Entertainer in twilight zone

December 19, 2012

sachin_gone

Nagpur, December 19: At present, no one would like to be Sachin Tendulkar. Runs once came in torrents, now the flow has been reduced to a trickle. He hasn’t scored a Test hundred since that magnificent 146 at Cape Town against South Africa on January 4, 2011. And at 39, pressure is on him to bring curtains on a career that is now in its 23rd year.

It’s a difficult situation. For well over two decades, Tendulkar has just played cricket, and that sport has been his world. It’s quite tough to cut ties with that world in a single day, especially for a batsman like Tendulkar, who has been on top of his trade for a larger part of that period. Despite a prolonged barren run, there will always be the image of another golden series in his mind, and that’s precisely the dilemma he has to deal with.

And only he can deal with it. Only he can tell with surety whether the current lean patch is the indication of a terminal decline or is it only a phase that he is struggling for runs. For that he needs to take some time away from the hullabaloo around him, and reflect on the last two series – against New Zealand and England. Meanwhile, let’s go through those series as well.


A young set of Kiwi pace bowlers – Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Doug Bracewell – managed to sneak through his defence three times, and it was quite a sad sight to see him losing the battle against players who were just making their entry into this world when the Mumbaikar made his Test debut.

England bowlers had a far greater hold on him. Though he made a fifty in the first innings of the Kolkata Test, that 76 was more like a desperate effort to keep himself afloat. On that day, he took 43 balls to reach double figures on a flat pitch. There was no life in that innings, struggling to put away even rank long-hops.

He never tamed Monty Panesar or James Anderson throughout the series. Tendulkar never could assess Panesar’s length correctly, often leaving him in no-man’s land or playing those nothing shots. Anderson troubled him to no extent with reverse swing, and England captain Alastair Cook was wise enough to employ these two bowlers immediately after Tendulkar’s arrival at the crease.

In that 76, there was just two fours in front of the wicket – a cover drive off Panesar and a punch through mid-on off Steven Finn. Rest of the 11 fours came through edges, paddle sweeps and squirts through the fine leg area, an indication of his hesitancy to go forward on pitches that demanded such a strategy.

That tentativeness has been the common feature of his outings against New Zealand and England. Now, Tendulkar needs to rewind those outings in his mind, and deliberate whether there’s a return for him as he had managed five years ago, scoring runs and hundreds in a bulk.

There’s another home series coming against Australia in February, and India embark on a slew of away tours, beginning with their trip to South Africa in November 2013. Tendulkar should ponder whether he would able to stand the rigours and contribute in those series. Emotions are certain to flood him during those hours because cricket has been such a massive part of his life.

Here, he needs to compartmentalise himself from sentiments, and prudence should rule his decision. There might not be a man-to-man replacement for him, and then you’ll never be able to replace a player like Tendulkar for he is a phenomenon.
But we need to trust the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary, Cheteshwer Pujara, and Virat Kohli to take India forward, and the last two have already shown their readiness to shoulder that responsibility. In sports, only teams ready to take that bold plunge have attained greatness.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni had underlined that point. “If you don’t give youngsters chances, how do you know whether they are good enough or not? You won’t get all of them scoring big hundreds in the first game. You have to back youngsters who you think are very talented, who you think can succeed at the top level,” said the Indian skipper.

In the same breath Dhoni, in tune with the entire team’s desire, hoped Tendulkar would be around for some more time. Yes, Tendulkar’s extraordinary career, in a major part of which he carried the expectations of a billion people without any complaint, deserves a grand farewell. But he needs to chart it well.



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Agencies
February 7,2020

New Delhi, Feb 7: It was on February 7, 1999, that Anil Kumble became just the second bowler in the history of cricket to take all ten wickets in an innings of a Test match.

He achieved the feat against Pakistan at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, now known as Arun Jaitley cricket stadium in Delhi during the second Test of the two-match series.

India had set Pakistan a target of 420 runs in the match and the visitors got off to a steady start as openers Shahid Afridi and Saeed Anwar put on 101 runs for the first wicket.

It was then Kumble who came into the attack and wreaked havoc on the Pakistani batting line-up.

The spinner, also known as 'Jumbo' first dismissed Afridi (41) in the 25th over. After the right-handed batter's dismissal, India kept on taking wickets through Kumble and Pakistan was reduced to 128/6 in no time.

Kumble then kept on taking wickets at regular intervals and he got his tenth scalp in the 61st over after dismissing Wasim Akram.

This effort enabled India to register a win by 212 runs, and Kumble became the second bowler after England's Jim Laker to take all ten wickets in a single Test inning.

Kumble finished with the bowling figures of 10-74 from 26.3 overs.

Kumble announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008 and finished with 619 wickets in the longest format of the game.

He has the third-highest number of wickets in Tests, only behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Australia's Shane Warne (708).

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News Network
January 9,2020

Kuala Lampur, Jan 9: Saina Nehwal and reigning world champion P V Sindhu produced dominating performances to progress to the women's singles quarterfinals of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament here on Thursday.

Sixth seed Sindhu notched up a commanding 21-10 21-15 victory over Japan's Aya Ohori in a pre-quarterfinal match lasting just 34 minutes. It was Sindhu's ninth successive win over Ohori.

The 24-year-old Indian, who won the World Championships in Basel last year, will take on world number 1 Tai Tzu Ying in the quarterfinals after the Chinese Taipei shuttler got the better of South Korea's Sung Ji Hyun 21-18 16-21 21-10.

Saina, who had won the Indonesia Masters last year before going through a rough patch, dispatched eight seed An Se Young of South Korea 25-23 21-12 after a thrilling 39-minute contest to make the last eight.

This is Saina's first win over the South Korean, who got the better of the Indian in the quarterfinals of the French Open last year.

The two-time Commonwealth Games champion will next take on Olympic champion Carolina Marin.

Saina had defeated Lianne Tan of Belgium 21-15 21-17 in the opening round on Wednesday.

In the men's singles, India's challenge ended after both Sameer Verma and HS Prannoy crashed out in the second round.

While Verma lost to Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia 19-21 20-22, Prannoy was shown the door by top seed Kento Momota of Japan 14-21 16-21.

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Agencies
March 26,2020

Karachi, Mar 26: Pakistan's centrally-contracted cricketers will contribute Rs 5 million to the national government's emergency fund to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ehsan Mani on Wednesday said apart from centrally-contracted players contributing Rs 5 million, the employees in the board, up to the senior manager level, will contribute their one day's salary.

Those employed as general managers or on higher posts will give two days' salary to the fund.

"The PCB will collect all these funds and deposit it to the government's coronavirus fund," he said.

Pakistan has recorded more than 1,000 positive cases of the deadly virus, which has claimed more than 19,000 lives all over the world.

"It is the history of the cricket board that we always stand by the government in difficult times," Mani said.

The PCB has already given its high performances centre in Karachi at the national stadium to be used by paramedical staff working at the special coronavirus hospital set up at the expo centre in the in the city.

Mani said though cricket has been disrupted by the virus outbreak but it was far more important for the nation to stand by the government and also take all precautionary steps during the pandemic.

Pakistan's centrally-contracted players are entitled to monthly salaries ranging from Rs 5 to 12 lakh besides match fee and other earnings.

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