Tendulkar completes 20 years in int'l cricket

I'd say he is 2nd best Indian sportsman ever. Whilst its true that playing in those pre independence days was very very tough, still even Dhyanchand didn't have to carry so many hopes on his shoulders for so many years.

Sorry, he is India's greatest cricketer. In terms of iconic status, he surpassess all.

But he is not their best cricketer ever. Purely from skill and cricket skills, I'd have Kapil.

SRT - great man. Though he has many times 'annoyed' me by England not being able to get him out, the real teeth-kicker was last year...

Qunt of a bloke... skilful and humble to boot. Hate the qunt.

Aye, so glad that Ganguly didn't have the talent.....

Aye. At least the LB was shit 90% of the time.

Trotting out my often repeated Tendulkar story.

Fellow I knew lived in the same building complex as him. Years ago, my friend was playing street cricket with his mates when SRT asked to join. SRT was around 11 or 12 years old, these lads were late teens early twenties.

What happened was that SRT proceeded to hit all comers all over the place, refusing to get out. Played some amazing strokes against grown men who were bowling full pelt.

Hearing this story, I asked my journalist friend whether they realized that they were in the presence of genius, that it was incredible that a child was batting so beautifully? Did they offer encouragement to one so talented? Did they at least offer respectful admiration to one who was so clearly a budding master?

"No" said my friend, " We got bored with it so we just told the little $hit to f*ck off. Never asked him to play again".

SG wrote:Which one did you like most?

I personally liked his hook off Caddick the most.

the caddick one was some connection but for me its the shoaib one as it has greater significance.

with that one shot, tendulkar ended pakistans dominance over us and began a new era of indian superiority. just like miandads last ball six off chetan sharma did in 1986.

First time I saw him was in Goochies 333 match.

19 years ago, FFS.

Got bowled having a hack at the druglord Chris Lewis.

Ash wrote:

SG wrote:Which one did you like most?

I personally liked his hook off Caddick the most.

the caddick one was some connection but for me its the shoaib one as it has greater significance.

with that one shot, tendulkar ended pakistans dominance over us and began a new era of indian superiority. just like miandads last ball six off chetan sharma did in 1986.

if i am not mistaken in the 20+ ODI games between the 2 sides since that match PAK have still managed to win MORE games than IND but you are right about the fact that its NOT as one sided as it was in the 80s and 90s.

IND have a lot of work to do before they can catch up to PAK(i don't think it will ever happen in ODI cricket because the Indian "fast" bowlers are very slow )

Undoubtedly India's best and greatest cricketer EVER!!!

The only God I believe in.

PlanetPakistan wrote:

Ash wrote:with that one shot, tendulkar ended pakistans dominance over us and began a new era of indian superiority. just like miandads last ball six off chetan sharma did in 1986.

if i am not mistaken in the 20+ ODI games between the 2 sides since that match PAK have still managed to win MORE games than IND but you are right about the fact that its NOT as one sided as it was in the 80s and 90s.

won 16 lost 17 to pak since then

i dont think one shot makes much of a difference. pakistan has a better record because they had a much better team in the 90s when we played a massive number of odis against each other, not because miandad hit one six

now the teams are more equal and hence the current trend

doremi wrote:Undoubtedly India's best and greatest cricketer EVER!!!

The only God I believe in.

Belief in a fallible god makes a comeback . . .

Will anyone ever manage 20 years as an international cricketer again? It seems very unlikely in today's packed schedule.

How many other currently active Test players even made their debuts before 2000? Off the top of my head I can think of:

Ponting
Dravid
Kallis
Chanderpaul
Ntini
Murali
Jayawardene
Vettori
Harbhajan?
Sangakkara?
MoYo?

Perhaps one or two more but not many. Certainly none from England, Flintoff was our Test side's last link with the 20th century! All those on the list are into their 30s so can't see any of them matching Tendulkar's achievement.

Can Chanders play for another five years?

I suppose it's not impossible, same goes for Drunky though I guess he will probably bow out with his third successive Ashes loss in England if he goes that far...

PlanetPakistan wrote:

Ash wrote:
with that one shot, tendulkar ended pakistans dominance over us and began a new era of indian superiority. just like miandads last ball six off chetan sharma did in 1986.

if i am not mistaken in the 20+ ODI games between the 2 sides since that match PAK have still managed to win MORE games than IND but you are right about the fact that its NOT as one sided as it was in the 80s and 90s.

IND have a lot of work to do before they can catch up to PAK(i don't think it will ever happen in ODI cricket because the Indian "fast" bowlers are very slow )

india have had the mental edge in the big games more often than not. i think most pakistanis know in their heart of hearts that india are now the superior side (as the rankings confirm). we dont play as many odis now and sharjah was paks domain where we dont play anymore. also azhar not fixing the matches also helps.

obviously one shot doesn't make the difference but history remembers it as the watershed moment.

who doesn't believe that India are a more complete and better side than Pakistan over the past decade?