Just by counting on the recent failures you cant ask a batsmen to retire. The ball was moving and the pitch was absolutely magical, moreover england bowlers have bowled well. The solution for the problem doesnt come by asking sachin to retire. It doesnt help any one by booing them. Its the confidence which counts for every one, when sachin feels that the time has come, nevertheless he would do it. In our own land, so much of criticism, how can a person like sachin could rise back. Criticism never helps. Allow himself to realise what he is.
I know Rediff shies from publishing my views. Why this censorship..they know better.
Anyway it is wrong to say that a depleted England has beaten India. Indian Board Eleven without the stars had convincingly beaten England in warmup match.
Just take out our main players including two Bhagwaans - Sachin and Sehwag, bring in young fresh blood being wasted on sideline and then see the result as already seen in Board Preseident XI match against England.
Its a pity that those who have nothing to do with cricket are making a comment like this.
I agree that Sachin is going through a bad phase. WQe should make him realize that the whole country is behind him and he is a player who has made it the most when it mattered the most. Its not about individual performance that makes a match.. Its a collective team effort. How much did others score?? What about Viru? We always try to lift our heroes to the sky when they are performing their best but why do we forget they are human beings like us and are liable to failures.
It has happened many a times before and I am sure Sachin will surely bounce back and shut the mouth of critics....
You have probably written this column immediately after India were thrashed.That's why the tone of this article is so negative.there were some positives to take from the series,notably munaf and sreesanth.I won't blame the bowling too much.definitely the batting let us down,with some help from the atrocious fielding.
For long I have been thinking that rather than a selfish cricketer like Sachin,an aggressive team player like Ganguly should be in the team but Kiran More who was at best a mediocre member of the Indian team of yore, thinks otherwise. They don't want him back because they fear if he scores, then he will have to be kept into the team. What explains his being dripped after two patient and crucial knocks of 40, back to back in a Test match, thattoo when he was under tremndous pressure to perform. And this so called God Sachin is resting on his laurels...No doubt he has done a lot for the team and himself. His individual brilliance has won many a matches for India but if there is a benchmark for Ganguly and our biased selectors want to infuse young blood at the expense of Ganguly, so be it but then Sachin deserves to sit out more than Ganguly because SG was supposedly weak against seam bowling but Sachin's technique is the best. Then he should perform accordingly.Go eat your words people who say Sachin is GOD, He is not one and he never was one. He is one of my all time favorites but not as a team player but as a player. Make Sachin the captain and he will be a bigger failure than now
Most of our Star Batsmen lack the technique to defend good balls on a wearing pitch consistently - let it be Sehwag, Laxman, Yuvaraj. Our flat pitches make it easy for batsmen to stand and deliver. But when they are facing quality bowlers under pressure on live pitches, they simply cannot cope up. All this hype of Dravid being a Wall is making him more and more defensive. As they say, the real test of a cricketer comes in Test Cricket and the present team has come a cropper. Impartially speaking, the result has been logical as it is the English team that played better cricket than the Indians. They knew their limitations and kept doing the hard work. There was no room for the flamboyant stuff.
Finally we have an article bashing our cricketers. I am so thankful the Indian public has woken up to see just how stupid we were kissing their behinds all the way. In an age where China wins 50+ gold medals in Olympics and ranks second, India wins 1 Silver and ranks 70th. And the commonwealth is running parallel to this cricket thingy and one barely reads about it. 15 Golds and counting...but hey did you hear Sehwag has a back ache? Oh sure I did! It's all over the news!
We need to forget cricket for a while. Here's why:
It does not contribute to the economy (10 countries play cricket did I hear?) It is not an adrenaline sport (non-verbal eye battles between Irfan and I-don't-know-who. 8 hours for a match (8 hrs!! you can either play hard, or you can play long...you just can't do both together). Like football for instance...high intensity..low duration
Arvind Lavakare, It is shame on you to write such column without knowing the facts.If you look at the all great cricketers career all have gone through the bad patch at some point of time of their careers. And so called 11 knocks is not a long period compared to others.Anyway people like you never understood cricket and it reflects in your column also.
Only Sachin will prove you wrong and at that time don't hesitate to praise him.Meantime you better improve your cricketing knowledge.
