Every aging sports icon has to go through a cruel phase of introspection where he has to answer to himself & his millions of fans on his impending retirement. The icon has to decide to call it quits when the question is still "Why retire now?" and before the question turns into "Why not retire now?" One of the persons who did this to perfection is 'Pistol' Pete Sampras. When the sports fraternity had started writing him off, he showed the world what he is made up of by winning the US Open championship and his record 14th grand slam tournament. Then he coolly bid farewell to the game when at the top of his game. He did not pick up a racquet for close to 3 years and when he finally did pick up a racquet for a seniors tournament, no less a person than John McEnroe wants him to
return to his famous hunting ground of Wimbledon.
A similar problem seems to be haunting Sachin Tendulkar these days. Anyone who watched him play Bangladesh even for 10 minutes could clearly tell that there is something
terribly wrong with him and his cricket. It is not that I don't recognize the contribution Sachin has made to Indian cricket but to still continue playing when his mind is not there in the game is doing injustice to a prospective younger player aiming for his batting slot. More than injustice to a player, it is a great injustice to the public in a cricket loving nation like India. It is unfair on my part to suggest this but the facts seem to point to only this: Sachin is still playing only for the huge amount of endorsements that he has signed for. When you think that Sachin is worth a staggering $4.6 million
annual endorsement money it is easily fathomable to understand the motive behind Sachin wanting to continue playing internationally. Will Sachin prove me wrong in England and make me eat my words? I would be more than happy to do that but the chances of that happening are very slim though right now.
Every aging sports icon has to go through a cruel phase of introspection where he has to answer to himself & his millions of fans on his impending retirement. The icon has to decide to call it quits when the question is still "Why retire now?" and before the question turns into "Why not retire now?" One of the persons who did this to perfection is 'Pistol' Pete Sampras. When the sports fraternity had started writing him off, he showed the world what he is made up of by winning the US Open championship and his record 14th grand slam tournament. Then he coolly bid farewell to the game when at the top of his game. He did not pick up a racquet for close to 3 years and when he finally did pick up a racquet for a seniors tournament, no less a person than John McEnroe wants him to return to his famous hunting ground of Wimbledon.
A similar problem seems to be haunting Sachin Tendulkar these days. Anyone who watched him play Bangladesh even for 10 minutes could clearly tell that there is something terribly wrong with him and his cricket. It is not that I don't recognize the contribution Sachin has made to Indian cricket but to still continue playing when his mind is not there in the game is doing injustice to a prospective younger player aiming for his batting slot. More than injustice to a player, it is a great injustice to the public in a cricket loving nation like India. It is unfair on my part to suggest this but the facts seem to point to only this: Sachin is still playing only for the huge amount of endorsements that he has signed for. When you think that Sachin is worth a staggering $4.6 million annual endorsement money it is easily fathomable to understand the motive behind Sachin wanting to continue playing internationally. Will Sachin prove me wrong in England and make me eat my words? I would be more than happy to do that but the chances of that happening are very slim though right now.
12 comments:
I pray that he makes you eat up your words. I think he will..
And i strongly disagree when you say he is playing for endorsements.
There has not been a player who loved the game more than him. He has risen upto a number of occasions before when the other rest 10 members looked like not even close to first class cricket. Remember the times when praveen amre and saba karim were treated as batsmen. He stood like a lion and shouldered all the responsibility. You playing for endorsement thing would really hurt any Sachin fan. Leave alone his fans but anybody who has seen him grow and take india to pride in World arena. I cant comment on the way he played in the recent tour because i would agree it defenitely was Unsachin like. But i would never even think of analyzing his morale values. If you think i am talking form my heart and not my brain then you are wrong again.
No offense intended buddy !!..
Peace !.
Sachin will come good in England. Esp if he opens in the ODIs.
PS: Nice blog btw.
PPS: Came here on Aru's recommendation. :)
Pradeep,
Thanks for Ur comments. I greatly appreciate that. England are one of the poorest one day teams. I am looking forward to the test series.
Aru,
I guess U r now starting to become my "Ko Pa Che" as well............. (I am sure U know what that means. After all, Ashok had spelt it out!!)
Actually, as long as the comments are purely on the posting I don't take offence! And Ur comments is surely only on the posting.
The strokes that came from Sachin were horrible to say the least and he is not even half of what he used to be....... I reitrate the great respect that I have for Sachin and remember all the glorious things that he has done for Indian cricket. But there is that creepy feeling inside me that says that something is wrong with the way Sachin & Ganguly have been playing in the last few matches. And as I mentioned before, I would be more than happy to eat my words and U can also bet that I would have a blog posting to accept my mistake.
Let us keep our fingers crossed and wait for the England series!
Well but i would defenitely agree that sachin has lost the touch he used to have.
I would compare the past and present of him to a Wild king of the jubgle to a captured animal in the zoo waiting for its food.
It could be true that he has passed his prime
And ya reg Ko Pa che, I have no inhibitions in refering a good stuff to my friends!!.
Aru,
That reference to being the "Ko Pa Che" was in pure jest and nothing personal. Thanx for the 'Service' I should be saying then.
And regarding Sachin being beyond his prime, it is high time he realizes that. It will be good for his reputation if he retires on his own terms than.......
Hey i was not being mean at all !!.. so u dont need to feel if i would take anything personal !!..Just chill !
Well, it is after a long time that I am coming back to post my comments on a cricket blog, and most importantly on an Indian Idol. This man 'was' considered to be a demi-God and to tell you again the facts that you all know, he has more than just statistics to prove that. So if you are asking me if I am disagreeing with Nagesh's comments, I am not.
To be honest with you all, I do not agree that Sachin has passed his best. He is probably one of the best batsmen we have even today, but I guess that pretty much ends there. He has been scoring runs everywhere and in the example that Nadhas quoted (the Bangladesh series), he was the man-of-the-series for crying out loud. But are awards the criterion for determining the potential? A batsman of the caliber of "TENDULKAR" should have actually decimated the Bangladeshi attack alike the 248 he scored against them a few years ago. A batsman of his nature should have been able to control the proceedings in the middle, rather than being circumspect in every ball he faces. Indian cricket has progressed far wherein we can proudly say that the dependence on Tendulkar has come to an end, and that was considered a good sign of things to come - given the fact that Tendulkar would still continue to dominate the game. May it be the game plan or the burden of expectations, but the Master himself has recently been plagued with indifferent cricket that cannot be associated with a player of his class. People might come back and argue that he cannot be expected to score in every game and even he is mortal. To answer that, I did not see Ricky Ponting shy away from his natural game to dominate even when he is not in form. Take Adam Gilchrist as an example. In his exemplar career, he is taken it to some of the biggest oppositions in the world and has always look to dominate. Is Sachin playing this indifferent game because he is out of form? Facts don't suggest that. Is he playing because he has been asked to play that way? Maybe, but the situation of the game doesn't demand that. So comes one more question, is he playing because he is Sachin Tendulkar and that he has that authority to demand a place in the team? Some might call that a far-fledged call.
More than searching for reasons why he is playing, if we were to analyze reasons why he shouldn't, that will give us the ideal picture. Though he may not dominate the game as he used to, his presence in the team is more like a psychological advantage for the playing eleven, regardless of whether or not he delivers the goods. But the fact does remain that he is, at this stage, one among the eleven, rather than one out of. So do we have a replacement for Sachin? The answer is "maybe", but right now we don't. We even don't have a world class batsman with his technique that can even sustain the bowling of even Bangladesh. We should probably blame it on the Sehwag-Dhoni era wherein technique takes the backseat and flair and flamboyance come in first.
The sad part in all this is in order to find a replacement for Sachin, we should probably start looking now and start building a team towards a post-Sachin era. I do not see that happening as long as the original is still around.
My final view is, though Sachin does score big in the upcoming England series, just to make me or Nagesh eat our words (believe me when I say that I am one of the biggest fans of Tendulkar), I do not see a reason for him not to move out, unless he can get to play to his own caliber. Else it would be like the comeback of Ganguly who could end up mustering time and runs in the middle but ended up achieving personal glory rather than serve the team cause. As they say, one should quit when people say "Why" rather than "Why not".
Vamsi,
Thanx for the comments. As always, U seem to put things in a far more better way than me!
(And as always, I keep asking the same question: When U starting Ur own 'Cricket Blog'?)
Cheers,
Nagesh.
Nadas, Every time u critique a players performance, they shine in the next tournament. First it was Ganguly and Now Tendulkar. Both were best performers in the series immediately after ur blog posts. I guess the players are reading ur blog! Keep critiquing.
Kanna,
How I wish that the players do indeed frequent my blog.........
Thanks for your comments. I guess Sachin will soon make me eat my words!!!!
Cheers,
Nagesh
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