Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tendulkar is today’s Bradman, says Lara
Saluting the longevity of Sachin Tendulkar, West Indies great Brian Lara has described the Indian batting legend as the ‘Don Bradman’ of modern era but refused to the compare the icons of different eras.
Lara, himself a legendary left-handed batsman from the Caribbean, said what astonishes him the most about Tendulkar is his longevity.
“I don’t think there is any race. Both are great players. Tendulkar has shown the world what he is capable of and his longevity in the game is something to be really appreciated,” Lara said.
“The time he will spend in the game, records are going to tumble. The fact that someone can be there from the age of 16 and still at the age of 37 perform brilliantly is something that I cherish more than anything else,” he said.
The West Indies player is of the opinion that Australian great Don Bradman, who ended his career with an incredible Test average of 99.96, and Tendulkar should not be compared as they played and flourished in different eras.
“He is our period’s Don Bradman. Forget the difference in averages with Bradman but whoever I have spoken to who have seen very old players in action, they believe that he [Bradman] would not have averaged 99 in today’s cricket.Saluting the longevity of Sachin Tendulkar, West Indies great Brian Lara has described the Indian batting legend as the ‘Don Bradman’ of modern era but refused to the compare the icons of different eras.
Lara, himself a legendary left-handed batsman from the Caribbean, said what astonishes him the most about Tendulkar is his longevity.
“I don’t think there is any race. Both are great players. Tendulkar has shown the world what he is capable of and his longevity in the game is something to be really appreciated,” Lara said.
“The time he will spend in the game, records are going to tumble. The fact that someone can be there from the age of 16 and still at the age of 37 perform brilliantly is something that I cherish more than anything else,” he said.
The West Indies player is of the opinion that Australian great Don Bradman, who ended his career with an incredible Test average of 99.96, and Tendulkar should not be compared as they played and flourished in different eras.
“He is our period’s Don Bradman. Forget the difference in averages with Bradman but whoever I have spoken to who have seen very old players in action, they believe that he [Bradman] would not have averaged 99 in today’s cricket.
“So I believe that Sachin is our period’s Bradman,” Lara, who visited Dubai for a jewellery brand endorsement, told Gulf News.
Lara said he has just got back into cricket by playing three games in a Twenty20 tournament in Zimbabwe.
He also denied reports that he is becoming Zimbabwean coach but said he will be helping them in the batting department. He said he is fanatical about golf these days and spend time on the course.
“I love the game and have been working hard to bring my handicap down to five. I would love to get it a bit more lower. I spent a lot of time today at the Ernie Els Golf Course,” he said.
“So I believe that Sachin is our period’s Bradman,” Lara, who visited Dubai for a jewellery brand endorsement, told Gulf News.Lara said he has just got back into cricket by playing three games in a Twenty20 tournament in Zimbabwe.
He also denied reports that he is becoming Zimbabwean coach but said he will be helping them in the batting department. He said he is fanatical about golf these days and spend time on the course.
“I love the game and have been working hard to bring my handicap down to five. I would love to get it a bit more lower. I spent a lot of time today at the Ernie Els Golf Course,” he said.
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In modern day cricket, Sachin is the best: Flintoff
Mumbai: Andrew Flintoff, on Monday, said Sachin Tendulkar’s longevity should not blind India of the fact that they would be facing a similar situation like Australia when their best players called it a day around the same time.
“Sachin (Tendulkar) is still scoring runs. He could carry on forever. But Sachin, (Rahul) Dravid and (VVS) Laxman would all go one day and that could leave a hole, like it happened with Australia when Hayden, Langer, Gilchrist, McGrath, all finished around the same time,” said Flintoff, who’s on a promotional visit to the city.
The last few months have been a bit surreal for the former England all-rounder. Whether it’s bull racing in Texas, or doing TV shows on U.S. prime time television, Flintoff is living it up in the real sense.
“It’s just 10-12 weeks since I retired, although I stopped playing Tests a year ago. It feels a little strange. I am doing all kind of things that I couldn’t do in my playing days,” Flintoff said.
From being over-weight and criticised for attitude at the start of his career to becoming world’s best all-rounder at his peak and leading England to victory in the 2005 Ashes series, Freddie has lived up to the early promise as the successor to Ian Botham.
The former England all-rounder was thrilled by his team’s strong comeback in the drawn first Test at Brisbane.
“England have been fantastic this week. The first day of an Ashes series is always a bit nervy. From being bowled out for 260, they have improved and improved,” he said.
“Alastair Cook (who scored a double hundred in the second innings) made a hundred on debut here (in India). But one of the pleasing things about this team is character. To come back in a Test is a testimony to that,” he said.
But Flintoff was tad careful in predicting the winner for the 2011 World Cup.
“With the tournament being held in the subcontinent, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka would be the favourites. England have got a chance, too, and you can’t leave out Australia. Handling pressure will be the key, and India always expects India to win,” he said.
Flintoff, who has set up an academy back home, ruled out becoming a coach. Speaking on Tendulkar, Flintoff said: “I never played against Bradman. He wasn’t a good player, was he? I don’t know ... In modern day cricket, Sachin is the best,” he said.
“The last time I played against Sachin was the Chennai Test after the (terrorist) attack in Mumbai. England were in a great position. And we thought we are going to win the match. But Sachin had other ideas.
“The best thing was after the game he thanked every one of us for coming back to India. That was quite a poignant moment for me and rest of the boys.”
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Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Sachin, MSD's IPL base price 1.84 crore, Sourav for 92 lakh
NEW DELHI: Around 62 Indian cricketers will be up for auction for the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) with Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the legendary Sachin Tendulkar in the top-bracket of cricketers valued at Rs 1.84 crore. However, Tendulkar and Dhoni are likely to be retained by their respective franchises -- Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.
Former India captains Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid along with VVS Laxman are in the third bracket which has a base price of Rs 92 lakh. The cricketers who will command the highest base price of Rs 1.84 crore are Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh. The second bracket is that of Rs 1.3 crore where Twenty20 specialist Yusuf Pathan finds a place alongside speedster Zaheer Khan and the talented Suresh Raina. Similarly stand-in ODI captain Gautam Gambhir, who didn't have a great IPL 2 and 3, has been priced in the third bracket at Rs 92 lakh along with the likes of Virat Kohli, Irfan Pathan, Robin Uthappa, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar and veterans such as Ganguly, Kumble, Dravid and Laxman.
The fourth bracket is of Rs 46 lakh which consists of domestic cricketers and the fringe India players who have represented the country since 2005. Bengal players Wriddhiman Saha, Manoj Tiwary, Ashok Dinda along with Saurashtra's Cheteshwar Pujara are some of the players in the fourth bracket. The fifth and final bracket is of Rs 23 lakh where there are India discards such as Manpreet Gony, Sudeep Tyagi, Sridharan Sriram to name a few.
The five brackets of base price: 1st: Rs 1.84 crore; 2nd: Rs 1.3 crore; 3rd: Rs 92 lakh; 4th: Rs 46 lakh; 5th bracket: Rs 23 lakh
List of Players up for auction Andhra: Yelakka Venugopal Rao; Assam: Sridharan Sriram Baroda: Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Ambati Rayudu, Munaf Patel;
Bengal: Sourav Ganguly, Manoj Tiwary, Wriddhiman Saha, Ashok Dinda;
Delhi: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma
Gujarat: Parthiv Patel, Siddharth Trivedi Haryana: Joginder Sharma, Amit Mishra
Hyderabad: VVS Laxman, T Suman, Pragyan Ojha
Jharkhand: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Saurabh Tiwary
Karnataka: Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Manish Pandey, Abhimanyu Mithun, R Vinay Kumar, Robin Uthappa
Kerala: S Sreesanth
Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Wasim Jaffer, Abhishek Raut, Rohit Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Ramesh Powar
Madhya Pradesh: Naman Ojha
Punjab: Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Manpreet Gony, VRV Singh
Railways: Murali Kartik Rajasthan: Pankaj Singh
Saurahstra: Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara
Tamil Nadu: Dinesh Karthik, S Badrinath, R Sathish, R Ashwin, M Vijay, L Balaji
Uttar Pradesh: Mohammed Kaif, Suresh Raina, Praveen Kumar, Sudeep Tyagi, Piyush Chawla, Rudra Pratap Singh
Vidarbha: Umesh Yadav.
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Friday, November 26, 2010
Cricket South Africa to honour Tendulkar
Cricket
This match will also be a farewell tribute to South African icon, Makhaya Ntini [ Images ], who retires from international cricket after an illustrious career.
The commemorative match, to celebrate the 150-year anniversary of the arrival of Indians in
Speaking at a media launch at the iconic stadium in
"CSA will include a special tribute at this match to Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar for his ongoing and outstanding contribution to advancement of cricket world-wide. Sachin is the only remaining playing member of the Indian team that played the first match against
"Makhaya and Sachin represent all that is best in this great game of cricket, and we are honoured to bring this tribute to both of them at this anniversary of the roots that bind
Majola also announced that CSA will also honour the first ever South African team to tour
"When Clive Rice's team landed by chartered aircraft at Dum Dum Airport in the-then Calcutta, thousands of Indians were there to greet them with garlands of flowers. The route to
"When the first ODI took place a few days later at the famous
"Another honour will be bestowed through the naming of the match trophy after Krish Mackerdhuj, a pioneer of unity in South African cricket and of the first tour to
Bollywood heavyweights, Shahrukh Khan [ Images ], Anil Kapoor [ Images ], Shahid Kapoor [ Images ] and Priyanka Chopra [Images ], will lead a star-studded line-up that will perform in the New Age Friendship Celebration Concert, which takes place immediately after the match, and brings together leading entertainment stars from South Africa and India.
The match gets underway at 2:30pm. The concert starts at 6:30pm.
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Thursday, November 25, 2010
Sachin the best of the generation: Vaughan
Former England captain, Michael Vaughan this week told Gulf Times that he believes Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest cricketer of recent years, claiming that the ‘little master’s’ contribution to the modern game has been unsurpassed. |
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Sachin Tendulkar: The Player Who Redefined ‘Mortality’
When there are so many people to be admired on-field, Tendulkar is one of the rarest breeds, who has been a role model for millions both on and off field, for over 20 years.
‘He bats with what appears like 3 meter wide bat’ said Michael Hussey recently when he made those mammoth 403 runs in the recent Border-Gavaskar series this Sep-Oct 2010. So late in his career Tendulkar still seems to bat like a 21 year old forgetting the fact that ‘his cricket is 21 years old’!
‘The thing in him’ is God-given, a few may argue. But probably when we sit back and think about it, we realize it is only 30% true. It was attitude that covered the remaining part of the percentage calculation. From what his mentors at the school level say, he refused any offering that would prohibit him from practicing that day. As a 14-year old, the great man had played 55 days of cricket without a break!
His wasn’t a path ‘strewn with roses’. If at all it was, the observers’ eyes have probably refused to notice the thorns in the way he had traversed. In what has been a glorious career, there has been nothing that he has not crossed may it be injuries, criticism etc. His game is largely defined by his aggression, passion for the game, commitment to the team and hunger for runs.
What differentiates Sachin from others is the way he has handled the pressure, criticism and a huge fan-following who almost expect him to score a century every time he gets into bat. All that most people notice about him is the fame and fan following. Little have they realized that nothing came to him ‘free of cost’.
When he summed up so many centuries against his name, there were people who said he played for records, when he got out in the 90’s so many times, there were people who questioned his inability to convert them into centuries!
A few injuries even got ‘free advertisement’, by coming in the way of the great man’s career. He really had to strain his every nerve to become a master of not only the game he plays, but his own mind and body.
One of the few things, that astonished me in recent times was the way he carried himself as a captain and T20 player for the IPL team Mumbai Indians. Those were skills he had to pursue so late in his career. He is not afraid to learn so late in his career, when his generation cricketers are becoming an integral part of the commentary crew.
Off the field, Tendulkar is known for his commitment to the family and strict adherence to religious values. Tendulkar has probably led a life that carries so many messages not only to every aspiring cricketer, but to every one who wants to match his greatness in the field they pursue.
The life of his own friend would probably tell us it was not mere talent that allowed him to dominate the game for 20 years. Vinodh Kambli was probably rated higher in talent than Tendulkar. But a right attitude and a well led personal life, acted as a gulf between the two!
“The harder you practice the luckier you get” goes the old saying. Tendulkar attributes all his success to the preparation and hard-work he puts-in before every game. More than talent, it is his attitude that has taken him to the pinnacle of glory.
As the great man said in the post match presentation after a scoring a hundred in the second innings of a test match against England, ‘sometimes people threw stones, but he converted them into milestones’ And no wonder he has made adjectives and superlatives gravitate towards his name!
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Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Focus on the Sachin's right shoulder.
| LOKENDRA PRATAP SAHI |
Nagpur: Sachin Tendulkar hurt his right shoulder not once but twice in the second Test, in Hyderabad, which is why he’s been given a break. “The same shoulder took two falls and, while I played the final Test, I’ve got to give it time to recover,” Sachin told The Telegraph on Tuesday, shortly before leaving the city. After an outstanding  10 months of Test cricket, Sachin managed just one fifty in the series, but was pleased with the 1-0 result, achieved earlier in the day. “A much needed win (after two draws),” he said. Sachin didn’t talk about having missed the opportunity to script his 50th Test hundred, in Jamtha, but he’d stated the following on the eve of completing 21 years as an International — “As I see it, there’s more to cricket than 50 Test hundreds... I believe in destiny... Whatever is to happen, will...” Even as Sachin was leaving, somebody associated with the Board buttonholed him: “Now, I’ll have to send you a congratulatory message in South Africa...” Sachin doesn’t like this attention, or call it hype, but has to live with it. It’s a price he has to pay. |
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Maharashtra wants Sachin Tendulkar to be tourism brand ambassador
Maharashtra tourism minister wants cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar to be the brand ambassador of the state's tourism.
"Sachin should be Maharashtra's tourism brand ambassador. Like Aamir Khan (India Tourism), MS Dhoni (Jharkhand) and Amitabh Bachchan (Gujarat tourism), Sachin should also become Maharashtra's tourism brand ambassador," Bhujbal said in Mumbai today.
The senior NCP minister has written a letter to the ace cricketer, requesting him to become the brand ambassador, an official said.
2011 is being celebrated as Tourism Year in the state, Bhujbal said and underlined the need for publicity initiatives to attract more foreign tourists and revenues to the state.
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Shah Rukh made Sachin Tendulkar dance
Trust Shah Rukh Khan to achieve the near impossible. He made Sachin Tendulkar dance. This is how it went down.  At the recently held Sahara India Sports Awards He even bet the actor that if he managed to do so, he would do anything for him in return. Shah Rukh took up the challenge and brought Sachin on the stage.  An awfully embarrassed Sachin moved sideways, did a small cute jig, and then SRK rescued him and put him out of his misery. It is a known fact that Sachin seldom attends parties or dances on the stage like his contemporaries. In the past, Sreesanth, Harbhajan, Yuvraj have tried to make him dance but in vain. Suffice it to say when SRK beckons, nobody refuses him and neither did Sachin. |
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Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Sachin doesn’t need advice, says Sunny
Nagpur: Sunil Gavaskar, who needs no introduction, spoke to The Telegraph on Monday — exclusively on Sachin Tendulkar, who was unable to post his 50th Test hundred, in neighbouring Jamtha.
The following are excerpts:
Whether Sachin has become very conscious about being one short
Perhaps, yes, because everybody is talking about the impending hundred... Surely, having played so much, Sachin won’t be nervous... He’s been in this situation before — when he was one short of equalling my record (34 hundreds) and when he needed one to get past me... So, it’s a situation he has dealt with in the past.
His own thoughts when he was one short of Sir Don Bradman’s record of 29 Test hundreds
I didn’t want to be conscious about it, but the whole country was talking nevertheless (in 1983-84) and there was nothing that I could do... The hype was just too much.
Equalling Sir Don’s record, at the Kotla, against the West Indies
I’d been upset by a remark, that I should “retire,” from somebody on the eve of that Test... As for my innings of 121, I tried to stay focused and never looked too far ahead...
Whether he would track his innings on the scoreboard
(Grins) No... The way I approached batting was that the minimum value each batsman ought to put on every innings was a hundred... I believed in doing my job and, well, there was no need then to look at the scoreboard.
If he believes in destiny
Yes, in the sense that something will happen when its time has come... Sachin, therefore, will get his 50th Test hundred when it’s destined.
Milestones...
I wasn’t focused on milestones.
Finally, if he has any advice for Sachin
No... He doesn’t need advice.
Footnote: During New Zealand’s second innings, Sachin appeared to be wearing a black belt, suggesting the back needed support. Later, The Telegraph learnt that he’d, in fact, ‘folded’ his trouser around the waist and the black bit was actually the lining! For a while, even coach Gary Kirsten had been alarmed.
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Monday, November 22, 2010
It’s fantastic to get Sachin: McKay
| Andy McKay became the second debutant fast bowler in four Tests to pick up Sachin Tendulkar as his first Test wicket, thereby disappointing a nation that had geared up to herald the little man’s 50th Test hundred. | |
| Tendulkar had fallen to Peter George in Bangalore last month, but not before he had piled up 214. On Monday at the VCA stadium, he had added just four to his overnight 57 when he edged McKay to wicket-keeper Gareth Hopkins. “Another couple of wickets would have been great, but to get a player like Sachin Tendulkar as my first wicket is fantastic,” said late bloomer McKay, 30. “The ball I got Sachin with, I was looking to bowl pretty quick and put a bit more effort into it. It paid off. “I actually apologised to the crowd at the end of the over for having got Sachin out,” he smiled. Enjoying the challenge of bowling to India’s star-studded line-up in their own conditions, McKay went on, “It's quite daunting. It's a fantastic batting line-up. I've been lucky that in the handful of one-day games I've played, I've come up against Sehwag and a couple of other big players. To come up against this line-up, while daunting, is also very exciting. I really enjoyed the opportunity today.” Making no effort to mask his admiration for Rahul Dravid, who constructed a beautiful 191, McKay said, “Our plan was to bowl quite straight to him, and he played those deliveries well. He waited for us to err off those straight lines, and capitalised on those opportunities. His wagon wheel shows he scored a lot of his runs through cover and mid-wicket. That's when we missed our lines. He batted very well and waited for those opportunities.”  | |
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Sunday, November 21, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Sachin Tendulkar's photos from 1st Day of 3rd Test Vs NZ.
Sachin Tendulkar before match start(match delayed due to wet outfield.)
Sachin Tendulkar before match start(match delayed due to wet outfield.)
discussing with dhoni During 1st day of of 3rd test match.
During 1st day of of 3rd test match.
During 1st day of of 3rd test match.
discussing with dhoni During 1st day of of 3rd test match.
After wicket of Vettori.
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