Sachin Tendulkar

[greyblazer]

I have already talked about it. He used to have problems against the Indian seamer Srinath and in the end he would get out to some run of the mill spinner like Raju.

Secondly in 2002 Lara looked out of sorts against India and seemed to have lost form. It is funny that just before playing India in 02 he was murdering Murali in 01/02. When you see a bowler who is bowling doosras that are almost unplayable being reduced to trying darts to hit Lara's leg-stump on a turning wicket and get smashed it can be said that we were very lucky to watch a genius like Lara play.

[greyblazer]

Where I rate SRT slightly better than Lara is in the way they defended. Only a few times like at the end of his career in England this year and for a few years when SRT was injured his defence has looked suspect otherwise it has been rock solid with no weakness. SRT is mentally very tough but his rock solid defence has also helped him to survive for 20 years.

When Lara was playing you always felt that he would give the bowler a chance especially outside the off-stump against a good seamer but I have rarely seen that happening with SRT. Unless some crap journalist like Berry is thinking about one series against England the one way to get SRT out is by bowling a great delivery. For example McGrath hitting back of a length, getting awkward bounce and bowling it very close to off-stump to produce the edge of SRT's bat at Edgbaston in a WC game in 99. It was a perfect delivery but no bowler not even McGrath could produce it again and again

[meninblue]

I remember that on the India tour of 2001, some of their top order batters were not confident against Srinath in particular. I want to share this incident.

West Indies were in Mumbai on that tour. They like every touring team conveyed to Indian contacts that they needed a bowler who had action like Srinath. Our club coach , who is well famous in Mumbai cricketing system asked my clubmate (our clubs opener bowler in kanga league as well) , to visit the WestIndies nets session and he bowled to them. Having said that i am not sure whether Lara had requested our club bowler. it could be Campbell or lara or some other top order batsman or a couple of them as their top order played him in nets.

Sachin on the other hand is as hard working as lara. One could see that when he asked Panesar to bowl to him. I have heard a lot about Sachins work ethics through our club coach who knows Sachin personally.

Lara and Sachin are very different in approach both on and off the field. I don't want to compare both because they are two great batsmen.

[Cynomis]

I have already talked about it. He used to have problems against the Indian seamer Srinath and in the end he would get out to some run of the mill spinner like Raju.

Secondly in 2002 Lara looked out of sorts against India and seemed to have lost form. It is funny that just before playing India in 02 he was murdering Murali in 01/02. When you see a bowler who is bowling doosras that are almost unplayable being reduced to trying darts to hit Lara's leg-stump on a turning wicket and get smashed it can be said that we were very lucky to watch a genius like Lara play.

I looked up Lara's 29 dismissals vs India. He was dismissed by spinners 11 times. Ten of these were by right-arm leg-spinner (Kumble 5) or left-arm bowlers (V Raju 4, S Joshi 1). More dismissals were by medium or fast-medium bowlers.

An average of 34 runs after 29 innings is rather odd for a player like Lara against an attack which was average.

Kallis' struggle in England also surprises me.

[greyblazer]

Raju and co. took wickets mainly because of Javs. If you want one example it would be the WC 96. On a flat pitch Javs beat him number of times and also had him caught behind only for the umpire to give him not out. Finally though for once Javs got his man as Lara was perhaps LBW or caught behind of his bowling during that match. The fact was he tormented him so much that he looked a bit clueless against others too till he got out to Javs.

[ddb]

Dravid's article in the book 'Sachin - Genius Unplugged'

I have heard it said of a former great - I think it was Len Hutton -that behind his mask was another mask. Sachin Tendulkar's case is just the opposite. Behind his simplicity is a genuine simplicity that only the truly great have in any field.

I first saw him when we were 14 in an age-group match in Cuttack. I was a substitute for South Zone, Sachin played for West and made some 60 runs. A year later we faced each other in Nagpur. 1 was struck by his talent, and his heavy bat, a Slazenger that many of us envied. A year later he was playing for India, facing Imran and Wasim Akram and Waciar Younis, while the rest of us were yet to play Ranji Trophy.

His early success as an India player gave state teams around the country the confidence to push teenagers into first class cricket. If earlier you had to wait till you were 19 or 20, now 17-year-olds were being given their chance. Both Sourav Ganguly and I made our debuts at 17. Vinod Kambli too made it to the national side early.

Sachin came into international cricket a finished product; by the age of 16 he had hit more cricket balls than I had at 25. Although we were the same age, he was senior to me in the Indian team by seven years, and was captain in my third Test match. All this defined my relationship with Sachin just as much as our similarities and differences as cricketers did. It meant that I looked up to him and was never in competition with him. We have played more than 125 Test matches together, and countless one-day internationals.

But as the years wore on and some of us - Sourav Ganguly, V V S Laxman, Virender Sehwag - began to reduce the burden on Sachin's shoulders, we earned his respect. That was important. For me it was important to know that I had earned the right to share the same dressing room with him. So what made him stand out even in a team of outstanding batsmen?

His cricketing nous is exceptional. He honed his skills by batting for so many hours as a youngster. Even today, after all the records and the adulation and the achievements, he loves to bat- in the net, at the matches, against anybody, any time because he simply loves to bat on and on. I wouldn't be surprised if he batted in his drawing room with his children throwing the ball at him, or in the garage playing the ball rebounding from a wall!

Cricket is a team game with an individual flavour - the bowler at the top of his mark, the fielder waiting beneath a skier or the batsman awaiting the next delivery are all lonely men aware of this loneliness. Don Bradman hit golf balls against the water tank in his backyard in preparation for the lonely hours at the crease. Sachin was luckier - older players took him seriously enough to bat on. But before he got so organised, there was the compound wall and the domestic help who were pressed into service.

"Don't motivate him any further", I once heard of a bowler complaining, "for that will mean many more hours of bowling to him at the nets."

For that is the other remarkable thing about Sachin. He needs no outsider to turn the keys of motivation. Everything he needs - motivation, inspiration, critical assessment, challenge, goal-setting, coaching, psychological boosts - he finds within himself. Such amazing self-sufficiency comes with an equally amazing self-awareness. It is a combination that is unique and has made him what he is. Part of this is conscious, sharpened by experience; but much of it comes naturally, without conscious thought. I know no player who has Sachin's ability to analyse his own game. He is a skilled analyst with a finely-honed instinct.

His mantra is simple: keep it simple. He knows exactly what works for him, is always aware of his precise state of mind, knows when his game is right, and above all, knows how to score runs even when all these factors are not in harmony. His solutions to specific problems are specific. No catch-all solutions for him. Over many years, batsmen work out what makes them tick. Call it experience, call it familiarity with the craft, call it what you will, but much time is wasted in the process going down blind alleys and mooring your craft to unsteady piers. Sachin, like a musical prodigy who hits the right note the day he picks up a violin, hit the right note the day he picked up a bat. The rest has been merely refinement.

It has been fascinating watching the changes in his approach. From being a blaster, he is now a mistake-proof batsman. He truly enjoys the game, as much at 37 as he did at 15, and he communicates this enjoyment to millions across the world. This is because of his remarkable mind with its rare cricket intelligence. Rather like Sherlock Holmes who claimed he didn't need to know whether the sun rose in the east or west because that didn't help him in his profession, Sachin shut out anything that might have distracted him in the early years. As he grew older, he relaxed more, enjoying both the game and what it had to offer, like the travel. This is in contrast to some modern cricketers who begin by enjoying the non-cricketing aspects, and then if they last long enough learn to tighten up more.

Like most great batsmen, Sachin has the ability to control where the bowlers bowl to him. Sometimes he goes on all-out attack as he did against Shane Warne in Chennai in 1998. Sometimes not attacking is the key, as when he elaborately leaves deliveries outside the off stump, forcing the bowler to bowl straighter at him. This he loves because he can then play off his legs. The flick he plays behind square leg to the fast bowlers, often taking the ball right off his stumps, is uniquely his. It is all about perfection and balance.

Above all, he has the ability to adapt. In the West Indies in '97, against Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Ian Bishop and Franklyn Rose on a tricky Trinidad pitch, Sachin sized up the situation quickly and unleashed a flurry of strokes to disconcert the bowlers. His 44 had ten boundaries. Whether he makes 20 or 200, a Sachin innings is fascinating, as much for what he does as for what he does to not do. A good example of the latter is his double century in Sydney when he decided to eliminate the cover drive because he had been getting out while attempting it.

It has helped that cricket is the one thing he has known in life, as is inevitable when you make your international debut at 16. Cricket means everything to him. A recent sportsman like that would be Pete Sampras who was wedded to tennis. Sachin knows what works for him, and is loath to take on too much outside of the actual business of making runs and winning matches.

He has been a successful leader and in the larger context of the game, that is more important. I have no time for excessive theory in air conditioned classrooms where someone tells us what is right and wrong and how to conduct ourselves and then goes out and behaves in a manner contrary to his preaching. Rather than making speeches, Sachin remained Sachin, and youngsters learnt from watching, absorbing almost subconsciously his attitude and his work ethic. He is a great motivator because his own motivation levels are so high. He walks the walk, and seldom talks the talk for the sake of talking. I always admired that.

We take it for granted now when India are expected to win every match and dominate every series abroad, but when Sachin started out, a good draw abroad with an occasional win was considered a great result. We drew every match of his first series in Pakistan, and that was considered a triumph.

For years while the rest of the batting matured, he carried the team single-handedly. And as the victories at home, and more importantly, abroad pile up, he - and the rest of us - will be making way for a generation which believes that winning is its birthright. The diffidence of old has made way for the confidence of youth. Talent is not held back by the baggage of ancient history but inspired by the heroics of recent history. And Sachin's role in charting that course has been phenomenal.

There is no rule that sportsmen have to be paragons of virtue, but Sachin's attitude to sport, his humilit3, his constant desire to improve influenced those of us who followed. It helped that India's finest batsman was an ornament to the game itself. The culture he created sustained a whole generation of players. But every generation has to reinforce that culture, and not take it for granted. I was lucky that when I first played for India, players like Sachin and Anil Kumble were setting the standards of conduct that made it all special and uniquely Indian.

Yet, for all his achievements Sachin has sometimes been treated harshly. This is partly because of the high standards he himself has set. Successful players tend to be judged more harshly than others. That, I suppose, is a backhanded compliment. It is a recognition that more is expected because the player has more to give. Of course, excessive criticism hurts and Sachin is human after all (it is important to remember this!), but he also knows that as a public figure he will be critiqued for his performances even if unfairly at times. All sportsmen are prepared for this.

On his bad days, Sachin's worry is not what people will think if he fails, but how much it will hurt the team and his teammates. We have spent hours together, talking, discussing batsmanship and, as is inevitable when you spend so much time together in stress situations, have been both honest and unguarded with each other.

To me, it is incredible that someone who has been playing continuously for over two decades retains the essential innocence and vulnerability of childhood. Sachin is no Peter Pan, the child who never grew up; rather he somehow nurtured the child in him so that even after more Tests and more runs and more centuries than anyone else, he plays with the enthusiasm and competi-tiveness of a child whose whole world is encompassed by those 22 yards.

When we walked off the field after beating Australia in Bangalore, my home town in October 2010, we were both highly emotional. But we hardly spoke to each other. Each knew exactly what the other was thinking and there was no need for words. Sharing a dressing room with Sachin has been a privilege. Sharing an unspoken thought raises a relationship above the merely professional. In over a decade and a half there have been many such moments. I cherish them just as much as I cherish the runs we made together for the country.

[greyblazer]

Superbly written The knock of 44 at Trinidad was one of the better knocks I have seen.

[greyblazer]

SRT definitely deserved a 100 that day but some blind umpire gave him out when it had clearly touched his shoulder.

[ddb]

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sachi ... wc/498872/

Mission completed.

[DeltaAlpha]

I'm a bit surprised that there hasn't yet been a post on this thread congratulating Tendulkar on reaching 15000 test runs. So, congratulations, Sachin!

He might yet show that he's a talented batsman...

[Aidan11]

I hope he gets that 100th ton soon just to get it out of the way. He must feel like the whole of India is waiting in anticiption (which they probably are) creating huge pressure on him.

[ddb]

This blog has nearly all his 99 hundreds.

http://sachins-centuries.blogspot.com/

[OffStumpYorker]

I'm a bit surprised that there hasn't yet been a post on this thread congratulating Tendulkar on reaching 15000 test runs. So, congratulations, Sachin!

He might yet show that he's a talented batsman...

more like a flat track bully

Only joking,

Congratulations to the little master on a great milestone.

[IndusCreed]

To be brutally honest, this whole century of centuries talk is starting to get on me. Such a hype!!

India won the first test against a very worthy opponents, after a below par batting display in the first inning. That is more important for me personally!

[Aidan11]

To be brutally honest, this whole century of centuries talk is starting to get on me. Such a hype!!

India won the first test against a very worthy opponents, after a below par batting display in the first inning. That is more important for me personally!