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!

History of Communist revolution in Nepal

History of Communist Revolution in Nepal
I have just begun translating in English an excerpt from 'Bigul'- a monthly workers’ agit-prop paper.

NEPAL’S COMMUNIST REVOLUTION- A CONCISE HISTORY
The Communist Party of Nepal was founded on 22nd April, 1949 amidst the revolutionary struggles against the tyrannical and suppressive dictatorship prevalent in those times.
After the Second World War the entire world witnessed a huge surge in waves of national liberation struggles The Communists were in the front-lines in the struggles against colonialism, semi-colonialism and neo-colonialism. The prominent role and nonpareil sacrifices of Soviet Union in defeating Fascist forces established the general acceptance of Socialism in the masses pining to be liberated. Post-Second World War witnessed the establishment of democratic forces led by the Proletariat in entire East Europe and East Germany. The victory of Chinese neo-democratic revolution was imminent. And similar was the scenario of national freedom struggles under the able and effective leadership of the Communists in nations like Vietnam, Korea etc. Communist forces in India failed to effectively lead the national movement because of innate ideological weaknesses and aberrations and also due to lack of correct assessment of concrete situation. However, after 1947, farmers’ struggles as well as the workers' movements continued under the leadership of Communists in Tebhaga-Telangana and Punapra-Vyalar regions. Communist ideology had influenced a large section of the radical middle-class educated youth.
Formation of N.C.P. and its initial stages: A revolutionary beginning and regulatory mechanism
This entire world scenario and political upheavals in India influenced deeply a minuscule radical population of radical educated youths in neighborhood Nepal. Few of such youth activists formed a Marxist research-wing aimed at eliminating the tyrannical feudal dictatorship. Pushplal Shreshta, Narbahadur Karmacharya, Niranjan Gobind Vaidya, and Narayan Vilas Joshi played prominent roles in these. Other prominent name among the founders of the party was of Manmohan Adhikari who had come to Varanasi in 1938 for research purposes. He participated in Quit India Movement (1942) and even went to jail. Later he too got influenced by Marxist ideology and joined the Communist party of India. He actively participated as a trade union leader in Birat Nagar when he returned back to Nepal. He was there as an active participant when Nepal Communist Party (NCP) was founded in 1949.
At the time of its founding conference, Communist Party distributed a pamphlet that appealed and emphasized the necessity of armed struggle to establish new democracy and also asserted the leading role of Communist Party in the new democratic revolution. After this, the first manifesto of the party was published in September, 1949. It was explicitly stated in the manifesto, “The only vista to the liberation of Nepal lies in building of democratic state of toiling masses by overthrowing the prevailing feudal system and the imperialistic and capitalistic dominance under the leadership of the working classes”. It was said in the manifesto that uncompromising struggle against the prevalent feudal system was the only way to liberate Nepali masses and only Communist Party was competent of ushering in of a new era by leading a revolution. So, the Nepalese masses should organize and mobilize under the banner of Communist Party..
In its very first appeal and manifesto it was mentioned clearly that Imperialism and its cohort bourgeoisie class’ agents would try to disturb the ongoing revolution. The insinuation was clearly at Nepalese Congress party leaders. NCP actively fought for against autocratic system, but the struggle failed to get a direction owing to the inept leadership in the hands of Congress. After the 1951 ‘Delhi Pact’, Rana Tribhuvan Singh’s reign established multiparty democracy to end autocracy, but if failed to affect any positive changes in the fundamental socio-economic structure of Nepalese society. Besides Imperialism, the influence of Indian expansionist policy (which has clear proof lay in the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty and many other kindred treaties that comprised continual unequal coupled with the effects of treaties imposed on Nepal during the British Raj) remained and feudal suppression in the villages steadily continued. End of suppressive and unbridled autocracy and the establishment of multilateral democratic order were mere tools of a confined bourgeoisie reform that solely aimed at giving a cold shoulder to the revolutionary aspirations of the Nepalese and ending all possibilities of development. NCP lampooned by stating that ‘Delhi Pact’ was tantamount to a fraud. The party believed that actual democracy cannot be imposed over the people but can only be brought forth by force, decision and initiative of common man. It is worth mentioning that it was NCP who first shouted strategic slogan to hold elections for Constituent Assembly by dint of universal suffrage.
The first party convention in 1951 implemented the manifesto named ‘The road to neo-democracy for Nepal’s public’. Pushplal Shreshtha was elected the first Chairman. This manifesto stressed on the uncompromising need of armed struggle. It can be stated that that despite the headless leadership due to lack of ideological-political clarity and topical experience in the initial stages the Communists in Nepal continued marching ahead in their movement. Consequently revolutionary activism increased continually carried forward by new recruits and new people’s establishments that furthered the struggles of farmers and the hoi polloi. Within few years the party donned the role of fugleman in national politics especially in the areas of political-strategic influences.
In between, the year 1951 witnessed political upheavals as Communists were banned this year and a multiparty parliamentary code was established. The party whipsawed between the challenge of managing to stay afloat despite the tyrannical ban and of operating undercover in lieu of it to continue revolutionary activism. But the immature and non-worker leadership was unable to cope with this double whammy resulting in the upsurge of constitutional, parliamentarian and reformist forces. The first congress was held in 1953 staring at the face of ban. Congress elected a new central committee whose chairman was Manmohan Adhikari. Another prominent personality Mohan Vikram Singh joined the Nepal Communist revolution the same year. Young Turk Mohan Vikram Singh started his political career with Nepalese Congress playing an active role in the public uprising for the establishment of democracy in 1950-51. There e was an innate lack of clarity in the measures that needed to be adapted against the ruling order in the first Congress. It, therefore, amended its first manifesto and initiated proactive measures in changing the revolutionary programmes. This process continued in the second convention held in 1955. The party initiated a changed paradigm acceptable to both the ruling and the reactionary forces. The reformist leanings were palpable now. Bowing to the demands laid down by the reactionary forces in 1955 party chairman Manmohan Adhikari shot a missive to the king to give recognition to the conditions of peaceful revolutionary struggle and to accept the constitutional rulership, which can enable the party to operate freely. Party was clearly inclined towards Southern opportunism and it resulting in lifting of the ban in 1956.
Reformist aberrations and stages of struggles against them: N.C.P.caught in the whirlpool of resistance and disruption (1957-68)
When Manmohan Singh was on a trip to China in 1957 Dr. Kesharjang Raimajhi was made the acting Chairman. In his leadership pro-Czarists and Semitic forces started dominating in a constitutional influence. In the 20th Congress the party in Soviet Union had established the mantra of peaceful transition of reforms by dint of Khrushchev’s reformist victories. Khrushchev’s wave of reforms found echo and encouragement in similar sentiments cutting through the swathes of Nepal too. The lure of parliamentary election prompted the party leadership to sacrifice the lines of constituent assembly.



To be contd.