team. He has taken blows and injuries all over his body. But he comes out all guns blazing after he recovers.And then we can still compare his record with other batsmen in the past 8-9 years or so. He beats them all. Somebody rightly said that Great People are remembered more for their Failures rather than their Success. Same holds true for Sachin Tendulkar. 

He has been accused of the fact that he has not won enough Test matches for India. True. He accepts it. Have we ever seen him deny this fact? But we can still compare his record with others in the test matches India has won to his record in the tests India has lost. We'll get our answers. Lara and Inzamam have done it better in pressure situations. No doubt about that. But did they do this consistently? Lara was the most graceful batsman of his times. The dancer in the crease, the Prince of Trinidad could not handle the pressure of success after he scored his innings of 375 and 501* forcing him to take a sabbatical. And he had his disputes with all his team members, the team management and the opposition. He was followed by controversies all through his career.

It's not the records that stamp Sachin's greatness. It's his calm demeneaour, his ability to handle the pressures of success, keeping his head on his shoulders when a population of 100 crores would do anything and everything for their hero, and his consistency on the field that proves his mettle. He accepts the controversial decisions of the umpires with the grace unseen and unheard of. He respects every bowler he faces. Have we ever seen him involved in Sledging?????? His politeness, his respect for India, his team, the opposition and the former players is something difficult to find in our times. He has always faced the criticism, challenges and verbal abuses with a smile and has always let his bat do the talking. He was the only player spared by Manoj Prabhakar in the infamous sting operation of the match fixing. Shane Warne has put him at the top in the list of players he has played against. And this is not because of his heroics on the field but because of the pressure he has constantly faced over the past 20 years. No player can be compared to the great Sachin Tendulkar. 

Indian team has had new successes since Dhoni has took over captaincy. He occupies the top rankings in the ODI ratings of best batsmen. Sehwag is said to be the biggest destructor of opposition. Yuvraj is said to be amongst the most talented in the world. But none of these players comes close to Sachin in the grace and beauty he brings to his game. Every shot played by Sachin is a delight for the purists and the youngsters alike.Barring VVS Laxman and Damien Martyn, nobody apart from Sachin has made batting look so easy in an age when we have grown up witnessing the rise in stature of Cricket from just a game in India to a religion.

I personally feel that sometimes he is lauded too much for his centuries and criticised too much for his failures.We have at least one hour review on every news channel of both the century or the duck he scores . Probably Rahul Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly got overshadowed by the glory of Sachin Tendulkar and did not receive the credit they rightly deserved. But that's part and parcel of life. 

He has had his share of controversies. The ball tampering incident in South Africa, the waivering of duty on Ferrari, his disputes with Greg Chappell, declaration of Rahul Dravid when Sachin was on 194, and the latest Monkey Gate incident with Andrew Symonds . But they still seem less in a career spanning two decades. I personally feel he should not have asked for waivering of duty on Ferrari. Apart from that it would be unfair to criticise him of his involvement in these incidents.Much hue and cry was raised when he said he was disappointed when the declaration came when he was only 6 runs short of a double century. But then who would not be???He only spoke against Greg Chappell when his integrity was questioned. And of course, we can't expect the Aussies to be truthful and honest. We all have seen what happened in the last India vs Australia Sydney Test. He has not lost his respect from anybody at any point of time. After the Monkey gate, in the India England test match, when he overtook Brian Lara for maximum runs in Test Cricket, Andrew Symonds sent his congratulations saying, "To Sachin Tendulkar!! The man we all want to be." Do we need any other proof of his greatness?? I guess not. 

Sachin Tendulkar is no God. He is only human, but an ideal one. A perfect role model for everyone. My blog has been just been one of the many articles written about him over the years. I wanted to begin my blog dedicated to man I have respected, admired and loved over the years . I still switch off the tv when he gets out. I still relive his great innings. I still get overjoyed and excited like a kid at each and every milestone he crosses.  He is my inspiration. He is my idol. 

HE IS SACHIN TENDULKAR. THE MAN WE ALL WANT TO BE.