Off Stump

One of the memories of watching Tendulkar over the years is how often he falls over when beaten and hit on the pads and I've always felt that this results in him getting more dodgy leg before decisions than he otherwise would. When you're a short player and you fall over the way he does, umpires can't be judged too harshly for thinking that the trajectory is lower than it actually is. So despite all the protests from the likes of Gavaskar and Shastri on air, I don't think India can complain too much about things given how unsurely they've played the spinners. Be interesting to see how Tendulkar (and the rest of the batters) approach things in the rest of the series and whether they get on the front foot a bit more. It will be good to watch no matter how many runs the master makes.

Given all of the fanfare around Tendulkar's farewell, you'd almost be excused if you didn't realise that there was an actual Test series (or lets just say Test couplet given two Tests is not a series) to be played in a few days. In some senses both teams (and their captains) will be a bit relieved as it allows them to go under the radar mostly and focus on getting ready while the spotlight is squarely on the man its been on for the last two decades and more. The visitors have insisted they will not be distracted and the young Indian squad (the average age without Tendulkar is less than 27) will know that solid performances here will give them a long run in the potentially tougher away series against South Africa, New Zealand, and England coming up over the next nine or ten months. So though the matches are rather rushed, there's plenty to look forward to even apart from the master bidding adieu. On paper, ie if you look at their respective ICC rankings , India shoul...

The BCCI has made many snafus and screw-ups in recent times but one superlative decision they have made in the last year is the appointment of Sandeep Patil (and his four co-selectors). I've  written before  about how they don't get enough credit for the moves they have made in making what is a transitional period for Indian cricket turn into a surprisingly successful one after the post World Cup horrors. And they continue to impress. Maybe its the fact that four of them are domestic stalwarts who never quite made it on the international stage (though Binny had a fair run) and Patil himself didn't fulfil his potential that makes them ideal men to draw out the young talents who will form India's next generation. Or maybe they've just been lucky with their picks. Either way, they've done some really solid work mixing tough decisions with bold ones and most importantly they haven't mixed up formats and let themselves be swayed by the media or former players. ...

The first innings of Tendulkar's that I can recall watching fully is his match-winning knock of 62 in the game that marked South Africa's return to the international cricketing arena. I had followed his career pretty closely till then but hadn't had the chance to watch an innings played by him fully on TV. The timezone in Pakistan was too close to India meaning that his debut series clashed with school (one more reason to hate school ;-)). New Zealand and England timezone differences made it difficult, more so because at the age of 12 it was hard to have your way with parents when it came to sleeping/waking times. And for some reason (I can't recall why now, so I'll put it down to an early disdain for meaningless one-day cricket), I hadn't watched any of the ODIs India played in 1990. So it came about that this historic, much hyped match against Clive Rice and team was the first time I properly saw the little man bat. It was a difficult Eden Gardens pitch where...

The day finally had to arrive and after November 18, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar will not step onto the field as a player again. I still don't know what I truly feel about that given that he has been a fixture in the Indian team for almost the entire 25 year span that I have followed the game for. At least the fact that he has chosen to retire in phases (one format at a time) has meant that I (and I'm sure many other cricket fans) have had the chance to wean ourselves off the "SRT habit" slowly. There's so much to write about this little man and so many ways in which he shone but for me three things stand out. First, there's the impact he had on Indian society at large (cricket fans or otherwise). In a country that's often needed reasons to hope and celebrate given the bleak episodes that otherwise abound, Tendulkar has been a source of unadulterated joy and strong inspiration for more than two decades. For a people that are easily disillusioned and prone t...