Let me explain few of the above scenarios that you have put to prove Sachin is afraid of injuries or so-called ur many reasons.
"skipped 5 or 6 ODIs against Carl Hooper's team for a failure" ==> Sachin was injured in the last test match before this ODI series & in that test match Sachin scored match-saving 176 in the second innings.
"The interesting thing here is that the team for the World Cup got selected after the first four ODIs and Sachin had not played in them" ==> There was considerable time-frame in-between this NewZeland Tour & World Cup matches, precisely 1 month. This was World Cup 2003 selection & you know who did well in this world cup. Sachin. He scored 673 runs in total.
