Helplessness!!! - A letter to my creator...

"We all learn as we grow..."

This day... 13th of January, 2012 feels like the world around me just shattered...

The greatest of life's tragedy has been "THAT GAP" from completeness to COMPLETEness...

Everyone has dreams...More often than not pertaining to our own well being.... But, we are always impacted most when THAT someone is impacted. e.g. my father has cancer, my dog died and so on.... Well that's the end of that... We move on and every now and then sit back and wonder "WHAT IF?"...

But, nothing can beat the feeling of not fulfilling one's life long dream and you know its not going to come back...

For a SACHIN TENDULKAR FAN, this is the end of the road... The thought that only two of his dreams (winning the world cup and being a Test #1 team) are complete is earth shattering... His dream of winning a series "DOWN UNDER" remains a dream... He could not conquer Australia, the team he has played against with a tennis elbow/back pain/broken toe, the team he has fought against all the time, the team he has stood up against all on his own.... Who can forget the pains he took to perfect the art of playing the upper cut in bouncy Australia or the hard work he put in to slog sweeping the best leg spinner in dust fields in India....

You have inspired me, entertained me and more often than not thrown away all of my life's disappointments and lower ebbs...

The pain is excruciating for I can do nothing sitting here within the four walls to change the direction of the result or save you from being dis-graced for no reason of yours...

Sachin - You have done it all for us.... A 100 at Perth when we crumbled for 200 as an 18-yr old, a 175 chasing 350, only for the remaining 4 wise men to not score the remaining 18 runs...

But, you will always be remembered for single handed-ly dominating Warne, for helping us qualify and winning the series in the deserts, for being positive and yet watchful for we were wasteful and clueless against good swing bowling, for cutting out all your stylish shorts for a team cause in a critical test match down under, for single handed-ly winning us the 2 finals in Australia in 2008 and standing up for our great nation...Above all for giving us respect as a nation, without being rolled over.

If I could do something as a common man, I would... All I can do is to pray to your creator... Love you loads Sachin... For the honesty you have shown, for the life you have lived, for the joy you have given and the sheer poetry we witnessed. For a cricket maniac - you are William Wordsworth, you are Shakespeare...

All i can say is you did not deserve this ending..... An ending where the team you were a part of is annihilated... for no reason of yours...

God... Hope you give your son a better life post walking away from what he did for 23 yrs.....

This will remain a tragedy, an anti climax that life cant explain.....

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Sachin's formulae!!! Do we really need to introduce path breaking changes?

For someone who is a die-hard fan of Sachin's batting, I should have naturally accepted his proposal and joined the bandwagon of people who are supporting his proposal. Nah!!! I am not quite biting the idea as yet. In no ways am i either joining the bandwagon of people who are just plain against it. A lot of it just seems like resistance to change. Lets just quickly draw a parallel with a couple of recent innovations?

1. Has the "free hit" idea helped cricket? It sure has. We don’t hear of bowlers delivering 11 no balls and just having a bad day anymore. They realise those 11 balls could cost them atleast 35 odd runs and if its a Sehwag or Yuvraj show then you are talking about a score between 44 to 66 runs!!!

2. Has the additional powerplay system helped teams? It sure has. Captains have to think a lot more. Although most batting captains have still not arrived at a clear formulae to handle it. There is palpable excitement when a powerplay is taken?

3. Has the TV umpiring system worked? Its a huge mixed bag. I don’t think the administrators have still arrived at a clear diktat of where to use it and where not too? And clearly international cricket is no testing ground. I remember the Sri Lanka-India series a year back, pretty much every referral for Ajantha Mendis was given because he bowls wicket to wicket. However, elements like whether the batsman was attempting to play the ball and how far forward he was from the wicket did not really come into the match. Again an Ishant Sharma was always turned down because he was too tall!!! My initial view is that it can be used for run-out, detecting inside edges for LBW decisions and the like. But, using it detect whether a catch was taken cleanly and to detect edges is still a far cry. The fun of having characters like Peelo Reporter, David Shepard, Billie Bowden is something cricket may not necessarily want to loose. Imagine a day when the umpire has a plaster on his mouth and just indicates a four/sixe/no-ball/wide and directs everything else to a computer box placed in the pavilion.

The formulae from Sachin is something which is apt to test in the upcoming Challenger tournament which involves international players like Sachin, Dhoni and the like. The following are my apprehensions with the same:

1. While I agree one day cricket feels a tad longer on the back-drop of T20 cricket, one of the exciting parts of one-day cricket is the way a batsman or team builds the innings. With 25-over format, that is bound to broken
2. One-day cricket featuring meaningless matches. I think there are 2 parts to it. Major challenge with this is the lack of a divisional structure much like Soccer. There are so many meaningless matches that take place. We should do away with 7 match series, uncalled for bi-lateral series and so on. Once the schedule is planned better, quality cricket is bound to follow. But, the second fact of cricket featuring meaningless matches is bound to continue in the proposed format as well. Imagine team batting 1st scoring like 70 odd runs in wet conditions for the loss of 5-6 wickets. Team batting second following up with 120 odd for 2 wickets? What we have essentially is a no contest unless the 2nd time around the last 3-4 batsman can score like 200 runs in 25 over’s.
3. It feels like an abridged version of test cricket with the innings and all rather than a one innings match where there is a lot of speculation on what is a good target, how do I build my innings and so on.
4. It could break the momentum of a brilliant spell or batting display. Would someone want to take a break when Sachin is on a roll or if Lee is one fire? For a die hard cricket fanatic, having a break in between a tough duel between the defense of Dravid and the swing of Mcgrath or the power or Yuvraj and the guile of Murali is as big a miss as it can get! In a test format, these duels can favour the batsman as he can see a spell off, but in a one day format where runs matter, he really can’t hide for long!

There are clear benefits to the system as well:

1. Both teams are more or less benefiting or affected by the conditions. England in June or day-night matches in India, Sri Lanka and so on
2. A result is assured in a lesser time.
3. Players can re-coup and come back in the 2nd innings with a clear target in mind. A lot of speculation that surrounds the team batting 1st is gone

Nonetheless I think its an idea worth trying. We could end up with a modified, chiseled new One day format that sells much better. Let’s wait and watch!!!

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If cricket was a religion, then Sachin is its God…..

“For someone who never had a single poster in my cupboard all my life, who never went to the streets to burn an effigy of an opponent, who never waited on the road for hours to go to see a glimpse of his star, this title is as abjure as the recent political comment made by our beetle chewing railway minister that his opponent has his teeth in his stomach….”
Over the last few days, I have been subjected to countless debates on whether Sachin is really the greatest ever to seeing his team loose a heart-breaking game against Rajasthan to ensure that commentators continue to say- “The game is not over till it really is…” It took me down memory lane… Who can forget his fighting 136 with a sore back against Pakistan in Chennai only to see his team not cross the line with 17 runs to win and 4 wickets in hand once he went back. Switch to 2009 and his team (however different it might be) achieved another un-enviable task of not scoring 6 runs of 10 balls with 4 wickets in hand.
For a legend with the most decorated career ever, he has had his share of challenges and a whole baggage of bad luck. Wonder what this great man would have achieved if only he had not received more than 40 wrong dismissals over his career.425 one day internal matches, 150 odd tests, 25,000 runs, 85 centuries later, we still question the greatest cricketer mankind has ever seen. Is it our Indian attitude of questioning greatness or is it adage, “The grass is always greener on the other side.”
I remember as a 12 year old, I woke up in the middle of my sleep, woke up my mother as well and questioned her on what Sachin would do to Mcdermott tomorrow. My mom would inevitably shoo me away and I would rather unassumingly continue the process of questioning and short practice in bed and eventually fall asleep wondering which way things would go tomorrow. Who can forget those days in the mid 90’s when we switched off the TV sets when he got out.
From Malcolm Marshall, Wasim Akram to Glen Mcgrath & Shane Warne, he has played them all and ‘differently & successfully’ at that…There is not one weakness in his batting that has been exposed over a sustained period of time. I remember the late 90’s when Pakistan found a new way to get him. Bowl wide at Sachin, place 2 short-covers a shake hand away from each other and he would guide the ball into one of their hands. Turn to Ashley Giles who would bowl wide outside leg-stump, frustrate him and eventually get him to commit a mistake.
He did not take these challenges lying down, but he countered them by inventing two of the finest shots in cricket- the “upper cut” & “short paddle sweep”. No player really played this shot outside of their backyard till he mastered this shot and showed the world the way to do it. Today we see the Gilchrist’s and Sehwag’s of the world playing the shot. You might ask me what is so great about inventing shots. Petersen invented the “switch shot”, Douglas Marillier invented the ala Lagaan shot of placing the ball over the wicket keeper’s head. What was different between what the little master developed and what the others invented has been the longevity of these shots and that has been the essence of this legend- longevity on the back of consistency.

“An artist dies…..but his art never does”

On similar lines, Sachin will retire but his cover drive, upper cut, leg glance, pull, paddle sweep or his “lip-smacking, earth shattering, heart stopping on drive” would live on in the memories of those who were privy to it and his scores, to the pages of history books for our children to read and aspire…I find it excruciating to explain to people who question this magician. They question his match winning capability, his captaincy, his performance at a country-by-country level and the fact that he has played all these years… Is match-winning all about scoring the last run only? Or is it about contributing to a win in terms of the runs scored?
The man averages 56 against Ponting who averages 39 and Waugh who averages less than half of his 56 in tournament finals. And yet we claim Ponting and Steve Waugh are better in finals? What’s more you compare an opener (ODIs) with middle order players who come in once the new ball has been seen out invariably. What can the man do if most of his life he had to play with the ever-promising players who never really promised? Ajit Agarkar, Vikram Rathore, Nilesh Kulkarni, Ashish Kapoor and so on….
Compare that with Australia which has had 11 match-winners from Hayden and Gilchrist to the Waugh brothers to Warne and McGrath….He makes a shoddy captain and that is for all of us to see but to question his ability by looking at each state and country he has played in is the most outrageous debate I have been a part of. An artist is a human being. Tiger Woods never wins every tournament he plays. Yet, he is the undisputed leader in golf. Cricket is not an individual sport and hence the presence of the greatest cricketer ever does not make an average team great.In the last 18-months alone, he has been lynch-pin to some of our finest wins- the VB series finals in Australia, the New Zealand series win, drawing a test match against Australia from a seemingly un-real situation and chasing down a mammoth 387 against England.As I write this article, I think I have found my answer to the question on why many of us believe Sachin is getting tastier like vintage wine. He has not changed his batting style by a mile nor has he suddenly become a match winner which anyways was born to be one. The answer lies in the fact that today he has 8-9 genuine match winners/ seasoned performers in Gambhir and Sehwag to Raina, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Zaheer. He can rely on them unlike the 90’s. With that the weight of expectation has drastically reduced and hence we are seeing the free-spirited Tendulkar re-born and cracking all over again!!!
In my view, he is greatest Indian cricketer and the greatest batsman ever seen. I have grown up admiring and following him. During these 18 odd years, I have gone to bed many times than not excited and enthused at what he has done and that is the essence of the player he really is…..

World Cup What did he do? Result
1996 Highest scorer in the WC Reached Semi-Finals
1999 Lean patch - Father’s death Crashed out in the 1st round
2003 Highest scorer in the WC Reached Finals
2007 Lean patch - Just not his WC Crashed out in the 1st round
2011- HOPE Highest scorer in the WC World cup winners

As his career nears an end, I look forward to 2 things:Ø The evolution of new playersAll his bad-luck culminating in him winning the 2011 world-cup, for what can be a more be-fitting reply to this walking legend’s platinum studded career…..Rohit Nambiar(I call myself the greatest fan of his art - his batting…..)

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