Sach is almost GOD

It is always high time we criticized arm-chair critics of the living legend of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. True cricketing legends like Bradman, Border,Richards, Gavaskar, Lara, Warne, Lee, Mcgrath among others have immensely admired his genius on numerous occasions. He is almot like GOD personified. India always lost because 9 out 10 times he battled as the lone ranger with little or no support for more than decade. It was perhaps a tad unfortunate for him to have spoiled his genius in India for few thankless men. He could have been a match-winner for a better cricketing side like Australia with the support of a proper cricketing side and ones with a winning attitude. Before his debut and due to exit of Gavaskar and Kapil Indian cricketing side had reconciled to the notional losses almost all the time. I can reminisce a joke doing the rounds in the late eighties and early nineties that a child tells the teacher that he wants to be in the Indian cricket as they do not beat anyone. Sachin gave the aggro quotient and revived the winning spirit in India. My generation of cricket fans can recall the changed defeatist psyche of Indian cricketing side when this youngster almost won an exhibition match against Pakistan to break the Miandad inspired Sharjah jinx with the spin legend Abdul Qadir being at the receiving end. We lost that and other matches because of lack of support on the parteners' side. There are others. I remember a peerless 177 against Australia in 98 and maginficent Perth century in his first tour to Australia. Plus, the whole Australia 99 tour in which he was man of the series despite India losing 0-3. Another example can be the 99 Chennai test match against pak when his fighting ton went in vain because there was simply none to support and we lost by a paltry margin and again he was blamed for the sundry runs that he failed to gather. Ten years later the ghost was exorcised against England on the last day when yuvi came to the fore to help him pull a seemingly impossible victory(as was being felt the penultimate day.)We need players of the calibre of Dhoni, Gauti,Veeru, Bhajji, Zak, Ishant,and Yuvi among few to back up a cricketing genius and not just Dravid, Laxman and Kumble alone. You need to have a proper team at least.
He along with Laxman(in tests), Vishy, Sehwag, Yuvi, Dhoni and very few can be credited for ripping apart any quality bowling attack say Australian (read Warne, M cgrath, Lee esp)whose club level bowling is superior to perhaps many other bowling attack barring the old Windies one, few Pakistani gems and a few Indian ones like the famous spin trio among others.As an opener it was always unfair to expect from him to finish the matches. If he did not win a particular match, he set up the wins as per the legendary Lara. Indians perhaps do not deserve this rare legend who blissfully ignore his masterclass act as a batter in several match-winning occasions like 1998 Sharjah Desert Storm and finals,World Cup 03 semifinal,CB Series-08 final,recent Chennai Test's incredible run chase, iner alia, to catapult Indian cricket to survive for a place as a cricket playing nation for almost 2 decades. We could have been out of the loop without him and the current breed of talented youngsters could have perchance never got to play for a nation due to the degeneration that has happened with Indian Hockey. True cricket lovers and almost any other cricketing legend eulogizes HIM barring these few arm-chair critics who cannot even hold the willow properly and face a ball coming at 50 kph. Let us also not forget that he has excelled in all formats of cricket never buckling under pressure of a billion plus fanatic fans. Many will cower at the very thought of facing the wrath of these fans if they failed to deliver. This could have resulted in their untimely exit or a cardiac arrest in the park. But not Sachin. He braved all odds and was reborn all the time he was unduly criticized. How may times do we expect him to be reborn? Verily, a game is not just about winning or losing. The well known columnist Peter Roebuck calls him a masterclass entertainer after he AGAIN set the record straight in the CB series final last year. He along with the support of Dravid, Ganguly,Yuvraj,Sehwag,Irfan,Jadeja, Azhar,Zak,Bhajji,and Jumbo among others sustained the legacy of Gavaskar,Vishy, and Kapil Dev just to name a few among the older lot. Got this from Mr. Amit Tripathi on a rediff messageboard speaking volumes about Sachin's contributions to cricket.
1. Highest Run scorer in the ODI
2. Most number of hundreds in the ODI
3. Most number of nineties in the ODI
4. Most number of man of the matches(58) in the ODI's
5. Most number of man of the series(14) in ODI's
6. Best average for man of the matches in ODI's
7. First Cricketer to pass 10000 run in the ODI
8. First Cricketer to pass 15000 run in the ODI
9. He is the highest run scorer in the world cup (1,796 at an average of 59.87 as on 20 March 2007)
10. Most number of the man of the matches in the world cup
11. Most number of runs 1996 world cup 523 runs in the 1996 Cricket World Cup at an average of 87.16
12. Most number of runs in the 2003 world cup 673 runs in 2003 Cricket World Cup, highest by any player in a single Cricket World Cup
13. He was Player of the World Cup Tournament in the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
14. Most number of Fifties in ODI's 91
15. Appeared in Most Number of ODI's 407
16. He is the only player to be in top 10 ICC ranking for 10 years.
17. Most number of 100's in test's 40.
18. He is one of the three batsmen to surpass 11,000 runs in Test cricket, and the first Indian to do so
19. He is thus far the only cricketer to receive the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honor
20. In 2003, Wisden rated Tendulkar as d No. 1 and Richards at No. 2 in all time Greatest ODI player
21. In 2002, Wisden rated him as the second greatest Test batsman after Sir Donald Bradman.
22. he was involved in unbroken 664-run partnership in a...text missing

27. Tendulkar has scored 1894 runs in calendar year in ODI's most by any batsman
28. He is the highest earning cricketer in the world
29. He has the least percentage of the man of the matches awards won when team looses a match. Out of his 56 man of the match awards only 5 times India has lost.
30. Tendulkar most number man of match awards(10) against Australia
31. In August of 2003, Sachin Tendulkar was voted as the "Greatest Sportsman" of the country in the sport personalities category in the Best of India poll conducted by Zee News.
32. In November 2006, Time magazine named Tendulkar as one of the Asian Heroes.
33. In December 2006, he was named "Sports person of the Year
34. The current India Poised campaign run by The Times of India has nominated him as the Face of New India next to the likes of Amartya Sen and Mahatma Gandhi among others.
35. Tendulkar was the first batsman in history to score over 50 centuries in international cricket
36. Tendulkar was the first batsman in history to score over 75 centuries in international cricket:79 centuries
37. Has the most overall runs in cricket, (ODIs Tests Twenty20s), as of 30 June 2007 he had accumulated almost 26,000 runs overall.
38. Is second on the most number of runs in test cricket just after Brian Lara
39. Sachin Tendulkar with Sourav Ganguly hold the world record for the maximum number of runs scored by the opening partnership. They have put together 6,271 runs in 128 matches
40. The 20 century partnership missing text....

45. the only player ever to cross the 13,000-14,000 and 15,000 run marks IN ODI.
46. Highest individual score among Indian batsmen (186* against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1999).
47. The score of 186* is listed the fifth highest score recorded in ODI matches
48. Tendulkar has scored over 1000 ODI runs against all major Cricketing nations.
49. Sachin was the fastest to reach 10,000 runs taking 259 innings and has the highest batting average among batsmen with over 10,000 ODI runs
50. Most number of Stadium Appearances: 90 different Grounds
51. Consecutive ODI Appearances: 185
52. On his debut, Sachin Tendulkar was the second youngest debutant in the world
53. When Tendulkar scored his maiden century in 1990, he was the second youngest to score a century
54. Tendulkar's record of five test centuries before he turned 20 is a current world record
55. Tendulkar holds the current record (217 against NZ in 1999/00 Season) for the highest score in Test cricket by an Indian when captaining the side
56. Tendulkar has scored centuries against all test playing nations.[7] He was the third batman to achieve the distinction after Steve Waugh and Gary Kirsten
57. Tendulkar has 4 seasons in test cricket with 1000 or more runs - 2002 (1392 runs), 1999 (1088 runs), 2001 (1003 runs) and 1997 (1000 runs).[6] Gavaskar is the only other Indian with four seasons of 1000 runs
58. He is second most number of seasons with over 1000 runs in world.
And the list goes on.......................................

Now it is upto the likes of Dhoni, Yuvraj,Sehwag,Robin,Sree,Rohit,Murali,Irfan, Rohit,Subra,Ravinder,Mishra,Dhawal,Virat,Chetan,Tanmay etc. etc. to carry foward this legacy in the best way and make India prouder as the numero uno in all formats(including the T20 one)of cricket. Yes, we can!