The cheer gets louder when Murali Vijay, batting on a 167, gets out. Surely, the Australians must have thought that they were hearing wrong or that they were in a surreal cosmos which was haunting in many ways. They should have seen this coming for the Master was to come in next.
You have to admit that His performance in the recent past has been below par. Perhaps, age is catching up with Him! Or perhaps, concentration is hard to come by after having achieved almost everything there was to achieve! Now that Australia have been handed a 4-0 score, there is hardly any overt scrutiny of His performance.
Although, you will come across the odd article from noteworthy sports journalists suggesting that He should hang his boots. You will also come across ex-cricketers insinuating that his time has come. You may even come across legends of the game diplomatically putting it across that the old horse must give way to new blood.
Surely, carrying the aspirations of nation on his shoulders for 23 years 4 months and 12 days have given the Man, the right to decide when He should go. 662 international matches and 34273 international runs have also added weight to that right. So unless one has numbers better than His, it would be a wee-bit improper to even insinuate that He must go! Wouldn't it?
Although, you will come across the odd article from noteworthy sports journalists suggesting that He should hang his boots. You will also come across ex-cricketers insinuating that his time has come. You may even come across legends of the game diplomatically putting it across that the old horse must give way to new blood.
Surely, carrying the aspirations of nation on his shoulders for 23 years 4 months and 12 days have given the Man, the right to decide when He should go. 662 international matches and 34273 international runs have also added weight to that right. So unless one has numbers better than His, it would be a wee-bit improper to even insinuate that He must go! Wouldn't it?
A highly revered ex-India captain recently stated that since Virender Sehwag had been dropped on poor form, He must also go. May be there is some merit in that argument for Sehwag is one of the greatest opening batsmen from India and perhaps, also, in the world. Who hasn't loved Sehwag tear attacks apart and re-write the rules of cricket. Surely many from the "cover the swing and play straight" school must have switched to " see the ball, hit the ball" school of batting. May be Sehwag was given the short end of the stick. But does that justify that He must also go? After all, is it not true that even Virender Sehwag and is still not Sachin Tendulkar.
1 comment:
Rightly said. Without doubt Tendulkar's feat is hard to achieve. But then the argument against him is getting stronger by the day; especially when the country is teeming with young talent waiting to prove their worth. Who knows one of these guys just grow up to make us proud like Tendulkar did for all these years....
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