The Manjrekar/Tendulkar story

[kvemuri]

And ofcourse the GOD agreed to it.

Let me ask you this Sanz, if you were in Sachin's shoes and declared yourself fit (which btw was endorsed by the team Physio John Gloster and Sachin's own doctors) and the BCCI said "ahh Sanz no need to take a physical, we believe in you, we saw the fitness reports that Gloster sent us and also we saw you play in those exhibition matches in England, thats good enough for us ". Would you go "oh no no no Mr.Pawar, I insist infact I demand to be tested out. what kind of a man am I otherwise? oh wait in such a case I am less than a man."

See the problem with Sachin's fanatic detractors are they are so blinded by their insistence on him being "less than a mortal" that they would attack him on things such as faking his injuries, to him taking a tax exemption (yep Sanz you have quoted this many a time) and now when BCCI is ok with him not taking a fitness test, whose fault is it again? hell its Sachin's fault, how dare he not demand a fitness test, who does he think he is? such audacity and arrogance.

 

[kvemuri]

ICC stated that Tendulkar should do the right thing and withdraw if he is not 100% fit to be fair to other batsman (such as Inzy). I'll try and dig up the article which mentions this, but you are right they did give him an extended time. Why? Because Sachin = Money.

Bingo, also the SS was a complete sham that was slammed by many players and including the likes of Ponting and Flintoff who played in it. I unfortunately saw the entire ODI series where a motivated Aussie side (fresh from Ashes thumping) took an a bunch of un-motivated, un-interested individuals who were part of a lame duck team.

If Sachin had joined that team and then aggravated his injury, i will bet you 100 bucks Manjrekar would've written in his article that Sachin was so selfish, especially knowing a SLK series was coming up, he decided to be part of SS where there was no motivation factors except to show his individual skills and in this way had put himself before the country.

 

[Goughy]

The line must aways be drawn under the situation. Is a player hurt or injured?

If hurt a pro should always play.

If injured they shouldn't.

Being hurt means playing with pain and discomfort, being injured means there is a physical problem apart from pain that prevents you from being your best and can be made worse.

Playing injured can severely impact a players career, however if athletes did not play hurt they would hardly ever play.

You cannot expect to only play if 100% fit as it is hardly ever possible. There are always issues, it just depends on how serious they are.

I don't know enough about the Tendulkar situation to make any judgements but I thought I should point out the differences in issues a player may face and how they should act when facing each of them.

 

[honestbharani]

An interesting incident that comes to my mind is of Lara playing on with his chipped wrist bone which he picked up during that tour to RSA in 98. He played the test series Vs Australia with that (went on to play some of the most memorable innings in test cricket history) and ended up not playing the ODIs as the injury had become worse since he had played with it. Wasn't fully fit even at the WC or for most of the summer after that. Similarly he played on with his dislocated elbow during the test series against India under Hooper's captaincy. The medical advice was that he wasnt under any real risk because the injury wasnt gonna worsen because of him playing with it, but I distinctly remember him not being able to play most of the bottom hand dominated strokes like the cut, the pull or the down the track big hit. In fact, he simply couldnt play any lofted strokes at all. I always wonder if some other player like a Marlon Samuels or a Ricardo Powell could have done better had they been picked instead of a half fit Lara who was never really gonna be effective with so many strokes taken out of his arsenal.

 

[Sanz]

Let me ask you this Sanz, if you were in Sachin's shoes and declared yourself fit (which btw was endorsed by the team Physio John Gloster and Sachin's own doctors) and the BCCI said "ahh Sanz no need to take a physical, we believe in you, we saw the fitness reports that Gloster sent us and also we saw you play in those exhibition matches in England, thats good enough for us ". Would you go "oh no no no Mr.Pawar, I insist infact I demand to be tested out. what kind of a man am I otherwise? oh wait in such a case I am less than a man."

Forget me, Would you defend it if Same was done to Zaheer Khan or Balaji ? Sachin should have gone through the fitness test.

See the problem with Sachin's fanatic detractors are they are so blinded by their insistence on him being "less than a mortal" that they would attack him on things such as faking his injuries, to him taking a tax exemption (yep Sanz you have quoted this many a time) and now when BCCI is ok with him not taking a fitness test, whose fault is it again? hell its Sachin's fault, how dare he not demand a fitness test, who does he think he is? such audacity and arrogance.

Dont twist my words, I dont have a problem with him asking for exemption, but with him and his sponsor trying to pass a corporate gift as an award. He sure can ask for an exemption, but for god's sake be truthful and tell that it is a corporate gift.

Lastly I am no Sachin fanatic detractor, I have defended his batting on this very forum on numerous times, I just am not a fanatic fan of Tendulkar.One guy says that he is No god and I can see all Sachin up in Arms and funny thing is they just dont get tired of Sachin praise even when he is performing worse than Md. Sami.

And No Sachin cant be blamed for anything. He is such a GOD.

 

[Sanz]

Bingo, also the SS was a complete sham that was slammed by many players and including the likes of Ponting and Flintoff who played in it. I unfortunately saw the entire ODI series where a motivated Aussie side (fresh from Ashes thumping) took an a bunch of un-motivated, un-interested individuals who were part of a lame duck team.

Ponting slammed it ?? Here is what he said :-

"It's been a very enjoyable Test match to play in. I think the concept is great, the idea of this series is fantastic and hopefully I will get to play a few of them through the years." that's sure slamming, isn't it ??

After the ODIs, shaun Pollock said it was a success

Flintoff :- "Playing for England and playing with a bunch of blokes you have played with for a long time with and come into a dressing room with people you don't necessarily know is going to be harder. But we are professional cricketers, we have to get out there and play and to be picked for a World XI -- two or three years ago I would never have thought I would have been playing, so there is a lot of prestige involved."

If Sachin had joined that team and then aggravated his injury, i will bet you 100 bucks Manjrekar would've written in his article that Sachin was so selfish, especially knowing a SLK series was coming up, he decided to be part of SS where there was no motivation factors except to show his individual skills and in this way had put himself before the country.

You seem to ignore the fact that Sachin was actually fully fit during SS and playing in the Challenger trophy @ home, which obviously is much more respectable to some people. Come what may one shouldn't miss challengers, it is the most important series after the WC. And ofcourse playing against australia and a fat paycheck is no motivation, in that case I think all those un-motivated, uninterested players who played are buch of unprofessional for accepting paycheck from ICC for participating into the series. And please leave this country bull, no one plays for their country, they play for money.

 

[Sanz]

now when BCCI is ok with him not taking a fitness test, whose fault is it again? hell its Sachin's fault, how dare he not demand a fitness test, who does he think he is? such audacity and arrogance.

This is why Australia is the best team for past 12 years and we will never be one for next 200 years despite having players like Dravid, Tendulkar etc

 

[Dasa]

You've resorted to telling us the Super Series was a success in order to support your argument? I can't offer you evidence that the players won't fully motivated in the series, but I can tell from seeing how they played (I was at all three ODIs), there was only one team out there giving it their best, and it certainly wasn't the World XI.

You seem to ignore the fact that Sachin was actually fully fit during SS and playing in the Challenger trophy @ home, which obviously is much more respectable to some people. Come what may one shouldn't miss challengers, it is the most important series after the WC. And ofcourse playing against australia and a fat paycheck is no motivation, in that case I think all those un-motivated, uninterested players who played are buch of unprofessional for accepting paycheck from ICC for participating into the series. And please leave this country bull, no one plays for their country, they play for money.

You've made a whole lot of assumptions in that paragraph. Who is to say Tendulkar was playing the Challenger series to regain fitness, as many players do - playing domestic cricket to slowly get themselves back to full fitness for international cricket?

This is why Australia is the best team for past 12 years and we will never be one for next 200 years despite having players like Dravid, Tendulkar etc

Irrelevant and pointless link. McGrath has played no cricket for six months, thus will be proving his fitness. Furthermore, the link doesn't say that it is his personal decision to prove his fitness, as you are saying Tendulkar should do. In fact, the implication is that it is Cricket Australia asking him.
Tendulkar has been playing cricket at lower levels with success, and has been practising in the nets for some time now. If the fitness staff and the BCCI think he is fit and does not require a fitness test, then he won't take one. No comparison with the McGrath situation at all.

 

[Sanz]

You've resorted to telling us the Super Series was a success in order to support your argument? I can't offer you evidence that the players won't fully motivated in the series, but I can tell from seeing how they played (I was at all three ODIs), there was only one team out there giving it their best, and it certainly wasn't the World XI.

Errr having problems in reading ? Where did I say that SS was a success ? I refuted Kvemuri's claim that Ponting slammed it. SS might have been a failure but Ponting didn't really slam it and the point was to prove that there were lot of players who liked the idea and thought of it as a good Idea.

About world XI players not giving their best, well that is your opinion and not a FACT. For rest of your points please keep worshipping the GOD.

 

[Dasa]

Wow. Your argument has swayed me. How could I have been so wrong?

 

[Sanz]

Nothing is lost yet, I hear they are building a Huge Temple of Shri Sachin Tendulkar Ji Maharaj in Melbourne, Austalia, with Shane Warne as the main Priest. Darshan wont be free though. Each Darshan would cost around 10-20 Australian Dollars. ( Priest's charges are extra). Money collected from the Darshan would be given to the Indian Government to cover Shri Sachin Tendulkarji Maharaj's Tax payments.

 

[Jono]

For real? I'm so there.

 

[silentstriker]

For real? I'm so there.

Dude, I'm like the head priest. We have mini-Gods there too. Tendulkar is like Zeus (supreme leader), but we have other gods like Agarkar, who would be Aphrodite (goddess of love, beauty and ***ual rapture).

 

[Sanz]

For real? I'm so there.

They are planning to introduce monthly/yearly passes for devotees who arefrequent visitors.

 

[Fusion]

Dude, I'm like the head priest. We have mini-Gods there too. Tendulkar is like Zeus (supreme leader), but we have other gods like Agarkar, who would be Aphrodite (goddess of love, beauty and ***ual rapture).

 

[Sanz]

Sanjay Manjrekar was once the biggest star in Indian cricket. Yes thats a fact. He was considered technically as good a batsman as anyone else in the world and he scored consistently. He was the new master batsman from Bombay.

The all of a sudden his batting started to come apart and with that his psyche.

Just then a new star emerged on the Indian horizon and so strongly did it start burning that the fading away of the budding giant in Sanjay Manjrekar went, welll not un-noticed but not as lamented as one would have imagined in a country like India. Sanjay just , kind of, 'lapsed' from the Indian fans' collective memory and faded away from the scene despite some desperate efforts to get back.

The impact on Sanjay's psyche was evident when he was trying to make a come back and later this emerged as a latent resentment against the batting stars on the Indian firmament. Anyone who has been following Sanjay's career as a broadcaster would have noticed how Sanjay's strange negativity when commenting on India's test matches. But it is with Tendulkar, the man who quietly replaced him from the pedestal he was so sure belonged to himself.

I am not surprised one tiny little bit by Sanjay's tirade. I am surprised it has taken so long to come out in the open. He is pathalogical in this respect.

So Mr. Know-It-all, here is some thing you should read :-

http://www.icc-cricket.com/india/content/story/255537.html

Particularly this part :-

"Perhaps Manjrekar got it wrong. You could argue that he might not be fully aware of the nature of extent of Tendulkar's injuries. And it can even be argued that a conservative Tendulkar serves Indian cricket's interests better. But why is it such a blasphemy to raise a few questions over Tendulkar? Is Tendulkar infallible? Can we not make allowance for the fact that he could do a couple of things wrong? And even if all this is untrue, can we not merely agree to disagree? "

 

[Sanz]

Tendulkar has been playing cricket at lower levels with success, and has been practising in the nets for some time now. If the fitness staff and the BCCI think he is fit and does not require a fitness test, then he won't take one. No comparison with the McGrath situation at all.

As usual, I stand Corrected. (But I am sure that is another useless link for you)

Tendulkar ready, but not 100 percent: Chappell

"He is ready to play but he is not absolutely 100 percent fit. He cannot do long distance throwing,...For everything else, he is looking pretty good. He made a few runs in England. We have to nurse him through the initial couple of matches....We have to give him the confidence as far as throwing is concerned...."

Now be ready for excuses (if he fails to perform) by his fanatics.

 

[Jono]

So Tendulkar isn't *****ing out and choosing not to play? Instead he's playing injured?

So which is it, he fakes his injuries and chooses not to play, or he has injuries but is so selfish that he's deciding not to take fitness tests to cover up those injuries to ensure he has a place in the team at all costs, even if its negative to the team?

That damn Sachin, so deviant.

 

[silentstriker]

So Tendulkar isn't *****ing out and choosing not to play? Instead he's playing injured?

So which is it, he fakes his injuries and chooses not to play, or he has injuries but is so selfish that he's deciding not to take fitness tests to cover up those injuries to ensure he has a place in the team at all costs, even if its negative to the team?

That damn Sachin, so deviant.

He does both, just to throw Sanz off his trail.

 

[Sanz]

As usual Tendulka fanatics who were defending that Sachin Was right in skipping the fitness test resort back to their usual tactic of attacking the messnger instead of accepting that their assertion that 'Tendulkar was fully fit and hence didn't need the fitness test' was wrong.

Anyways, to answer your question - How bout BOTH.