In the fallout from India's early demise at the World Cup one of the major decisions will concern the future of Sachin Tendulkar.
Before anybody else makes a decision on what will happen to Tendulkar the player himself has to have a good long look in the mirror and decide what he's trying to achieve in the game. At the moment he looks like a player trying to eke out a career; build on a glittering array of statistics. If he really is playing for that reason and not to help win as many matches as he can for India then he is wasting his time and should retire immediately.
When you think that for a decade Brian Lara and Tendulkar went head to head in a wonderful battle of stroke play to establish who was the best batsman in the world, they are now worlds apart in effectiveness.
Lara's quick-footed tip toe through a terrific innings against a good Australian bowling attack when the rest of the West Indies top order succumbed easily was in direct contrast to Tendulkar's stumbling effort in the crucial Sri Lanka match. The amazing thing about Lara's brilliant career is the fact that he hasn't changed his style at all over seventeen years. This is a credit to his technique and mental strength, as the aging process generally makes a player more progressively conservative.
Tendulkar hasn't worn as well; his last three or four years have been a shadow of his former self. His double century at the SCG in January 2004 was a classic case of a great player really struggling. He came to the crease out of form and despite amassing all those runs and batting for in excess of ten hours he was no closer to recapturing his best touch than he was when he started out. It was a tribute to his determination but it was a sad sight to see; there are enough average players around that you don't won't to see a class one reduced to that level.
Tendulkar hasn't been as lucky as Lara; the Indian batsman has suffered a lot of injuries in this period where his play has deteriorated and there is nothing that melts your mental approach quicker than physical handicaps. Lara has been relatively free from injury and he certainly doesn't have the weight of numbers riding on his shoulders that Tendulkar does.
However, the population of the Caribbean might be small but they are extremely demanding. Despite all the fuss and the odd controversy that has surrounded Lara's career he has remained himself; this is my game and that is how I play. For whatever reason Tendulkar hasn't been able to maintain his extremely high standards for the last few years and unless he can find a way to recapture this mental approach he's not doing his team or himself any favours.
If Tendulkar had found an honest mirror three years ago and asked the question; "Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the best batsman of all?" It would've answered; "Brian Charles Lara." If he asked that same mirror right now; "Mirror, mirror on the wall should I retire?" The answer would be; "Yes."
RE:tendulkar should retire
by Suman Bhat on Mar 30, 2007 10:19 PM Permalink
ganguly media managers are doing overtime job and captainging for dravid and sachin should be out and ganguly make captainganguly wasted more balls than runs he scored poor fielding and poor running wkt and unwilling to take singles cost more runs to team also created pressure on batsman on other side He did not bother to try and hold an easy catch during agarkar%u2019s bowling 60 runs in 130 balls how it can help a team cause?? Ganguly had one stage for having batted through nearly 11 overs to make a mere 7 runs. Yuvraj Scored 47 runs in 10 overs India Scored 191 in 50 overs Ganguly Scored 66 runs in 21 overs wasted more balls than runs he scored., starting with India's tour to Pakistan in early 2006 %u2014 India have played 41 One-day internationals (ODIs). Tendulkar has played in 26 of those and averaged 44.67 over this period with an impressive strike rate of 83.15 and six fifties and three centuries to boot. It might seem like there is no room for complaint here.
However, the problem is that hardly any of Tendulkar's big innings have come against the best bowling attacks in trying conditions. In three matches against the Australians, he has scores of 12, 4 and 10.
Against the South Africans in their country he hasn't done much better with scores of 35, 2, 1 and 55. Two of the three hundreds have come against weak West Indian attacks on flat tracks in Malaysia and India and the third against Pakistan on a belter of a pitch. An average of almost 39 over 36 innings is only a touch below Dravid's career average and the strike rate of 75.28 is healthy too.
With 13 fifties and one century over this period, he hasn't exactly been a flop. Also, unlike Tendulkar, Dravid scored one fifty in the two ODI innings he played in South Africa and another against the Aussies on the nippy Mohali wicket during the Champions Trophy.
Sourav has played only nine innings since his return, but he has clocked up six fifties and a 48 for an average of 63.63, way above his overall career average.
The strike rate of 71.89 may be lower than you would expect from a stroke-player of his class, but is hardly something to be ashamed of. The only caveat one may have is that six of the nine innings have been on easy Indian pitches and against relatively weak attacks like West Indies or Sri Lanka minus Vaas and Muralitharan.
Of the remaining three, two have been against Bangladesh and Bermuda. wasted more balls than runs he scored
