Sir Sachin Tendulkar 4

[kid-glove]

Took a shite team singlehandedly into 96 semis and 03 finals. Strip off messi from his famed midfield help we will see what he is upto.

:lol:

Messi is one man army.

Good thing for Messi, he still has a lot of time to put his WC record right.

But let's face it, club football >>>> International footie. CL is the real deal. He plays something like 40-50 games a season and then goes to a World cup under a joke manager like Maradona ( :( ) , to play against defenders like Mertesacker (with all due respect, he isn't one of the best), Heitinga in semis/finals. Sorry that's bull. The best defenders play in CL KO phases, Lucio, Thiago Silva, Maicon, Rio, Cashley, Koscielny, Carvalho, Ramos, Samuel et Al.

As for the midfield strength, I'm sure it's not the midfield strength that gives him drive to go past challenges & move out of closed spaces like magician!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S7hlL4sJek

He could take 4-5 touches per second at full speed and has vision to find players moving into space with technique to pull out a orgasmic through pass.

Barcelona - Messi = wouldn't win CLs.

Argentina + Messi =could win WCs. The kid's just 24. Rest assured he wouldn't hide in big finals and clutch scenarios.

[Plum]

1. Ivlo pagesA? :shock: 1. yArubA adhu fifa 07 game veLayAduRadhai perumai pEsuRadhu. I still play EA Cricket 2002 . Badani-ya YuvrajA mAththi, S Ramesh-ai ATG-yA mAthi, Steve Waugh-A Shane WatsonA maaththi veLAduRa sugamE thani :) 2. Wizzy - timing dig on multicultural team :lol: 3. Iyam tt chembian

[Plum]

This discussion is getting messy. Git - pls to tell me if Arsenal progressed in Sembian's league? (Nejamaave result theriyAma kEkkuREn - enakku therinja varaikkin first legla adi vAngi andharathula thongikittirundhaapla)

[ajithfederer]

Truth hurts.

:lol:

[ajithfederer]

Oh yeah shit(e) is too high a respect for that team which had some match-fixing !@#$%@

[SoftSword]

i wish i can request ppl to discuss abt sachin and cricket here. :roll:

[kid-glove]

This discussion is getting messy. Git - pls to tell me if Arsenal progressed in Sembian's league? (Nejamaave result theriyAma kEkkuREn - enakku therinja varaikkin first legla adi vAngi andharathula thongikittirundhaapla)

No. We beat 'em 3-0 in second leg, nearly doing the impossible. 4-3 aggregate. Pity Abiatti made crucial saves vs RVP. Would have progressed. But it happens in the best competition in the world. And also because we were crap in the first leg.

As a Chelski gloryhunter, you should be glad with that 4-1 win over Napoli.

[kid-glove]

Oh yeah shit(e) is too high a respect for that team which had some match-fixing !@#$%@.

There were match-winning performances by match-fixing !@#$%@ too.

[kid-glove]

Truth hurts.

Your opinion, you mean.

[ajithfederer]

Yeah chose from the below
1. S/f 96
2. 136 chase
3. Botched sharjah final
and the countless unknown entities.

There were match-winning performances by match-fixing !@#$%@ too.

[SoftSword]

guys....
ur all spamming for sachin sake... :banghead:

[kid-glove]

Yeah chose from the below
1. S/f 96
2. 136 chase
3. Botched sharjah final
and the countless unknown entities.

So they collectively failed, Sachin couldn't individually lift his team 'singlehandedly' the whole way.

[ajithfederer]

Sold out the team/sport.

So they collectively failed, Sachin couldn't individually lift his team 'singlehandedly' the whole way.

[kid-glove]

Messi far better play-maker than Xaviniesta.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTIEpqMwCbk&feature=fvst

That still misses another 4 years of magic, esp. passes this season to Cesc = :bow:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbxXrAlLm4g&feature=related

----

Tomorrow my WUSSF session begins at 9.00AM. Goodnight.

[selvakumar]

A day that I want to forget just like the final of the last WC that we won. Appo aarambichathu.. Innum nikkala.. Almost have stopped following cricket :(
Hope we would see him scoring at 20 tons a year from now onwards to compensate for the ones that we lost in the last 11 months. This is the first time I didn't watch the highlights of his century. I don't think I will watch it in the future. But I am happy that the pressure is out of him and expecting some fireworks against Pakistan and others from now. Somehow, I find the bangladesh crowd to be a bit more immature just like the sub continent crowd of the 90s. Sehwag illathathu bangladeshukku kulir vuttu pochu...

[selvakumar]

<dig> I don't follow football but I follow Messi facebook page. He is a genius (No doubt). I am not even a football fan. But he keeps me interested. I don't see the entire match. I just see the way he plays. Different games aanalum, On par with Sachin of the 90s - I would say </dig>

[SoftSword]

selva... whats with bangalow fans?
enna pannaainga?

[P_R]

I realized certain things, which I always knew, quite viscerally today.
That I give a damn about the Indian team.
From 70 onwards for a good one hour I was glued to cricinfo. Nothing. Absolutely nothing mattered. Total elation when he got to his hundred.
Even now I don't regard it as a landmark. I find it stupid to add ODI and Test hundreds. But it was quite obviously messing Sachin. And I was so so relieved to see him get it over with.

So more than the milestone itself, it's just the man had plodded through and got there and it was done and dusted thrilled me. enakkE ippadinnA, avarukku eppadi irukkum!

Truth be told, I don't think I was as ecstatic about the WC win. Sachin jevichchu kudukkAdha oru final-ai ennAla innaikkum perusA ninaikka mudiyalai. A win of Dhoni's bat, MoS Yuvraj. Certainly not what I wanted.

But it was great to see Sachin so happy. unakku sandhOsamnA, enakku sandhOsam - appadingra aLavukku dhaan feel paNNa mudinjudhu.

Today, the match ceased to matter to me the moment he got out.

I didn't follow the match so I won't argue about bowlers etc. Second slips into second gear when he nears his hundred ellAm ellArukkum theriyin. So if he indeed slowed down and it cost us the game I don't feel the urge to argue it away. The way I see it, this is the least the team can do for Sachin.

Blatant biased support for an individual at the expense of the team. Yes. indha individualukku paNNaama yaarukku paNradhaam?

And I admit it is easier for me to feel this way because of me lack of concern about the team, future of Indian cricket etc. It is not that I hate BCCI or the new blood - Kohli, Raina ellAm OraLavukku pudikkudhu. But I just don't care if they win or lose.

It's like an artist has exorcised his demons and promises to be back in the business. Two boundaries after reaching hundred. I overread- as is my wont - that it signifies Him freeing his arms. I would give anything for that. Least of them being this match.

[Plum]

Idhai ellAm nAn world cup jeyicha soottOdA annikkE sonnEn.patriotic fans kitta vAngiyum kattikittEn. nInga safeA innikku solRInga :)

[MADDY]

Truth be told, I don't think I was as ecstatic about the WC win. Sachin jevichchu kudukkAdha oru final-ai ennAla innaikkum perusA ninaikka mudiyalai. A win of Dhoni's bat, MoS Yuvraj. Certainly not what I wanted.

dei thagappa Senthil: Naama onnu nenaikkrom, deivam onnu nenaikkudhu........WC final-la vidhi velayadidichuppaa

btw, Yuvraj didnt score much in Finals, it was gauti and Dhoni......

[kid-glove]

<dig> I don't follow football but I follow Messi facebook page. He is a genius (No doubt). I am not even a football fan. But he keeps me interested. I don't see the entire match. I just see the way he plays.</dig>


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yozvl3y29Ow


Sick and tired of his failure for Argentina. He's their best player and his shoulders are big enough to carry the team despite being managed by buffoons.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKyubnRdvXY&feature=channel

[HonestRaj]

me no great lover of computer games ya...
veettukkulla velaadradhune rende velayaattu dhaan...
onnu carrom, innonnu konja naal'la therinjukkuveenga...

andha innonnu chess'ah nE

[Plum]

Maddy - all time greatest captain in world kooda orutharai nenachom. But deivam Englandla australiala kavuthuduvhE? :-) deivam romba mosampa!

[Plum]

Match winning test centuries from Sachin: 4 in Chennai, no other venue has more than 1, except Delhi which has a princely 2. Even if you combine OdIs and Tests, no other venue has more than 2, except Sharjah which has 5, all in ODIs. Repeatoffer: sachu take tamil sittizenship!

[P_R]

andha innonnu chess'ah nE
indhiyAvula evanumE nee kEttadhillai..maganE nee kEttutte

[P_R]

btw, Yuvraj didnt score much in Finals, it was gauti and Dhoni......
Of course, MoS vaanginadhai chonnEn.
1996, 2003 maadhiri SachinE sarvam-nu vaanginA dhaan adhu World Cup. ippadi oru World Cup namakku thEvaiyA

[P_R]

Idhai ellAm nAn world cup jeyicha soottOdA annikkE sonnEn.patriotic fans kitta vAngiyum kattikittEn. nInga safeA innikku solRInga :)
naan appayin sonnEn. Party pooper range-ku sollAdhadhukku kaaraNam Sachin mugaththula therinja sandhOsham.
vazhkkaila oru kattaththukku appuRam nammaLOda viruppu veRuppugaL mukkiyam illai. kuzhandhaigaL sandhOsham dhaan saar mukkiyam.

[MADDY]

Maddy - all time greatest captain in world kooda orutharai nenachom. But deivam Englandla australiala kavuthuduvhE? :-) deivam romba mosampa!

katradhu thamizh "file": bangladesh pona anga kooda vandhuttaanga saar

[lydayaxobia493]

Of course, MoS vaanginadhai chonnEn.
1996, 2003 maadhiri SachinE sarvam-nu vaanginA dhaan adhu World Cup. ippadi oru World Cup namakku thEvaiyA

Yuvraj naala world cup vaangina thinaala ipo enna ?

[P_R]

Yuvraj naala world cup vaangina thinaala ipo enna ? oNNum illai.

[lydayaxobia493]

oNNum illai.

Double meaning a irukke ? :confused2:

[lydayaxobia493]

https://p.twimg.com/AoHFi7eCMAIVaDj.jpg

[GSV]

I realized certain things, which I always knew, quite viscerally today.
That I give a damn about the Indian team.
From 70 onwards for a good one hour I was glued to cricinfo. Nothing. Absolutely nothing mattered. Total elation when he got to his hundred.
Even now I don't regard it as a landmark. I find it stupid to add ODI and Test hundreds. But it was quite obviously messing Sachin. And I was so so relieved to see him get it over with.

So more than the milestone itself, it's just the man had plodded through and got there and it was done and dusted thrilled me. enakkE ippadinnA, avarukku eppadi irukkum!

Truth be told, I don't think I was as ecstatic about the WC win. Sachin jevichchu kudukkAdha oru final-ai ennAla innaikkum perusA ninaikka mudiyalai. A win of Dhoni's bat, MoS Yuvraj. Certainly not what I wanted.

But it was great to see Sachin so happy. unakku sandhOsamnA, enakku sandhOsam - appadingra aLavukku dhaan feel paNNa mudinjudhu.

Today, the match ceased to matter to me the moment he got out.

I didn't follow the match so I won't argue about bowlers etc. Second slips into second gear when he nears his hundred ellAm ellArukkum theriyin. So if he indeed slowed down and it cost us the game I don't feel the urge to argue it away. The way I see it, this is the least the team can do for Sachin.

Blatant biased support for an individual at the expense of the team. Yes. indha individualukku paNNaama yaarukku paNradhaam?

And I admit it is easier for me to feel this way because of me lack of concern about the team, future of Indian cricket etc. It is not that I hate BCCI or the new blood - Kohli, Raina ellAm OraLavukku pudikkudhu. But I just don't care if they win or lose.

It's like an artist has exorcised his demons and promises to be back in the business. Two boundaries after reaching hundred. I overread- as is my wont - that it signifies Him freeing his arms. I would give anything for that. Least of them being this match.

Very well said P_R .. 90% en mana ottatha appadiye prathibalichitinga.. indha alavuku sathyama ennala solli iruka mudiyadhu..:clap:

[ajithfederer]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/428125_3409676929938_1510418566_4436470_1390443407 _n.jpg

[lydayaxobia493]

நான் கடவுள் இல்லை : சச்சின் பேட்டி

மிர்பூர் : நான் சச்சின் ரமேஷ் டெண்டுல்கர் தான் தவிர, கடவுள் இல்லை என்று மாஸ்டர் பேட்ஸ்மேன் சச்சின் டெண்டுல்கர் கூறியுள்ளார். கிரிக்கெட் வரலாற்றில், சதங்களில் சதமடித்து சத சாதனையை சச்சின் டெண்டுல்கர் நேற்று நிறைவேற்றினார். இதற்கு, பல்வேறு தரப்பிலிருந்து வாழ்த்துகள் குவிந்தவண்ணம் உள்ளன. தனியார் சேனல் ஒன்றில் இதுகுறித்து பேட்டியளித்த பாகிஸ்தான் அணி முன்னாள் கேப்டன் இம்ரான் கான், இந்திய கிரிக்கெட் அணியின் இளம்வீரர் சாந்தகுமாரா ஸ்ரீசாந்த் உள்ளிட்டோர், சச்சின் டெண்டுல்கரை, கிரிக்கெட் விளையாட்டின் கடவுள் என வர்ணித்தனர். மிர்பூரில் நேற்று இந்தியா- வங்கதேச போட்டிக்கு பிறகு நடைபெற்ற பத்திரிகையாளர் சந்திப்பில் கலந்துகொண்ட சச்சின் கூறியதாவது, நான் ஒரு சாதாரண வீரனே தவிர, மற்ற நண்பர்கள் கூறுவதுபோல, நான் ஒன்றும் கடவுள் அல்ல. விளையாடும் போது, அதுகுறித்த சிந்தனையில் மட்டும் இருப்பதால் தான் என்னால், பல சாதனைகளை படைக்க முடிந்தது. சாதனைகளை குறிக்கோளாக வைத்து நான் விளையாடுவதில்லை. இந்த போட்டியை, என் வாழ்நாளில் எப்போதும் மறக்க மாட்டேன் என்று அவர் கூறினார்.

[ajithfederer]

Maddy, Good to see you back.

[Arvind Srinivasan]

A very good article by Sharda Ugra on sachin....

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/507814.html

[Plum]

4-0, 4-0. Who was the first Indian Captain to lose 8 consecutive matches overseas? Someone research and tell me no please? VaralaaRu ezhudha mudiyalaiyE aiyO paavam

[Bala (Karthik)]

A day that I want to forget just like the final of the last WC that we won.
Neenga namma settu!

[selvakumar]

Bala, :)
I was disappointed/worried that Sachin didn't score in that WC final. But I would have been terribly disappointed had we lost the game. Gambhir and Dhoni will remembered for ever for the same thing in the years to come. It was the best tribute to sachin when he was still playing. Cricket like any other sports is a team game and unlike other indian teams Gambhir and Dhoni pulled it out. Had they played like the Indian team of the 90s in the final, it would have been a terrible sight. I don't know when we are going to win the next world cup. May be another 28 years (1 more tendulkar might come and wait for the next 22 years). Good that we have finished it now.

[Bala (Karthik)]

vazhkkaila oru kattaththukku appuRam nammaLOda viruppu veRuppugaL mukkiyam illai. kuzhandhaigaL sandhOsham dhaan saar mukkiyam.
:lol: :lol:

[selvakumar]

http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/tourdiaries/archives/2012/03/a_veteran_gets.php

[selvakumar]

<dig> Thilak - thanks for the Messi videos. Have never seen them. Loved it :D </dig>

[wizzy]

still couldn't fathom his muted celebration after reaching the milestone also is the runs he scored in Diana memorial match accounts for an int. 100?..EA sportsque team selection :lol: some innings that and completely overshadowed batsmen from either sides..nostalgic to watch odies in White clothes...ICC should revert to red ball for odies..would love to see newage FTB openers facing up to red cherry in helpful conditions.


http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1uck2_princess-diana-memorial_sport (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1uck2_princess-diana-memorial_sport)

[selvakumar]

https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/885596840/tw_Dp_VS_normal.jpgVirender Sehwag

[*=left]✔
@virendersehwag
@sachin_rt (https://twitter.com/sachin_rt) paaji congratulations!Its a small thing for you but a phenomenal historic achievement. Dinner's on me when we meet. Many more!:)

[lydayaxobia493]

http://img.dinamalar.com/data/uploads/WR_515887.jpeg

[lydayaxobia493]

ஓய்வு எப்போது? : மனந்திறக்கிறார் சச்சின்

மிர்பூர் : புகழின் உச்சியில் இருக்கும்போது, விளையாட்டிலிருந்து ஒய்வுபெற்றால், அதுபோன்ற சுயநலம் எதுவும் இல்லை என்று ஓய்வு குறித்த கேள்விக்கு மாஸ்டர் பேட்ஸ்மேன் சச்சின் டெண்டுல்கர் பதிலளித்துள்ளார். தனியார் சேனல் ஒன்றிற்கு பேட்டியளித்த சச்சின் டெண்டுல்கர் கூறியதாவது, சாதனையை நிகழ்த்தியஉடனே ஓய்வா என்று அனைவரும் கேட்கின்றனர். புகழின் உச்சியில் இருக்கும் போது விளையாட்டிலிருந்து ஓய்வு பெறுவது சுயநலமான செயல் ஆகும். என் சாதனைக்கு உறுதுணையாக இருந்த அனைவருக்கும் இதன்மூலம் உளங்கனிந்த நன்றியை தெரிவித்துக்கொள்வதாகவும், இனிவரும் போட்டிகளிலும் சிறப்பாக விளையாடி ரசிகர்களை மகிழ்ச்சியில் ஆழ்த்த உள்ளதாக அவர் மேலும் கூறினார்

[kid-glove]

<dig> Thilak - thanks for the Messi videos. Have never seen them. Loved it :D </dig>

Real pullarips - 'We love Messi' - chants by Indian kids when Argies came to Kolkata!!

Watch this too


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=v08hvGWJlnk

<dig> Sachin is fat </dig>

[sathya_1979]

Alert:
"The skill, the tenacity and the competitive urge still flows freely through the veins of Tendulkar. The fact that Tendulkar has handled fame so well and maintained an attacking outlook throughout is a tribute to not only his skill but also his wonderfully alert mind. Considering the length of his career and the fact that he was able to renew his attacking desires, I would now rate Tendulkar slightly ahead of Brian Lara and comfortably in front of a fading Ricky Ponting."
Former Australia captain Ian Chappell

nalla vELai, ivan ellaam Manageraa illa. irundhirundha, appraisal form submissionlErundhu result announce paNNura varaikkum uLLa gapla 55 vaatti rating maathhiyiruppaan :lol:

[sathya_1979]

King Viv:
"I believe Sir Donald Bradman is the greatest of them all, but seeing Tendulkar bat, I can say that when he is in top flight, in a variety of conditions, I have seen the best. He has been a genius when it comes to ability, a Trojan when it comes to work ethic and manic when it comes to his focus. Yet we often miss the little things that make him both human and exceptional. As a sportsman, I know how damaging an injury can be. For a batsman, an elbow injury and corrective surgery could be akin to a professional death knell. But the way Sachin overcame those setbacks and played at the highest level with unmatched distinction is special. Friday's century was a testimony to Sachin Tendulkar's self-belief and his unwavering focus. Many of his contemporaries who were spoken of in the same breath did not have the hunger and focus, which is why Sachin stands alone at the summit."
:bow:

[Plum]

Alert:"The skill, the tenacity and the competitive urge still flows freely through the veins of Tendulkar. The fact that Tendulkar has handled fame so well and maintained an attacking outlook throughout is a tribute to not only his skill but also his wonderfully alert mind. Considering the length of his career and the fact that he was able to renew his attacking desires, I would now rate Tendulkar slightly ahead of Brian Lara and comfortably in front of a fading Ricky Ponting."Former Australia captain Ian Chappellnalla vELai, ivan ellaam Manageraa illa. irundhirundha, appraisal form submissionlErundhu result announce paNNura varaikkum uLLa gapla 55 vaatti rating maathhiyiruppaan :lol::lol: - appadi illai Sathya. Indha scenai epdi pArkaNumnu nAn veLakkaREn: thiraippadam: pasupathi c/o rasakkapalayam; situation: Vivek is the usual comedy police SI afraid of local rowdy sekaru. Ranjith, as the hero of the movie, and an edupidi in the station, eggs on Vivek to a confrontation with the rowds, whose henchmen naiyapudaichufy Vivek. Vivek does a bad imitation of SP Chaudhry in this scene but leave that aside. He does the typical Vavivelu thing of bearing the bows with a stiff body. Now look at the conversation: allakkai constable enna sir ivlo adi vaangkittu irumbu mAdhiri nikkaRInga;sirikkaringa? vivek, in cheap NT imitation: Naidu, nee ennoda udhadugaL sirippadhai mattum pArkkiRAi, AnAl enadhu kaNgaL...lokku lokku (shows pain in eyes) . Andha MAdhiri Chappell udadu pEsaradhai mattum pArkkAdhInga - avan kaNNula vali theriyum adhai pArunga :)

[Plum]

Wiz kid - summA irum. Red ball nirutha sollo dhaan England ODI Cricketla fade Anadhu. Red ball Cricketla they are the Kings. Ippo vENAm :). (Feeyar pointed how they did well in india in odis even in 1993 when they got whitewashed in Tests.) . Looking back, we had red ball ODIs in flannels then.Also, India kept losing and drawing ODI series at home with even Zim and WI in early 2000s when red ball Odis were played. Have the change in rules and parameters got something to do with the change in fortunes of these 2 countries, with India's test good form being an aberration, propped up by an extraordinry coincidence in batting form of 2 all time greats, one near great and one very good batsman?

[selvakumar]

<dig> Vivek's imitation of SP Choudhary was excellant in that movie. He was very good and looked natural IMO. OTOH, poor is what you would get in Paarthiban kanavu - imitation of Mudhal mariyadhai </dig>

[Plum]

Selva - maybe yeah. I migjt be looking from NT fanatic POV. ObjectiveA pArththA avLO mOsamillaimAl irukkaLAm :ashamed:

[P_R]

Wasn't it worth losing to Bangladesh. Tell me my friends.
Sachin was very much in ippo dhaan kaNNu paLichchunu theriyudhu mode

[littlemaster1982]

Wasn't it worth losing to Bangladesh. Tell me my friends.
Sachin was very much in ippo dhaan kaNNu paLichchunu theriyudhu mode

:rotfl:

[ajaybaskar]

Harsha gets emotional as he discusses Sachin's 100th Century


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRlfknIYGyc

[Bala (Karthik)]

Selva - maybe yeah. I migjt be looking from NT fanatic POV. ObjectiveA pArththA avLO mOsamillaimAl irukkaLAm :ashamed:
//Dig
The other way of seeing it is that the source material (in this case) of the mimicry wasn't that great. I mean i would say exactly what Nerd said about Gauravam regarding SPC
//End Dig

[SoftSword]

Wasn't it worth losing to Bangladesh. Tell me my friends.
Sachin was very much in ippo dhaan kaNNu paLichchunu theriyudhu mode

if u mean in the point, ellaam nalladhukku dhaan mode or it did not give him 'content' - same feelings!!

[Prabo]

Pazhaya Panneer Selvam-a maaranum Sachin neenga....100th 100 adicha vitham, adicha team, adicha ground ethuvum pidikkala.

[SoftSword]

enna kaetta.. ini 100'e venaam'ya...
100s are boring nowadays... it has lost its speciality... dhenamum vandhaa adhu dheebavali'ye kedayadhungaren...
pannikutti ellaam punch dialogue pesudhu... ini namakku adhu thevai illa...

all i need is a 45(29), 74(57), 80(72) etc., and a raised head as long as he is there in the crease.

[Prabo]

Enakkum athu thaan vaenum. I want to see the devastating Sachin of mid/late 90's who used to score quickfire 50+ scores. I am not sure if Sachin himself can recreate that, I mean the aggression, but the match agaist Pakistan was a small indication for that. Intha mountain of runs-ae yarum touch panna mudiyaathu, so inimae adikkara oru oru run-um athiradiya irukkanum...avlo thaan namma viruppam.

[Bala (Karthik)]

What's with this Sachin of the old, Sachin of the old? Ethana varshathukku adhaye solluveenga? It is NOT as though he is been batting like Shastri for the last few years? What exactly do you guys mean by we want him to be like the Sachin of the old???? What MORE does he have to do, that he has not done in the last few years?

[SoftSword]

odambu pOtta madhiri irukku... adhaan odamba erakki palaya saibaba hairstyle vekka solraanga pola...

[lydayaxobia493]

ipo ve konjam mudi valartha maathiri thaan irukku.. Suruttai mudi ye ila..hair straightning panni irukkar pola.. looking cook....

[rsubras]

What's with this Sachin of the old, Sachin of the old? Ethana varshathukku adhaye solluveenga?

sachin innum konjam old aagi retire aagara varaikkum :)

En boss, vintage Ilaiyaraja , vintage ARR music podanum nu naama solrathillaiya..athu pola than ithuvum......... :)

[ajithfederer]

Charging down the pitch and hitting the bowler.
Hitting over the top in first 15.
Smash spinners with more ferocity.

These were some of the quips I received from some people.

What's with this Sachin of the old, Sachin of the old? Ethana varshathukku adhaye solluveenga? It is NOT as though he is been batting like Shastri for the last few years? What exactly do you guys mean by we want him to be like the Sachin of the old???? What MORE does he have to do, that he has not done in the last few years?

[SoftSword]

true or not, oflate i see him giving extra respect to the bowlers, especially the new ones...
eppovaachum withoutna ok... eppovume withoutna epdi?

[P_R]

andha edhirpArppula thappilleengaLE.
This Sat afternoon I was watching him end the career Ravindra Pushpakumara in Delhi '96

ennai maRandhu clap ellAm paNNEn. Was slightly buzzed :oops: Public public!

And then century in the first test in England later that year -everyone else flops - more 'smooth'. adhuvum pudich.

naduvula naduvila Usainbhai comments 'he is technically perfect, which is such a rarity for batsmen from the subcontinent...'

dEi dEi dEi :lol2:

[wizzy]

B(k) imo there has been a stark contrast between Sach of 90s and 00s..more than the way he treats the spinners and employing pull/hook against pacers..with age/tennis elbow now he has become accumulator of runs and plays the percentages well..the backfoot punch on the rise is one shot he doesn't play that much in his new avatar since it comes with the risk of getting caught behind/infront so was pleasantly surprised when he employed that shot against Cheema yesterday :neutral:

[P_R]

the backfoot punch on the rise is one shot he doesn't play that much in his new avatar since it comes with the risk of getting caught behind/infront so was pleasantly surprised when he employed that shot against Cheema yesterday :neutral: :yes: It was great to see him play that shot.

[Plum]

Backfoot punch - ha ha. Cricket 2002-la perumbalum naan dismiss ArAdhu indha shot-ku dhAn. Gully-la, slip-la Aussie fielders poRaNdu poRandhu catch pidippApla. Confoundingly sila samayam this shot gives a top edge to silly point in Cricket 2002.

[Prabo]

Runs are coming, technique/style hasn't changed, reflexes are still sharp, strike rate maintained, average maintained but still aggression koranja maathiri oru feeling, athavathu bowlers-a pazhaya maathiri dominate panrathu koranja maathiri oru feeling. Enakku therinju, 90's la Sachin used to dominate bowlers right from the word go and push the inner ring fielders to the edge of the circle immedite. May be injuries or with experience he might have realized that same amount of runs could be scored without taking much risks, so cut down hook/pull/down the track and replace by third man glance, paddle sweep more often. Sastri maathiri aduraar-nu sollala, bowlers mercel aagura Sachin maathiri aaduna nall irukkum-nu thaan solraen.

[SoftSword]

http://i40.tinypic.com/2qve6va.jpg

[VinodKumar's]

Softu , ivalo thooram vanthutu image ah embed pannati eppdi

http://i40.tinypic.com/2qve6va.jpg

[19thmay]

Sachin Flow Chart...

1147

[19thmay]

^ How to post enlarged pictures?

[littlemaster1982]

Upload the image to tinypic or any other similar site and use the image url inside .

[mgb]

19th, already AF post pannittaru andha flowchart

[GSV]

Kohli letter to sachin: Honour to know you personally
Dear Sachin Paaji
You have a million fans and I am one of them. In fact, I started playing cricket because of you. Simply watching you play motivated me. I don’t know if you remember this but I first met you at Wankhede Stadium in 2007.
I was part of the Indian under-19 side and we were set to leave for New Zealand. Mr Lalchand Rajput was our coach and it was he who’d requested you to come and have a chat with us. I was barely 17 then and I must apologise that I — in fact, all my teammates — did not pay much attention to anything you said!
Well, we were simply in awe of you. The boys stood in a huddle and you were, literally and figuratively, the centre of attention.
You had told us about the conditions in New Zealand; you spoke about the bounce, the swing and how we need to tackle that. Your technical knowhow held me in good stead on that tour.
Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Piyush Chawla and Dhawal Kulkarni were also part of that team and each of them has either played for India or done well in the IPL.
People crave to shake hands with you, get your autographs, have a picture clicked and here I am so abundantly lucky to be sharing a dressing room with you. To get to know you personally has been a huge honour.
I have had a fairly good start to my international career and I want to thank you for helping me in every possible way. Paaji, I have never said this to you, but I actually connect with you very easily. I feel comfortable and reassured when I speak to you about my game and, invariably, you tell me what I am actually thinking! I consider it an honour to be on the same page with you.
It’s always a pleasure talking to you about the game. You know how frustrated I was after the first two Tests in Australia recently. I was batting on 40-odd in the third Test at Perth and you came up to me and said that I’d get a big hundred. I am sorry I disappointed you by getting out for 75, but I hope I pleased you by scoring my maiden Test hundred in the final match at the Adelaide Oval.
You have no idea how much that one statement from you motivated me. It was amazing; I started hitting the ball really well and I knew that if you thought I could get a hundred, then I was going to get it.
On Friday, you achieved something which no other cricketer can or will. Yes, I know the last one year was frustrating, but I admire you for the way you handled yourself during this tough phase.
I was at the other end when you missed out on the landmark in Mumbai. It would have been great had you got it there, but it’s fine. I know you were not desperate because that’s what you have told me: never think too much, just play your game.
We admire you for your patience. You never lost your cool throughout this period. You behaved so normally. You were, are and always be a team man first. I am honoured to be part of a historic day in cricket. You are my childhood hero and I am equally thrilled to be part of this celebration.
You had once told me during our 75-run stand during an ODI in Nagpur that I must follow my instincts. I am doing just that and the results are showing.
Yours lovingly,
Virat Kohli
http://www.dnaindia.com/sport/report_virat-kohli-s-letter-to-sachin-tendulkar-honour-to-know-you-personally_1663870

[SoftSword]

idhu dubaakkoor'a irukkumnu nenachi dhan naan post pannala...

[GSV]

Aarampathula mild ah doubtu vandhuchu.. Apparam konjam depth ah irundhadala.. nambara maarithaan iruku..

[SoftSword]

mm... sari dhaan... aana mild'a facebook'kaga evano karpanai panni eludhiruppanu oru feel.

[ajithfederer]

From India today.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/virat-kohli-on-sachin-tendulkar/1/178615.html

[SoftSword]

maybe it was a true one...
but nothing worthy/new in that i assume.

[P_R]

overA nenjai nakkuraanE :think:

[SoftSword]

this long letter is not even 0.5% to the one liner which came by instinct after the WC win.

[P_R]

this long letter is not even 0.5% to the one liner which came by instinct after the WC win. Exactly.

[19thmay]

From India today.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/virat-kohli-on-sachin-tendulkar/1/178615.html

Dei...nee vaazhga da! thottuta!!

[SoftSword]

http://i40.tinypic.com/rwih3n.jpg

[Plum]

Clearly a P_R excercise. There is a vested interest working to make Kohli captain and since public opinion matters, efforts are on to create a good image of Kohli especially after the middle finger antics and the negative image after that. Now the p_Rs are expected to say "avan thirundhittaannu avane sonnaan". British spin experts thothaanga ponga. I guess only wizzy will understand what I am talking about. So Dhoni is mr.cool, and even when test match rome is burning, you'll have our nero fiddling in his mr.cool way. Image dhaan mukkiyam. Konjam passion kaatti team motivate pandradhu mukkiyam illai. Suckers suck, advertisers offer images to suck. Now indian cricket is truly a tv product. Sachin retire soon. Let me quit watching this bogus sport

[Plum]

This blog talks about the same - contrived, tv_produced hero creation. Meet Virat, the first vested-interest produced mass hero of indian cricket. Yes, Sachin too was a mass hero but he wasn't consciously manufactured like this. http://duckingbeamers.wordpress.com

[kid-glove]

Let me quit watching this bogus sport

:thumbsup:

Meanwhile Messi is doing a Jordan/Bradman in a proper Sport.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2G-8FnqYBs


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXggUG35jRk&feature=channel

[P_R]

Flau, overA pOrAnnu dhAnnu nAn sonnEnE.
UngaLukku politics mukkiyam enakku aesthetics. And I insist Kohli is good to watch. End of story.

[P_R]

Flau, beware of mischievous elements that are using your discontent to sell you snake-oil :twisted:

[Plum]

Football - rejetted. I tried it in London 10 years back. Ippo vekkapadaren, vedhanai padaren. In any case, git will call me a chelski glory hunter if I shift to that thread. Just like ipl team fans. I don't want to be THAT. Cricket quit paNNA straightA Carrom dhaan. Or quit sport itself. Whatever. The world is deteriorating. I need to die. Soon.

[kid-glove]

Ideally Sachin fans should reject Football. If that man played footie or tennis, he'd bust his heart valves. So his talents are better suited to Cricket, Gilly, dhayam, choppu, snake & ladders..

[P_R]

Exertion, athleticism demanding sports = remba anaagareegamA nadandhukkuraanga illai

PodhuvA indha slide stopping of boundaries ellAm kooda avvaLavA appreciate paNNa mAttEn.

Running race, weight lifting - idhai vida humans-ai kEvalappaduththa mudiyAdhungradhu en thAzhmaiyAna abiprAyam

[kid-glove]

Football/Basketball/Tennis - perfect combination of athleticism, technique & aesthetics.

Cricket could be made into One-pitch gatch indoor game.

[kid-glove]

Was watching World Series Hockey in Neo Sports/Cricket before/after Asia cup coverage, now that could be accepted as a Sport.

[ajithfederer]

Ok enough of nonsense. :lol2:

Plum here is some fodder for your exercise


The Kohli charm is already at work. The Delhi lad's annual endorsement fee has shot past Rs 3 crore per brand after his two recent blitzkrieg centuries in one-day cricket.

He is poised to sign two-three fresh endorsement deals at new rates, which have soared three-fold from just under Rs 1 crore he charged a year ago. TOI has learnt that he has signed P&G's Vicks brand and could sign up with a cellular operator and a mobile handset brand after the Asia Cup.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/At-Rs-3cr-Brand-Kohli-breaks-into-big-league/articleshow/12347561.cms

[kid-glove]

I hate Kohli, but it could be easily argued that Sachin is the perfect embodiment of this trend. He had two careers, Faux-Sportsman in faux-outdoor game, faux-actor in billboards/Ads.

[kid-glove]

-------------

[ajithfederer]

Club ! club * club.

Naadu comes before club.

:thumbsup:

Meanwhile Messi is doing a Jordan/Bradman in a proper Sport.

[ajithfederer]

It is wrong to compare Bradman to Club athletes. Fine Jordan has won Olympic Golds as well(I've heard) but Messi is a strict No no. At-least as of now.

[kid-glove]

Which was busted here:

http://www.mayyam.com/talk/showthread.php?8270-Sir-Sachin-Tendulkar-4-100th-Century!&p=831239&viewfull=1#post831239

[kid-glove]

It is wrong to compare Bradman to Club athletes. Fine Jordan has won Olympic Golds as well(I've heard) but Messi is a strict No no. At-least as of now.

See below..

[ajithfederer]

No it was not :lol:

Club records are club records. They are NEVER National records. LKG Stuff kg.

[kid-glove]

It is wrong to compare Bradman to Club athletes. Fine Jordan has won Olympic Golds as well(I've heard) but Messi is a strict No no. At-least as of now.

http://www4.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/Olympics+Day+15+Football+srHEiSIIRnpl.jpg

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070225072429/uncyclopedia/images/archive/8/81/20070225072815!PWNED!.jpg

[kid-glove]

No it was not :lol:

Club records are club records. They are NEVER National records. LKG Stuff kg.

LKG stuff is your ignorance of the quality in International footie w.r.t Club, esp. Champions league.

[ajithfederer]

:fatigue: :face palm:

[kid-glove]

http://www4.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/Olympics+Day+15+Football+srHEiSIIRnpl.jpg

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070225072429/uncyclopedia/images/archive/8/81/20070225072815!PWNED!.jpg

http://m24digital.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/messi-trofeos2.jpg

Thrice World player of the year. Voted by National managers & captains!

http://www.gamescastlive.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/pwned_cat1.jpg

[kid-glove]

Pwnage resumes tomorrow.

[P_R]

Exactly why are we discussing football (type paNNittOmE...kaiyai karukkeeraNum) here?
I thought k_g was kidding. nemba seriousA irukkAr! :lol2: Suwear words ellAm delete paNNa vENdi irunch.
Cool down cool down cool down.

pOyi andha OramA football dhreatla ezhudhikkeengaLEn.

[kid-glove]

Konjam seriousA kid panalamE-nu thaan..

[ajithfederer]

The quality is upto debate. And I am not ready to buy your theory here.

In Football the ultimate glory is/was/always been WC Winners Medal. Ask any footie player to choose between CL and WC. let's see what the majority chooses.

Ok even going by your theory then WC should be jujubee matter right. Correct me if i am wrong. Let him win one (or max 4, if you get my drift) then we can talk.


LKG stuff is your ignorance of the quality in International footie w.r.t Club, esp. Champions league.

[ajithfederer]

Until then all this football trash can continue in Football thread.

[P_R]

yOv, niruththungayyA.
appuRam naanE football thread-la pOyi kickboxing paththi edhunA post paNNuvEn.

[kid-glove]

Football - Universal language

http://img.skysports.com/09/08/496x259/EnglandCricketFootball_2346199.jpg

http://cdn3.wn.com/ph/img/dc/a8/2eeff52295741840eae0cbf36aad-grande.jpg

Mega LOL !!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0DO9QCSFvk

[ajithfederer]

World cup waeld cupp. Thagidu thagidu Thanga thagidu :lol:

Yov P_R we are just diskassing.

[P_R]

Black Peaaaarl
ulagappugazhA?

[ajithfederer]

:lol: :thumbsup:

Exactly why are we discussing football (type paNNittOmE...kaiyai karukkeeraNum) here?

[SoftSword]

past 40 posts, not even one thing written on sachin/cricket...
kid, af :clap:
nobody can stop you once u have committed to spoil a thread :notworthy:

[ajithfederer]

Ok, You want stuff. Here take it/ :smokesmirk:

March 21, 2012
Tendulkar and Chennai

S. RAM MAHESH

His training at the MRF Pace Foundation, his famous centuries at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, his rehabilitation from career-threatening injuries… there are many reasons why a mere mention of Chennai brings a warm smile to the master blaster's face
Bombay, as it was then, birthed and formed Sachin Tendulkar, but Chennai's influence on the great man has been no less significant.

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00962/22MP_SACHIN6_962523e.jpg

THE CENTURY MAN: Sachin Tendulkar at a practice session at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium. File photo

A 14-year-old Tendulkar arrived in Chennai in 1987 with dreams of bowling seriously fast. Only, Dennis Lillee didn't see a fast-bowler in the short, slim, curly-locked kid, and dissuaded him from considering it as a career. “That was the first time I saw him,” says T. A. Sekar, who assisted Lillee at the MRF Pace Foundation for three decades. “Dennis saw him, five-foot nothing, and thought to himself, ‘No chance'. We spoke to Vasu Paranjpe, who had sent these boys from Bombay, and it was he who told me that Sachin was already a very good batsman, but only an occasional bowler. When Dennis tells the story these days, he jokes, ‘I rejected Tendulkar'.” Tendulkar was back at the Pace Foundation a year later — this time to bat. “The wickets were fast, we had Vivek Razdan who was sharp and Dennis himself was in peak shape because he was thinking of a comeback,” says Sekar. “Dennis would have been among the fastest bowlers in India at that time. Initially, Sachin found it difficult. He took a break, stood behind the nets and watched the others bat. After half an hour, he told me he was ready to bat again. In just that time, watching from behind, he had judged the pace and bounce, and found a solution. He played Dennis so confidently, middling every ball, and he hit Razdan into the railway tracks (behind the Pace Foundation). Dennis called the bowlers to a huddle and said the only chance was to bounce Tendulkar. But he batted for about 45 minutes and never looked in trouble.” Shortly afterwards, Tendulkar made his Test debut in Pakistan. It's a stretch to say Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis came easy to the prodigy after his stint at the Pace Foundation, but there's no doubt the exposure to quick bowling helped.

Chennai welcomed Tendulkar, the Test cricketer, like an old, affectionate friend: he made 165 against England in 1993; not only was it his first Test century in India, it remained his highest score for nearly two years. His next Chennai century, in 1998, is better remembered, for it featured the battle between world cricket's finest batsman and its foremost bowler. Aware of the problems Shane Warne could pose, Tendulkar trained with L. Sivaramakrishnan in Chennai, getting the former Indian leg-spinner to bowl to him on a doctored pitch. Warne won round one, but Tendulkar's unbeaten 155 in the second innings, during which he repeatedly attacked the Australian, set up a famous win.

His next century at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium was every bit as dazzling, but it ended in teary heartbreak. Tendulkar's 136 took India to the brink of a remarkable victory against Pakistan in 1999. Defeat shattered him, but Chennai wouldn't forsake Tendulkar. He found redemption in 2008, guiding India's astonishing chase against England not long after the terrorist attack in Mumbai. These hundreds and his 126 here in the third Test of the magical 2001 series remain close to Tendulkar's heart. They were singularly cathartic. A Test century is enough to make a batsman fall in love with a city, five is soul-mate territory. Consider that Chennai was also where a vital part of his rehabilitation from career-threatening injuries took place, and it isn't difficult to see why a warm smile lights up the Master's face every time he is asked about the city.

http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article3024694.ece

[ajithfederer]

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/tss_weekly.gif

From the publishers of THE HINDU
VOL.35 :: NO.13 :: Mar. 29, 2012

COVER STORY

In the realms of divinity

We are too close to Tendulkar to be able to say, as we should, that he is the greatest batsman in the history of the game, greater than Bradman, greater than Hobbs, greater than anybody. This is the tyranny of proximity. By Suresh Menon.
Sometimes a person reveals himself best in someone else's unguarded comment or spontaneous gesture. One of Bangalore's iconic writers, the late P. K. Srinivasan was fond of telling the story of walking up the city's Brigade Road and being struck by the expression of those walking towards him. “The awe in their eyes was unmistakeable,” he would recall, “but the focus was over my shoulder.” He turned around and understood why. For he was looking at the regal presence of C. K. Nayudu, India's first Test captain.

The chances of Sachin Tendulkar walking down Brigade Road unmolested are slim, but I had a similar experience, literary where Srinivasan's was physical, while commissioning essays by some of the finest writers in the game for a book on Sachin.

“Why don't you do a different kind of a piece?” I asked some of them. “Highlighting some of the drawbacks of the player and the man?” The responses were interesting. And you must remember many of the writers are hardened veterans on the circuit, with larger than normal doses of cynicism in their attitude having seen feet of clay more often than the average cricket fan.

Yet, apart from a passing remark about Tendulkar's refusal to get involved in the big debates of his time — match-fixing, throwing, excessive cricket — there was nothing. Someone who had once written a piece cutting Don Bradman to size felt it was going against his grain to write similarly of Tendulkar. Another who had strong views on Tendulkar was startlingly honest: “Hey, listen,” he told me, “I need to live in India, you know.”

Somewhere between lack of evidence and refusal to acknowledge it stands the maker of one hundred international centuries. It was Mike Marqusee who brought about the great synthesis in his essay when he wrote, “For non-Indians, the joy of Tendulkar comes unadulterated.”

What manner of man is this who can do no wrong, and if he does, no one wants to talk about it?

Forget the statistics, the records, the influence, the longevity, the sheer consistency as a performer; Sachin Tendulkar appears as a modern Gandhi, the person the rest of the nation aspires to be.

Bishan Bedi, better known for comparing bowlers to javelin throwers and dacoits, has called Tendulkar a ‘Maryada Purushottam', the ideal man, arguing that the player's true predecessor is not Bradman but Lord Ram. There is something about him, says Bedi, that invites the protective arm around the shoulder. Perhaps that is why there are no dressing room stories that make Tendulkar sound more human — no broken bats, no temper tantrums, no broken television sets, no scraps or foul language.

There are two ways of ensuring such an image. You can have a publicity machinery that is always working in top gear — as in the case of Tiger Woods — or you can be that kind of a person, one who genuinely believes what in other mouths would sound like platitudes. The joy of playing, the importance of doing it for the country, feeling bad when you fail because you have let the team down, giving more than one hundred percent.

Now that he has made a century of centuries, and a whole set of articles in appreciation is set to add to the fan's feeding frenzy, I am tempted to offer a prize to anyone who has something new to say about him. His statistics are probably better known than the significant portions of the Indian Constitution. As the Pakistani writer Osman Samiuddin has said, “In recalling a Sachin Tendulkar moment, it must be acknowledged that there is no small, hidden gem somewhere that others are unlikely to have seen, like the single of a cherished band recorded during lost days available only in B-side bootlegs. His great innings, his great failures, his great shots: put together, everyone remembers everything about him. There is no exclusivity in the Tendulkar experience.”

What a wonderful line that is. There is no exclusivity in the Tendulkar experience. What he doesn't want the world to know, the world will not know. This is the other remarkable aspect of a man so continuously in the public eye. His family gets to live a private life, his children are not thrust into the media spotlight. Then there is the business of letting the odd journalist who crosses the line know that falling out of favour with Tendulkar is not a good career move.

The novelist Manu Joseph has a lovely story of Tendulkar walking bare-chested on a beach in Durban during the 2003 World Cup and being snapped by an Indian photographer. “I heard (Sachin) tell the man, only partly in jest, that if he wanted to continue in the media business, the images should never leave his camera,” writes Joseph.

There is something absurd about being Sachin Tendulkar. No single person ought to be subjected to so much; however, no single person has handled it so well. The adulation, the pressure of expectation might have destroyed a lesser man. It was said of Don Bradman that if he cut himself shaving, it was front page news. For years it was news if Sachin shaved at all. And then he stopped shaving, and that became news too.

When you score over 30,000 runs with the same enthusiasm and commitment every time you go out to bat, it is beyond discipline, beyond spiritualism even, and in the realms of divinity. Perhaps Sachin Tendulkar is a god, after all, as the posters at so many of his matches proclaim.

“When I started playing, I was determined not to let down the 20-25 people who followed my game,” he once told me, “My family, close friends, and so on. I wanted them to be proud of me. Now I feel the same way about the one billion Indians. I want them to be proud of me.” Ah! Well, that's simple then. Twenty five yesterday, one billion today. It's only a difference in degree.

We are too close to Tendulkar to be able to say, as we should, that he is the greatest batsman in the history of the game, greater than Bradman, greater than Hobbs, greater than anybody. This is the tyranny of proximity.

But there is something about that unique century of centuries. If that doesn't automatically place him above everybody else, what will? We must hurry up and let the man know.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/20120329501900400.htm

[ajithfederer]

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From the publishers of THE HINDU
VOL.35 :: NO.13 :: Mar. 29, 2012

CRICKET

Another incredible milestone

Ever since Australia's Charles Bannerman scored Test cricket's first century against England in Melbourne in March 1877, the three-figure mark has defined a batsman's aura. It is the yardstick that secures or tears reputations and none can ever get bigger than Tendulkar at 100 international centuries. Over to K.C. Vijaya Kumar.
Indian cricket has gifted many classic vignettes, which are too exhaustive to chronicle. The obvious few are Kapil Dev's toothy grin while holding aloft the 1983 World Cup; Sunil Gavaskar's late cut off Pakistan's Ijaz Fakih to become the first Test cricketer to score 10,000 runs in Ahmedabad in 1987; and M.S. Dhoni's steely eyes and the winning six in the 2011 World Cup final in Mumbai.

On March 16, a feat of staggering proportions was added to that list and it is a record that will stand unique and alone in the sands of time, much like Sir Don Bradman's Test average of 99.94. Whisper ‘a hundred international hundreds', may be say it aloud, and then get surprised by the sudden intake of breath while the words linger.

Yes, the wait was finally over when Sachin Tendulkar nudged Shakib Al Hasan for a single at exactly 17.05 local time, at Dhaka's Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on a bustling Friday. Once the tryst with history was sealed during the Asia Cup match against Bangladesh, Tendulkar raised his bat, looked at the skies, removed his helmet, broke into a half-smile and then Suresh Raina wrapped him in a hug and a few Bangladesh players rushed in to congratulate the legend.

Prior to that incandescent moment, Tendulkar's drought of centuries lasted 33 innings that spread across Tests and ODIs played in India, England and Australia. Incidentally Tendulkar scored his 99th international ton, a glittering 111 against South Africa, in a World Cup game in Nagpur, on March 12, last year.

Over the past few months, an overwhelming sense of anticipation hung in the air but the hundred proved elusive and the larger picture of a struggling Indian team in England and Australia, made it worse. “I tried to insulate myself from the hype but even the room-service (guy) used to ask me,” Tendulkar said.

Once the feat was achieved, destiny again moved in strange ways as Bangladesh mounted a frenzied chase and knocked down India's 289 for five. Ever the team man, Tendulkar refused to take the bait on India's poor bowling. “Australia scored 434 and still lost to South Africa!” he retorted.

The hints of merging feverish hopes and pleasant reality were visible in the confident shots and the easy singles that Tendulkar indulged through his 114 (147b, 12x4, 1x6). A six off Shakib, showed that the fifth gear was not beyond Tendulkar's reach though he did slow down a bit when nearing his century. Fortune too was by his side as on 51 and 89, he avoided being stumped and getting run-out respectively.

A man, who as a lad walked into an Indian dressing room that had the likes of Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar in 1989, strung partnerships with youngsters like Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina on way to his special hundred. The varied generations he has played with just reiterated Tendulkar's sheer cricketing longevity and an overwhelmed Kohli said: “As a kid I used to go to the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium to see Sachin play. Then I used to think, ‘if only I can get close to him just once then I can be on top of the world.' And now I am playing with him and it's truly a privilege.”

Later at a packed press conference hall, while struggling to grasp the enormity of what he had achieved within the constricting confines of India's shocking loss, Tendulkar said: “It was a relief. I am also human and I have my emotions. I don't play for records but they do happen during your long journey of playing cricket. I want to do well for the team and that has been the main goal.”

The next day, a relaxed Tendulkar told the press: “I wish I had someone to guide me. The anticipation (within the media) about this hundred was way beyond anything else.”

Ever since Australia's Charles Bannerman scored Test cricket's first century against England in Melbourne in March 1877, the three-figure mark has defined a batsman's aura. It is the yardstick that secures or tears reputations and none can ever get bigger than Tendulkar at 100 international centuries. It is a record that could last forever considering modern day batsmen are spreading themselves too thin across Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 leagues so much so that the 20-year blue-chip career may ebb away with Tendulkar's eventual retirement.

The final chapter though is yet to flicker across the maestro's brain. “As long as I am enjoying the game and I am contributing to the team, I will play,” he said. With 51 Test hundreds, 49 ODI tons and the added gold standard of being cricket's highest run-getter, most records are his but Tendulkar's hunger to compete remains undiminished. It is his greatest trait and also his finest gift to the Indian team.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/20120329502100800.htm

[ajithfederer]

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From the publishers of THE HINDU
VOL.35 :: NO.13 :: Mar. 29, 2012

CRICKET

The greatest of them all?

From his tip-toed square cut to his imperious hooks and pulls as well as his deft legside pushes and his cover drive, Sachin has been the complete batsman. By Ted Corbett.

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Sachin Tendulkar in full flow in Sydney. His unbeaten 148 was a classic knock during the 1991-92 Test series in Australia.
Unique. It's the only word; it fits Sachin Tendulkar exactly. According to my dictionary it means “having no like or equal.” True, because from that day in Mirpur when he made his 100th international hundred off the Bangladesh attack he has stood alone, proved he had no equal, with his record in his pocket forever.

Not only is a total of 100 international centuries unlikely to be equalled, much less beaten, in the foreseeable future, but it requires a considerable effort of imagination to see how anyone can come near to this feat.

Unless the laws change which is not impossible as cricket grows more like baseball day by day. Unless another genius arrives on the scene. Unless the standard of bowling changes dramatically and that seems unlikely now that DRS has become an accepted part of the game.

Fewer and fewer batsmen benefit from hesitant umpires making bad decisions, lbw is on its way to being the most popular dismissal and even on the truest pitch a great batsman may be caught out.

No. What is known already as Sachin's Record will stand forever. At the moment only Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis are within binocular distance of his feat and they are close to the end of their careers.

That is the way it ought to be. One great record; one great batsman.

I have been watching Sachin now for almost a quarter of a century, since he scored that hundred at Old Trafford which set him on his way to his place among the gods.

Then he was a shy lad, barely out of short trousers or a schoolboy's blazer but he batted with such maturity that you did not have to be a student of human behaviour to know that wonderful things lay ahead.

A couple of years later we met as he joined Yorkshire. He was still diffident — certainly by the brash standards of the Yorkshire side that greeted him with demands that he spend his captain's expenses to buy them all a beer (even though he was not captain!) — but mature beyond belief. “I am sorry Mr. Corbett but I cannot answer your question because I did not understand it fully,” he said to me at one stage. How different from the words I might have expected from an English player who might have given it — “come on, Ted, what do you mean by that?”

He was ultra-polite to the dismay of the Yorkshire captain Martyn Moxon who told me: “He doesn't say much. I expected him to dominate our dressing room.”

That was just evidence that Yorkshire had never had an overseas professional before — particularly a young Indian — and that Tendulkar had never been in an English dressing room before.

“When I were a kid, our dressing room was like a parrot house,” one ex-Yorkshire star told me at about that time and that, I guess, is not quite what Tendulkar expected.

In the last 22 years of 188 Tests and uncounted one-day matches Tendulkar has, of course, grown wiser but he has never chosen to try a summer in county cricket again.

There was another occasion I will never forget and which, once again, I suspect Sachin will remember all his life.

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He played one of his great innings in Australia, finishing among the tail-enders with a blaze of strokes, a sophisticated, cricket-sage climax to a sublime knock.

When the Indian innings ended two Australians — Merv Hughes, whose bowling had been the target of Sachin's late flourish and Dean Jones who had been fielding 60 or 70 yards from the wicket — ran hard to catch up with him as he marched back to the pavilion, and shake his hand.

I know both of these men well and know them to be — for all their outward hard man image — fine sportsmen but in that gesture they added a cubit to their stature because they recognised the talent that had been exposed in, of all people, an opponent.

As the poet has it “E'en the ranks of Tuscany could scarce forbear to cheer” and you could sense in that moment that it was not just the fans and the media that were admirers of this new Little Master but the men who were his rivals.

From his tip-toed square cut to his imperious hooks and pulls as well as his deft legside pushes and his cover drive, Sachin has been the complete batsman. Like all the greats he has learnt new techniques over the years, changed his way of batting to suit the circumstances and the pitches and picked up points from the other grand masters.

His size was as much an advantage to him as Curtly Ambrose and Joel Garner used their height. Batsmen of the Tendulkar size where common when the laws were first written and so he could deal more easily with length bowling, knowing that shorter stuff would usually fly over his stumps if not soar above his head.

So era, the circumstances, his innate ability, the way the game was played in his day have all contributed to his success. He has batted and learnt and offered us the product of genius and good advice and hard work and become one of a kind.

He is unique, an immortal, and with 100 centuries for India, perhaps the greatest of them all.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/20120329502301100.htm

[ajithfederer]

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From the publishers of THE HINDU
VOL.35 :: NO.13 :: Mar. 29, 2012

CRICKET

Resilience is his middle name

Sachin Tendulkar has fought back from injuries, many of them serious in nature. The back problem that surfaced during his epic hundred in a losing cause against Pakistan in Chennai in 1999 tested his resolve, but he came back stronger. By S. Dinakar.

V.V. KRISHNAN

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Fighting spirit… India's batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar pulls Pakistan off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq on way to his century at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai in January 1999. Sachin's back problem that surfaced during the epic knock tested his resolve.
It's astonishing that Sachin Tendulkar has shouldered the enormous weight of expectations of a countless people for what now appears an eternity. His strength of mind and the precious ability to insulate himself from the surrounding pressures have been formidable allies in his conquests. The maestro's commitment gleams like headlights on an unlit highway.

Tendulkar has fought back from injuries, many of them serious in nature. The back problem that surfaced during his epic hundred in a losing cause against Pakistan in Chennai in 1999 tested his resolve. Tendulkar came back stronger.

Years and years of relentless cricket do leave scars on the body. Tendulkar survived serious fitness concerns between 2004 and 2006 when a tennis elbow and a shoulder injury threatened his career. Along the way, he evolved and adjusted his game to overcome the physical roadblocks. For instance, when he was grappling with the back injury, Tendulkar began using a comparatively lighter bat. When he was bothered by the tennis elbow, he became even more bottom-handed and almost completely cut out the cover-drive. This was a phase when he relied on his on-side shots for a majority of his runs. And when the shoulder injury surfaced, Tendulkar eased up on the pull shot that could have aggravated the problem.

Indeed, he has a mind that can find solutions and a flexible game that can execute plans. When in full flow, though, years fall away as Tendulkar conjures timeless classics with brush strokes of genius; the arena is often his canvas. Despite an illustrious career of milestones, cricket's most successful batsman has retained a great sense of humility.

He said to this writer during an interview, “It basically boils down to your passion for the game. Without passion you cannot play. I have retained my passion for the game. I have asked myself the tough questions. I love the game. I enjoy my cricket.

“There are a lot more distractions and how the young cricketers handle it depends on the players themselves. I think the young cricketers must respect the game. By this I mean, your team-mates, the opposition, the fans, the officials, the umpires and the ground staff. If you develop that respect for the game, everything else will fall in place.”

Importantly, he said, “I also feel you have to be a good human being to evolve as a cricketer. Cricket is just a part of your life.”

Not surprisingly, he asks himself the tough questions. He must have answered many as he shut his eyes for those precious seconds he found for himself in the middle of a mayhem following his 100th international century in Dhaka.

During his astonishing journey, Tendulkar has blended power with finesse. He can also run like a hare during the later stages of an ODI innings. He is an explosive athlete.

Tendulkar has, over the years, displayed a heart larger than his frame during crisis situations. His batsmanship defines technical perfection but he has steel in his bones. Former India opener Navjot Singh Sidhu recalled how Tendulkar, during his maiden international campaign, had left him astounded by his courage. It was the tour of Pakistan and Tendulkar, just 16 years old then, faced a barrage of short-pitched deliveries from fast bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis without wilting. He took blows on his body, shed blood on the pitch, but refused to leave the crease. Watching the compelling action from the other end, Sidhu was convinced that a star was born.

It didn't take much long for Tendulkar to don the cloak of a match-winner in the cauldron. When he missed matches due to injuries, the Indians desperately missed Tendulkar and he missed being in the thick of action.

Despite the passage of time and the years of playing the game taking a toll on his body and mind, the man remains a genius on the field. His caresses under the afternoon sun still seem like a magic; a maestro's legerdemain.

There could be a cover, a mid-off and a sweeper cover, yet Tendulkar would bisect the field with exquisite timing and placement to find the fence. On view would be a heady amalgam of footwork, balance and last-minute adjustment of hand and wrists as the ball is driven through the slender gap, past desperately diving fielders.

Staggering numbers are often associated with Tendulkar. But then, his batting is not about numbers alone. It's a thing of beauty.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/20120329502701400.htm

[ajithfederer]

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From the publishers of THE HINDU
VOL.35 :: NO.13 :: Mar. 29, 2012

CRICKET

Exceptional and human

Sachin Tendulkar's contribution to the game is monumental. His longevity is a tribute to his fitness and his commitment a glowing testimony to his passion for the game. By Vijay Lokapally.
Cricket is a team game, but Sachin Tendulkar is a phenomenon who carries the team on his shoulders. He plays cricket on his terms and the game too offers him a rare pedestal. Forget the comparisons. Does it matter who is the greatest — Don Bradman or Tendulkar? Bradman loved Tendulkar's batting and the modern Don revered the original master. The admiration was mutual and spoke volumes of their stature.

Tendulkar's reaction on reaching his 100th international century was poignant. “After scoring 99 tons you are made to realise the value of a hundred. It's not easy, it was a testing period, but there were many people who helped me. I've never played cricket for milestones. While playing, I have ended up breaking a few records, but that was never my goal. I play cricket just because I enjoy the game. The 100th hundred was the most difficult,” he said.

Tendulkar's contribution to the game is monumental and cannot be documented in the space of a few hundred words. His longevity is a tribute to his fitness. His commitment is a glowing testimony to his passion for the game. He may have faltered a few times but then he is a human. “I am not God. I am Sachin Tendulkar,” he said in Mirpur. It was a message to his fans.

Indian cricket owes a lot to this magnificent sportsman. “I have seen from close the pressure he faces,” Sourav Ganguly had remarked. The pressure begins many hours before a contest. The demands of the game are such that they make it tougher for him. He can't afford a failure. Often he has delivered, but there have also been occasions when he has failed. Those are moments when he needed support but sadly he has often found himself lonely.

He is private in person but very expressive on the field. He will talk to the bowlers, run to the fielders, set the field with over-excitement, bite his nail in despair, exclaim with joy, give high fives and all. He can be the most demonstrative person on the field and a complete recluse off it.

Tendulkar's devotion to cricket is unparalleled. “Impossible to keep him away from the game,” reckoned Virender Sehwag. Sitting in the front seat of the team coach and glued to music, he keeps his thoughts to himself. But during a training session or a match he is completely focussed. He always replays the preceding day's play in his mind and makes notes mentally ahead of the day's contest. His mind is always pre-occupied with cricket.

If Rahul Dravid was a perfectionist, Tendulkar was an architect who believed in flawless construction of an innings. True, he would build on the ‘lives' he has earned, but his strength always comes from his reading of the situation. The ease with which he can adapt to a situation is quite remarkable.

Acknowledged for his awesome talent, Tendulkar honed his skills through hard work and hours spent in the nets. This discipline is what sets him apart and leaves a lasting impression on the young generation. “I have learnt a lot from following his work ethics,” observed Virat Kohli.

There has not been a better advertisement for the game than Tendulkar. He will not shy away from helping a youngster and he will never disappoint a fan. I have seen Sachin slam a policeman at the Kotla for pushing a kid. It has been a pleasure to watch Sachin exhibit amazing patience when obliging fans at the ground, hotel and public functions.

Sudhir Kumar is a simple soul from Muzaffarpur in Bihar. He can always be spotted at cricket grounds, his body painted in Indian tricolour and with ‘Tendulkar' written on his back, and waving the National flag. He symbolises the Indian cricket fan and the affection for the master batsman. A match ticket from Sachin's personal quota is Sudhir's right. It goes to show how Sachin values his supporters.

“I have seen him enjoy his time with fans. He is at his best with kids,” reminisced V. V. S. Laxman. He is at his best with the common cricket supporter. He has a huge following among the elite, with the corporate and commercial world chasing him day and night. Tendulkar, however, has his priorities in place.

Tendulkar's influence on the cricket world is huge. The respect he commands from his opponents is enviable. The admiration from his well-wishers is equally overwhelming. Watch him when mobbed. You will find no trace of irritation, panic or concern on his face, for Sachin Tendulkar knows he is in safe hands when surrounded by his fans.

A doting father and a caring husband, Sachin is quite a family man. In the dressing room and on the cricket field, he is an exemplary statesman who brings dignity and eminence to his profession.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/20120329502901600.htm

[ajithfederer]

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From the publishers of THE HINDU
VOL.35 :: NO.13 :: Mar. 29, 2012

CRICKET

Never a dull moment when he is around

Like a most masterful actor, Sachin has slipped in and out of multiple roles with delightful ease. From vanquisher to protector, crafty constructor to lone ranger, messiah of the masses to tragic romantic, he has played it all. By Arun Venugopal.

S. SUBRAMANIUM

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Sachin Tendulkar is congratulated by Johan Botha of South Africa after his double century in the second ODI at the Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior on February 24, 2010. Sachin was the first batsman to score a double hundred in ODI.
The colossal shadows of truly great men transcend the realm of time, victory and defeat. Such men not just alter the course of an isolated event but carve out their own epoch. Sachin Tendulkar has done that on several occasions in his enormous career. When pieced together, each of his legendary innings has assumed greater significance in the larger context. While, often, it has been a revelation of his character, it has also suggested shifts in the cricketing paradigm. Simply put, some of his best works have stretched the contours of the game.

Like a most masterful actor, Sachin has slipped in and out of multiple roles with delightful ease. From vanquisher to protector, crafty constructor to lone ranger, messiah of the masses to tragic romantic, he has played it all. What's more intriguing is Sachin has done all this without sacrificing his inherent boyish appeal at the altar of greatness. For that reason alone, he remains a national darling.

Despite the promise of everlasting youth, Sachin, almost ironically, came up with some of his most mature portrayals in his 20s. In January 1999, Pakistan engaged him in a many-on-one combat in Chennai in what was to later become a historic Test match. Already crippled by a searing back pain, Sachin soldiered on endeavouring to quell a daunting challenge. On the day, he resembled the mythical warrior Abhimanyu, who found the odds stacked against him. Like Abhimanyu, Sachin had cracked the code to enter the maze but coming out of it unscathed was never going to be easy.

The Indian team of the 90s, not a healthy sight for the weak-hearted, was too dependent on the little master for its own good. The predictable collapse occurred and that oft-quoted catchphrase ‘Sachin falls, India falls' came true. Defeats such as these have left Sachin devastated once too often. That they have a sense of poetic poignancy to them would be no balm to his permanently-scarred self.

In May during the World Cup that year, Sachin had to fight a personal battle. He had to fly back home after learning of his father's death. Immediately on returning from the funeral, he slammed an unbeaten 140 against Kenya in Bristol. Kenya may not be the toughest of opponents but the sheer inner trauma that Sachin had to overcome made the knock a truly special one.

Rewind to Sachin's earliest hundreds — the maiden ton, an unbeaten 119 at Old Trafford (1990) and 114 in Perth in 1992 — and his precocity is palpable. Much to the marvel of observers, a baby-faced batsman confronted some of the world's fiercest bowlers. And, there was no question of merely surviving the attack; Sachin dominated the best in the business. Labels like ‘boy wonder' and ‘prodigy' were easily bestowed. The tough part was living up to the expectations as many of these ‘prodigies' had fallen by the wayside.

But Sachin would have none of it; whether such acclamations even registered themselves with him is another matter. One of his many great qualities over the years has been the ability to adapt and re-model himself. There are critics who may argue that Sachin isn't the same rat-a-tat machine gun that he once was. Then again, that's been a part of his evolution, especially after the growing influence of the Dravids and Laxmans. Sachin, however, has never been averse to defying stereotypes and proving people wrong.

His double-hundred in an ODI against South Africa in Gwalior in February 2010 was myth-shattering from that context. India had warmed up famously to that irreverent swashbuckler Virender Sehwag. This, along with the rise of other young batsmen, meant that the spotlight was no longer merely on Sachin. This probably helped the great man as he went on to achieve what everyone thought would be Sehwag's record as a matter of right. Though Sachin isn't inclined to chest-thumping exercises, it was probably his way of saying ‘I am still the boss'.

That Sehwag was second only to Sachin in accomplishing a double ton in ODIs puts things in perspective.

Another monumental innings of his in recent times gave him the once-familiar heartache of personal accomplishment and collective disaster. In 2009, an explosive 175 against Australia in Hyderabad didn't translate into victory for India. In a career spanning 100 centuries (and counting), Sachin has witnessed emotions that have swirled around madness, ecstasy, deep-rooted pain, and liberation.

The famous ‘desert storm' in 1998 in Sharjah was the picture of Sachin in his pomp. While Shane Warne and Australia learnt things the hard way, Sachin's proclivity to decimate attacks remained one of its kind — probably the most nerve-crushing since the days of Vivian Richards.

For all his feats, Sachin has often been accused of not winning enough games for India and failing at critical junctures. This is, even as, his fans would argue that he seldom received support from the rest of his colleagues. The truth, as is the case in many things in life, lies somewhere in the middle.

This monkey was well and truly tossed off the back when Sachin struck an in-the-trenches century against England in Chennai in 2008. The horrific memories of 1999 were erased and life had come full circle. The hundredth ton, by comparison, was a tepid affair relatively speaking. His crawl in the middle stages came in for much criticism but that is for another day. For now, let's celebrate the creation and re-creation of an entire generational shift.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/20120329503101800.htm

[lydayaxobia493]

Rare pic.. sachin and dada...

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[littlemaster1982]

Great updates AF :clap: :clap:

[Arvind Srinivasan]

great uploads there AF....:clap:

[ajithfederer]

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MUMBAI, March 25, 2012
Tendulkar dismisses calls for retirement

PTI

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Sachin Tendulkar made it clear on Sunday that he does not intend to retire anytime soon, and left open the possibility of playing in the 2015 World Cup.

The master batsman, who will turn 39 next month, took on his critics who have been suggesting that he should retire from the one—day format of the game and focus on Test cricket.

Kapil Dev, Imran Khan and some other former greats have in fact expressed views that he should have retired from ODIs when India won the 2011 World Cup.

“I feel that the retirement decision is something I should decide, because the decision to start was (also) not decided by someone else.

Those who are advising me about retirement did not bring me in the team,” he said at a rare press conference here.

Tendulkar, who reached an unprecedented milestone in the game’s history of making 100 international centuries nine days ago in Dhaka, was uncharacteristically blunt about his critics and said, “I feel those who say you should retire at the top are selfish because when you are at the top, you should serve the country instead of retiring.”

Asked about the prospects of his playing the 2015 World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand, Tendulkar refused to be drawn into any predictions, but clearly did not rule playing in the tournament.

“When this question was asked in 2007 (about the 2011 World Cup), it was tough for me to answer. It’s the same situation.

“I don’t know what to say about 2015, if people keep praying for me, that means a lot for me. I will keep trying, the rest is in God’s hands. I just want to enjoy the game. I don’t want to set targets,” he added.

Speaking about his 100th international century, which he scored after a year—long wait, the iconic player said, “When I reached my 100th ton, I looked at my bat and looked at the sky and asked God, 'What wrong did I do? Why did it take so long?'”

Answering a question about rising superstar Virat Kohli and other emerging youngsters, Tendulkar had a word of advice for them - they should have strong commitment and discipline.

“It has taken so much of time for me (to reach where I have), and others who will play will have to have the commitment and discipline. When we started, we had goals, I feel I have been able to do that for the next generation,” Tendulkar said.

“Virat has done really well. I hope he continues, but there are other players as well. We need such performances to continue for the team.”

Tendulkar refused to predict whether his seemingly unconquerable record of 100 centuries would ever be broken, but hoped that as and when it happens, the feat is accomplished by a fellow Indian.

“I don’t know. I guess all the records are meant to be broken, but I hope it’s an Indian. I don’t think you can predict that (whether it will be surpassed), but I hope it’s an Indian whenever it happens,” he said.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/node-gallery-display/2148390102.jpg

Tendulkar said his family is his source of strength and he will continue till he keeps drawing from it.

“I get my strength from my coaches and family. When I feel I don’t have that, on that day, I will think of retirement.”

India went on to lose the match against Bangladesh, in which Tendulkar got to the feat, and he said the disappointment meant that the celebrations were muted.

“I don’t think that we are celebrating that one match.

Where I am right now took 23 years and not one match. I feel the result was very important. It was very disappointing. The day I got the hundred there was no celebration,” he recalled.

For a player who has virtually every batting record that is there to be taken, Tendulkar said the biggest compliment for him was when the legendary Sir Don Bradman included him in his all—time Test XI.

“I think the best compliment was from Sir Don Bradman when he announced his all—time Test XI and I was part of that squad. That would be the best compliment,” he said.

Talking about his journey so far, Tendulkar, the highest run—getter in both Tests and one—dayers, said his late father Ramesh Tendulkar was his idol growing up.

“My hero is my father because he is the one with whom everything started in my life. I follow my father. In cricket, even those who haven’t scored a hundred were advising me, but as long as it was in good intention, it was fine,” he said.

When asked about India’s early exit from the Asia Cup, Tendulkar said credit should also go to the rivals who played better than them.

“All three teams won two matches, it eventually boiled down to who beat whom. I want to clarify that Bangladesh are a good team and played well in all the four matches. The rival teams also come to win. Sometimes you play well but the other team plays better,” he explained.

The diminutive right—hander said he does not have to prove anything now, and would continue as long as he enjoys the game.

“I don’t think I need to prove anything right now. I started playing this game because I loved it, I enjoy it. The passion for cricket was there. The dream was to play for India and win the World Cup, I don’t think anything can be bigger than that,” he said.

“I can’t think of milestones. I have been able to play for India and win the World Cup. I don’t know what is in store for me but my focus would be to just enjoy the game. I don’t want to focus on what I have to achieve because I have already achieved what I wanted,” he added.

Tendulkar also detailed the one year barren spell during which he got into 70s and 80s but somehow missed out on hundreds.

“At the time of the World Cup when I got to 99 hundreds, no one was discussing about my 100th hundred because the focus was on the World Cup. But after the World Cup, the media built on it and started asking. I was only focused on playing cricket like always. I just wanted to score runs,” he recalled.

John Wright's contribution

Senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar revealed that it was India’s former coach John Wright, who had first inspired him to score 100 international centuries.

“I remember a long time ago, in the 2003 World Cup (in South Africa), John Wright had told me ‘you should become the first player to score 100 international hundreds’ We used to have many chats and in one of them he said this.

“He (probably) told that just to push me. The coach’s job is to give the player that push and probably John was doing the same,” Tendulkar said.

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/cricket/article3222789.ece

[P_R]

“I feel those who say you should retire at the top are selfish because when you are at the top, you should serve the country instead of retiring.”
:clap:

:points and laughs: at media

Essentially this is Sachin's polite version of 'boss you shut up okay' :lol2:

[Plum]

1. Nothing bigger than worldcup - feeyar, vaanga serndhu seththu seththu velayaadalaam 2. Achieved what I want already - appo Australiala test series jeyikkaNumnellAm kanavE kANala(neenga kanda kanavukkellaam naan epdi poRuppAga mudiyingaraar) 3. It was an anglo saxon who spoke about 100 hundreds first contrary to anglo propoganda about indian culture being the reason for such selfish aims. Ofcourse now that it has come out, it will now be painted as motivational tool.

[19thmay]

In cricket, even those who haven’t scored a hundred were advising me, but as long as it was in good intention, it was fine,” he said.

Advice koduthavanukellam eppdi irundhirukum? :lol:

[P_R]

3. It was an anglo saxon who spoke about 100 hundreds first contrary to anglo propoganda about indian culture being the reason for such selfish aims. Ofcourse now that it has come out, it will now be painted as motivational tool. avanai thaan naan thEdikkittu irukkEn. First ODI + Test add paNra idea paNNadhu yaarunnu sollunga. veLukkaNum.


1. Nothing bigger than worldcup - feeyar, vaanga serndhu seththu seththu velayaadalaam
:lol: naan dhaan sonnEnE...kuzhandhai yEdhO aasaippadudhu. sandhOshappadudhu, vidunga. 2004 Aus series kitta thatta naama jeyichha maadhiri dhaan.


2. Achieved what I want already - appo Australiala test series jeyikkaNumnellAm kanavE kANala(neenga kanda kanavukkellaam naan epdi poRuppAga mudiyingaraar) valikkAdha mAdhiriyE nadinga... kamaan. moonjiye sirichA maadhiriyE vachchukkaNum.

[lydayaxobia493]

Rare Picture of Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli from their school days

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/540925_10150676187118676_205051538675_9135466_1685 292180_n.jpg

[ajithfederer]

tfs kb. TFS :)

[VinodKumar's]

Great picture !!!

[SoftSword]

Rare Picture of Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli from their school days

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/540925_10150676187118676_205051538675_9135466_1685 292180_n.jpg

payyan shielda vida sinnadhaa irukkaan...
mushkin'a photographera kooptrundhaa aale therinjirukka maattaan...
appove records would hav overshadowed his physique...

[SoftSword]

sigh....

http://i43.tinypic.com/2lnjwyc.jpg

[lydayaxobia493]

சச்சினுக்கு விரைவில் ஆபரேசன்

மும்பை : மாஸ்டர் பேட்ஸ்மேன் மற்றும் சத நாயகன் சச்சின் டெண்டுல்கருக்கு ஆபரேசன் நடைபெற இருப்பதால், விரைவில் துவங்க உள்ள இந்தியன் பிரீமியர் லீக் (ஐ.பி.எல்) கிரிக்கெட் தொடரில் அவர் பங்கேற்பது சந்தேகத்திற்குரியதாக உள்ளது. சச்சின் டெண்டுல்கருக்கு சமீபத்தில் காலில் காயம் ஏற்பட்டது. அதற்கு அப்போதே ஆபரேசன் மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டது. இந்நிலையில், பூரண சிகிச்சைக்காக மீண்டும் ஆபரேசன் செய்ய உள்ளதால், அவர் விரைவில் லண்டன் செல்ல உள்ளதாக இந்திய கிரிக்கெட் கட்டுப்பாட்டு வாரியம் (பி.சி.சி.ஐ.) தெரிவித்துள்ளது.

[P_R]

payyan shielda vida sinnadhaa irukkaan...
mushkin'a photographera kooptrundhaa aale therinjirukka maattaan.... :lol:

[ajithfederer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9RQ3PyL-iA&feature=g-u-u&context=G231d4e2FUAAAAAAAAAA


Sachin Tendulkar 95 v Pakistan Lahore 2006


One of the comments there who is a great uploader himself has written as such


This was one of his great innings. I remember Asif and Gul were swinging new ball like hell. Sachin and Rahul didn't give them wickets in first 15 overs or so without scoring much. I remember Imran Khan was quite furious that Man of the Match was given to Dhoni instead of Sachin as his was the innings which allowed Dhoni and Yuvraj to finish the chase in style
say2chander 7 minutes ago

[Arvind Srinivasan]

tendulkar was fairly successful in that series...he also scored a hundred...but this innings of 95 was on a higher pedestal when in comparison to the hundred....

[wizzy]

:rotfl2: at Nohit

Virat should try for 80 odis+20 tests :thumbsup:

http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/SPO-sachin-says-virat-rohit-can-break-my-record-of-100-centuries-3027962.html

[kid-glove]

The only record I see Nohit breakiing is 100 pounds weight scale.

[venkkiram]

:notworthy: Shrikka!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9bofYX1akXM

[littlemaster1982]

Sachin Tendulkar 95 v Pakistan Lahore 2006

This is what Dravid has to say (http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakvind/content/story/236960.html) about this innings;


One can pull out the thesaurus and combine different adjectives to describe Sachin Tendulkar's 95 at the Gaddafi Stadium at Lahore, but nothing may convey the influence it had on the course of the run-chase. A buoyant Rahul Dravid, speaking at the post-match press conference, described Tendulkar's effort as "absolutely incredible" and went on to add that it was "one of his best innings".

"I think he assessed the situation beautifully," he said. "He realised there was something happening with the ball, realised we needed to keep wickets. The way he controlled the game, played positively without doing anything risky, was great to watch. He scored at a great pace on a difficult wicket in difficult conditions. I thought it was one of his best. There are so many he has played but this was really a special one."

[Plum]

Ipl full participation kanfaarmednga. Sombani party vechchu sOliya mudichuputtApla. I think oru injury in ipl guaranteed and even if not, this will waste his form and end up like last year - test cricket Gods deserting him and mukkiyamAna varalARRu EdugaLil thOlvi nichcayam. Oru maha kalaignanai ammi koththa vechchu talentai peak form-ai waste paNdrAngaLE. KuyO muRaiyO!

[Plum]

Sombani to Sachin: neenga vaasinga naan thoongaNum

[Cinemarasigan]

:rotfl2: at Nohit

Virat should try for 80 odis+20 tests :thumbsup:

http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/SPO-sachin-says-virat-rohit-can-break-my-record-of-100-centuries-3027962.html

tondy-tondy cenjury ellAm international cenjuries-la kanakku varAdhA?

[wizzy]

^varadhu...vandha ipl 100s'um kanakula varanum :goodidea:

[ajithfederer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N4pCu-iwl4

Looks like a good tribute. LM, have a look at this.

[littlemaster1982]

:ty: AF. Will dl this soon.

[lydayaxobia493]

Latest one..Master Blaster wid Master Finisher

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/532605_271455256272134_100665883351073_624715_1259 018808_n.jpg

[SoftSword]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UCi9pAp9pn0#!


jus started watching... aarambame too much nakkings... :oops:

[SoftSword]

until now, the most sensible talk has been by lata mangeshkar!!

[SoftSword]

:notworthy: Shrikka!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9bofYX1akXM

wow... ippodhaan pakkaren....
cheeka... :notworthy: un kaalu engayya....
ttthaa saavadichuttaan...

[ajithfederer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFi2krBwIOk


Sachin Tendulkar 100 vs Pakistan Peshawar 2006

[SoftSword]

101 unseen pics of sachin...
watch when u r free... not when ur in some rush...

http://sports.in.msn.com/gallery/rare-unseen-images-of-sachin

[venkkiram]

wow... ippodhaan pakkaren....
cheeka... :notworthy: un kaalu engayya....
ttthaa saavadichuttaan...
ரொம்ப பிடிச்சது என்னென்னா, நம்மாளு ரொம்ப டீசண்டா பேசினாப்புல! இந்த மேனஜர் போஸ்ட் எல்லாம் இல்லாமல் இருந்திருந்தா அவுங்க சந்தித்த மேடையிலேயே கூவம் ஓடியிருந்திருக்கும்!

[SoftSword]

summavaa nammaalunga solraanga... chennai dhaan thalaivarukku home ground'nu...
evan pesuvaan andha maadhiri...

[GSV]

Happened to watch this IPL match in youtube.. Excellent shots and timing all around..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gInSvdv-2XY&feature=relmfu
Sharma :(

[Arvind Srinivasan]

sachin has always found a liking to ishanths bowling in the ipl...remember another match in ipl 2 in sa where he pulled him for six.....

[Arvind Srinivasan]

AF, LM.....do we have all of sachin's odi tons.....i think around 4,105 vs WI-1994, 110 vs Sl- 1996, 128 vs Sl- 1998, 127* vs Zim- 1998 are missing and another two, his 117 vs NZ and 100* vs kenya are very short versions

[littlemaster1982]

I'll prepare the list of innings I have within a week :)

[Arvind Srinivasan]

Do it for tests as well.....athulla neraya illannu nenaikiraen......:)

[littlemaster1982]

Of course, tests are included too :thumbsup:

[ajithfederer]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/543147_295713743832799_180173012053540_688227_6657 87258_n.jpg

[littlemaster1982]

:lol: Konjam too much, but good one :thumbsup: I like this stance very much. This is how he was standing when everyone else were on the ground during sandstorm 8-)

[sathya_1979]

Collection of Straight Drives!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJC-5dUT3eM&amp;feature=related

[sathya_1979]

Lotsa lovely cover drives!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCirKXJXxE8&amp;feature=related

[Arvind Srinivasan]

I remember this game....Sachin played some excellent shots and in turn Asia put up an imposing total of 320....this was followed up by a bevan classic who scored 185 and had a 119 run partnership with caddick.....Caddick scored just 23....super match.....thanks for sharing this sathya.....

[Plum]

Konjam too much, but good one ? I like this stance very much. This is how he was standing when everyone else were on the ground during sandstorm is it true that the Hey Ram sequence of Kamal standing up to a storm flicked from this? :roll: [/random hate kamal spread rumours mode] [/sachin bhakta mode ]

[Arvind Srinivasan]

Collection of Straight Drives!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJC-5dUT3eM&feature=related

Nothing better than sachin hitting in the v.....great video....the drives from the capetown match and the mumbai match in 2001 were just plain awesome.....#vintage sachin# ....:smokesmile:

[SoftSword]

old but worthy one:

part1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmptRsymrks


part2


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iu5bXYEu5k


part3, the best


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oukAqPlS7Q4

[P_R]

Mukul Kesavan :x
yOv-ndraanyA

[wizzy]

^he is an VVS/Wall aficionado :-)

[Plum]

There is a very typically south indian resentment there at the monetary smartness of the typical marathi middle class person that SRT is. SMG used to evoke such feelings in my south indian self. SRTkku exemption koduthuttEn. KesavarAla kudukka mudiayala pOlirukku

[Arvind Srinivasan]

The article was overtly critical imo. The fact is people complain that sachin isnt speaking to the media that much and when he does speak out you criticise him to the tilt. Never seen a person other than sachin who goes through so much media scrutiny....

[P_R]

The annoying thing is many people called it balanced, much needed perspective etc. remba tungsten aayiduchchu.

All accusations as old as the hills.

Starts of politely, starts patronizing and then makes a vituperative attack on Sachin. And it is called balanced !!!

Plum, note the point when writing appraisals :twisted:

[P_R]

Flau, avar NorthIndies broughtup. Dehlikkaarar.

[wizzy]

^blood south India :lol:..check his other articles from cricinfo archives..they employ him mainly to write eulogies on Wall/VVS's knocks.

[Plum]

You can take the dog out of the village, feeyar. Reg. Appraisals, yes. Innum solla pOnA, nethu join AgaRa koyandha paya kooda nammaLoda praise, patronize, criticise, vituperate teknikkiya correctA call paNdrAn - ivaru mediala irumdhukittu indha teknikki ellaam use pandraar :lol:

[kid-glove]

http://www.merinews.com/upload/imageGallery/bigImage/1203406091401.jpg
http://www.football-spot.com/blog/images/photos/Messi-17.jpg

Messi ('s Sexy Salamanca) >>> Sachin ('s Mrs Bates)

[wizzy]

sample this take on Sach from his erstwhile Men in White blog

http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/meninwhite/archives/2008/01/tendulkars_bid_for_immortality.php


It is hard to believe that next year in November, Tendulkar will have been a Test batsman for twenty years. Sunil Gavaskar had sixteen years at the top; so did Dilip Vengsarkar. Mohinder Amarnath had eighteen, but his was an interrupted career. In terms of longevity no one else comes close. Of the three only Gavaskar can sustain the comparison. Gavaskar and Tendulkar are Indian cricket's greatest batsmen and one of Gavaskar's claims to greatness was that he retired from cricket on a high: his last innings was that great 96 against Pakistan in Bangalore, on a track that was turning square. He followed that up with a big hundred at Lord’s playing for the Rest of the World in 1987 and called it a day. So our sense of Gavaskar's career is one of great consistency at a very high level.

This isn't how the trajectory of Tendulkar's career was viewed till recently. The first decade of his career was his time of greatness. It encompassed both his time as a prodigy dazzling the world in Perth and elsewhere and his pomp in the late Nineties when he dismantled bowling attacks with such ruthless intent that Bradman was moved to anoint him as his heir. But as his second decade unfolded, it was hard not to feel that while greatness had been achieved, the promise of immortality had been belied.


This is not to argue that Tendulkar in the twenty-first century was an inconsiderable batsman. He scored lots of runs, hit substantial hundreds, and played match-saving, sometimes match-winning innings. But something had changed, the spark that had once made him not just a very good high-scoring batsman (a Jacques Kallis, say), but a magical stroke-player, impregnable and overwhelming at once, seemed to have been extinguished.

may it comes with a baggage of being SMG fanatic which compares Sach with Kallis :-)

[wizzy]

K-G, Sach is a man of integrity :lol:


//for the uninitiated http://www.movieweb.com/tv/TEs4aAvWKGGmwt/larry-on-integrity //

[Plum]

Keeping with the meanness of git's intent in this thread - yeah, Messi is a shareholder while Sachin is asole proprietor. Obviously, you get better facilities in time-share property(not a ground rule but atleast a thumb rule, let's say). But ownership ownership dhaane?

[kid-glove]

Rather rent a ferrari than own premier padmini..

[Plum]

Rather own a padmini than rent a saroja devi. (This is getting lower and lower - someone has to stop. Someone is not me :) )

[wizzy]

also there seem to be a correlation btw hot WAG/lesser sportsmen...case in point Kambli and latest to the list is Anirudha Cheeka :noteeth:

[kid-glove]

Rather own a padmini than rent a saroja devi. (This is getting lower and lower - someone has to stop. Someone is not me :) )
:twisted:
Rather own a padmini than a rent lorry..
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/077z3ctcWUcCq/610x.jpg

[ajithfederer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXbOjryCpmQ&feature=g-u-u&context=G231d4e2FUAAAAAAAAAA

Published on Apr 14, 2012 by prashantbanjare
In a rare congregation of cricketing heroes, Sachin Tendulkar , Steve Waugh Brian Lara and Deniss Lillie shared the spotlight in Chennai when they officially launched the MRF-MAI Formule Mondiale Championship 2003 series.The trio donned specially designed racing gear and drove a few laps around the circuit in their Go-Karts at Danny's Karting Centre, on the outskirts of Chennai, to kick-start the six-round championship that witnessed the best talent from India, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

[sathya_1979]

Lovely Video!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gU4CABuhg4&amp;feature=related

[ajithfederer]

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2907/images/newfline.jpg

CRICKET

Tons of passion

VIJAY LOKAPALLY

Tendulkar: “I play this game because I love playing this game. Nobody forced me into it and it's my choice.”

“I prefer always playing fast bowlers because the ball comes straight on [to] the bat.” There is a noticeable stress on the last syllable of the word bat. A boyish grin follows the quick answer and he looks away from the camera. That was Sachin Tendulkar in his first recorded interview. He was not even 16 when the veteran theatre personality Tom Alter, a cricket freak, spoke to him ahead of India's tour to the West Indies in 1989.

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2907/images/20120420290712801.jpg

Tendulkar was not picked even though he spoke of his “love and passion” to play fast bowlers. He did earn the India cap before the year ended, making his debut, an insignificant one, in Karachi against a lethal Pakistan attack that included Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Abdul Qadir. Before the tour ended, Tendulkar had given the world indications of what lay ahead.

“He looked special,” recalled Akram years later. “What was striking about him was his timing,” observed Imran Khan. It is a quality that has embellished his batting in all forms of the game. Timing is the hallmark of greatness, and shots have always flowed from Tendulkar's armoury on the strength of his confidence and conviction. It took him 14 innings to record his first Test century and 76 to get to his maiden one-day international (ODI) century. Twenty-three years later came the 100th century in international cricket, at Mirpur, Bangladesh. He spoke his mind during a recent interaction with the media:

“My focus wasn't on it. My focus was, as always, to score a big hundred whenever I went out and [to] contribute, and that is what I have done in the past. As the time went by there was so much hype created that naturally the focus, even though I didn't want it, I felt it was somewhere there in the subconscious. Hundred hundreds wasn't my purpose. To win the World Cup was. I don't regularly follow what people are saying about me. Because I feel I should have a clear mind while making those decisions, and, hence, I shouldn't be thinking about what X, Y or Z are talking. I am not in the Indian team to prove people wrong. I play this game because I love playing this game. Nobody forced me into it and it's my choice.”

PICTURES: THE HINDU ARCHIVES

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2907/images/20120420290712802.jpg

Pakistan, December 1989: Aged 16, he was the youngest person to play Test cricket for India.
True to the expectations of past masters, Tendulkar grew into a phenomenon, set new benchmarks beyond the reach of all, and yet is striving to achieve more. The boyish passion to pick up the bat and run to the cricket field remains. Only, he now carries the hopes of a nation every time he takes guard.

Interestingly, Duncan Fletcher, the current India coach, was in charge of England in 2002 when India played a three-Test series in England. In his superb autobiography Behind The Shades, Fletcher observes, “We had noticed that Tendulkar seemed uncomfortable against fast, short-pitched bowling, so we decided to test him out with that, but then suddenly changing to bowling wide outside his off-stump, frustrating him by not bowling to his strength. However, as his 193 at Leeds (the next Test) indicates, it did not always work!” If only Fletcher had seen that 1989 interview of Tendulkar!

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2907/images/20120420290712803.jpg

The proud owner of 100 international centuries (51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs), crafted his first Test hundred at Old Trafford in England in 1990. For a 17-year-old this was a taxing stage. He saw the dismissals of Ravi Shastri, N.S. Sidhu, Sanjay Manjrekar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohammad Azharuddin and Kapil Dev. The target was 408 and defeat was certain at 183 for six when Manoj Prabhakar joined him. “We can do it,” he murmured. “Of course, we can draw,” Prabhakar agreed. He realised his folly immediately. Tendulkar was visualising a chase.

“I was amazed. He was thinking of winning when a draw seemed a dream,” recalled Prabhakar. Tendulkar went on to score a century and India drew the Test. The parade of centuries had begun that afternoon in Manchester.

It took Tendulkar a year to cross the 100-century mark after having scored his 99th in the 2011 World Cup. During an interaction with the media, he wondered why it took him so long.

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2907/images/20120420290712804.jpg

“When I got to my 100th hundred, I looked at the bat and looked upwards towards God and said, ‘It's been a tough time for me, why? Where did I lack in my commitment?' I was really thrilled and looked at the dressing room and pointed my bat to the players and also to the Indian flag that I have on my helmet. This is what I have done for the nation and everyone has been a part of it.”

V.V.S. Laxman looks at Tendulkar's feat in the right perspective. “The hunger to score runs at any level is what separates Sachin from the rest. I am delighted that he got his 100th century, which has eluded him for almost a year. It is a mind-boggling feat, considering that he has been playing international cricket for almost 23 years now. We don't normally come across players like him, who, after such a long-standing record, still opt for an optional practice. It shows his commitment and professionalism.”

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2907/images/20120420290712805.jpg

The elegant Australian batsman Mark Waugh once remarked, “When you play against Tendulkar, you almost want to see him get a few runs, just to see him bat.” How many players would get such a tribute from an opponent? Brian Lara possibly belonged to that class. The West Indian is one of Tendulkar's greatest admirers. “He's an excellent player, one of the greatest batsmen of anybody's time. What I like about him is his technique. He's got a great technique and a great appetite for runs. He's very, very special,” Lara said in an interview many years later.

His determination to give nothing away has remained special.

“I think Tendulkar is the ultimate batsman in terms of technique, ability, intent, analysis and problem-solving,” wrote the New Zealand ace Daniel Vettori in his book Turning Point. “Who's the best between the recent greats – [Ricky] Ponting, Lara and Tendulkar? I think Tendulkar is,” he noted.

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2907/images/20120420290712806.jpg

[ajithfederer]

Tennis' loss?
“I can only play cricket,” Tendulkar told this writer many years ago even though he secretly visualised himself as a Grand Slam champion. “Maybe I could have been a tennis player,” he confessed once. But he was born to play cricket, to carry the team on his shoulders, year after year, making a place for himself in the dressing room on the strength of his performance and not just reputation.

To be Tendulkar can be challenging, demanding, strenuous, but not when you happen to possess his kind of passion and determination. He likes to be perfect in every aspect of the game. Perfect in preparation, execution of plans and follow-up.

He has amazing control over his mind when it comes to cricket-related issues. Nothing can shake his resolve. Nothing can compel a change of mind. True, some of his flamboyance in batting may have been missing in recent years, but then the enormous responsibility of seeing the team through has had an impact on his overall approach to the game.

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2907/images/20120420290712807.jpg

A one-man movement
The former England skipper Nasser Hussain once remarked, “He is not driven by money, he is driven by batting.” Hussain said Donald Bradman was great, but “for me the greatest batsman to have ever played the game is Sachin Tendulkar”.

For the former Australian opener Matthew Hayden, Tendulkar is a movement. “He has been scrutinised, reflected upon. He is one of the greatest cricketers of all time.” Kapil Dev, the World Cup-winning captain, was candid when he assessed Tendulkar's recent form. He was pained at the master struggling to win matches as was his wont. “From what we have seen in the last three months, he should have quit soon after India won the World Cup. It's important to know that every cricketer has his time. Having served the country for 22-23 years, there surely is no greater player than him. But he should have announced his decision to retire from the shorter format soon after the World Cup.”

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2907/images/20120420290712808.jpg

"He looked special," recalled Wasim Akram years later, about the first time he saw Tendulkar play, in Pakistan in 1989. "What was striking about him was his timing," observed Imran Khan.
Kapil triggered a debate, which was set at rest only when Tendulkar made it known that he had no plans to quit just yet. “I feel that the retirement decision is something I should decide because the decision to start was [also] not decided by someone else. Those who are advising me about retirement did not bring me in the team,” he said while sharing his thoughts with the media a week ahead of IPL (Indian Premier League) V.

The longevity factor is best explained by Tendulkar. “The physios and masseurs are an equal part of my success. A specific innings is when I got that double century [against South Africa] at Gwalior. Before that game I was lying on the physio's table and getting various treatments, and all we were discussing was that let us win the series and then I am going to request the BCCI for a break because I am exhausted and can't even stand on the field. To deal with injuries is not easy, and at my age it becomes difficult. I went to the ground and forgot all about that. When you are focussed, you are willing to reach a destination, of winning that match. After the game we discussed and I was asked – do you remember saying ‘please sort out my body'?”

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2907/images/20120420290712809.jpg

For the youngsters, there cannot be a more striking example than Tendulkar when it comes to commitment.

That he holds his opponents in high esteem was evident when he was asked to name the bowlers who made an impression on him. “I can name at least 25. How do you differentiate between Anil Kumble, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Glenn McGrath, Malcolm Marshall and Curtly Ambrose? How do you pick among Richard Hadlee, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis? It's tough. I have respect for all of them.”

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2907/images/20120420290712810.jpg

[B]Old Trafford, Manchester, August 1990: Returning after scoring his maiden Test century. His unbeaten 119 on the fifth day helped India save the Test.

He makes for compelling viewing. His style is flawless and character unpretentious. It is tough to get him to talk about his batting. He is measured when discussing rivals, critical on a healthy note and very accommodating when it involves youngsters. He remembers his formative years and readily shares his wisdom with the new faces in the dressing room. Nothing can distract him from his goals. They are short-term and realistic.

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2907/images/20120420290712811.jpg


At the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai with the legendary Australian pace bowler Dennis Lillee.

It is amazing how cricket continues to captivate Tendulkar. His career has remained free of controversies. Never known to argue with the umpires or get into verbal duels with his opponents on the field, he remains a humble student of the game. “No one can be bigger than the game. No one. I have enjoyed a beautiful life because of cricket. It has given me immense joy at every step and I take it as a duty to pay back,” Tendulkar has said.

He has come a long way from the ambitious 16-year-old, who had made his first-class debut with a century against Gujarat in 1988. “I don't think I need to prove anything right now. I started playing this game because I loved it, I enjoy it. The passion for cricket was there. The dream was to play for India and win the World Cup. I don't think anything can be bigger than that.”

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2907/stories/20120420290712800.htm

[ajaybaskar]

Wishing the god of cricket a very happy birthday. :thumbsup:

[Bala (Karthik)]

Pallaandu vaazha iraivanai vendikkolgiren

BTB, watched the Ambani function a couple of days back. Didn't like it at all. Leaves a bad taste in the mavuth

[sathya_1979]

Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin! Sachinnnnnnnnn Sachin!

[Arvind Srinivasan]

My Birthday wishes to the best batsman in the world...SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR :bow: :bow:

[ajithfederer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOnM4G4ZHNA&feature=g-u-u&context=G2dfeaabFUAAAAAAAFAA


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz3YnxiWitg&feature=channel&list=UL


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIZipfuyBQQ&feature=channel&list=UL

All long videos of nearly 20 mins each.

[VinodKumar's]

Happy Bday Sachin. Watched your bday treat - Sharjah match.

[lydayaxobia493]

Happy b'day sachin...

https://p.twimg.com/ArN1CcdCEAE3Ysg.jpg

[lydayaxobia493]

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/556104_226487037457244_100002878475086_369696_1620 673099_n.jpg

[19thmay]

Thalaivar-uku anbu pirandha naal vaazhthukkal! :thumbsup:

[Siv.S]

Happy birthday Sachin :D

[GSV]

Iniya pirandha naazh nal vaazhthukal Sachin.. :notworthy:

[lydayaxobia493]

https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/873242321/SRT-UNEP_normal.jpgsachin tendulkar ‏ @sachin_rt
Hello friends, you can join my birthday chat and send me your wishes at 12.30pm today. Dial 5100100 from your Airtel phone.

[lydayaxobia493]

very very rare one.. Sachin family

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/564278_300703466670778_156820014392458_742515_2085 55631_n.jpg

[lydayaxobia493]

http://desmond.yfrog.com/homepage/scaled.php?host=a0&profile=2062151838&filename=31139_1138223233201_1756017902_262048_788 5934_s_normal.jpg&via=twitterYUVSTRONG12 6 mins ago Twitter
@sachin_rt dear sachin mny hapy retrns of the day Wishing u nd your family great health and happines

http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg876/scaled.php?tn=0&server=876&filename=8y5ot.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640

[littlemaster1982]

Happy Birthday Thalaiva :notworthy: :notworthy:

[ajithfederer]

Happy Birthday SRT

http://www.sachin-tendulkar.co.in/wallpapers/sachin-tendulkar-with-world-cup-2011.jpg

My posts here are your birthday wishes. In that way our wishes are all-round the year.

http://www.teluguone.com/cricket/wallpapers/Sachin-Tendulkar-Wallpapers/big/Sachin-Tendulkar-Wallpapers20.jpg

My Videos here are your Birthday Gifts. We hope to dig in more and make this a one stop place in the future.

http://spotsbox.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/1229892.jpg

And the runs you make/need to make are our daily dosage of Meth/Heroine hit we need to survive.

http://sachinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/51-Centuries.jpg

And of course the day you retire is the saddest day in sports history.

[VinodKumar's]

Got this picture from FB

http://i43.tinypic.com/jqgqh1.jpg

[SoftSword]

happy birthday cricket!!

[ajithfederer]

http://www.thehindu.com/template/1-0-1/gfx/logo.jpg

The Hindu honours Sachin Tendulkar

Apr 24, 2012

The Hindu honours Sachin Tendulkar Apr 24, 2012 The Hindu publications released a book in Chandigarh on Tuesday celebrating Sachin Tendulkar's 100 centuries on the occasion of his 39th birthday while the rest of the country sent their best wishes to the batsman.

Click here to book your copy (http://www.hindu.com/advt/sachin.htm)

[ajithfederer]

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01063/24THAAN_SACHINROBI_1063327g.jpg

[ajithfederer]

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01063/24THAAN_SACHINREAD_1063329g.jpg

[ajithfederer]

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01063/sach_smile_1063404g.jpg

[ajithfederer]

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01063/24THAAN_SACHINGROU_1063330g.jpg

[ajithfederer]

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01063/cut_1063406g.jpg

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01063/24THAAN_TIRUPATI_1063326g.jpg

[ajithfederer]

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01063/24THAAN_JONTY_1063331g.jpg

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01063/fast_1063334g.jpg

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01063/24THAAN_CAKE_1063332g.jpg

[ajithfederer]

CHANDIGARH, April 24, 2012
The Hindu salutes the maestro

PRINCIPAL CORRESPONDENT

Sachin —Tribute To A Legend chronicles his 100 centuries
Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar released a book published on his century of centuries by The Hindu Group of Publications. The function was held at the Mumbai Indians team hotel here on Tuesday.

The book, titled Sachin — Tribute To A Legend, was conceptualised after Tendulkar scored his 100th International century in the Asia Cup against Bangladesh in Mirpur on March 16.

Tendulkar, flanked by Mumbai Indians coach Robin Singh and captain Harbhajan Singh, expressed his gratitude to The Hindu after releasing the book on his 39th birthday.

“It gives me immense pleasure to launch this book. All the efforts taken by The Hindu mean a lot to me. Over the years, I have made a lot of friends and they are all dear ones. Our friendship has grown in a similar manner as The Hindu has grown. I cherish each and every moment I have shared with them,” said Tendulkar.

“Reading various articles and opinions (in The Hindu) has played an important role in my career. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for putting this book together in a matter of a few weeks. It's a mammoth effort and thank you very much,” he added.

The CEO of The Hindu group, Arun Anant, in a letter explained the concept behind publishing the book. “We thought this would be a fine gesture to have the book released by you on your birthday, April 24.

“We feel that this book will be a fitting tribute to your unparalleled contribution to the game, making India and the international cricket community proud,” said Mr. Anant.

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01063/24_sachin_1063465e.jpg

A HUNDRED REASONS TO SMILE: Maestro Sachin Tendulkar is delighted after receiving a copy of the book ‘Sachin - Tribute to a Legend’ at Mohali on Tuesday. It contains extracts from reports that appeared in The Hindu covering his 100 international centuries and was specially brought out to mark Tendulkar’s 39th birthday. Photo: Akhilesh Kumar
Welcoming Tendulkar on the occasion, vice president (Circulation), P.S. Venkat said, “In five weeks flat we put the project into work and today we are here. It is a pleasure having you here.”

The book is a rich collection of extracts from published reports of all the matches in which Tendulkar scored his International centuries.

Besides, it has some rare pictures of the batting maestro and a range of interesting statistics.

The book also features five of the finest interviews with Tendulkar, published in The Hindu and The Sportstar.

“The narrative of the 100 hundreds concerns itself primarily with Tendulkar, the batsman.

“It isn't independent of Tendulkar, the man, for art can't be separated from the artist,” writes Nirmal Shekar, Sports Editor, The Hindu, in his foreword to the book.

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/cricket/article3350250.ece

[VinodKumar's]

RF cap poturukavan yaaru ??? Blizaard ah ?

Cutting cake in left hand - stylish.

[lydayaxobia493]

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/577780_289897031091645_118312631583420_649772_1587 171749_n.jpg

[lydayaxobia493]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6_gvHRtYjc&feature=player_detailpage#t=0s

[SoftSword]

namma booka naamale release pandradhellaam meah...

[lydayaxobia493]

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/533934_383784838333624_100001063323204_1174347_533 149091_n.jpg

mass....

[mgb]

Cong proposes Sachin's name for Rajya Sabha

[littlemaster1982]

Thalaiva, pls no :|

[sathya_1979]

aaNiyE pudunga vENaam! After cricket, no politics, no BCCI

[wizzy]

Congress for clubbing him with Rekha for the same honour...apparently he even acceded to it :banghead:

[Arvind Srinivasan]

Adei!!! intha manushana cricket aada vidungada......hopefully he outrightly rejects it...
@ wiz avar eppo accede pannaru intha vishayathukkku....athu engayum kurupidilaye......

[wizzy]

^NDTV sources never been wrong on issues pertaining to Congress..he would be a party nominee :-(

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/sachin-has-accepted-congress-request-to-be-nominated-to-rajya-sabha-sources-202815

[littlemaster1982]

I'm really surprised that he accepted it :|

[ajithfederer]

Rajya Sabha member is a dummy post. Almost like an honorary position and just given to popular names. I bet he wouldn't even have the time to step in Rajya sabha.

[rsubras]

^NDTV sources never been wrong on issues pertaining to Congress..he would be a party nominee :-(

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/sachin-has-accepted-congress-request-to-be-nominated-to-rajya-sabha-sources-202815

wizzy he is not a party nominee.... if accepted, he will be a president appointed, representing India and not any party

[rsubras]

The nomination - there is no election process in this category - is for one of 12 seats in the Rajya Sabha that are reserved for those persons "having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art and social service." If nominated, Tendulkar will be the first sportsman in this category; previous nominated MPs, who serve a six-year term, include the musician Ravi Shankar, the singer Lata Mangeshkar and the artist MF Husain.


http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/current/story/562773.html

[wizzy]

@rsubras you need a party to offer you a nomination for president quota..Congress doing the same for Sach in same way Samajwadi did for Jaya Bachchan..for all the govt. shortcomings/scams his name will be pulled up :banghead:

[wizzy]

now it is official Sachin Tendulkar M.P ..Sanju Manju gets the first cheap shot by linking his leadership skills to this


However, commentators on the game were less enthusiastic in their response. Sanjay Manjrekar, a former team-mate of Tendulkar's and now a media analyst, said he was shocked at the news, because he could never have imagined this to be how Tendulkar wound down his career. "My only fear is that this man is not suited for the kind of role he is being given. Until now, I've seen no sign of that. Even when the contracts dispute was on, when a players' association was being formed, it was Anil Kumble in the forefront." Manjrekar also wondered how Tendulkar would balance his cricket and commitments as an MP.

Harsha Bhogle had a similar opinion. "I don't think it is the greatest idea. He doesn't have the experience of governing or doing social work. People are trying to gain mileage out of Tendulkar."

[Arvind Srinivasan]

Ivallo nadanthirukku sachin kittaerndhu oru sathhamun illaye....i will be very very surprised if he accepts this

[ajithfederer]

Sachin Tendulkar confirmed as MP. President has approved the petition.

[lydayaxobia493]

Sachin, " Kadaisiyila ennaiyum arasiyala kondu vanthittale" :rotfl2:

Next PM sachin vazhga... :banghead:

[Bala (Karthik)]

Enna ezhavu idhu? Oru hair-um seriyilla. Ambaari function, IPL, hair coloring (WTF!!!!!), ippo idhu :banghead: :disgusting:

[Bala (Karthik)]

Sachin, " Kadaisiyila ennaiyum arasiyala kondu vanthittale" :rotfl2:

Next PM sachin vazhga... :banghead:
:shock: Is this dude for real? :huh:

This ^, BTW is the exact reason why this shouldn't have happened

[SoftSword]

kovam vandhaa BTB vara mattengudhu.... :lol:

sachin... onniyum solradhukkilla...
nallapOnaa sari....

[Movie Cop]

Congress for clubbing him with Rekha for the same honour...apparently he even acceded to it :banghead:
<Dig>
Indhe karumam Kamalukkum nadandhadhu saar (during FICCI "Living Legend" award, that is) :lol:
Rekha appadi enna sOkka achieve pannitaanga cinema-le? :shock:
</Dig>

[ajithfederer]

All fans, Emotion-ae korainga. It's not as bad as it seems.

Bals, What is that ambani fn?. What happened there/