Take it or leave it

Before I start this post, would like to applaud Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar for becoming the accumulator of most number of runs in Test Cricket.

Rewind to 1987, I first got a taste of Cricket when my father took me to the India Pak test match at Chepauk. My earliest memory of watching Cricket was Cheeka’s six that flew in my direction but descended a few rows in front of me. Though Appa says he took me to watch the 1983 Finals at Thatha’s house since we didn’t have a telly then and that I also watched the 1985 world series finals between Ind and Pak at Varadhan Maama’s house. Around the same time a certain 13 year old had started to make waves in the domestic cricket. While I bunked school when I was 7 to watch India lose by 1 run in the inagural WC match in the 1987 world cup this kid was destined for bigger things.  Around the same time a certain Graeme Hick was blasting the bowlers all around the park and was even dubbed the best thing to have happened to cricket since Don Bradman. A certain Sunil Gavaskar announced his retirement and all the cricket fanatics thought that was the end of cricket in India.

Tendulkar and Hick were the two cricketers I started following at an early age.

Both Tendulkar and Hick scored runs at will in the domestic scene. Hick was infact better, but Tendulkar played test cricket first mainly beacuse the Zimbabwe born Hick was not qualfied to play for England. A couple of gritty 50s in his first series against Pak in 1989 announced Tendulkar’s arrival onto the international scene. He did show a glimpse of his talent when he toyed the much feared Abdul Qadir for 28 runs in one over in an exhibition game.

While Hick made his debut in 1991 and struggled to establish in a pretty ordinary England squad, Tendulkar had begun to stamp his authority. He scored his first test hundred and soon won the hearts of the cricket lovers by scoring 2 fantastic hundreds in Oz. Both Hick and Tendulkar played in the 1992 WC. While Tendulkar had a decent tournament, England were the runners up with Hick scoring important if not many runs. And that was the nearest that Hick could go to success in International Cricket.

I continued bunking classes to watch India play cricket. Fought in vain with parents to get Star TV connection (that was how Satellite TV connections were known as then). Wore the hat of peeping tom to watch neighbour’s tv through the window. Went to random uncles’ houses to watch highlights, glued to the radio commentary and realised that Hick was yet to take the next step while Tendulkar was miles ahead.

The 1996 WC saw Tendulkar scale new heights though it was a tragedy for the team at Eden Gardens. He was appointed the captain of the national team in 1996 and team struggled a lot. Lot of youngsters were tried a couple of them succeeded while many faded into the oblivion.  He still was the king of the masses. He made people happy with the sheer number of runs he scored and the manner in which he scored them. He gave up captaincy for the team’s sake. Meanwhile, Hick was already dropped for the 6th time in his career.

The arrival of Dravid and Ganguly took some burden from Tendulkar’s shoulders, but he was expected to perform always and in most cases he obliged. He reached his peak in 1998 at Sharjah when he made those  back to back centuries against Australia. Around the same time, his body started to fail him, yet he continued to perform. Everyone had their own aberrations and during the later part of the 90s and early 2000s his’ were the crunch game failures. Thankfully there were others to rescue the team. He resigned from captaincy for the second time when the team was thrashed in Aus and at home to South Africa.  I wonder why captaincy is an art rather than a skill and why Tendulkar a master of skills couldn’t master an art ?

He became the first player to score 10,000 runs in ODIs in 2001 had a brilliant world cup in 2003. Greame Hick had already played his last test and ODI for England but continued to score runs in county cricket.

In the last few years, Tendulkar has missed a few matches while still being the God of cricket. He is 35 and 19 years of international cricket has taken it toll. And much to the surprise of many of his critics (including me) he broke an habit of a decade and led India to success in the trinations series in Australia early this year.

While all this happened, I became a professional arm chair critic. Even wrote that he was a flat track bully and earned the wrath of my colleagues, tore him to pieces whenever he failed (not that he knew of it) and asked for his head. But today as he became the first batsman to have scored 12000 test runs, I stood and applauded his achievements. I only wish that he quits ODIs and play only test matches.

Yeah, I like Rahul Dravid more than Tendulkar, but as I worship the wall, I look beyond and see a monument that is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

Just as we thought that this is going to be a farewell series to our beloved Ganguly, he has reminded us that he still has some fire power within him. The issue is that he chose to display it at the wrong time. In his interview to a Bengali daily, he has lashed out at the selectors. More on it here. He has denied making these comments

While we laud Ganguly for his dynamic captaincy and the way he backed talent, we should also not forget that he never missed an opportunity to rub people on the wrong side more than once. What he did to Steve Waugh helped India to beat Australia, but what he did to Greg Chapell and if true, now to the selection committee & to some of his team mates does not leave a good taste in the mouth.

Alright, Greg Chappell did not want him in the team. But there is a forum to address the issues and Ganguly chose the wrong one to address this. That too after a painful hundred against Zimbabwe.

While the credtibility of the Bengali daily that quoted him can be questioned, Ganguly has always had the qualities to make statements like the one he allegdly made.

While I am glad that he was amongst runs in the first test, causing unrest in the dressing room is not what the team wanted.

Next post – more on his captaincy

“Just one last thing lads, before I leave, I just want to say that this is going to be my last series,”

This is how Sourav Ganguly broke the news to the press.

Dada has been wonderful for Indian cricket. In fact, he transformed the team that was ruthless at home and poor travelers. He gave the team the winning mentality. Identified and nurtured youngsters. He scored a lot of runs, frustrated and beat Australia at home, inspired them abroad, bared his chest at Lords, lost his way in between, infamously declared himself unfit at Nagpur in 2004, ran into poor form, lost his captaincy and then for the right reasons lost his place in the team.

He came back strongly. Shone against England away from home, tamed Pakistan at home and had a good tour of Australia but struggled against SL just like everyone except a very special Sehwag.

Between 1997 and 2000, he was the world’s best ODI batsman, a tag normally associated with a certain Sachin Tendulkar. He may not have reached the heights Tendulkar or Dravid for his cricketing ability, but he certainly mastered captaincy, probably the only art which Sachin couldn’t pick up and the one that Dravid couldn’t master.

Ganguly would be a legend in our minds for his service to Indian cricket. And I hope he gets a great farewell with India winning the series and he among runs.

The only sad thing in this is that Yuvi will start to play more test matches.