In defense of Sachin again

Yet another cricket season has started with three ODI’s completed with Australia and the criticism against Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is back with a vengeance this time. Long time since I blogged but two or three comments made by friends and commentators when watching the last match inspired this article in defense of the great man.

Sachin Tendulkar

Just think about the following scenario-You are working for a company for 20 years and you have given it your heart and soul. In fact, during the last 20 years there have been times when you are the only person working and entire company is literally your burden. Yet at times, you have been criticized that the company has not yet made sufficient profits even though it is humanely impossible for a single individual to be the CEO, CFO and CIO at the same time. In the last few years with the infusion of young blood in your company your firm has started has making profits and is almost the industry leader. Now 6 months back you complete a project successfully and are adjudged the best employee. Then you take a sabbatical due to illness and return back to the company. A new project has been assigned to you and you are still coming back into the groove. The team as a whole is progressing extremely well and you too have made one significant contribution until now with sufficient signs of promise that you will be back to the best sooner rather than later. But here comes the irony, you are criticized for not performing well and there is even talk that you are old now and new blood must be brought in your place when there is no one good enough yet to replace you.Extrapolate this to Indian cricket and what you get is this-in the last one-day series, that Sachin played against Sri Lanka he was the man of the match in the final and the man of the series. Then he takes a break due to injury, makes a comeback in the present series, and plays two rank bad shots in the first matches on two wickets that are slow and low. In the third match, he is back to his flowing best with one or two excellent drives on the up, which always indicate he is well and truly back. Then he makes a misjudgment and is run out after a fluent 31 on a wicket in which everyone except Dhoni and Yuvraj struggled. If you had tuned into Headlines Today or Times Now to listen to the “cricket experts” the comments were-Sachin’s form is a cause for concern.However, this is where Sachin’s greatness lies-he maintains a dignified silence in the press responds to his critics with his bat and leaves mortals like me to defend him through blogs like this, which I think at best 2-3 people are going to read. Yet it is only a matter of time before the customary century and the look up into the heavens to salute his father happens and that is the day this fanatic looks forward to.