A Case for Sachin

Before I move on to cricket a brief overview of the afternoon. We had the PCMM result dissemination for our Pune location and we had gone to the Le Meridian at 3. It was not surprising to find that the Pune location of our company has been rated at PCMM 5. Our chairman was in the video-con and it was good listening to him. Sounded like a good chap. We then had a nice little 'Hight Tea' and snacks (too good). We walked away with mugs engraved with the company logo as souvenirs.

Now coming back to the match. I missed the second half of it except for the last over. I was disappointed with the result. And more so with the India captain when I took a look at the scoreboard. Sehwag who had conceded just four runs in his only over was not given another over. Nehra who was badly hammered was entrusted with the ball towards the end. He even conceded some runs to Sami. With the pitch playing a bit slow, I would have expected Sachin or Sehwag to do the bowling. Sachin eventually bowled a good last over but it was too late and it is very difficult to deny three runs to a batsman to Inzi's calibre. Well, I am no expert, but that was my 2 p on the situation.

Talking of Sachin, he once more showed his master class in the morning. I don't think that he was out of form, it was just that he was not spending time in the middle. Today he stayed there and came up with a beauty. I am fed up with this criticism of Sachin based on half baked wisdom. I think that those who are after his skin have very little cricketing knowledge and have not been following cricket. The period they say he has been out of form(that is the last 30 ODIs), has seen him score at an average of around 43 in ODIs. When you compare this against his career average of 45, it is a bit on the lower side but it is still better than most good batsman in the world. The Sachin-bashers club also argue that he has not won enough matches for India and that he plays for personal landmarks. I believe that matches are not won by getting out, but rather by staying at the wicket and scoring runs. Sachin may not have stayed at the crease till the last run was scored (show me an opening batsman in the ODI who has stayed there till the end when a huge total was required to win) but his contribution to the team has been outstanding. It is not fair comparing batsmen who bat at different positions. A batsman like Dravid or Inzi come in at no 4 or below and they can stay till the end, but it is very difficult for an opening batsman to bat for 50 overs. And another important fact is that whenever Sachin has batted well, the batsmen around him have contributed little to the total (leave the past and let's concentrate on last year, are we forgetting the 141 at Rawalpindi or the Asia Cup Final?). The fact is that throughout his career he has had little support. I have seem him countless times being the lone battler for the team.

As far as commitment to the team cause is concerned. I feel that there are few players with his level of commitment. He has always given more than 100% be it batting, bowling or fielding. Few players run around and cover the boundaries with his energy. Few players come and take the field after scoring centuries when batting first in energy sapping conditions. And few players are ready to bowl whenever the captain asks them to (that the captain doesn't give it to him is a different matter altogether) and come up with crucial wickets. There have been very few selfless cricketers like Sachin and it hurts me a lot when I hear people taking potshots at him. In fact, very few players will survive if they have to shoulder the responsibility and expectation that Sachin carries on his shoulders.

Summing it up, there has never been a player like Sachin (this is not emotional, but there are record books to justify this). The greatest compliment that could be given to him is in the cricinfo player page and I reproduce it here... "But the finest compliment must be that bookmakers would not fix the odds – or a game – until Tendulkar was out."

Bottom line: Sachin rules.