Everyone in our country has an opinion about Sachin, no matter however little cricket he might have played. The opinion is mostly mindless. Our country is famous for its deep love and knowledge of the game, which however is far from the truth. Love, here, is only passion and knowledge is knowledge alright, but merely statistical. True knowledge and love for a game or any art, arise out of keen involvement in it; one has to dig deep. A dabbler is no student of the game. Real knowledge is the privilege of a keen learner. Rest all is merely superficial. Here, cricket is no different from Maths. Practice and concentration reveals the mysteries in both.
Indian cricket fan, however, is just a watcher of tamasha, no player himself. Street cricket which he has played often, again for tamasha, can not give him knowledge that a student must have – of technique and temperament. He is a lover of the sixer and slog. No wonder he prays for Dravid to get out; his defence is beyond the fan’s scope of appreciation. To him Sachin, who has a remodelled technique, for reasons the great must have, which means he plays lesser lofted strokes, is out of form and favour. Some ask him to retire.
This country’s cricket acumen is over-rated, merely superstition. Indians, first of all, aren’t great lovers of cricket. They only love the game when India plays; and that too one-day cricket. Bring on twenty-twenty, and they’ll forget the one-dayers too. Once upon a time, Indians loved their test cricket, but now due to the fast paced life and an increasing influence of the west (America, mainly), tests are a passé. Cricket, aided by the media, has now become a tamasha. It is a show and players, like jokers in a circus, actors in movies, must entertain. Subtlety, traditionally and truly cricket’s real beauty, is not understood by more than a handful. While hitters have always been crowd favourites, resilience and patience of a batsman in adversity were equally admired and more revered. Not anymore, at least in this country. It is therefore stupid to talk about the cricket knowledge of the country.
The criticism of a great like Sachin by people who know not a ball from a bat, aided by media, which is as clueless, is ridiculous. A man like Sachin retires when he knows there is no motivation left in him. He’ll not just hang on there; he is too much of a patriot to do that. True, his form is not alright now but the determination in his eyes, on the field tells a lot about his commitment. That Ponting, Yousuf and Lara have been in amazing form at the same time is not helping the case against him but Sachin was on a similar peak for more than a decade and I, only as a keen student of the game and nothing more, see no flaw in his batting technique. Low of confidence, he is just unsure of his feet movement.
With no aim to criticise, I have an observation to make. Sachin, due to the most amazing of strokes he masterfully plays, has become a candidate to the LBW lately, early in his innings. With unique nimbleness of eye and foot, he plays the ball outside the off-stump dead square to the wicket on the leg-side. This shot is the toughest to play along with the on-your-toes back-foot cover drive to a rising ball. Both shots, mastered by Sachin, require skill and tremendous practice, but the one to the leg involves a lot more risk. That, a player like Sachin misses the shot a few times, proves how difficult it is, and any of those who criticise Sachin should try playing it. It is perhaps Sachin’s quest for perfection and never-say-die spirit which causes him to play this shot even though aware of the risk and the number of times he has been dismissed LBW on missing it. If only he’d play the incoming delivery a lot straighter, in the V, as we all are coached, I am sure he’d get over his demons early on the innings. Early in his career, he always played the incoming ball to mid-on and that is also an extremely handsome shot, as he plays that shot with a high elbow and a straight bat.
I am no Sunil Gavaskar, thus my suggestion to an equally great Sachin to avoid his brilliant stroke to square-leg is an audacious one. Yet, I do so, though with all respect and humility. If he has to play the stroke at all, he must play when the ball has lost its shine, and when it has lost it, is not reversing. Even with his eye in the line of the ball, Sachin misses the shot because of the high precision involved. The reason is simple: when he plays in the V, he presents a larger region of the face of the bat to block the ball, but when he wants to play square that bat has to be angled and therefore the area that the bat presents to block the bowl is reduced a lot. When the ball skids on or the wicket is two-paced, and he misses the shot he is plumb LBW as the shot requires a slight movement forward, not a full stride.
Bowlers have discovered this chink in Sachin’s play and now feel more confident bowling to him. If only he’d play in the V, surely the bowlers would lose this edge. He may no longer hit his lofted shots, I am sure he has good reasons for that, he can still dominate and massacre the bowlers, which makes him, along with Lara and Sir Viv Richards, the greatest of all. Ponting too had that ability.
So let us back the great who has given so much joy to all of us and made Indian cricket so popular. Let us not pass foolish judgments. At least, the media should show a keener eye for the game and not just look for masala. Any news on Sachin boosts the TRP’s but the media should be more responsible and principled. Sachin is a great and deserves that respect. I just hope Sachin plays the incoming ball straighter. And yes, uses his feet right away, like he always did, against the spinners.
