The Beginning of the End?

THE BEGINNING OF THE END?
By: Akshay A. Kalbag
As arch–rivals India and Pakistan prepare to take on each other in the first of five one–day internationals tomorrow, it is clear that only one team will be able to hold their heads high and go to Peshawar with a lot of confidence and belief in its own ability. That team is the host country, Pakistan, led by their inspirational skipper, Inzamam ul–Haq.
As for the visitors, they have their tasks cut out, as they go into the one–dayers a defeated, demoralised side, woefully low on confidence. The Indian batting line–up, led by Rahul Dravid (who is also known as ‘The Wall’) and comprising stalwarts like Virender Sehwag (a.k.a. ‘The Nawab of Najafgarh’), V.V.S. Laxman (a.k.a. ‘Very Very Special’), Sachin Tendulkar (a.k.a. ‘The Master Blaster’), Sourav Ganguly (a.k.a. ‘The Prince of Kolkata’) and the young, raw, talented and exciting left–hander Yuvraj Singh, is considered one of the strongest batting line–ups in the world in recent times. But seeing the way they capitulated in the second innings of the Karachi Test last week, chasing a mammoth target of 607 runs, it is impossible to believe that this batting line–up has four of the biggest names in world cricket (Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar and Ganguly), who collectively have almost a decade of experience of playing international cricket, have played over fifty Tests each and have scored thousands of runs between them. It took an awesome performance from the trio of Pakistani pacers–Shoaib Akhtar (who is known as the ‘Rawalpindi Express’), Mohammed Asif and Abdul Razzaq–to make the ‘Wall’ crumble, to turn the ‘Nawab of Najafgarh’ and the ‘Prince of Kolkata’ into paupers, to force the ‘Master Blaster’ to make ‘master blunders’, and to make Mr. ‘Very Very Special’ look ‘Very Very Silly’ at the crease. As for Yuvraj Singh, he unfortunately scored a ton in vain, but some credit definitely goes to him for holding one end up while wickets continued to fall like nine pins at the other end.
Sachin Tendulkar, in particular, was the biggest disappointment of them all. He is one of India’s most capped cricketers and has consistently been rated among the top five batsmen in the world for several years. A resident of Bandra, Mumbai, Tendulkar made his Test debut for India in the Pakistani port city of Karachi in 1989, when he was a curly–haired, sixteen year–old schoolboy. Though he did not immediately give proof of his immense talent in his maiden international appearance, the champion batsman eventually did stamp his class over bowling attacks the world over during a career that spanned over 16 years, scoring a staggering aggregate of over 23000 runs in international cricket, acquiring the nickname of ‘Master Blaster’ and a reputation for being a thorn in the flesh of even the best bowlers in the world. Between 1989 and 2006, he has gone on to set and break several batting records and become a living legend, a model of passion and commitment, an inspiration for the younger generation and an ambassador for his country and sport. Tendulkar, who is known to give his one hundred percent whenever he wears the Indian colours, is only one of five Indians to play one hundred or more Test matches for India, the others being Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar and Anil Kumble.
But, he was, literally, on familiar territory last week, when he took on the Pakistanis at Karachi’s National Stadium in the third and final match of the three–Test series. Tendulkar, coming in to bat at number four, scored 23 in the first innings and 26 in the second. The only batsmen to offer some sort of resistance to the blistering pace of Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammed Asif and Abdul Razzaq were second innings century–maker Yuvraj Singh and India’s beleaguered former captain Sourav Ganguly, who got starts in both innings. This series was as important for Tendulkar’s future in international cricket as it was for that of Ganguly’s. But while Yuvraj continued to score runs at one end, in a bid to cement his place in the Indian Test side, wickets continued to fall at regular intervals at the other end. India soon slumped to a massive 341–run defeat in the only match of the series to end in a result. Pakistan won the match, and with it the series by a margin of 1-0.
It is not going to be easy for the cricket–crazy Indian fans to digest the fact that one of their favourite cricketing heroes is now a shadow of his former self, and is trying to regain both his form and fitness. Tendulkar is not getting any younger, and his two recent failures to bear the gargantuan weight of expectations and responsibilities on his shoulder is making India’s seniormost player open to severe criticism. However, as he is a vital cog in India’s formidable batting line–up, and is looking vulnerable at the moment, every passionate Indian now feels justified in expressing their hurt at being let down by the hero they idolise and hold in such high esteem, who has become a villain in their eyes due to his poor performances. It is upto Tendulkar now to silence his critics, who believe he is a spent force in international cricket, and prove them wrong by letting his bat do the talking as usual, and if he performs well in the one–day internationals, he will also be able to answer the crucial question which is on every Indian fan’s mind at the moment: ‘is it the beginning of the end of his glorious career?’ However, most cricket fans in India are hoping that the answer to that question is ‘no’. The ball is now in the veteran’s court!