Famous Quotes on Sachin Tendulkar

Tweet

When Sachin Tendulkar traveled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket; Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam.

When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Dr Manmohan Singh was yet to “open” the Nehruvian economy. It seems while Time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar. We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had another Sachin Tendulkar and we never will.

-Time magazine

Sachin Tendulkar's Unforgettable Innings

Tweet

And then..., there comes a day when Sachin Tendulkar announces his retirement from One Day International (ODI) Cricket. As an ardent Sachin Tendulkar fan, I had mixed emotions, may be, failing to express myself - whether to celebrate his golden career, or to express displeasure about his early retirement (than expected). But as I write this, taking emotions out of of mind and coming to reality with his decision, as a blogger, I thoroughly welcome his decision to retire from ODIs. He has done everything that a human being can do in ODIs.

In our lifetimes, I am sure, we will never ever be able to see another player having 49 ODI centuries, 96 ODI half centuries, 18426 ODI runs and all this with an amazing strike rate of 86.14 and an unbelievable average of 44.83! Ours is the generation, highly blessed I will say, which has seen the jersey number 10 playing one 'divine' innings after the other and we will be telling our children, grandchildren that 'yes, there was this man, I have seen him batting Live!'

Well, for that generation, which will want a glimpse of Sachin's batting, here is a list of must watch Sachin Tendulkar innings. If you have not seen these innings, may be you have not seen the real Sachin Tendulkar. If you have seen them, may be there is no doubt in your mind, why he is called 'the God of Cricket!'

A gentle advice: I recommend you to add this post to your bookmark/ share on your wall. So whenever you want to get inspired, get sheer joy and entertainment, forget your sorrows and worries, just tune in - watch these innings highlights, and get blessed!

Negative effects of IPL

Tweet

Poor form in Test Cricket- IPL to blame?

In one of the earlier posts related to Indian Premier League (IPL), we had enthusiastically talked about Positive effects of IPL. Before the start of IPL 2012, India had lost Test series to England 0-4 in England, to Australia 0-4 in Australia and India failed to qualify for the CB Series and Asia Cup finals. After that, the exciting IPL 2012 happened and all of a sudden, everyone forgot about the most depressing season of Test Cricket for India. And then, new season of Cricket started with tours of Sri Lanka, New Zealand followed by T20 World Cup. As if this schedule was not hectic for Indian team, players were sent to the Champions League in October, this year. And now, we have seen what has happened with Indian team versus England in home series.

In the same post, I had mentioned that there are positive as well as negative effects of IPL. Let's try to find out what aspects of IPL are NOT good for Indian Cricket, particularly, Indian Test Cricket, since the time is right to raise some hard questions.

Bad scheduling of IPL?

1. IPL is scheduled in April and May, which are hottest months of Indian summer. Traditionally, these months were reserved for rest to the players before next season of Cricket - domestic and international - begins. If players are made to play 15 high intensity games in 10 different parts of India, the travel and over-Cricket is bound to take a toll on players, physically and mentally. Finally, who wants to work on Holidays, even if one is paid!
2. It becomes compelling for BCCI to organize this event in these months as Indian Team neither travels nor hosts any international tournament in these months. But, this also means, players are overly exhausted, they do not have recovery time, they do not have time to operate themselves on injuries.
3. At the same time, no other international team has compulsion to adjust team's schedule according to IPL. International players have limited presence in IPL, that too, after their Cricket Board's approval.

The point is, Indian players are more stressed up than their international counterparts, which definitely reflects in their fitness levels.

Possibility of deterioration of Cricketing skills?

1. In IPL, if a batsman gets out playing a rash shot, it is NOT considered as 'throwing of a wicket' or 'batsman not putting price on his wicket'. It is accepted in IPL to play brave shots, even if that means wasting your wicket. On the other hand, Test Cricket teaches you to keep your wicket as long as you can.
2. In IPL, a bowler has maximum of 4 overs. How is it possible to test bowler's fitness, skills in these 4 overs? If a bowler has higher strike rate and higher average, it is not considered a guilt, neither it is associated with the bowler's ability in IPL. Further, since batsmen are always prone to make mistakes while scoring quick runs, many of IPL wickets are not bowlers' wickets but those are just batsmen making mistake and bowler getting wickets.

In Test Cricket, no batsman gets to score runs without hard work, and similarly no bowler gets easy wickets; as they might get in IPL. Lac of 'test' of concentration, fitness, temperament, Cricketing skills and mostly ignored - 'Cricketing intelligence' in IPL makes it tough for players to adapt to Test Cricket as it requires all these skills and their application on field, day after day!

Is motivation to play for country/ Test Cricket reduced?

1. If the player has played just one or two domestic Cricket seasons, he can play IPL. It offers huge amount of money in just 2 to 3 months. Good for them, but due to this early money, fame and opportunity, will those players be still motivated enough to play Test Cricket or be part of International Indian Cricket Team? If one calculates, an average player will definitely get more money by playing IPL than by playing whole season of Test Cricket.

In the end, no one wants to take harder route to earn same amount of money. This leads to the further point:

Have priorities of Indian players changed?

Sachin Tendulkar announces retirement

Tweet

Oh My God..! Did I just miss 'if' at the start of the post title? Relax guys, Sachin has not announced his retirement, YET. But there are number of experts, bloggers and at random anyone who knows Cricket, is talking about the 'un-talkable' subject of Sachin Tendulkar's retirement.

Let's just imagine (again- the unimaginable), that Sachin Tendulkar has called it a day and has taken the decision to retire from Cricket. What an impact it will have all over Cricketing and non Cricketing world! How media will react to the news? What news-stories will trend all over the media? Let's look it from funny and 'LOL'ing manner.

Presenting, 'the Retirement that wasn't declared': The news spoofs about Sachin's retirement! Read the effects of this biggest retirement of century and start LOLing..!

Cricketing Effects:

Hmm... Let's start news, what Sachin's colleagues say:

Kohli, Dhoni WELCOME Sachin's retirement, stating this would give youngsters a chance.

On condition of anonymity a source in the team said that the real reason to welcome retirement is because many of Tendulkar ad brands are going to come their (Kohli/ Dhoni's) way.
See... How concerned our team icons are about new comer lads ;-)

Moving on,

Shane Warne- finally able to quit daily dose of sleeping pills

We heard he was prescribed the pills after Sachin started to appear in his dreams- hitting him all over ground nonstop for last 16 years- making it a nightmare!

Indian Test Cricket team to keep number 4 spot vacant as a mark of respect for Sachin Tendulkar!

Our well-placed sources confirmed the real reason being-- NO ONE ELSE TO REPLACE HIM..!!! Vacancy..!! Urgently Required..!!! Apply Now..!!!!

Steve Buckner to restart his umpiring career.

Says, now his umpiring can be impartial! Hmm.. True... No Tendulkar, no need to be partial with opponent team!

Further on,

Sachin to become selector, coach, remote-controlling-captain, mentor and motivator of Indian Cricket Team- OFFICIALLY

Asking how? Yes, he was in these roles 'unofficially' till now, hereon, it will be official role!! No big deal... is it??

Further in spoofs,

Ganguly is made the captain of retired Indian Cricket players (age above 37), the team beats Dhoni's team 3-0 in a "T20" domestic series.

Sachin gets man of the series award for his 3 consecutive centuries. Dhoni blames 'the turning pitches' for the defeat!!!
T20- pitches, Mr Dhoni, are you all right???

13 Cricketers on ground refuse to play Cricket, as crowd INSULTED them.

Crowd stars shouting: 'Sachinnn... Sachin... dhann dhann dhann... Sachinnn... Sachin... dhann dhann dhann... Sachinnn... Sachin... dhann dhann dhann...' when they saw Sachin coming as a commentator in commentary box! Players hurt with this insult, as no one to cheer them.

(News in year 2020) Sachin's unbreakable record of 34000+ international runs and 100 centuries is finally broken, by---

combined efforts of all international batsmen after 7 years of performance in all formats of the game! ICC to facilitate all involved in the effort..!!!

Social Effects:

You can no more commit all your 'sins' as God will no more be busy watching Sachin play!

So... be a good guy/ girl that you are.. and don't commit any sins that you used to :-P

Mumbai and entire Maharashtra along with Sydney to remain shut for entire week to mourn retirement of Sachin Tendulkar.

Extended Christmas Holidays, you know! 

Bloggers, newspaper columnist, statisticians loose their jobs due to slow-down in 'market'

Yes! The most iconic, the most written about, the most talked about Cricketer is no more in action! On whom to write, talk!!! No job, sit idle :-)

Sachin's critics desperately in search of another bread and butter

Ohh.. How can you forget them! They had a very secured job for last 23 years...

Moving on,

A crazy Sachin fan names his twins as:- 1. Sachin, 2. Tendulkar.

We learned both of them are-- baby GIRLS!
Crazy fan perhaps mad too..!!!

Sudhir Kumar Chaudhary changes his appearance first time.

After... about.. many years. Yes, for the first time! You know him... He paints his body in tricolor, writes Tendulkar-10 on his back!

Further in the news,

Arjun Tendulkar files application for changing his name to:- BharatRatna

making his full name read:-- Bharatratna Sachin Tendulkar
Hmmm... Now that's a very smart kid...

Suddenly, half of grounds in India are to be named after Sachin Tendulkar, and we heard those are football and hockey grounds.. not cricket..!

How strange..!
In fact, terrible... because Cricket in India is run by full time politicians.. how can they give anything to anyone except between themselves, even names!

As soon as Sachin's retirement news broke, 5 people reportedly died out of heart attack, 13 tried to set ablaze themselves

RIP Sachin fans!

News and Media Effects: