Master Blaster Sachin : GOD of Cricket

Blistering innings from Sachin proved that still he is the GOD of Cricket. No Substitute for him.

There is a Banner at SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground) says:

"Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting. They will go unnoticed for even the Lord is busy watching him."



Once again, he said via his batting that we can continue to do the crime when he is on the middle! :-)

Hats Off Little Master! You have been fantastic throughout your career!

Thank you sachin for making us proud! You have made the whole Nation proud. Don't ever think of retirement because we know that you are still young.

Congratulations Sachin for your 17000 runs. Wish you to cross 20000 runs. You are not only genius but you are a legend where no one can reach.

Do you know this?? - Trivia

Marvan Atapattu of Sri Lanka, who later went on to captain the side, scored 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0 in his first six Test innings.

Former Pakistan pacer Aaqib Javed is the youngest player to take a ODI hat-trick. He achieved the feat against India at the age of 19 in 1991.

Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting who played their last Test in February 1995, played 197 Tests between them and scored over 13,000 runs.

Of the 17 ODI hundreds scored by legendary WI opener Desmond Haynes, 11 were unbeaten and 16 came in winning causes.

Richie Benaud, who retired in 1964, holds the proud record of having never captained Australia to a series defeat.

India and England had an impromptu rest day on day two of the Madras Test in 1952, following the death of King George VI.

Don Bradman played his last innings in Australia against India and retired hurt for 57 after he tore a muscle under his left ribs.

Albert Trott is the only man in the history of the game to have cleared the pavilion at Lord's. He hit Monty Noble out of the ground.

In the third Test at Kingsmead in 1957, Hugh Tayfield bowled 137 balls without conceding a run during England's first innings vs South Africa.

In 1980, Sunil Gavaskar (166) and Kapil Dev (84 and match figures of 11 for 136) gave India their first series victory over Pakistan in 27 years.

Australia's Joe Darling hit the ball out of the Adelaide Oval to reach his century in the first Test against England in 1898.

If Kapil Dev had not been dropped for one Test against England in 1984-85, his Test career would have consisted of 132 consecutive matches.

England captain Mike Denness dropped himself for the fourth Test of the Ashes series in 1975 after making just 65 runs in the last six innings.

England captain Mike Denness dropped himself for the fourth Test of the Ashes series in 1975 after making just 65 runs in the last six innings.

In 1979, Gavaskar scored 182 in the 2nd innings of the 3rd Test against WI to become the only batsman to hit a century in each innings of a Test three times.

England cricketer Jack Hobbs, who scored 83 in his first Test knock, went on to become the first batsman to score 5000 Test runs.

VVS Laxman hit 44 boundaries in his knock of 281 against Australia in the Kolkata Test at the Eden Gardens in 2001.

Only one Indian test cricketer - Rusi Surti - played Sheffield Shield cricket in Australia. He played for Queensland.

B Chandrashekhar is the only cricketer to have scored fewer runs in his test career than the number of wickets he took - 242 wickets and 177 runs.

M.L. Jaisimha and Ravi Shastri have both batted on all five days of a Test Match.

The only bowler to have got the great Aussie Sir Donald Bradman out hit wicket was India's Lala Amarnath.

Southpaw Vinod Kambli, who scored two consecutive double hundreds in Test cricket, hit the first Ranji Trophy ball he faced for a six.

Indian spinner Maninder Singh was the last man to be dismissed in the famous tied Test against Australia in Chennai in 1986.

India played its first one-day international match against England at Headingley in 1974, under the captaincy of Ajit Wadekar.

Dravid adds value to the team: Tendulkar

Senior Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar feels Rahul Dravid's inclusion after close to two years has added "value" to the ODI team and his experience would come in handy during the tri-series in Sri Lanka and the subsequent Champions Trophy in South Africa.



"It should help the team. He brings in a lot of experience on the table and also a lot of skill. I think his will be good value addition to the team," Tendulkar said.

Tendulkar said the team is fitter and hungrier after wrapping up a four-day training camp in Bangalore to prepare for the tri-series in Sri Lanka, where New Zealand is the third team.

"The camp has ended on a positive note and the team looks pretty solid and hungry. Sri Lanka is one place which is not very free scoring," he said.

"It will be a challenge for some of the stroke players in our team. As boundaries can be difficult to come by, there will be a lot of running between the wickets involved," he added.

Tendulkar said all the three participating teams were evenly matched and it is difficult to say which one of them would eventually win the short series.

"We are an extremely good fielding unit and we turned around games with our fielding. It is a misconception to assume that New Zealand and Sri Lanka have an edge over us.

"We run well between the wickets, our run out conversion is good, our catching ability is amongst the best, our bowlers are much more disciplined as they don't bowl wides and no balls. I think we are three evenly matched teams," Tendulkar told espnstar.com.

Asked whether the Indians had decoded mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis, who has tormented them in the past, Tendulkar said, "These are the contests created by the media. Ajantha Mendis, Muthiah Muralitharan or Chaminda Vaas are all good bowlers and we as a team respect them. At the same time we have a plan for each one of them."

"On the last trip batsmen like Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir handled Mendis and Murali really well. I think we can build on that. These youngsters bring a fresh approach and mindset which then rubs off on others which helps the team produce good results," he added.

Rare Photos of Saurav Ganguly

Some rare photos of "dada" from his past and present days

Sourav at the age of 5.

If not cricket, he would probably have been a football player. A self confessed fan of the great game.

Sourav with wife Dona Ganguly. In his early schooldays, he used to write her essays.

Sourav and Dona at their home.

The first families of cricket Sourav and Sachin along with children.

Tour Photos from England. A group photo of his first tour.

And this one along with Sachin and Vinod Kambli from the same tour

Sachin the Warrior

Little master Short by stature, Sachin Tendulkar is just 5'4" tall. Less than two times the height of a cricket bat, the top of the handle of his bat should have reached the top of his thigh! This is one of the key drivers for a successful batsman. Nature blessed him this way.

Sachin the magician
He played in 90 different pitches in the world. Obviously he had the trick to defend and attack any kind of bowlers at any point of time - be it in-swinger, out-swinger, reverse-swinger, fast or spin - both in Test Matches and in ODIs. Without such a technique in hand, perfect concentration, physical fitness and good mind set to handle pressures, it would not be possible for him to break and make records - 60+ in all.

For records’ sake
His records include highest run scorer in Test Matches and ODIs, most number of man of the match awards and man of the series awards, most centuries in Test and ODIs etc. The number of runs he scored till 11th Feb 2009 in Test, ODIs and First Class cricket are equal to a distance of 1450 Kms. We should remember that the length of the pitch between the wickets is just 22 yards!

Unusual records
Sachin Tendulkar was the first batsman to have been declared run out by a third umpire in 1992 against South Africa in South Africa. He holds the record for the most number of scores ranging in the nineties in the ODIs. Sachin has lost his wickets thrice on the score of 99, most by any batsmen in the ODIs!

Facts you should know
He was the first overseas cricketer to play for Yorkshire CCC in 1993. Sachin Tedulkar has made the highest runs in ODIs in a given calendar year. He has scored over 1000 runs in a calendar year in ODI's 7 times. He is the only player to be in top 10 ICC ranking for 10 years. The India Poised campaign run by The Times of India had nominated him as the Face of New India next to the likes of Amartya Sen and Mahatma Gandhi among others.

Sachin, the captain
He is a great thinker of the game and a good strategist too. It was his great cricketing mind that saw him being appointed as the captain of the Indian side in 1996-97 making him the second youngest captain in the history of Indian cricket (the youngest being M.A.K. Pataudi who was appointed captain at the age of 21).

Sachin the warrior
He initially justified the faith put in him by leading India to series victories against Australia (Border - Gavaskar Trophy), South Africa (at home) and also lifted the Titan cup (Triangular tournament featuring India, Australia & South Africa). But after that, the performances dropped. Azharuddin was credited with saying, “He won't win! It's not in the small one's destiny”.

Sachin, the bowler
Initially Sachin Tendulkar aspired to become a fast bowler. He joined the MRF Pace Foundation to get training under Dennis Lillee, an Australian pace bowler. He could not impress Dennis with his bowling performance. Dennis advised him to concentrate on batting. This was the turning point and the cricket world got a legend.

Sachin, the brand
He is a cricketer and a brand all rolled into one. At any rate, he makes for a study in brand endorsement. His meteoric rise as a brand ambassador has been helped by the surfeit of cricket on television, the almost frenzied fan following for the game, and the man himself. Can you ever imagine Tiger Woods endorsing biscuits, or Michael Jordan selling tyres? Sachin does all this - and with aplomb.

King of endorsements
Sachin Tendulkar was an early pioneer in India on cricket business dealings when he signed a then record sports management deal with Worldtel in 1995, the value of the deal being Rupees 30 crore over 5 years. His next contract with WorldTel in 2001 was valued at 80 crores over 5 years. “You've got to create heroes and you've got to pay them," said Mark Mascarenhas back in 1996 after he made Sachin India's first multimillionaire sportsperson.

Richest cricketer
He is at present the highest earning cricketer in the world. While figures are not available for the various products that Sachin endorses, rough estimates reveal he charges about Rs 1.5 crore per endorsement. The curly-haired, chubby picture of Sachin domineering advertising hoardings and television sets brings him under the microscope. But nobody would mind as long as he also makes runs when India needs him the most - out there in the middle.

Ball tempering and Sachin? No way!
In the second Test of India's 2001 tour of South Africa, Tendulkar was given a suspended ban of one game in the light of alleged ball tampering. Television cameras picked up images that suggested Tendulkar may have been involved in cleaning the seam of the cricket ball.

Truth prevails
The match referee Mike Denness found Sachin Tendulkar guilty of ball tampering charges and handed him a one Test match ban. Back in India Sachin's supporters burnt an effigy of Mike Denness while the BJP wanted the national team to pull out of their South Africa tour if penalties imposed on Sachin stemmed from racial discrimination. After a thorough investigation, the ICC revoked the official status of the match and the ban on Tendulkar was lifted.

Ferrari farce
In commemorating Sachin Tendulkar's feat of equalling Don Bradman's 29 centuries in Test cricket, automotive giant Ferrari invited him to its paddock in Silverstone on the eve of the British Grand Prix (July 23, 2002) to receive a Ferrari 360 Modena from the legendary F1 racer Michael Schumacher.

IPL ‘09
Last year, an injured Sachin Tendulkar’s presence in the Mumbai IPL team was limited to the last few matches of the IPL cricket tournament. However, this time around he is in rollicking form - his recent batting exploits during India's tour to New Zealand make it clear that Sachin still has a lot of batting in him. And well his 59 in the inaugural match of IPL '09 has already proved that!

I think he is "all time great cricketer"...

Sehwag’s ‘blank shirt’

The number on the t-shirt worn by a cricketer in a one-day match has a lot of significance and sometimes players are identified based on these numbers. Sachin Tendulkar is an example who had been using the number Ten through out his career. Some players also consider specific number to be lucky and tend to have those numbers on their shirts when they get on to the field.

“Most of my family members and friends keep pestering me about the lucky numbers I have to wear to do well in a match. I do not believe in Astrology and wanted to drive home the point that success in a match depends on your own skills and not the number on my t-shirt. So I wore a shirt without a number”, said Sehwag.