Sachin Tendulkar 100th century

Sachin Tendulkar’s 100^th century topic

Opinions, views and criticisms continue to pour out on Sachin Tendulkar’s 100^th century. Every time sachin tendulkar is playing a game, everyone seems to focus only on the 100^th century, whether it is the match previews on newspapers, cricket websites or the experts on TV, before and during the game, till he gets out and then the same medium then comes up with various views some of which are laughable for a sensible cricket fan who has followed sachin’s career for over 20 years. 

Let me make a few points of my own on this raging topic in random order:

Significance of the 100^th 100:  It is a mammoth cricketing achievement undoubtedly but like any other century, it will be another innings where sachin will start at zero and has to get to a century.  To him, scoring runs and contributing effectively to the team has always been significant like it is for any player who is playing for their country, regardless of how they appear or what they speak. No batsman wants to get out to get a poor score as everyone wants to score well and a century is a recognised landmark which every batsman wants to achieve.  Just see the reaction of every player who gets to a century or any significant milestone and hence, just singling out sachin is not correct.

Is Sachin nervous about it: The fact that he has also made the maximum nineties in international cricket is an amazing indication that you don’t just score 100s by turning up even if you are the most successful century maker. As a batsman you can get out any ball means you can get out to any score, whether it is 10, 25 or a 95. In my small little word of club cricket, i am nervous every time i go out to bat because i want to do well for the team and i see the same with most of my fellow players. If you don’t care, you won’t be nervous either and this can be applied to most life scenarios.  So, yes he is nervous because he is human but he has been nervous all through his career like every other sportsman and hence, it cannot be singled out suddenly because he is on 99 centuries.

Blaming Sachin or the Indian team for all this hype:  This is the most laughable aspect of some of the analysis even by so called expert journalists or former players. It cannot be that the Indian team as a whole has been thrashed in England and Australia, because of the 100^th century factor. They did win a world cup during this time but if they had lost in the WC final, there is no doubt that some  people would have come up with the fancy idea that the team was focused on sachin’s 100 and hence lost the game.  Surely, a dravid or a viru or a kohli or a dhoni or a zak are not going out there thinking about sachin’s 100^th century and not about their own game. If any of them are, then it is surely not sachin’s fault.  Whether Sachin himself has not been at his best in the English and Australian tour because of this is also open to debate because he has still got starts, scored 50s but got out just like any batsmen gets out.  He should be blamed for not playing his usual hand in both these tours and nothing more and same to the other team members which is why we have lost both these test series.

Other usual points about Sachin: There is a website designed to answer his critics about his performances, etc and hence, i am not going to go into that, as it is mostly pointless. But, i will comment now and then with my own perspectives especially when i see a comment or article which i do not agree with.