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market monopoly by including clauses in commentary contracts that forbid on air comments or discussion about squad selection disallowing live updates of scores just to squeeze out more revenue what s next charging residents living in the vicinity of cricket stadiums a premium for breathing the same air that its cricketers breathe cut the bs and let s hear ian chappell s dissection of why msd s insistence on a deep cover is costing india matches than alan wilkins sycophantic blather but instead of whatsapp indian cricket is likely to continue with the indiatimes style of user experience but only if share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading leave a comment from cricket return of the ugly aussie cricketer december 31 2013 tags australia david warner england jimmy anderson mitchell johnson the ashes i started ashes 2013 rooting for the aussies as well as england had played over the 18 months leading up to the away leg of the ashes i couldn t hold them in the awe inspired regard i d held the early 2000 s australian team this was mainly their own doing while the previous generation aussies played an exciting brand of attacking cricket this english team was schizophrenic playing flamboyant cricket when on top at other times slowing over rates down to ridiculous levels to delay the opposition declaration not the stuff of champions then mitchell johnson happened as his usually wayward thunderbolts repeatedly homed in on english throats you couldn t help but feel some sympathy but it was still good to watch the australians make such a strong comeback then the nonsense began with the opposition on the mat the aussies became a pack of hyenas around wounded prey clarke threatened to break anderson s arm warner spoke of fear in trott s eyes stokes and johnson jostled which is fine except it was followed up by an unending barrage of verbals from the bowler and close in fielders every johnson spell as incisive as it was had the tedious contrived drama of a soap opera with batsman and bowler going toe to toe f words being exchanged liberally fielders chiming in to add to the schoolyard show of bravado the message going to all kids starting to play backyard cricket boorish behaviour is a part of playing good cricket that any fastbowler worth his salt should look like he s about to physically assault the batsman and every close in fielder s job is to be in the batsman s ear threatening physical harm pity the aussies are sore winners now one can only hope that steyn and co and cut them back to size share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading leave a comment from cricket an anthology of sachin tendulkar tributes november 18 2013 just another silly point sachin tendulkar s career had been overwhelming and so too was the deluge of tributes here s my far from comprehensive selection of favourites rohit brijnath wrote as only he can if you were fortunate enough to live in singapore or were a subscriber of the straits times you d have read a lot more than the ones that finally made it to the wider world outside at first there was the patriotic pandemonium of sachin tendulkar at the time of the announcement of tendulkar s retirement this was on the 15th of october more than a month before the day it all ended read the first line of the piece a few times before going further will he make a speech this retiring sachin tendulkar in his home city of mumbai in november during his last test and is it the closest we ll come to a nation crying then the view original post 597 more words share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading leave a comment from cricket of tears words emotions and a career november 17 2013 just another silly point the emotion of the final day of sachin tendulkar s career captured here by rohit brijnath from the straits times today was too much even for him today on his last cricketing day at wankhede stadium in mumbai even he the impassive man left the field forever with a stump in one hand and a tear wiped with the other he was not alone for this day for those in the stadium and beyond resembled an emotional mass sport has rarely seen the like of it today sachin tendulkar who spent a life he said over 20 metres the length of a cricket pitch for 24 years was retired his white clothes to be packed his bats to be mothballed his competitive instinct to be buried a long story even if it went on longer than it might have has concluded there is for view original post 900 more words share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading leave a comment from cricket 15th nov 1989 16th nov 2013 november 16 2013 tags sachin share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading leave a comment from cricket reminiscing sachin november 4 2013 tags allan border australia england imran khan india kris srikkanth mohammed azharuddin pakistan ravi shastri sachin tendulkar sanjay manjrekar sunil gavaskar we didn t have a television when he played his 1989 debut series in pakistan scores suggest none of the matches came close to a result with 28 being the highest number of wickets falling in the 1st test match of the series going by the high strung emotion i remember experiencing in the odi contests of the mid 90 s one can imagine the pressure both teams must have played under in india pakistan cricket matches the fact that imran was unhappy with the drawn series while srikkanth was delighted probably points to the superiority of the pakistan test team for india the series belonged to s manjrekar with 569 runs at an astounding average of 95 with a double hundred 1 hundred and 3 fifties making his debut at 16 years 205 days and batting at 6 tendulkar had a modest beginning with 215 runs in his debut series at an average of 36 with 2 fifties although i have no memory of it apparently the folks watched on our black white dyanora tv when he became the 2nd youngest by 30 days at 17 years 112 days to score a century at old trafford this time the batsman for india in the series was m azharuddin with 426 runs at 85 2 2 big hundreds and 1 fifty until the innings in manchester mentions of his name were more to do with his young age than his batting manjrekar azharuddin and vengsarkar getting more of the mention so much so that he was given the role of third seamer after india were thrashed at lords the buildup to the 1991 92 tour of australia was when his aggressive shot making was mentioned for the first time the overarching theme was as usual that of indians as poor travellers who were unlikely to challenge border s australians as he became the most capped test match player the century at old trafford had got people s attention and he had gone from being a young batsman to gavaskar s successor in the matter of one season and he delivered this was the first time he was india s most successful batsman in a series with 368 runs at an average of 46 that included that innings at perth to go with the 148 at sydney by the time the 1991 92 australia series ended the words prized wicket were ascribed to him for the first time a tag that the most dominant team of the generation kept in place for the best part of the next two decades concurrent to the test series he d started rolling them off in the odis as well one of his fifties taking india to the benson hedges world series final he scored 7 other half centuries between the benson hedges world series and the world cup combined on the 91 92 tour of australia for an aggregate of 684 runs at an average of 46 nearly 15 runs an innings more than the rest of the batsmen the 91 92 tour of australia was when he went from reasonably known prospect to flag bearer for a country s self esteem it was as simple and abrupt as that since that tour i cannot recall a match odi or test where he didn t carry the brunt of expectation probably greater than that of the other playing 10 put together interestingly it took until the 1994 new zealand tour for the world to get a taste of his explosive batting in odis at the top of the order filling in for an injured sidhu at the top of the order chasing 143 to win sachin scored 82 in 42 balls and the rest as they say is tendulkar from there the aura surrounding him only grew brighter as an inconsistent team was guaranteed at least a few strokes of brilliance pun intended no matter what the conditions or quality of opposition in our eyes the cricket hungry indian viewers he became superman and mr dependable rolled into one impregnable in defense destructive in attack rock solid yet entertaining that s what we expected from tendulkar every innings all across india from the mid 90s to the early 2000 s the routine was identical people hurrying home from schools colleges and workplaces bursting into their homes to breathlessly scan the upper right of their television screens searching for that all important number to the right of the if it read anything but 0 there would be a frantic visual search on the television screen for the familiar short statured wide legged stance at the striker s end or the hand on hip body weight resting on bat handle at the non striker s end if found it didn t matter if it was 14 3 a long slow relieved breath would be expelled as the customary set of commercials faded into the live picture filling the room with the buzz of the crowd replaced by absolute stillness as the bowler ran in then a sharp intake as a delivery passed him perilously close to the bat s edge the sharpest intakes were reserved for when the ball swung in to thud into the lightweight polyurethane pads and the bowlers and fielders went up in appeal if ardent prayers to various gods were to show up as server traffic on some divine network management dashboard the biggest spikes would coincide with every appeal against sachin tendulkar even my mother a person incapable of thinking a negative thought about any person in the wide world would darkly comment on nefarious intentions of the fielding team that was unfairly putting pressure on the umpire with their loud appeals then a delivery would stray down middle or leg ever so slightly the trademark right glove turning over left on the bat handle not so much hitting as just redirecting the ball to the square leg boundary crowds those at the ground those at home erupt camera closes on tendulkar haring back for the second run slowing down to watch the ball cross the boundary rope the quick nod of the helmeted head with the miniature tri colour pasted on it as he surveys the field before going through the most recognizable set of movements in world cricket before taking guard again if there existed an implicit measure of gross national hopefulness for india it was highest in those moments when sachin was at the crease looking in solid touch with a couple of imperious boundaries behind him the crowd surging in anticipation seeking to be reassured by the resounding crack of his mrf adorned blade the difficulty of the task ahead was irrelevant the quality of the opposition s bowlers was irrelevant for the 3rd most populous country in the world every sachin innings was like watching a big budget hollywood production of a marvel comics superhero he had to prevail top class quick bowlers wrist spinners ball not coming on wickets going down in a heap at the other end it did not matter the script said he would prevail he did many a time except when he didn t and then for us it was like a stoner coming off his high until the next match and the next fix he did a darn good job of delivering in hindsight so good that he got taken for granted when numbers 1 and 2 were expected to not last longer than the first 30 minutes and didn t make it past 10 tendulkar had to stand firm we would laud the lesser men with the same job description as him just for getting into double figures while anything short of complete domination by india s talisman was failure as the bar dropped on those he shared the dressing room with we kept raising it for him we were crushed when he didn t surpass our ridiculous expectations aggrieved at being let down then reinforcements started arriving first in support roles his batting seemed to get a 2nd wind as he played with the free stroking abandon of his early days then the mantle seemed to shift as the indian team finally came of age winning overseas with little contribution from the mrf blade of course it took mammoth team efforts just like was always required in a team sport but the training wheels were finally off and with it the fervent dependence of the indian cricket fan on sachin tendulkar and as the likes of sehwag and kohli laid into attacks it became acceptable to do the unthinkable to call out a tendulkar dismissal for poor footwork for cricket writers to even none too subtly call for sachin to hang it up rather than defend or counter any of the several and growing number of arguments rather than being ungracious enough to actually pretend to understand what goes through a champion s head rather than to think i can differentiate between a few misjudged deliveries and slowing reflexes rather than venture an opinion on when he should quit for every square drive played at the top of the bounce for every imperious punch down the ground for every dance down the track sending the ball over long on for every skipped heartbeat sharp intake of breath rapturous delight and for even for every heartbreak the line that for me will capture the essence of tendulkar s batting now and always that byline on that print ad i saw all those years ago in a sports store when sachin bats all else is irrelevant image copyright getty images share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading 6 comments from cricket one day test cricket my tendulkar experience november 3 2013 i like writing my tendulkar posts on days when he doesn t score too many that s when there is a lull in the torrent of posts about him this one is about the one time i experienced a tendulkar innings from about 100 yards from the action sure i d like to have been at perth on his maiden tour of australia but the only time i decided to brave the inhospitable conditions of watching a live match in india was to watch him the occasion the first test match of the south africa series in february 2000 at the wankhede in mumbai when a friend unexpectedly got passes the decision to forgo a day of academic enlightenment to watch a test match was an easy one to make the trip fr...
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