The Sachin Tendulkar Myth Buster! : How true or false were the criticisms revolving Sachin

Over the years we have shared many moments celebrating Sachin Tendulkar’s success, his exploits and the amazing memories that he has given us. However, there have also been some questions raised against the great man himself. Some find it irrelevant, some say the people involved in such discussions and comments have nothing more productive to do probably, while some liked to spend time over it, critically analyzing the criticisms. Well, this blog is addressed to cater to all those categories of people. So let’s go about the criticisms one by one.
The first of such criticisms, and probably the most incredible one in a sarcastic way is that, Sachin is not a match-winner! Let’s excavate the truth behind that. When Sachin used to score a century in an ODI match, he scored it at a quick rate, more than a run a ball in most cases, that too dominating attacks. India hence would manage to reach a score of 300-320 and yet India would lose some of those matches and I wonder how is it Sachin’s fault. A batsman’s job is to help his team reach a good score, which he did and then after that it’s the bowlers’ responsibility to defend that total and if India always had a mediocre bowling unit who could not defend high score of 280-320, then a batsman can definitely be not blamed for it. If you consider the same for other great batsmen, then Sachin could easily consider himself unlucky as each of those players be it, Lara, Ponting, Inzamam, Richards or Border had multiple bowlers in their respective teams to knock over the opposition unlike India, who relied heavily on Anil Kumble to do it all. Let’s move over to test cricket for a while and even there Sachin’s credentials as a match winner were questioned and to analyze this let’s go back to the Chennai test against Pakistan in 1999. Under hot and humid conditions, on a pitch that was turning square on the fifth day, Sachin single handedly stood up for India, scoring 136 against the likes of Akram, Waqar and Saqlain and dominated them looking at ease throughout while wickets were crumbling around him, that too with severe back spasms. But, how did it end? Sachin took India to within 16 runs of winning with 4 wickets remaining, when he got out. Even then, the lower order bats could not finish the game from there on and subsided within two and a half overs resulting in India loosing, which was agony for Sachin which could be seen from the tears in his eyes. So is it really Sachin’s fault that the Indian tail-enders were always a bunch of jokers with the bat with not even the intent to show some grit to hang around when the team needs it? Well, there’s a lot to think about, isn’t it, before we point fingers at some one. His 175 against Australia at Hyderabad, 241 at Sydney were some of the other numerous cases where Sachin’s innings could not result in Indian wins because of the inability of the bowling attack or that of the tail-enders with the bat in hand.
If we talk statistics, it should be noted that 33 of his 49 ODI centuries have resulted in Indian wins and on 2 occasions the match has ended with no result. So India lost only 14 out of his 49 centuries during his career, that too with an average bowling attack, and some say he is not a match winner! Stunning, isn’t it. Those statistics do not include the 90s and 80s that he has scored which have won India numerous matches, including that murderous 98 against Pakistan in the 2003 world cup.
Moving on, some people say that his innings are worth it only if he is there at the end. What I would like to tell them is that, send him with five overs to spare and he would be definitely there at the end. We forget that he was an opener whose job is to give a good start in the powerplays and play 30-40 overs for the team. His job was not to last 50 overs while chasing as that job in a team is assigned to a finisher who comes at no 4, 5 or 6. Lara or Bevan used to come at no.4 for the WI and stay there till the end on some occasions, he did not open the innings like Sachin did. What’s with this staying till the end thing anyways, putting your team in a winning position is any day much more important than hitting the winning runs.
One other criticism was that he does not perform in big matches and big tournaments. Buoy, people do need to brush up on their cricket knowledge and reasoning ability it seems. Top scorer in 2 World cups, 1996 and 2003 as well as 2nd top scorer in 2011 world cup! Isn’t it enough to blunt that the above argument, after all there is no bigger tournament than the world cup. If we focus on big matches, how about his innings 91 and 117 in consecutive CB series finals in 2008 which won the tournament against hosts Australia or his sandstorm innings in which he single handedly decimated Australia in that Sharjah final or the innings before that which made them qualify for the finals or the 155 against Australia in the 1998 test series which changed the landscape of the series tilting it India’s way or the 103* against England after the 2008 Mumbai blasts, chasing a record 387. Starting from his match saving debut hundred of 119* at Manchester in 1990, Sachin has played numerous match-winning knocks in big matches. Many of those came when the chips were down, where he single handedly stood up, like the 122 at Edgbaston, the 114 at Perth in 1991-92, couple of centuries at Melbourne 8 years apart while the rest of the team struggled to get bat to ball. These are only some of this exploits and so we should be careful when we point finger at arguably the best batsman of all time, someone who dominated all kinds of bowling attacks (the Australians would tell you better) in all conditions, be it swing, pace or bounce and in all sorts of situations in his long career and in both the forms of the game.
Fans need to understand that he was a mere mortal and he could not have played the same way every time. It was the media who sensationalized such fake criticisms in order to make their TRP rating to soar up using the great man’s name or may be an ex-cricketer trying to sell his auto-biography by making such remarks about Tendulkar. The point of writing this blog was not to prove Sachin is the greatest ever, that we know but that how wrong were the few criticism that were pointed at Sachin. Who else has dominated world cricket for such a long period of time. It was just that the fan’s expectations from him were so high and they were so much involved in his game that they attributed every success or failure to him. This says quite a lot, isn’t it !