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GO TENDULKAR GO
SACHIN TENDULKAR IF YOU PLAY FOR INDIA, THE CHANCES ARE INDIA WILL WIN THE T20 WC IN THE CARIBBEAN
This is a small thread on Sachin Tendulkar and I want people to comment on his decision.
I want Sachin Tendulkar to go to the Caribbean and play for India in the T20 WC. Because, Tendulkar is in great form these days and he is not slogging like other players, he is playing Twenty20 with some great cricketing shots mostly fours and he is scoring runs at a strike rate of 155 which is pretty good.
The reason he is a bit reluctant is because, he has played only one T20 game in his career and he opted out of this format because, he thinks that if he fails to score or, if he scores slow then people will criticize him and may suggest him to retire and vacate the place for a younger player. This kinda reaction is normal. And, by declining the offer Sachin is making it clear for everyone that he cannot be taken for granted because, he has not played T20 since 2007 and if he fails in the tournament it will be a kinda "bay-izzati" for him, because he is such a great player. But, he should not think like this because, he is above all the players.
What Sachin needs to understand is right now with his form he is better than many players in the current team. Besides, when he is in the team other players have some kinda comfort that he is there and that makes them play better. Therefore, for team's sake and for the sake of his country he MUST play for India in the T20 WC in Caribbean.
I want newguy, Varun, Khansahab, Munir et all to express their views and if they agree with me they must push this case hard and let this message create some ripple effects and reaches to the ears and mind of the maestro and he changes his mind and play for India in the T2o WC and he may retire from this format after the World Cup. But, he is definitely playing for India in the ICC WC 2011 in India.
GO SACHIN GO —————>
This entry was posted on March 24, 2010, 9:33 PM and is filed under LS India. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
#1 by JAVED A. KHAN on March 24, 2010 - 9:34 PM
Guys please comment on this new thread now. Let us push Tendulkar to come forward and play for his country.
#2 by Ritesh on March 25, 2010 - 7:14 AM
We should respect decision made by Sachin.
Definetly he will score run their but Other than bating T20 requires higher fielding standards along with fitness.
To preserve his fitness for WC'11 and Indias tour to Aus he needs rest after breathtaking IPL
#3 by JAVED A. KHAN on March 25, 2010 - 8:33 AM
Welcome to the blog and thanks for the comments. I agree with you on one point that, one needs to respect Sachin's personal decision. But, your point that fielding standards are high in T20 and that is one of the reasons that keeps Sachin out of this T20 WC does not hold water by any logic. First of all he is a good fielder he is not like Mohammad Yousuf or Danish Kaneria in fielding. Secondly, preserving fitness for WC 2011 is a very far-fetched idea. IF he is playing for the IPL and not for INDIA then it appears a bit sinister to the observer. Because, IPL pays him more than a million dollar and, in IPL every team plays 14, 16 or possibly 17 matches? Whereas in the T20 WC a team plays less than half of that many matches. So, playing for the IPL is more tedious and more tiresome than playing for the T20 WC.
IPL is a tamasha whereas, playing for your country at any level is always an honour and a big thing. So, based on this I wrote this thread that Tendulkar should play for the T20 WC and should not shy away. He must be selected on the basis of his form and he should be taken for granted that even if he does not score for some reason (which is not likely to happen) he should not be criticized for that. His opting out of the T20 WC is like Shahid Afridi's opting out of test cricket for Pakistan.
LOL @ this BREAKING NEWS.
I could not stop laughing at this breaking news. The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday asked the chairman National Assembly's Standing Committee on Sports Jamshed Dasti to tender resignation from his seat for holding a fake degree.
http://www.aaj.tv/news/Latest/
This is the same Member of National Assembly of Pakistan, Jamshed Dasti who was acting in capacity as the chairman of Parliament's Standing Committee on Sports and was in the news lately criticizing Pakistan team and the players.
LOL what a MF of a person he is to do this and that too holding a fake degree in Islamic Studies?
#5 by Varun Suri on March 25, 2010 - 9:19 AM
A nice little thread to spark off a new debate.
I don't understand how on one hand you keep bashing, admonishing and foul-mouthing anything to do with IPL( not that i am a big IPL supporter but just an observation:)) and on the other hand take seriously any of the performances whether it is YKP, Utthappa or in this case Tendulkar. Sure he is doing well in this edition of IPL but the T-20 World Cup will be a different ball game in the Caribbean the pitches will be different and the bowlers much better. Playing IPL for Tendulkar is like playing Ranji Trophy in India where he is easily able to milk and toy and what not the domestic bowling and score atleast a 50 or a 100. Okay he did not do well in the first edition of IPL but T-20 was still new that time and that's the genius of the little master where his compatriots like Ganguly failed to adjust he could make adjustments and quickly adapt to this new form of Cricket.
As you rightly said IPL is a Tamasha so it's better to leave it at that and not take any of the performances so seriously. I think most of his supporters would agree with me that instead of playing this gulli-danda Cricket he would rather play Tests and ODI's for as long as possible but I see no harm in playing around 15 T-20's (IPL) in a Year for a million bucks..:)
Also for the Indian Team's point of view, I think Tendulkar's presence will defnitely not guarantee a World Cup win as T-20 is a lottery and is ideal for gamblers or players who are like gamblers like Afridi and Sehwag!! The presence of Dilshan did not guarantee the World Cup for Srilanka.
T-20 is too short, too quick a format of a game, to change the course of which one doesn't need a Tendulkar a Utthapa can do similar or even more damage.
#7 by newguy on March 25, 2010 - 1:09 PM
Javed Khan,
Tendulkar already responded to the request from various sources, including Gavaskar, that he should play for Indian in T20 WC. He stated that he will stay put with his decision, and his reason was to give chances to younger players, he added that there are many younger players for India today capable of playing this format and hence no issues. I agree with his decision.
I would love to see him play and open the innings T20, I don't believe he has any fear of failure because if you know Sachin then you know that he works on his weaknesses and overcomes them eventually. It appears that he has mastered how to play T20 as well, without hitting any sixes but plenty of fours with proper cricketing shots he is able to maintain excellent rate.
That said, I still think his decision is best, success or not, because there are many younger players capable of playing T20 and India don't need Sachin like they do in ODI or Tests. It will be selfish of him to take one spot and not give opportunity to players like Manish Pandey, Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli, Yousuf Pathan, so on ..
I actually don't care very much if India win T20 WC or not, I like them to go out there and play well, play some exciting cricket, and come back having played their best. Last time they did not play really well. In fact I would go on and say even players like Sehwag may be should not play T20 and this format of the game is too short for a player like him.
Give chances to younger players in T20, let them go out and play fearless cricket and let whatever happens happens. That is my thinking for T20.
Let Sachin play more Tests and ODIs.
I don't think my views about the current IPL will change after reading your comment. Because, (leave aside Pakistan) there are so many of the world class players are missing in it. And, I did not push Uthappa over Masala Dosa. Besides, I know that YKP is, and will be in the Indian squad for the WC. Whereas, Uthappa has just smashed that sixty odd runs with six sixes doesn't mean I am backing him for just one innings? NO. However, Tendulkar's case is different, the four innings he played he wasn't slogging like YKP and Uthappa, he played cricketing shots and whether it is against mediocre bowlers or great bowlers when Tendulkar is in that form it means something different. And, mind you Tendulkar has a history of getting out against unknown bowlers, check out the records if you want to. So, based on that observation it is my view that he MUST play for India. Eventually, it is his decision that needs to be respected. But, in my opinion if he is physically fit and selected he should play.
Afridi's decision NOT to play test cricket is illogical and unacceptable, if I was the Chairman of the PCB I would have terminated his central contract if he refuses to play for test cricket. (He refused to play test cricket against SA at home during the month of Ramadan was justified, from there onwards he is taking advantage, and the PCB wants to fill in his vacant spot by including one of their favourites)
newguy
I dunno why you guys don't take the T20 WC seriously? I fail to comprehend this, because on one hand IPL and twenty20 is given so much importance whereas T20 is not a Tamasha, its a lottery yet, to win that lottery on a regular basis requires some kinda ability, planning, strategy, temperament and the willingness to succeed.
Let me quote this general belief which I keep hearing when I am in the circle of Pakistani cricket fans, which are not the exact words but, more or less the same what I am quoting below:
They say: "Both India and Pakistan have won the T20 WC once BUT, Pakistan is definitely a better T20 team than India. India has won the first WC by fluke whereas Pakistan lost it because of some real stupidities by Misbah but, they corrected those mistakes and won the second cup, whereas India could not even reach the semis." And, they say: "It is very likely that it may happen again."
This is obviously the views of some die hard supporters and not expert views because we all know that T20 is very unpredictable. Still, to achieve that you need to have a balanced side. On paper India has always been a better side than Pakistan yet, they haven't won as many matches as Pakistan has i.e., when playing between the two of them.
As I was typing this comment, on the other window I saw Raina and Badrinath hammered Zaheer Khan and Malinga for sixes and fours and both are very good bowlers at international level. In fact both are considered as BEST bowlers for their countries. Malinga took 4 wickets in 4 balls against SA and Zaheer is beyond any doubt India's best bowler today yet, they both gave away 45 and 41 runs in 4 overs. This is twenty2o.
one doesn't need a Tendulkar a Utthapa can do similar or even more damage. Varun
Varun, neither "Robin the Batman" nor my nick name is YKP can do damage on a consistent basis. Neither one of them have a proven record to have won the matches for India single handedly so, keep this Utha Patha out of the equation. Raina, Yuvraj, Sehwag, Dhoni can do the damage but not these two. They might play once in ten matches. So far that is not on record.
Since Gambhir is injured and no info on whether he will be fully fit or not should make Tendulkar think and change his decision that he can open the innings with Sehwag.
That Robin the Batman is a quote from Waqar Younus book, "The gems of cricket commentary" by Waqar Younas i.e., when he said, "This Robin is a good Batman."
#10 by JAVED A. KHAN on March 25, 2010 - 4:32 PM
I am at work and while working I am also watching the Mumbaians batting against Chennaians, right now Sachin Tendulkar is batting along with his fellow partner:
Mai Shikhar kar kay Awan
Mai Manji Kithay Dhawan
For those who don't know, there was a Pakistani Punjabi movie called, "Mai Manji Kithay Dhawan?" Manji = 4pie or bed, Dhawan = rakhoon ya PUT.
This is the Tendulkar effect. A player like Dhawan while his partner on the other end is Tendulkar got fearless and smashed well known bowlers like Albie Morkel, Jogi Sharma and Laxmipathy, Empathy, Sympathy Balaji Bajrang for sixes and fours. He scored 56 in 34 balls and got out off the bowling of Jakati. And a ball before he was out, Tendulkar was dropped by Dhoni off Jakati. I dunno who Jakati is but, the point that Tendulkar can get out easily against the bowling of unknown bowlers.
#12 by newguy on March 25, 2010 - 5:08 PM
Javed,
Regarding why not take T20 seriously, a few comments.
First, on the Pakistani supporters point of view, yes, I know this very well that many Pakistanis believe that India won the T20 WC by fluke where as Pakistan lost it by chance, and in the second WC Pakistan won it by skill. This is on the face of it is very hilarious 🙂
The fallacy of that argument is that on one hand they think when their team lost it was luck and when they won it is skill. This is not limited to sports, a very good comparison is to stock market investors, when people make money in the market they think it was because of their skill and when they lose they blame it on bad luck and had they done this and that they would not have. I have seen even professional investors do this on a regular basis.
Coming to the first T20 WC win I would say India won by fluke, and had Pakistan won it then also I would say it was fluke, the whole T20 game is a fluke because one or two hits for sixes can change the game, where as in ODI cricket one or sixes will do nothing, there is many more over and you need to real skills to build and win an ODI match. If you go back to that final, you can flip this argument and say Pakistan lost the match much before but then few fluke hits by that arrogant bowler Tanvir got them close, but they never had the game plan to win. I would agree Pakistan played much better last T20 WC than India. So what?
I don't want Indian team to be very good at T20, because that means they will start losing skills in Test and ODI, and players will focus on this gilli-ganda cricket, let IPL provide the Tamasha. People who want fun can get it there.
If you think about Pakistan is successful in T20 than any other nation, but that has eroded their Test and ODI skill, they are not able to plan and execute for longer period of time. In other words it seems they are able to do this in short duration really well, but lack the intensity to sustain for the longer version. This what I am alluding to when I say getting good at T20 means losing skills in another.
Or perhaps a better solution is to have a totally different team for T20, this will develop T20 specialists, but Test and ODI teams will not be affected. Which brings us back to why Tendulkar or other Test / ODI players should not play. The likes of YKP and Uthappa are best fit of T20 but not good for ODI, let alone test. Even Suresh Raina and Youvraj Singh for that matter is not test material, they seem to be the ones to cross the bridge between ODI / T20. I would even go on and state let Dhoni also not play T20 and let someone like Youvraj or Raina take over T20. Bring in players like Dinesh Karthik. Gives opportunity to a whole new generation of players in different roles, not just as players, but in leadership roles and strategy development.
To expand on my previous post, essentially what I am saying is that let T20 be developed as it's own brand of sport with a different national team specializing in it. May be a few players who can play both T20 and ODI, generally players considered with good skills in both but not Test skills. Then Test and ODI players will be different team with cross skills again. This will ensure that Test and ODI skills are not lost because of T20 and it will give opportunity to develop different skills required for T20.
If India can do that then I will support it and I would like them to become a top T20 team. But not at the cost of players playing all 3 formats. Dhoni, Sehwag, Gambhir, Zaheer, Bhajji etc play all 3 formats and IPL – this is not good. Skills required are different, and by playing all 3 formats they are killing themselves and lot giving opportunity to others.
Instead, I support a separate national T20 team with no player playing all 3 formats, and only one or two playing 2 formats.
If the whole of T20 is fluke then why just India and Pakistan winning the T20 WC? Why not other nations? Do you mean to say that other nations don't take T20 seriously? I doubt it. And, yeah I agree with you that some Pakistanis believe that way and some Indians are also not different from those Pakistanis who believe in that way!
Whether you, Varun, khansahab or I may agree that T20 is a gilly dunda game or its not cricket, the crux of the matter is, it will not change the views of the masses who love this format and it is going to be the future of cricket whether there are cheer girls or not, whether there are bollywood stars or not, T2o is here to stay and appreciated by many. Even those who never played cricket when they see it on TV they started taking interest in this game. Who knows when China will send their team to participate in the WC T2o things will change drastically and the whole world would start playing cricket, and this will be the future of cricket. Only the so-called Gentlemen would be playing test matches. 😀
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying it is all fluke and no skill involved. There is skill involved, no one can say Umar Gul do not have skill to place the ball in the block hole every single ball, it is a skill and not giving runs is one way to win T20. Neither would one discount Afridi for his skill to hit sixes and build an innings like he did in last T20 final and semis. Same goes for players like Youvraj, and Pathan. But the fluke comes in when key moments of the match can be decided by a few mis-hits that could go for four or sixes.
I think it is more complicated, as I said before, T20 is a transformative format of the game, and it needs to be developed as a separate sport. We need to look at different skill sets required for the game with basics being same. But we need different national teams and treating it like separate game.
Case in point today's just finished IPL game between MI and CSK, even though people will say it was Tendulkar whose innings paved victory, it was really the one over in which they got 19 runs that changed the game decisively. Kieron Pollard just scored 20 runs and it has such an impact. How often do you see a 19 run over or a 20 runs scored by a batsman changing the game this in ODI cricket, let alone Test match.
Already there are specialists coming up in T20. Umar Gul is a specialist in T20 bowling with his accurate yorkers. Shaun Tait gets it right sometimes, but is yet to be as good. Dave Warner is another player who may be good for this game. So it makes sense to find players like that and develop this game separate. I would like to see more bowlers getting specialized and finding ways to contain or get out the batsman.
T20 cricket is about sorting out priorities which changes more frequently than ODI's and test matches. Teams that can adapt to changes more quickly than others are the winners. But, this doesn't mean there will be a totally new game and it needs to be developed, no this is just a shorter version of the game and players need to adapt themselves sooner than later. Those who are old like, Younus who cannot run fast will find it difficult to adjust. Whereas, Tendulkar does not have a problem with running between the wickets or in fielding, he is as agile as other young players are and his throws from the boundary is also very solid and accurate. Today, he batted till the penultimate over and played an anchor role at a decent strike rate of 138.
I don't think it is complicated, it is very simple, its a mind game and you need to adapt to this change. Tendulkar has adapted well i.e., given his natural ability to play cricketing shots and not by slogging he is still a very versatile player and should not be looked as a liability or a drag in T20. There is no harm in playing just this lastT20 WC tournament for the country. His presence at the other end makes other players more comfortable and secure. Even Sehwag once said in one of his interviews I have read, "When Paaji (Tendulkar) is with me on the other end, I take inspiration from him." I think what Sehwag is today is mainly because of Tendulkar and what Gambhir is because of Sehwag. Two good players when they play in tandem makes a big difference. Its just like two good fast bowlers play in tandem and taking wickets from both ends not only encourages each others efforts but, also demoralize the opposition.
Don't you think Chennai would have gone for a kill if Tendulkar was out earlier and a couple of unknown players were batting along in the dying overs? Dhoni & Co. gave it up after 15 overs when Tendulkar continued after his 50.
Anyways, it is difficult for me to explain my point of view. It is just like 5 years ago when I started saying that Shoaib Malik plays dirty politics in the team, EVERYONE including khansahab pounced at me on PakSpin and thought I am a crazy guy! But, now the whole world knows that he is a tricky player who wants to be in the team by hook or by crook and plays everything else BUT not cricket.
Yes Pollard hit 19 in one over of Pathetic Perera but Mumbaians won the match in 19 overs, there were 6 more balls to go and even if 9 or 10 runs were scored by Pollard they needed only 9 more in the last over and it was possible and it happened many times. So your point does not hold water in this case. Sorry, I beg to differ from your views in this case. 😀 I still think that had Tendulkar not continued playing till the penultimate over Mumbai wouldn't have won the match. If it was not Pollard it could have been Bravo, Harbhajan or Zaheer Khan hitting a few sixes. But, that 72 of Tendulkar made the difference and not Pollard's 20.
This is what Tendulkar said after the match.
Tendulkar is the man of the match: "It's a wonderful moment for us becasue it was a big game for us .. It was a big total and we didn't get off to a flier but Shikhar accelerated brilliantly to play some big shots. It was a well calculated chase in the end. I think I was trying to force the pace too much in the initial overs before i decided let me just stay 20 overs. I have said Thank you to international T20 in 2007 but IPL I have been playing and it's been fun. I wanted to finish the game but got out playing the pull shot. But Bravo finished it off and I am glade we won. I thought our bowlers tried well but they couldn't hit the right areas. Credit to Raina and Badrinath played a good supporting role. It's still too early to say anything about the tournament. You can never take anything for granted. I have never done in cricket. It's a funny old game, just when you think you are on top, things start going wrong."
YOU SEE……… he considers it as a funny old game, its not a new game or a game in trans formative stage 😀
Ps. with ref. to things start going wrong, it happens in ALL formats, ODI and even in test matches, we have seen so many test matches for e.g., the Sydney test Aus. vs. Pak. where Pak were apparently winning it by an innings and ended up losing the test. This is just one example but there are dozens if not hundreds of test matches that ended against expectations.
#20 by Varun Suri on March 25, 2010 - 6:26 PM
Even though the IPL has really picked up in India which is quite evident by seeing all the stadiums full with people but still at the end of the day I am still not convinced that it is long enough for any particular team to be really good at it for a long time and I would love to be proved wrong by Pakistan if they win the World Cup again this time.
Yes, Pakistan has been really successful in this format and their win to loss percentage is the best but still it is early days in this format and I am still not convinced that T-20 is long enough a game for one Team to dominate it as Australia/Windies did in Tests/One-Days.
It is but natural that all the Pakistani fans would be too excited with the prospects of T-20 World Cup because not only they are defending champions but favourites again to win the trophy and for the same reason not many Indian fans would be too excited because at the end of the day nobody knows what will happen and it is better to go into the tournament with low expectations.
Now there is simply too much of Cricket on the Indian Tele that I don't know if anyone really cares if they win or lose the T-20 World Cup. It is simply too quick and monotonous a Game for any Real Cricket Follower to form a permanent lasting interest or passion for this form of Game.
To give you an example of the unpredictability of the nature of this format look at today's match between Delhi and Bangalore. Delhi without Gambhir and out of form Dilshan with no contribution from Sehwag and Karthik scored a 180+ score which proved to be too much for the best team of the tournament so far, a team which has already scored 200+ Scores twice. A debutant whom i had never heard of scored a quickfire 50 to set up the Game.
I do not say that T-20 is all Fluke but defnitely it involves a lot more luck than it does in Tests and that makes it more of a Gambling than Cricket.
As opposed to last year the sentiments of Indian fans have changed for this year's T20 WC because, last year there was too much talk about India will do better than other teams in the WC because of the IPL and it turned out to be a misery than a blessing and Dhoni later blamed too much cricket. India were favourites last year. So, now the fans don't want to expect the same and this year they want to play like the underdogs and if they win they will be happy, obviously who doesn't ?
As regards Pakistan winning this time, the odds are not in their favour because, it is not likely to repeat encore, although everyone in Pakistan wants them to win and Pak fans will be happy if they win. I will be more so because Malik is not in the team and Malik's fans will be more happy if Pak doesn't win because, they will boast about his so called "caliber" which is missing. In my opinion it is not even zero but negative. If Misbah doesn't play well in this tournament his career is practically over. In fact that's what we thought when he was not selected for Aus / NZ tour, but when Younus Khan opted out the PCB thought Misbah is the most suitable replacement for Younus and sent him, he failed again and was sent back from Australia. Now he is again in the squad because he was being considered for Captaincy. What a stupid notion! Its like giving Younus Khan the highest award "Pride of Performance Award" after banning him for life for no reason.
Munir, when you mentioned about Afridi also having received similar award from Karachi, I said that the award is given by the country and not the province or the city. Now, the news is appearing in the media (at that time it wasn't there) that Afridi also received the same "Pride of Performance Award." Normally, the President himself give these awards but, Zardari is Zardari he is so scared of appearing in public or meeting people from Pakistan that he asked someone to give that award on his behalf, which is so pathetic to do. Shame on you Zardari.
As regards Dilshan and Sehwag not scoring in IPL, if you remember the first IPL in which no one except Sohail Tanvir performed well from the Pakistan side. It is difficult for some players to gel in such a mix of players, I am sure when Sehwag & Dilshan play for their countries, they will be playing differently.
#23 by JAVED A. KHAN on March 26, 2010 - 12:40 PM
NO TENDULKAR NO……… 😀
INDIA has announced their 15 man squad for the WC T20 sans Tendulkar, Ishant Sharma and Virot Kohli. Following are the players selected for the WC.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag (vice-capt), Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Vinay Kumar
What you said about some of the Indian fans expectation that IPL will improve their teams performance in T20 WC last time is true, I think many fans and even experts thought so, including myself to an extent. After all they were playing so much T20 cricket that it is expected to improve their experience. However, it turned out that the WC matches were different ball game, and all the IPL experience did not help.
Having seen that, I think then people realize that IPL experience cannot be relied up on, moreover, India has not done really great in T20 at international level after that either, they have done OK, but the gap between them and other teams narrows in T20 compared to ODI and Test.
I look at their performance and give them best chance in Test matches, followed by ODI, and lastly T20.
This is because when the game becomes shorter it becomes more of luck. Case in point Indian teams record in Test, ODI, and T20 in the last 2 years. If you look at same opponents vs. India you will see that India are able to dominate them in Tests, little less in ODI, and it becomes a toss up in T20.
So, it is based these facts that I am keeping expectation low for Indian team in T20 WC. If they win, well and good, but nothing shout from rooftop. I still won't consider it same as winning the ODI WC, or winning a Test series in SA or Aus. These are the real challenges. That said, I know lot of Indian went overboard after the first T20 WC win, and similarly lot of Pakistanis went overboard after last year too. This is just the way sub-continental people are.
The IPL experience may have been good for some domestic Indian players such as R. Jadeja, Badrinath, Mishra, Ohja, Vijay, Vinay etc., but players like Ishant Sharma, his performance was negative. Like Sohail Tanvir excelled in the first IPL but, that was his downfall after that and he never bowled that well after that purple hat. Likewise, for Pakistan Imran Nazir after scoring that 100/42 in the ICL did not perform at all. Although his performance has always been erratic like Afridi's but, Afridi is more versatile and maintained his spot because of his bowling and because he became a regular feature (Malik dropped him a few times) his batting performance also improved and the most important thing is he excelled when it was needed most.
However, if India has won the second T20 WC also, neither you nor the Indian fans would have had such low morale about T20 but, because they could not even reach semis in the previous one that went totally against their expectations there is a sudden change in feelings, I can understand that. Having said that, there are a lot of hopes from Pakistan under Afridi's captaincy but, the results may not be the same as before.
Ahmad Shahzad who scored 80 odd runs a few days ago against Pakistan A, he has now been included in the reserve squad on the pretext that Mohammad Yasin, another rookie has reportedly been injured !
In my opinion, Salman Butt, Khalid Latif and Misbah ul Haq should not have been in the squad and Yasir Arafat must have been in the reserve list. They should have included Shahzaid Hasan Khan in place of Butt and Imran Nazir in place of Khalid Latif.
Building a museum on Tendulkar announced
NEW DELHI: Indian star batsman Sachin Tendulkar is busy breaking records in cricket field and off the field his achievements are being hailed in the country. In recognition of his feats, The Maharashtra government has announced building of a museum in his honour. The museum will be based on the life and career of the master cricketer Tendulkar will be second cricketer after the legendary Sir Donald Bradman that a museum will be built on his cricket achievements. Tendulkar recently accomplished the milestone of becoming the first ever player to crack a one-day international double ton. The Little Master holds the records of making the most runs in Test and One-day International cricket besides scoring the highest number of centuries in these forms of cricket.
The purpose of this small thread was an effort to persuade him to play for the WC T20 but, now the Indian 15 players squad has been announced, there is NO HOPE of him reversing his decision or, the BCCI will consider it. So, this thread has come to an end so soon because the bloggers have lost interest in this subject. We need to write a new thread now.
#28 by newguy on March 27, 2010 - 3:01 AM
Javed Khan you are wrong about me being negative about T20 because of India not winning. I just think T20 is a game where luck has lot to do with success, and I explained reasons for it in previous post. Nothing more to add.
There is an age old expression, Cricket by chance, Football by force and hockey by practice. So, it is not just the T20 format but, the whole game in every format is by chance and a lot to do with luck. 😀
Hello guys we have a few thread on the blog THE TALE OF TWO CAPTAINS so please comment on the new thread. Thanks
#31 by Mohammed Munir on March 28, 2010 - 10:34 AM
Sorry guys I missed 'The Great Tendulkar' debate. Although, there were some good points from both side but I would like to say that Sachin can't give anything more to Indian T20 in the forthcomming World Cup and so his decision should be respected and he be allowed not to play.
Secondly, we all know that in World Cup, no one is getting over a US$ 1.00 Million for a six week stint, so its fine if someone plays IPL but not the T20 WC 😉
LOL – Look what Shahid Afridi is saying about Tendulkar.
"The way he has blossomed in the last few years he is only getting better and better as a batsman," Afridi told Sunday's Times of India. "If Tendulkar had played in this World Cup I am sure he would have made a big impact. If he is not playing… it is certainly a big advantage for other teams. "I think even in T20 cricket you need to bat properly and at times even playing out 20 overs is a big challenge for a team. You need to play orthodox cricket."