Rahul Dravid – The Great Wall of India

Countdown to ICC Cricket World Cup 2007

Rahul Dravid completes our look on the holy trinity of Indian batsmen, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly being the other two. Dravid has been India’s Mr. Dependable for quite some time now. His stride to the middle always brings about a calm in both the dressing room as well as in the hearts of a billion fans. One can be rest assured that whatever be the situation of the match that he walks into, he will give his 100% out there on the field. It is no wonder that over the years his has become the most prized wicket in the Indian batting line up.

When he first started off he was the man who somehow seemed destined to be overshadowed by somebody else. He had a very impressive debut in England and missed a century there by a whisker. However people remember that test for the century on debut at Lords by Ganguly. When he scored his highest scores in ODI somebody else overshadowed him, twice! He had a hand in one of the greatest rescue acts in the history of cricket at Kolkata in 2000. Even that match is remembered for the exploits of his partner at the other end, VVS Laxman. It was one of those magical moments in test cricket when both of them batted for a whole day and turned a certain defeat into a miraculous victory.

He has always been one of the most technically equipped batsmen in the modern era, in an era when fast scoring is the norm and throwing your bat at all and sundry seems to be the only way to perform, Dravid stands out for his superb technique. It is but a reflection of the time he is playing that once he was thought to be a bit too technical and heavily criticized for his slow batting. There were even suggestions that he should only be played in the tests and be dropped for the ODI, which they eventually did. Thankfully better sense prevailed and before long he returned as a much improved batsmen. He later on became such an integral part of the team that he has now taken over the captaincy from Ganguly in both forms of the game.

Dravid’s utility to the team is unquestionable. Take a look at any of our major victories in India or abroad and you will have Dravid playing a major role in it. Be it the one at Kolkata, Headingly, Adelaide, Jamaica or Rawalpindi. It is a proof of his technical prowess that he has been able to negotiate the seam and bounce of foreign pitches. Some may not find him to be entertaining. But he gets you the results. Sometimes in pursuit of victory you might have to cut out some of the flashiness and grind it out. What matters most is not if you have entertained the crowd, it is whether you have won the match or not.

Dravid has time and again proven that he is a perfect team man. Who can forget the times when he would keep the wickets so that the team would get some much needed balance? This was the single most important factor for India’s successful run at the world cup last time. You can see the elation or pain etched on his face depending on the fortunes of the team. Just look at the way he celebrates when the team wins, it is a 1000 time more emotional than when he reaches a personal milestone. His commitment to the team is absolute.

Dravid as a captain has been less of a success than as a batsman. He has been found strangely devoid of ideas at crucial moments when the going gets tough for the team. Dravid by character is a quiet and restrained man. But on the field he needs to show a bit more aggression. Then again all this would matter less if he is able to bring back the World Cup to India after a long gap of 24 years. Dravid would know that a billion people will be rooting for his team, and there is no better man to rest our faiths with.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar - Hero, Villain or Victim?

Countdown To ICC World Cup 2007

Sachin Tendulkar. No other name in Indian cricket arises as much passion and emotion as his. No one else in the history of the game has had to carry the burden of such huge expectation and demands like he has. In a country where cricket is more than a game Sachin Tendulkar has gone about his job with an unbelievable humility and has his feet firmly planted on the ground. For this alone he should be admired.

From the time Sachin made his debut as a 16 yr school boy the spotlight has always been focused on him. When he came into the team he was hailed as the next Sunil Gavaskar. Gavaskar for his part took great interest in mentoring his fellow Mumbaite, a relationship that continues even today. After he had made his mark in the away tours of England and Australia he has always been hailed simultaneously as both a hero and villain. No one in the history of cricket might have had his game as minutely scrutinized, dissected and discussed as Tendulkar’s. But what is he really? Is he really a hero who with his skills mesmerizes a country of 1 billion or is he an opportunistic villain who abandons the same people who worship him in the time of need? Maybe the answer lies somewhere in between.

Tendulkar’s skill has never been in question. His longevity and statistics alone are proof enough for that. However there is this raging debate that he hasn’t won enough matches for India in the past. There are two ways to look at this. If you look at his ODI career around the mid 90s to the early part of the millennium you can see that whenever Sachin has got a good score the team inevitably went on to win the match. This was the time when he was at his peak and he was opening the innings with regularity. In those days there was none more reliable than Sachin Tendulkar in the Indian team. Remember those days, when people used to turn off their television sets if he got out early. Whatever support he got from other team members were viewed mostly as a surprise. On those rare occasions when someone else put their hands up we were pinching ourselves with disbelief. Sachin was a one man army in those days. He made us forget that cricket is fundamentally a team game played by individuals.

We might argue that Sachin was not able to translate his good form or scores into test victories abroad. Yes very true. He was not able to. But we forget that tests are won by the side taking 20 wickets. It’s more of a bowler’s game than a batsmen’s. One look at our bowling attack and we can see why we never won enough tests abroad during Sachin’s peak. Baring Srinath there was no other fast bowler worth mentioning. Our best bowler then was a Kumble, a spinner. To win matches abroad we need atleast 3 good bowlers. I believe we would have won more matches if we had the current bowling attack then.

Another counter argument that might come up is that Sachin was never able to save enough test matches let alone win it. To a major extent this is true. Sachin woefully let down all and sundry whenever the team was in dire straits. But to say that he has never done so would be unfair on the man. Neither is it fair to say this was due to his ineptitude alone. Remember the test against Pakistan in Chennai when Sachin braving a serious back injury soldiered on to take us to 16 runs short of victory. We could have still won the match with 3 wickets in hand. We lost the match by a handful of runs. For argument’s sake one can say that he should have been there till the end. But the fact remains that there was no support for him from the team. There have been countless other instances where he has made centuries in a losing cause. There have been countless more when he has disappointed us. But pray tell me other than Dravid now which other Indian batsman has fulfilled his promise time and time again as many times as Sachin did in those days. He has an average above 54 away from home which few batsmen can boast of.

His captaincy is also subject to much ridicule. We tend to forget that most of the series that were played under his captaincy were away series. Which Indian captain before him has had success away from home? It is not until recently that India started changing its fortunes away from home. This is largely due to the new young breed of fast bowlers that we have unearthed. Tendulkar never had that luxury. He very often never received the players he wanted. The team that he took to Australia in 1999-2000 must have been the worst ever. Not to mention several of his team mates were involved in the match fixing scandal forcing him to quit the captaincy in disgust.

So why do we question Sachin Tendulkar and his ability so much? The answer lies in that Sachin has had the misfortune to be living in a media driven world. A world where every couch potato, who has never set foot on a cricket pitch in his lifetime, starts voicing their “expert” opinion for the whole world to hear.

He was projected as an icon by us because at the time of his prominence there was nobody else who could hold a candle to him. He was the sole beacon of light when there was only gloom and despair all around him. Now we criticize him because he is not the same player as he was. What did we expect? That he is a modern day Peter Pan? Yes he has aged. Yes he is not the same player as he was. But tell me is there any great talent out there waiting in the wings to replace him? Why then are we so desperate to make him pack his bags for good? Even today Sachin Tendulkar can give you a 75 ball 100 maybe a run a ball 60 in the ODIs. Maybe a century in the first innings every 3 tests. So what? It is still the same if not better than any greater talent we can conjure up. Not to mention his vast experience which is always an asset in tight situations.

People ask if Sehwag can be dropped why not Sachin. They shout at the top of their lungs that the selectors are showing double standards. Sehwag and Ganguy were tolerated and given chances after chances for more than a year before they were dropped. We cry for Sachin’s head if goes through a series without a century. Tell me, aren’t we the ones who are showing double standards.

Sachin Tendulkar may not be the greatest ever. He may not be the greatest now. But he can still give 3 more years of good cricket if not great cricket. Can’t we show a bit more respect to him and judge his performances objectively rather than by blind passion? The man deserver it for the 17 years of joy he has provided us. We as a nation need to treasure our heroes more because we do not have many of them and we definitely won’t get someone like Sachin Tendulkar for some time to come. So savor the moments he provides you because it’s not going to last much longer.