All Those Meaningless Runs Scored By Tendulkar & Company
The earliest image of Tendulkar that I have was all those sixes that he hit off of Pakistani spinner Abdul Kader. Indian cricket fans those days were waiting for somebody to come on to the scene and save Indian cricket after the retirement of Sunil Gavaskar. Indian batting for the most part in the 70’s and 80’s was very conservative (there were exceptions to this rule and players like Srikkanth, Sandeep Patel and Kapil Dev were some of the most aggressive players around). But their teams in many cases did not play to win. Tendulkar was different. His aggressive batting style was an instant hit with the fans (fans who are used to seeing batsmen like Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge take the Indian bowling to pieces).
What we did not realize was that cricket itself was about to change in a significant way as players like Tendulkar and Lara were at the beginning of their careers. More countries were granted permission to play international cricket and the number of one day international matches exploded. Most importantly India became the driving force of international cricket driven primarily by the fact that Indian had the most rabid fans and also because of advertising revenue from India (it is interesting to note that although cricket is played in England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand for a long time cricket never was and never will be the most popular game in these countries. Cricket plays second fiddle to games like Soccer and Rugby in these countries).
Tendulkar and Ganguly are few of the Indian players that typify the players of the last twenty years. They are very well known to the general public, their income outside of cricket is far higher that what they make from playing the game, they play a lot of cricket all over the world and have statistics that dwarfs the statistics of players from any of the previous generations. But the crucial question is are they any better? During the golden age of Indian cricket (early to mid 1980’s) I would have been shocked if someone told me that India would not win a World Cup for at least another next thirty years (Our next chance to win is in 2011. The reality is that our team as it is configured today including the captain and the coaching staff has no chance to win this world cup at all). Consider the Indian team roster for the past 20 years. Most of the teams had future hall of fame players like Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid in it. What do they have to show for it in terms of wins? Very little. They have beaten up on some very weak teams but have come up short on the major tournaments and in critical matches against major opponents like Australia.
As India sheds its socialistic past we also have to shed the notion that participation or heaping praise on each other really does not matter. What matters and gets you respect is winning (you do not have to win all the time but you have to win once in a while). I often wonder if Indians think that Tendulkar is a great player then what should we be thinking about a player like Ricky Ponting? Gavaskar on the 20th anniversary of Tendulkar playing cricket said that Tendulkar is the greatest batsman ever (I think that he has to say that or else crazy Indian fans would have driven him out of the country!!). I think that Tendulkar is not even the greatest player of his generation leave alone of all time. I think that honor goes to our rival Ricky Ponting. Statistically in many aspects he is better than or very close to Tendulkar. But he is clearly better than Tendulkar as a leader of men and as a winner (he has more trophies in his house than everyone in Indian cricket combined !!). If Ricky Ponting was an Indian we would have built temples and started worshipping him.
Related posts:
- The Dilemma Facing Sachin Tendulkar
- Award Winners Are Not Champions
- Are These Empty Praises?
- Sir Donald Bradman is the Greatest Batsman?
- What is Wrong With Indian Cricket?
Category: Sports & Entertainment
Hi Hari,
I agree with you, much of our top players have fallen flat in important matches. I agree totally when you say Pointing is the best batsmen of this generation. His 2003 world cup finals innings when he tore India apart was an innings none of the players from our team have ever played. Current crop of players have me worried as a cricket fan. Dhoni seems to have lost the plot. Sehwag thinks only a couple of fours is enough for him. 2011 is frankly looks like mission impossible with the present team.
Hello Harsha,
Thank you for your feedback. We need a change in captaincy and we need young players who are willing to play hard for the country. We should forget about 2011 and start focusing on the World Cup after that.
Hari.