Sachin Tendulkar - Best Batsman In The World

[Cruxdude]

This is what comes of prematurely writing off a legend..

 

[Sir Alex]

I love Chappelli as a commentator. He has rich experience and the necessary insight to draw upon but sometimes even the most astute guy can go so horribly wrong. I still regard him as the best commentator on the game of cricket and needless to say he seems to have learnt from it and so far has not indulged in such blunt write offs I believe.

 

[Cevno]

Chappel has amde big calls regarding rohit sharma and duminy too bit prematurely.
Since he did they have not performed as expected.

 

[L Trumper]

Anyone rememebr this?



'If he can't win as many matches as he can for India, he's wasting his time'

Tendulkar should consider quitting - Ian Chappell

Cricinfo staff

March 30, 2007



Time to retire for Sachin Tendulkar? Ian Chappell thinks so ? Getty Images

Ian Chappell, the former Australian captain, has come down hard on Sachin Tendulkar, saying the time had come for him to consider quitting the game. Chappell said that the Tendulkar decision would be crucial as India try and rebuild after their shocking first round exit from the ongoing World Cup.

Tendulkar managed only 64 runs in India's three first-round matches of the World Cup, and couldn't make much of an impact against Bangladesh (7) and Sri Lanka (0), the two games India lost.

"Before anybody else makes a decision on what will happen to Tendulkar the player himself has to have a good long look in the mirror and decide what he's trying to achieve in the game," Chappell, 63, wrote in Mid-Day, a Mumbai-based tabloid. "At the moment he looks like a player trying to eke out a career; build on a glittering array of statistics. If he really is playing for that reason and not to help win as many matches as he can for India then he is wasting his time and should retire immediately."

Chappell went on to compare Tendulkar with Brian Lara, the West Indian captain, and pointed out how the latter hadn't changed his style of play over a 17-year career. "This is a credit to his technique and mental strength, as the aging process generally makes a player more progressively conservative," Chappell wrote of Lara. "Tendulkar hasn't worn as well; his last three or four years have been a shadow of his former self.

Chappell took into consideration the slew of injuries that Tendulkar had suffered during his career, a factor that had forced him to miss a number of matches in this decade. "Tendulkar hasn't been as lucky as Lara," Chappell wrote, "the Indian batsman has suffered a lot of injuries in this period where his play has deteriorated and there is nothing that melts your mental approach quicker than physical handicaps. Lara has been relatively free from injury and he certainly doesn't have the weight of numbers riding on his shoulders that Tendulkar does. However, the population of the Caribbean might be small but they are extremely demanding.

"Despite all the fuss and the odd controversy that has surrounded Lara's career he has remained himself; this is my game and that is how I play. For whatever reason Tendulkar hasn't been able to maintain his extremely high standards for the last few years and unless he can find a way to recapture this mental approach he's not doing his team or himself any favours.

"If Tendulkar had found an honest mirror three years ago and asked the question; 'Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the best batsman of all?' It would've answered; 'Brian Charles Lara.' If he asked that same mirror right now; 'Mirror, mirror on the wall should I retire?' The answer would be; 'Yes.'

Tendulkar should consider quitting - Ian Chappell | India Cricket News | Cricinfo.com

There is nothing wrong in chappell's comments. In fact SRT booed in mumbai while he was coming to bat circa 2006. Apart from hard core sachin fans almost all of the cricketing world thought his career is over. Hell even SRT said it himself. But everyone was glad that he proved them wrong. Just because chappell predicted wrong doesn't make him stupid or anything. After 15 years in game, he started to struggle so everyone naturally assumed he might end his career in a bit of slump. Most of the games greats like sobers,richards,compton et al ended their careers when they are in relative slump.

 

[Sir Alex]

Chappel has amde big calls regarding rohit sharma and duminy too bit prematurely.
Since he did they have not performed as expected.

Yes I think he said they are stars to watch out for. I believe both will come good (although both look q bit caught in the IPL money )

He made an awesome call to pick Sehwag out of the blue (he was not in he original squad) for Australian tour in 2007-08. Everyone else were against that and Sehwag himself was struggling in Ranji after being dropped.

 

[Sir Alex]

Hell even SRT said it himself.

Source please?

But he indulged in a bit of downriding commentary by bringing in the mirrors and the Lara reference. The tone of the article was clearly accusatory and disrespectful towards what Tendulkar had achieved no doubt. And he better learnt the truth that making "damning" verdicts on players is not a "non accountable" thing and if it goes back it will come back to hit him hard.

As it was valid for him to make that comment then, so is valid for us to have our share of laugh at him.

 

[honestbharani]

Source please?

But he indulged in a bit of downriding commentary by bringing in the mirrors and the Lara reference. The tone of the article was clearly accusatory and disrespectful towards what Tendulkar had achieved no doubt. And he better learnt the truth that making "damning" verdicts on players is not a "non accountable" thing and if it goes back it will come back to hit him hard.

As it was valid for him to make that comment then, so is valid for us to have our share of laugh at him.

Why is it wrong to think some batsman was better than Tendulkar?

 

[Sir Alex]

Why is it wrong to think some batsman was better than Tendulkar?

It was almost like Ian was waiting for an opportunity to bash Tendulkar and add salt to injury by proclaiming (Lara has always been Tendulkar's close competition, Ponting lovers regardless ) Lara better than him. There is NOTHING wrong in what Ian did, he struck when the iron was hot, but it just irritated and saddened hardcore Tendulkar fans like me.

 

[Cevno]

. In fact SRT booed in mumbai while he was coming to bat circa 2006. Hell even SRT said it himself. .

Sources please?

. "At the moment he looks like a player trying to eke out a career; build on a glittering array of statistics. If he really is playing for that reason and not to help win as many matches as he can for India then he is wasting his time and should retire immediately."

This was the most irritating part of the article.Even when Tendulkar was playing at a slower rate in that period ,you could see he was playing for the team and not for himself.But to say that he was playing for money was extremely wrong and disrespectful.
He made such noises before (after england tour) and was only waiting with his mouth ready to prove lara is better when Tendulkar had a slump and degrading Tendulkar by saying he was selfish.

And how has Tendulkar proved him wrong.Thanks to Chappell and Manjrekar for spurring Tendulkar out.
And why both Chappell's keep praising Sehwag and not doing the same for Sachin is because Sehwag was a ally for Greig Chappell when he was Indian coach ,but at the same time Tendulkar due to Greig chappell's bad handling of him ,did not support him against Ganguly and rightly so.So both brothers seem to have a axe to grind with him.
No wonder since Chappell went came Tendulkar's and Indian teams Rejuvenation under A less bossy Kirsten.

 

[Cevno]

Two decades on, there are those who insist that Tendulkar is diminished as a batsman compared with his glorious youth. I cite one of them, the former Australian captain Ian Chappell. "If he says that then he's not watched enough cricket," says Tendulkar, evenly. "There is no player who does not change over 20 years, and that depends on your changing role in the team. When I was 17 there were others to take the kind of responsibility I'm taking now, and at 25 I was playing differently again. One has to be wise and mature enough to understand this changing role. I am quite happy with where I am now, and I think my performances in the last couple of years have proven the so-called experts wrong. I think my reflexes are the same as ever. But I am a feel player. If I feel good I do not practise much. Before the 2003 World Cup (when he was player of the tournament) I had only one net session. But before the last New Zealand tour I hit thousands and thousands of balls in the nets, to give me confidence."

That confidence has rarely flagged against Australia down the years, despite or more likely because of the Aussie status, for most of his career, as the pre-eminent cricketing power. On India's 1991-92 tour of Australia he marred Shane Warne's Test debut with an unbeaten 148 in Sydney, and hammered another century in Perth, causing the vulgar but undoubtedly prescient comment from Merv Hughes to Allan Border that "this little prick's going to end up with more runs than you, AB."

Tendulkar Responded to Chappel well and aptly in a 2009 interview to the Independent.
Sachin Tendulkar: Humble master - Cricket, Sport - The Independent

 

[honestbharani]

Two decades on, there are those who insist that Tendulkar is diminished as a batsman compared with his glorious youth. I cite one of them, the former Australian captain Ian Chappell. "If he says that then he's not watched enough cricket," says Tendulkar, evenly. "There is no player who does not change over 20 years, and that depends on your changing role in the team. When I was 17 there were others to take the kind of responsibility I'm taking now, and at 25 I was playing differently again. One has to be wise and mature enough to understand this changing role. I am quite happy with where I am now, and I think my performances in the last couple of years have proven the so-called experts wrong. I think my reflexes are the same as ever. But I am a feel player. If I feel good I do not practise much. Before the 2003 World Cup (when he was player of the tournament) I had only one net session. But before the last New Zealand tour I hit thousands and thousands of balls in the nets, to give me confidence."

That confidence has rarely flagged against Australia down the years, despite or more likely because of the Aussie status, for most of his career, as the pre-eminent cricketing power. On India's 1991-92 tour of Australia he marred Shane Warne's Test debut with an unbeaten 148 in Sydney, and hammered another century in Perth, causing the vulgar but undoubtedly prescient comment from Merv Hughes to Allan Border that "this little prick's going to end up with more runs than you, AB."

Tendulkar Responded to Chappel well and aptly in a 2009 interview to the Independent.
Sachin Tendulkar: Humble master - Cricket, Sport - The Independent

To be completely honest, there is more than enough accounts of batsmen who DID NOT change their style of play as they got older.. Viv Richards seems to be one and I know for sure Lara didn't... It seems to be clash of egos between a very respected commentator and one of the greatest players of the game more than anything else.. Choosing sides, and right or wrong here is just a waste of time. Chappell wrote what he felt about Tendulkar at that time, which is what most commentators are expected to do.. Sachin responded and showed him that he was wrong, and good on him for that. But to keep bringing this up as if it was some kind of a personal vengeance or as if he is a hero from the movies who has made the villain a fool... I am sorry, this is sport..

 

[SJS]

There is nothing wrong in chappell's comments. In fact SRT booed in mumbai while he was coming to bat circa 2006. .

Source please?

I was present at the ground. It is true that Sachin was boooed by the Bombay crowd though it was when he got out and not when he walked in to bat. It was terrible nevertheless and I was disgusted myself. I walked out of the ground sometime later myself.

Sachin had come in with India in trouble having lost two early wickets. He played carefully and without making any mistake till he edged one behind and got out. England were on top and bowling well. Sachin may have left that ball alone but that is all in hindsight. He did nothing in that innings or in the delivery that got him that a batsman in the prime of form may not have done. He was obviously very sad and disappointed when he got out and was walking off with his head down and the last thing he needed was for his home crowd to start booing him. He had done nothing in that innings or in getting out to deserve it.

I was attending a Test match after a pretty long break that day and was very surprised to see the quality of the crowds around me. There was hardly anyone that one could have a good cricket discussion with except a few england fans that were traveling in a group.

There was a lot of discussion around the country about the incident. One of the best articles was written by a blogger. Here it is....

Booing Sachin
Published on March 20, 2006 in Cricket. 82 Comments​

Sachin Tendulkar wafts at an innocuous James Anderson delivery and walks to the pavillion leaving India at the jaws of defeat.

Then the unthinkable happens.

The Mumbai crowd booes Sachin Tendulkar. Can this be happening in independent India?


Sambit Bal opines.

Of course it was disgraceful and sickening, as it always is when any sportsperson is booed. But crowd behaviour in Mumbai has been appalling for the last few years. Rahul Bhattacharya recently wrote about the racist abuse hurled at West Indian cricketers in 2002, and Sourav Ganguly has been regularly hooted by a crowd once known for its cricket knowledge and fairness. But Tendulkar? Who would have thought it would ever come to this?

Now this I do not understand. If sportsmen are willing to put up with cheers, fawning fans and sweet endorsement deals that result from their popularity, then they should be equally prepared for the jeers and booes that follow a bad performance. Hence I cannot call the Mumbai crowd’s reaction “disgraceful and sickening” by any yardstick.

However it does get disgraceful and sickening when things are hurled with the intention to injure or humiliate a player (Examples: Calcutta crowd in 1983, 1996,1999, the Madras crowd in 1983, the Bangalore crowd in 1997, the Ahmedabad crowd in 1983). Booing however is a legitimate expression of dissatisfaction on the part of the paying audience at poor cricket.

So do I support the reaction of Mumbai crowd? No. “Wait” you say. Isnt that just what you did—support the Mumbai crowd reaction? I say “No”. What I did was support their right to boo and express democratic dissent at the performance of those they have paid to watch. What I did not mention yet is how merited I think this particular reaction (i.e booing Sachin) was.

I agree with Wadekar when he says that the standards of cricket appreciation have markedly gone down all over the country. My father and his friends used to repeatedly express their anguish over the Eden gardens crowd and how the composition of those attending cricket matches has gradually changed over the years. In the 60s and 70s, the people who watched games at Eden Gardens appreciated good cricket—regardless of which side played it.

However starting from the 80s things changed dramatically. People came to Eden interested in 1) seeing India win 2) fours and sixes. Great cricket from the opposition went unapplauded (sometimes booed), 4s and 6s were all that mattered, and the desire to appreciate the finer nuances of the game of cricket (and that meant good bowling) was supplanted by a blood-thirsty lust for a gladiatorial spectacle —with the painted faces and megaflags acting as an accompanying expression of the worst kind of pop-patriotism.

And I think this criticism applies to more and less all grounds in India—-Mumbai being no exception.

First up, something a bit unrelated. I discerned a rather radical and disturbing shout from the audience—ostensibly to pump up the Indian team. It was “Ganapati Bappa Moriya”. Now I have never heard this chant before from the Mumbai crowd but then again I have not closely followed Test cricket from 99 onwards (by closely I mean continously watching it on TV). This was the first time I heard it anywhere and I found this form of cheering religiously charged and rather exclusionary for a team which has players from the minority community in it. I presume that this is inspired by the “Allah hu Akbar” cry of the Pakistani crowed but please let us not let Pakistanis guide our behavior. Let’s keep cricket secular.

The reason I mention this is that the people who come to watch cricket are more and more resembling a mob whose only purpose of attending is to see the bat dominating the ball (unless it is India bowling), fours and sixes raining and their hero Sachin getting a century.

Instead what do they see?

A brilliant bowling performance by England. It was pure cricketing excellence the way they stifled Sachin for 21 deliveries. The English bowlers gave nothing away—keeping the ball just short of good length (par for this pitch). Sachin has got out many a time in the recent past, bowled through the gate as he tried to force the ball on the legside. You could see Sachin trying not to do that—keeping his bat as straight as possible. The English bowlers did not overpitch even once, pegging away at Sachin’s insecurities. The Sachin of old would have backed himself to handle this length by rocking back on his back foot and thumping the ball through the covers but of late, Sachin tries to avoid these shots and favours the straight shot through the V or a push to leg. And as the bowlers slowly strangled his scoring, Sachin became more and more desperate, manifested by an almost-suicidal single he tried to take.

And then when Anderson bowled a rather harmless delivery outside the off stump, Sachin just had to take advantage of that lifeline. A younger Sachin may have swung at the ball and even if he had not connected, the flashing edge may have flown over the slips. But the Sachin of today went half-way (neither attack nor defence) and attempted to play a percentage shot—-opening the face of the bat: a shot fraught with risk when slips are in place. And paid the price.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai crowd had been totally blind to this ongoing cat-and-mouse game —precisely the thing that makes Test cricket such an absorbing contest. All they had come to see were sixes and fours and India going into a position of dominance. And when things didnt happen according to script, they vented their frustration out on Sachin. According to them, it was Sachin’s fault that he got out. The sheer brilliance of the English bowling and Flintoff’s captaincy was totally lost on them. Which is a pity.

This reminded me of 1983. Calcutta Test. Second innings and India are batting to save the test. Michael Holding comes in and Gavaskar cover drives Holding for four. The entire Eden erupts in joy—80,000 people going up in applause. Holding charges in again. The same result—Gavaskar goes down on his knees and sends the cherry careening to the fence. The crowd goes berserk, calling Sunil Gavaskar’s name in a mesmerizing chant.

Holding charges in from the shadows. The slips go down.

An identical ball. Gavaskar, with the cheers of the crowd reverbating in his ears and adrenaline pumping, gets down on his knees for another free hit. But no wait, it is not an identical delivery. Holding this time has gone wide of the crease and the ball, unlike the previous two times, straightens–Sunny however is committed to the premeditated shot, goes through with it, the ball takes the edge and flies to Dujon who makes no mistake.

As Gavaskar himself says in his autobiography, he realized immediately that he had been masterfully set up by those “four” balls. India folds up for 90 and the Eden crowd hurls debris at Gavaskar for his “shot of rank irresponsibility” little realizing that it was sheer bowling genius that had led first Sunny (and the crowd) up the garden path and then sprung the trap.

So in conclusion, if we claim to be a cricket-mad nation, let us first learn to appreciate cricket for what it is—a battle between bat and ball —-and leave the madness for later.​

 

[G.I.Joe]

The author has no clue on the Ganpati Bappa morya bit. Other than that, quite an okay article. Needs to visit Chennai for a test before trying to paint the kolkata and mumbai crowds as representative of the entire country.

 

[bagapath]

SJS as usual comes up with the most sensible argument. sambit bal's last line is bang on.

 

[Sir Alex]

"Apart from hard core sachin fans almost all of the cricketing world thought his career is over. Hell even SRT said it himself"

I would like to know when SRT said he thought his career was over.

 

[Sanz]

"Apart from hard core sachin fans almost all of the cricketing world thought his career is over. Hell even SRT said it himself"

I would like to know when SRT said he thought his career was over.

Dude this is not a place to clear up your ignorance. It is quite ridiculous that you keep asking for proof while spouting garbage during majority of your stay here, why not spend some time looking up stuff (if you don't believe the forum Members) in stead of asking source of information everytime.

Here is SRT saying the exact same thing :-

YouTube - I thought my career was over: Tendulkar

You didn't know that Tendulkar was booed in Mumbai ? How long have you been following Indian Cricket and Tendulkar ?

 

[Sir Alex]

Thanks for the link papa.

 

[L Trumper]

Thanks for the link papa.

I hope you can agree now that chappell's comments are not made because of jealousy or anything. He said what he thought, which most of the people thought too..

From 04 - 06 brian lara is playing like 10 years younger, while sachin is out of form and struggled because of injuries. Since those two are the best of their generation he made comparison with brian lara, not to disgrace sachin. Hell, everyone agrees that chappell is probably the least biased commentator and columnist in cricket and saying he had a personal vendetta against SRT is stupid.

 

[asty80]

Saw this on the net and wanted to share:
Sustaining greatness for the longest duration ever will probably be Sachin's lasting legacy.

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When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam.

When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Dr Manmohan Singh was yet to "open" the Nehruvian economy.

It seems while Time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar. We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had a Sachin Tendulkar and we perhaps never will.
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[Faisal1985]

I remember when Indian media started saying that Tendulkar should retire after Asif bowled him in Karachi and he went down on his knees, ofcourse he wanted to show that the ball kept low...which it did to be honest...

But what a come back from Tendulkar, a true legend IMO. I think its about time Tendulkar won India a World Cup to prove his legacy...