West Indian Tour of India, 2013: Sachin's 200th Test Appearance

[StinkyBoHoon]

if the windies set a target it will be about 4 runs. though tendulkar will probably open in that scenario (unless he refuses because he's not going to take hand outs) so yeah I imagine that's it.

things to moan about with this series but I can't deny it's sad to see the last of the greats, and biggest of them all at that, retire.

indian fans should look forward not back though. this is some team you've got when a year ago you had two whitewashes in your recent history and were floundering to a home defeat against england.

anyway, lets talk about when War thought that india would fall behind an "improving" west indies side... (sorry mate, I'm never letting that one go )

 

[macintosh]

Nigel Llong, why you always wrong?

 

[SpitfiresKent]

India are good but only on their home patch. Don't forget that this is a very poor West Indies side.

 

[VC the slogger]

Tendulkar didn't get a duck like Bradman, but his team's set to win by an innings. Bradman's team won by an innings. Now let's hope he doesn't take any catches or wickets. Bradman didn't take any in his last Test.

 

[scratch978]

There were many good players in cricket, but the character of being humble even after achieving everything in cricketing life is EXCEPTIONAL and that makes him GREAT !!!!!

 

[Umair7]

I hate Sachin because i cant become a great batsman like him

 

[Aalay]

anyway, lets talk about when War thought that india would fall behind an "improving" west indies side... (sorry mate, I'm never letting that one go )

Haha absolute gold

India are good but only on their home patch. Don't forget that this is a very poor West Indies side.

War might disagree with that. He thinks WI is much more talented than India. And I don't know why suddenly everyone started saying India are only good at home. Yes, it's true that we got whitewashed in our last 2 series but why people don't look at India's record during the 2007-2011 period. They had a very decent record overseas. Now if you see this team, when we will play test in South Africa, our most experienced player in that lineup will be MS Dhoni with 79 tests. However, the next most experienced played will be Virat Kohli with 19 tests. I mean this new team has a lot of talent but now it will be very thin on experience so we certainly can't expect them to set the world on fire. However, they will compete and will compete better than what we did in our last 2 overseas test series.

 

[Vivek7]

India are good but only on their home patch. Don't forget that this is a very poor West Indies side.

Are you kidding me? India has number one performance anywhere in the damn world. They have consistency, which pleases the eyes. . Yes, it obvio that we loose at times - rarely.

West Indies has a very poor side? Cmon', they have Gayle, Best, rising-star Shillingford, Darren Bravo and Sammy. For me, it's just that they don't have basic coordination.

Peace.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

I am specifically referring to test cricket by the way.

 

[SaiSrini]

Gayle, Samuels, Chanderpaul, Deonarine, Sammy and Ramdin will have all the backing from Indian fans on Day 3. Get to above 313 and get some runs above it. If that happens, I think Dhoni might pull out the surprise and have Sachin open the innings (remember Dhoni has declared that he has some surprise in store for Sachin's farewell). Also Dhoni did let Ganguly captain for a few overs in the ending hours of Ganguly's final test match.

C'mon WI. Wipe out India's lead and get forward. But don't win it. Frankly people are just too taken over by emotions. We need to watch Sachin bat again one last time. Considering public emotions and sentiment over this game, its stupid of Dhoni to chose to bowl first. Was he so scared that this WI lineup will run through his batting on those first few hours of moisture and live grass? In the end, the spinners were the ones who ripped WI apart on Day 1. India could have easily batted first and could have set themselves up for a 2nd opportunity to bat again.

 

[zeustrojanstark]

I don't really think that a player is more important than the team.

@Sai: If Dhoni had decided to bat first and incase Gayle or someone fired for the west indies when they bat then again people will blame dhoni saying he made the wrong choice. He has lost his luck etc.. You really say Dhoni must have batted first just for the sake of fans? WTH!

 

[used2bcool]

I don't really think that a player is more important than the team.

Agreed. Dhoni did what he thought would give the team the best chance to win. He's been proven right, because we're going to win this thing inside three days, by an innings. Can't really get much more comprehensive than that.

All this Sachin-centric mania is fine off-field, but the on-field aspect of it should never get in the way of the game. The game must be above individuals, and if the fans can't understand that, then they don't deserve the game. I know this is unpopular opinion, but I'll be very glad once the Sachin bandwagon fans are gone. You can have your God, and I can have my cricket.

 

[PackenHols]

Is it just me or are we excluding that Rohit Sharma has an average of near 300 in test cricket at the moment?

 

[SaiSrini]

I don't really think that a player is more important than the team.

@Sai: If Dhoni had decided to bat first and incase Gayle or someone fired for the west indies when they bat then again people will blame dhoni saying he made the wrong choice. He has lost his luck etc.. You really say Dhoni must have batted first just for the sake of fans? WTH!

It was not a bowler's pitch at all. Even Gavaskar said that India with all its batting and bowling might (in comparison with WI) should bat first. And acc to me, giving that opportunity to Sachin one last time in his final match is not wrong. When these guys can win a World Cup for India for Sachin Tendulkar (they said it; they won the WC for Sachin and even lifted him on their shoulders, etc), they can easily give him ample opportunities to bat in what is his farewell series. Its not as if India have been a team centric country before this. We have been an "individual brilliance" driven country. And I don't see anything wrong in it when that individual is as brilliant as a Sachin Tendulkar or a Rahul Dravid or a Saurav Ganguly.

 

[prarara]

For cricket fans outside India, Tendulkar might just be a fine cricketer but in India he meant more. Firstly, unlike England and Australia, India demographics is`nt homogenous. For a multi-religious, multi-linguistic nation, Cricket is one unifying factor. Tendulkar has thus been a unifying factor in this huge nation, a common idol for all those masses who prayed to different Gods, spoke tongues as different to each other as with any foreign language. He debuted when India`s aspirations weren`t great globally and we were not highly ambitious. His rise coincided with the growth of the Indian economy, the explosion of electronic media and finally the rise of India as a cricketing superpower, both on and off the field. To think of it, its hard to think of one Indian figure other than Tendulkar who has such pan-India following which is what is his greatest achievement. He was loved equally by the Madrasi, Bengali and the Marathi alike! For all of them, he was their own irrespective of where he belonged to.

Tendulkar`s story for me is thus yet another story of sport transcending boundaries. That and the grace with which he played the sport and yet reached the top is something that is the overpowering message.

India not being a homogeneous nation is a fallacy; especially when compared to the population of diversity of nations like England...maybe not Australia as much. The differences in race between the Indo Aryan and Dravidian races are moot. They are mostly artificially constructed barriers. The fact is outside of India, no matter if you are 'Madrasi, Bengali, or Marathi', you are labelled as 'Indian'. The differences in Religion too are, IMHO, blown out of proportion. In the end all Indians are...Indians. In modern India these artificial differences have no place if society is to progress.

Other than that, Tendulkar's story is one that transcends boundaries; I see it across the lines of different countries rather than the ones that Indians use to divide themselves into.