Will India actually miss Sachin Tendulkar?

There was a time in 90's when it was unthinkable to even imagine an India cricket team without Sachin Tendulkar. From the day in 1989, when this boy from Mumbai smashed Abdul Qadir for 3 sixes in one over in that exhibition match in Pakistan, and made lighting fast fifty, he has been the darling of Indian cricket fans. Its not too far from truth that no one unites India more than Sachin. If you ever need evidence of this, watch any Sachin innings video on YouTube, but dont watch Sachin, watch the crowd when he hits a 4 or 6, or when he raises his bat after 50 or 100. No one watching remembers their religion and political preferences or even which part of India they are from.. they all just dance in the aisles..
This is what Sachin has done for all his 23 years in International Cricket. He has given performances of such magnitude on the field that has made India realize that we are not inferior, we are equal and even better than most in the world of sport.Its not that Indian cricketers in earlier generations were not that good, The Legends such as Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev also held Indian pride very high but Sachin's arrival also coincided with new confident India as whole. I remember reading an article from Harsha Bhogle where he mentioned that Sachin's arrival in cricket scene coincided with new economic reforms from then Finance Minister which opened up the Indian Economy and it has not looked back since. That was also the time when Indian IT industry really took off with companies like Infosys going public in early 90s. Now there is connection here. Indian IT industry is also industry of young people. At that time, all youngesters working in IT companies were working for many foreign clients, mainly in USA. It was still early days for Indian IT image and some where, all those young Indians in foreign land saw Sachin performing against the best of the lot and gained the confidence that we can do the same.
 That was also the time when Indian people were watching cricket not for India team but for Sachin Tendulkar. It was common that whenever Sachin was out, half the stadium will get empty, rest will go quiet and most people will turn their TV off. Mid to late 90s, when Sachin was already 10 years into the international cricket, people used to fear, what after Sachin? it was a very scary thought....
However, what Sachin also did is to inspire a generation of cricketers after him, likes of Sehwag, Dravid, Ganguly joined him and started sharing some expectations of Indian public and Sachin , for once, had the luxury of odd failure and India still pulling off victories (Natwest 2002 final.. Ganguly's shirt). Sachin was still the main deal though.. it was Sachin's word in 2003 WC when he said "we will improve" on behalf of team and calmed the nation down after scratchy start of the tournament. True to his word, team pulled its weight and we all know that..
we still thought what after Sachin? it was still unthinkable though likes of Dravid and Laxman were pulling enough weight.. in the middle of 2000s, Sachin's form fluctuated in the second half, but he still had lot left.. and no Indian team was still possible without him.. not so long ago, it was Sachin who was pulling India through the early matches of WC 2011 with 2 back to back 100s. if it wasn't for his 85 (Scratchy , yes, but look at the score sheet now) in mother of all Semi-finals against Pakistan..God knows what would have happened..
We all know that India has not been performing well in last 18 months or so.. and its not Sachin's fault.. we also bid farewell to 4 stalwarts of Indian cricket in last 4 years (Ganguly, Kumble, Dravid and Laxman) who built the core of the team with Sachin earlier and team has still moved on.. New talent like Kohli has taken the center stage and we still have the promise of Rohit's and Raina's in middle order for ODIs.. Manoj Tiwari and Pujara are lining up for tests as well.. so if we think about India team without Sachin as well, its not so scary any more.. Sad, true, but not Scary...
we all know that Sachin will not be around forever (and we always knew that) , though he still has the hunger and drive , enough motivation to play Ranji Trophy opener before the test series against Eng.
Think about it, if it wasn't the love for the game, what else could be driving Sachin to turn up for his state side for season opener...?? we have heard the stories that Gavaskar turned up for his club game the next morning he returned from foreign tours but he was still young then.. Sachin is not..
so what if this England series is the last series for Sachin and he bids good bye to Indian Cap, will that be catastrophe? I dont think so, Yes, it will be very sad day for Indian cricket but one thing Sachin has done by playing for these many years is that given us the opportunity to get comfortable with the idea of cricket without him, we have had the chance to live with the scary thought for so long that we are not so scared anymore.. we have seen enough talent coming through all these years that we know that next generation will take care of themselves and still hold their head high in the field..
This will be HIS biggest legacy to Indian cricket..and HIS every remaining day on field should be celebrated for that..and HE should be Thanked for HIS services to Indian cricket on last playing day...whenever that happens to be..

M S Dhoni- Losing his lucky charm?

When MS Dhoni became the captain of India T20 team for first WC in 2007 in South Africa, It was accepted immediately. It was believed that he was recommended by Ganguly, Dravid, Kumble and above all, Sachin himself. There was another theory that Kumble was made test captain in 2006 only because Dhoni was too young to captain Test team, not that India never had younger captains but in the times of Patudi and Kapil, it was only test cricket and they were thrown in deep end. But now, there are 3 forms of cricket and there was an option to ease him in for the main job, especially if you think there was Aus tour lined up very soon and senior pro as captain was better option. In hindsight, considering what happened in Sydney 2008, it was good call too..




Dhoni's first major assignment was WC T20 2007, More so when you think there were no Senior in the team, Sehwag was the most senior and he hadn't had even 10 years of international cricket till then.
Going by the early results, Dhoni seemed to had golden touch and his every move on the field was paying off, including even playing Yusuf pathan in final in place of Sehwag and giving that last over to Joginder Sharma.. think about it, Joginder hadn't played for India since..




He was winning everything, including 2-0 against Aus at home. It was an unbeaten run in tests, first time India won the tri series in Aus in 2008. India being defeated in T20 WC 2009 and 2010 was just ignored as team failure as focus was shifting to WC 2011 which was always just months away.
Dhoni achieved the dream with that six in the night of Mumbai and it seemed that India is finally going to be the super power on cricket field as it was off it. Dhoni had ensured his place in history...




Things started to go wrong from there...
India lost all games on tour to England, it was mostly put to fitness and sudden failure of batting greats.. Dhoni had his share of bad luck with Zaheer walking off on first morning and Harbhajan forgot how to spin..there were questions on his judgement when Dhoni called RP singh from his holidays and played him in last test even when Munaf Patel was in squad.. some eyebrows were raised but everything was over shadowed by batting failures, Dravid the wall, and Sachin's quest for 100th 100. After winning against WI at home, real test came in Australia.
Australia test series was the first time when cracks in his captaincy started to show up. No Tactical moves in field..defensive field settings to allow 200s and 300s from Aussies...No change in batting line up even when Perth test was lost in 2 days...Series was already gone but Dhoni didn't change the line up.. was it his ploy to keep playing the legends in the gamble that they were his best bet for revival and if they fail again, calls for their retirement will grow so loud that he will be spared the tough call and aging middle order will go away on its own.. we will never know...
Then came the tri series, first the rotation of seniors to let Rohit Sharma play, even Sachin was made to sit out.. then the mention of slowness of seniors..and Sehwag's reaction in press conference.. then the only game Ind won against Aus, Gambhir made a point to mention that Dhoni shouldn't have left it too late.. was it just communication gap?
It seemed that Dhoni the batsman still there but captain is loosing tactical touch..the street smartness which made him lucky earlier..
Not much has changed since then.. After winning the first WC T20 in 2007, India hasn't made to last 4 in next 3 editions..
Dhoni the captain had taken some calls on team selections which defies any logic.. consider this in last WC T20
- Making Irfan open in league game against Eng to give a chance to Chwala..ok but why Irfan? when its matter of just 20 overs, why not a specialist batsman? why the long middle order for just 120 balls?
- Why continue with same combination against Aus in super 8s? Knowing that in this format, loosing one game means it will come down to NRR, which no team alone can control? Even then, No Virat to open the batting..
- when team won against Pak, same combination against SA, knowing and watching the previous game at same ground that Spin is key..No Harbhajan..
Dhoni has tried to push his luck one more time..something works onetime then dont change till it fails..no proactive calls,no tough decisions,no picking of players except from CSK (Raina and Ashwin) , no backing of Umesh Yadav and Varon Aaron.. happy to play with what he gets.. no asking and standing behind some players like Ganguly.. if it wasn't for Ganguly, imagine no Yuvraj , Harbhajan, Zaheer and Sehwag today...
Dhoni probably had last roll of dice now, Eng and Aus are coming to India and Dhoni would feel he has good chance of winning at home.. he may as well be right.. But is winning now is more important than being able to win for long time.. He may still continue as captain till end of 2013 (though he had mentioned about leaving one format by then, most likely tests to focus on defending WC 2015).




Question is, what can he do for India between now and then.. Ganguly never won the WC but Indian fans still call him 'Dada'.. and swear by his legacy in Indian cricket.. how the history will remember Dhoni.. the captain who won the WC for India after 28 years or who gave India the players who kept us on top for next 28 years.. We will find it with England series..
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