SARCASM AT IT'S BEST. Review on Sachin Tendulkar

(SARCASM AT IT'S BEST .......) .... {not my original piece though, found it somewhere over a blog!!}

Though considered to be among the modern greats, Sachin Tendulkar has many weaknesses.

Forexample, he is particularly susceptible against fast bowling. Once,Shoaib Akhtar bowled him with a ball faster than the speed of light.Some attributed this to the fact that at those speeds, the mass of theball becomes infinite, making it impossible to play. Sachin himselfcame up with the lamest of excuses saying that he had been unable tospot the ball.

His second weakness is a complete inability to play the unplayable ball.

Butcausing most concern to his fans is that he looks totally lost againstboth Shane Warne's doosra and Murali's googly. In the Adelaide Testmatch of 2003-2005, Murali bowled him thrice in an innings with agoogly. Warne went one better by taking a rare hattrick- he had Sachinbowled, lbw and caught in the deep all in one ball.

Tendulkar's other main weaknesses are listed below:

1. Can't play spin

   
   




2. Can't play left arm medium pace

   
   




3. Can't play incoming ball from the right hand medium pacer

   
   




4. Can't play outgoing balls from the right hand medium pacer

   
   




5. Can't play short/full length balls/ yorkers.

   
   

Also,he has a tendency to be caught behind when playing on the off side, lbwwhen playing on the legside and bowled when playing straight.

It is a mystery how he has scored so many runs, one that has baffled analysts for long.

Hecannot play under pressure- his matchwinning innings at Sharjah weredue to the fact that a sand storm had reduced the atmospheric pressure.

Contraryto poplular belief, he did not play well in the crucial World Cup Matchagainst Pakistan- the Pakistani players are even worse under pressure.

Tendulkarhas had a colourful career. His contests with leading bowlers have madecompelling viewing though most of them have got the better of him,sometimes using unconventional methods.

Famously, McGrath cameup with the ace strategy of bowling to him with an invisible ball.Tendulkar had no answer to that delivery which McGrath insists was aninswinger and was trapped in front of the stumps. It was a victory forthe bowler, who prior to the delivery had asked Tendulkar to hit it ifhe could.

Umpire Buckner was involved in this controversialdismissal. In his autobiography, "A law unto himself", he mentions thatthat "Tendulkar played down the wrong line", was "palpably plumb" andthat that was "the best ball that he had never seen."

Tendulkar'sbowling has proved to be very useful. He counts Inzy Ul Haq among hisbunnies, so fact which was immortalised in a recent newspaper heading,"End-UL-HAQ kar?"

Such complimentary headings cannot hide thefact that Tendulkar has himself been the bunny of many bowlers- McGrathdismissed him 540 times, which forms a major proportion of his 500 Testwickets. Razzaq, Pollock and Kumble have also had a lot of successagainst him at the international level.

Surprisingly, Bucknerhas dismissed him more number of times than even McGrath. What isstunning has been that Buckner has dismissed him in every way possible-many times lbw, equally as many times caught behind, a couple of timesfor obstructing the non striker, thrice for handling the bat, fourtimes for obstructing the sun, seven times bat before wicket, twice forrunning on the pitch and once for beating Lara to 10,000 runs.

Bucknerhas also given him out once, since he predicted that he would showdissent when being given out. Tendulkar promptly protested, thuscompletely vindicating Buckner's decision.

In addition, he has also got him out in modes that are too ridiculous to be discussed here.