Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar - Is he really the God of Cricket?

Date - 05/11/09

India V/S Australia
5th ODI, Hero Honda Cup.
Venue : Rajiv Gandhi Stadium , Hyderabad.

Scoreboard:
Australia - 350/4 in 50 overs
India - 347/10 in 49.4 overs.

India lost the match merely by four runs.

Man of the match - Sachin Tendulkar 175 runs (off 141 balls)

Still you hate Sachin Tendulkar?
Still you think he should resign?
Still you think he must let Gambhir and Sehwag open?
Still you doubt his abilities?

Let us try to find out what went wrong in the past few years.

What are the accusations against Sachin Tendulkar?

1 ] Whenever he plays well, India ends up losing the match.
2 ] He never plays in the crucial matches.

I don't think a group of people hates him just for doing 'Zhandu Baam' commercials..
A group of people dislike him for the same 2 reasons, isn't it?

Maybe another accusation can be..

3] He just plays for himself and for the sake of his records.

After today's match, you certainly can not blame him with the second accusation.

Nor can you blame him for the first one.
India's loss despite Sachin's gallant efforts only means that we still heavily rely upon SRT and we are no fit to lift the world cup without his inclusion.

Now you might say most of the times, when he slams a ton India loses.
Yes that is true.
45 tons, 91 half centuries..which means he gets a ton and 2 half centuries per 10 innings !!
180 times out of 435 matches (~400 innings approximately) he has provided India with a chance to nail the opponents.
India has merely won 10 - 15% of them.
Shame.

India loses..
Sachin does not.

India loses because others were and others are not capable of giving him a stand.
In today's match it was Raina to be blamed for the poor shot selection;
Jadeja to be blamed for the unnecessary run-out;
the top order batsmen for crumbling under the pressure situation.

It was his chance to take the revenge of the World Cup 2003 final and he certainly did take it in his own style. Sachin won.
India did not.India lost.

Australia won..(Surprisingly and on a little sadder note, these players are not going to form the core of the Oz team.)
Instead of exploiting Sachin's experience and talent, blaming him (for India's poor performance) shows your apathy and stubborn attitude.

He is a match winner.
Records and number tell the story for themselves.

Now comes the third accusation.Records.
Name a single sport-person who has not played for records.
Setting and breaking the records is the ultimatum for any sportsman.
Desultory cricketers end up like Vinod Kambli did, no matter how talented they were.

Think about this.
How excruciating this must be for the master blaster?
I bet he could not have fallen asleep even after playing the best innings of his career - 20 yrs.
Because Team India lost.
I mean, despite having so many records under his belt, it must be eating him from within that his side has never lifted the World Cup, with him in the squad.

Now that we have potential match winners like Yuvraj, Dhoni, Sehwag, Gambhir, Raina in the side there is no doubt about the capability, it is all about the mental strength and experience which can be provided by Tendulkar.

Hail Tendulakar, who at the age of 36 shows such a faith in the game.
A true hero.A true Legend.

On a bitter note, I am going to leave this blog open for you all to discuss and debate.