Sachin Tendulkar ... Who Said What About Him

Last week Sachin celebrated his 36th birthday on 24th of March. I wanted to write a tribute to him but did not find much time. I will probably do that when he hangs-up his gloves and bat. For now, all I can say is that its a real shame that we are not getting to see him bat in the current IPL T20 season else Mumbai Indians would have been in much better position in the points tally. I just pray for his speedy recovery and hope he gets back to the field as soon as possible, and entertain the crowds as he has been doing for past 19 years.

For the time being, as a tribute, I have a listed a collection of quotes on Sachin. Read them and enjoy !!!

• K R Wadhwaney: "Batting has been God's gift to him. Candidly, Sir Donald Bradman, a boy from Bowrel, had not been as gifted as India's little young man."

________________________________________

• Mohinder Amarnath: "A complete batsman- he's the best in the business."

________________________________________

• Lalchand Rajput, Former Mumbai captain: "Even as a teenager he always seemed very focused and alert on the field. He learnt his lessons fast."

________________________________________

• Prof. R. Shetty, Secretary MCA: "We are proud to possess him due to his commitment to Mumbai and Indian cricket."

________________________________________

• Harsha Bhogle: "There's no better sight on the cricket field than watch Tendulkar bat."

________________________________________

• Raj Singh, Former President Indian Cricket Board: "I was very impressed the first time I saw him bat as a little boy at the Cricket Club of India."

________________________________________

• Don Bradman: I saw him playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this player is playing much the same as I used to play, and she looked at him on Television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two...hi compactness, technique, stroke production... it all seemed to gel!

________________________________________

• David Boon: "Technically he stands out as the best because of his ability to increase the pace at will".

________________________________________

• Jeff Thompson: "Sachin is an attacker. He has much more power than Sunny. He wants to be the one to set the pace. He has to be on top. That's the buzz about him."

________________________________________

• Shane Warne: You have to decide for yourself whether you're bowling well or not. He's going to hit you for fours and sixes anyway. Kasprowicz has a superior story. During the Bangalore Test, frustrated, he went to Dennis Lillee and asked, "Mate, do you see any weaknesses?" Lillee replied, "No Michael, as long as you walk off with your pride that's all you can do."

________________________________________

• Mark Taylor: "He's a phenomenon. We have to be switched on when he plays allow him no boundries, for then he doesn't stop."

________________________________________

• Ian Healy: "Tendulkar is the most complete batsman I have stood behind. I saw the hundred in Perth on a bouncy pitch with Hughes, McDermott and Whitney gunning for him - he only had 60-odd when No 11 came in. I've seen him against Warne too."

________________________________________

• Ian Chappell: "Harder he works, the luckier he gets."

________________________________________

• Richie Benaud: "He has defined cricket in his fabulous, impeccable manner. He is to batting what Shane Warne is to bowling."

________________________________________

• Mike Coward: "Sachin's the best. I've had this view since I saw him score that hundred in Sydney in 1992. He's the most composed batsman I've ever seen."

________________________________________

• Paul Wilson: "He's better than Ben Hur.

________________________________________

• Mark Waugh: "The pressure on me is nothing as compared to Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin, like God, must never fail. The crowd always expects him to succeed and it is too much pressure on him."

________________________________________

• Glenn McGrath: "I still think Tendulkar is the best batsmen in the world ahead of Steve Waugh and Lara"

________________________________________

• Sir. Gary Sobers: "He is currently the best batsman in the world."

________________________________________

• Brian Lara: "He's a genius. I'm a mere mortal."

________________________________________

• Micheal Holding: "Sachin's undoubtedly no.1 today but I wouldn't start comparing him with Viv Richards till he scores hundreds against quality fast bowlers on fast pitches."

________________________________________

• Vivian Richards: "He's 99.5 percent perfect. I'd pay to see him."

________________________________________

• Wesley Halls: "The only way to stop him is to keep him off the strike."

________________________________________

• Vivian Richards: "He's always ready, it's a mental preparedness thing. I too focused on being aggressive. But Sachin has something special. He's blessed."

________________________________________

• Clive Lloyd: "He is a tremendous cricketer. He is young and has got a lot of ability. He's got his own style. He has got the temperament for big cricket and I hope that he goes from strength to strength."

________________________________________

• Brian Lara: "He is a very good batsman. Perhaps he is the best in the world now. If he plays consistently he will go down in history as a great cricketer."

________________________________________

• Tony Greig: "He is cool, has magnificent temperament, and is so mature you tend to forget his age. I can't think of any other example of a player who has so dominated the world before the age of 25."

________________________________________

• Ted Dexter: (who chaired the panel, the Coopers & Lybrand award as the International Test player of the year) "This year Tendulkar has been the batsman nobody wanted to bowl at. He took Shane Warne apart in India, which illustrates his genius."

________________________________________

• The Rev David Shepherd: "Sachin Tendulkar! If he isn't the best player in the world, I want to see the best player in the world."

________________________________________

• Tony Lewis: "He has a most competitive temperament. He has not needed special coaches to teach him how to compete. It is inbuilt."

________________________________________

• Adam Hollioke: "In an over I can bowl six different balls. But then Sachin looks at me with a sort of gentle arrogance down the pitch as if to say 'Can you bowl me another one?'"

________________________________________

• Tony Grieg: "There's no doubt about it. He is the best."

________________________________________

• Geoffrey Boycott: "Technically, you can't fault Sachin. Seam or spin, fast or slow - nothing is a problem."

________________________________________

• Peter Roebuck: "Sometime back I had written a piece that said that Sachin's the master and Lara a genius with his head high up somewhere. That's it."

________________________________________

• Kieth Fletcher: "A little genius. Reminds me of Sunny Gavaskar."

________________________________________

• Eddie Barlow: "He is Sachin Tendulkar. I hope he stays Sachin Tendulkar. We need a new player, a player in his own way. He has a technique which is the hallmark of a great player. Everything indicates that he will be a great player and I am sure he will prove me right. Reminds me of Barry Richards."

________________________________________

• Barry Richards: "Destined to be a great."

________________________________________

• Paul Strang: "What we (Zimbabwe) need is 10 Tendulkars."

________________________________________

• Dave Houghton: "Other players might keep India in business in the '99 World Cup but victory shall only come through his bat."

________________________________________

• Wasim Akram: "He has everything a top batsman needs. Tendulkar is a classic example of a player being so good that his age is an irrelevance"

________________________________________

• Asif Iqbal: (after India won at Sharjah) "He has given a new dimension to batting. Such dominance can break the heart of the best of bowlers. I was never tired of watching this wonderful batsman."

________________________________________

• INDIA TODAY describing Sachin's 155* at Chennai, 1998 vs Australia: "There is no way to tell it. The art of fiction is dead. Reality has strangled invention. Only the utterly impossible, the inexpressibly fantastic can ever be plausible again."

________________________________________

• Garth Jones (Scorer for the press in Napier, NZ): "We know a big innings from the prodigy means a definite loss for New Zealand, but it is worth it."

Let me end the post with these words: Cricket is religion, Sachin is GOD.

Prostitution Of Cricket

Let me declare at the very outset that I am a huge cricket buff. I have been watching cricket for 20 years now; every knock of Tendulkar gives me a reason to smile, every catch of Yuvi/Kaif raised my hope of winning, every inning of Dravid made me feel solid.....I can go on, but thats not the point here.

What I am trying to get to is that, inspite of my love for the game, the recent auction of players for the IPL [Indian Premier League] has left me dazed and confused. The astronomical amounts that the franchisees have gutted out is incredible. And in all this trade and commerce, the game has been sidelined. In a bid to cash-on in the name of the game, we have lost the essential meaning of cricket. Its turned into a milch cow for the entertainment industry.

India no doubt has only two passions - bollywood and cricket. And when these two big forms of entertainment join hands then a whole lot of revenue can be generated. You may then ask me what's the harm ?? Well, it's gonna hurt the game. We will have a whole lot of cricket but no real sports.

Anyways, what I detest most is the fact that the players were auctioned. That's so demeaning for the players, what is this .... a whorehouse?? Why couldn't they do this in privy and just make an announcement that 'x' player was signed up for a contract of 'yz,000,000' amount. Wouldn't this show the players and the promoters in good light?? But no, they wanted a 'tamasha' to display money power and do some body-shopping.

Now, the consequence would be that....the players will feel like they have been a part of major flesh trade racquet and they will have to perform out of their skins to justify the amount for which they were 'purchased'. If this isn't akin to prostitution then what is it ?? What's worse is that, they will be forced to give their best here and this will result in a below-par performance when they will be representing the country in international test matches and ODI's. We have already seen that in premier leagues involving other sports like baseball and football, players refuse to play for their home country and/or fake injuries so that they can keep themselves fit for the club they have signed-up to play for. They put their mouth where the money is.

Enough spoken about the game, now let's take a look at bollywood which indulged a great deal in the auctions. SRK had to dance half-naked to 'dard-e-disco' and he did a whole lot of gymanstics to sell his movie OSO whose production value was 60 crores. Now that he is putting 400 crores just imagine how much of heavy advertising and promotions he will have to do. He may have to sell himself or dance naked in the stadium to attract the spectators and boost the sales of tickets. And he is not the only one who will be doing so. He will bring a bevy of stars along with him. Then, there's Vijay Mallya who will bring in the glamour quotient with all those kingfisher calendar girls. Mukesh Ambani will also rope-in some bollywood stars and politicians because even he needs to generate profits.

The recently concluded ICL [Indian Cricket League] series was a small trailer of what's in store ahead. We saw a little bit of cricket a lots of item songs being performed by bollywood starlets at the beginning of the match and during the lunch session. ICL had lined up all the popular 'item' girls to perform and we could easy guage that the audience were more enthralled by the stars' performance than the cricketers. And this trend is going to continue.

So, be prepared to see some 'nautanki', some staged dramas, popular dance numbers, lots of lucky-dip winners, sales, promotions, meaningless ad campaigns, skimpily clad cheer-leaders and ramp models, tv stars, of course filmstars and bollywood personalities. And if you are fortunate enough, you will catch a little bit of cricket too.

george costanza - a character from 'seinfeld'

Let me start off by explaining to you the meaning of sitcom, a word that's grossly mis-used by many promos who claim their series to be a sitcom, but they are not actually sitcoms. Sitcom stands for SITuational COMedy, a comedy that's created by a situation and done tastefully without any caricaturing and lampooning. By far, the best sitcom I have ever seen is 'Seinfeld' created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld himself.

The series revolves around 4 characters, Jerry-George-Kramer-Elaine, who who have no regards for societal norms and a scant view of the society in general; they live in a world of their own. All the four have their own whims and fancies and an obscured outlook on life. And the most fascinating of all the four characters is George Costanza who forever changed shallowness and selfishness one could exhibit in public. He made it sound cool, look funny and justified his asinine behavior by stoooping to new lows. He lowered the bar of morality, glorified misdemeanor and cheap behavior, he had no work ethics, he had no job for most part of the series and lived off his parents, he had no money, no steady girlfriend, no prospects in life, and no conceivable reason to wake up in the mornings, except perhaps to get the daily news perhaps.


Anyways, here are some of the most memorable lines that he delivered in the series. It exemplifies everything that I have tried to convey above:

• Every decision I have ever made in my entire life, has been wrong. My life is the complete opposite of everything I wanted to be. Every instinct I have, in every aspect of life, is it something to wear, something to eat, it’s all been wrong
• Yeah, I’m a great quitter: it’s one of the few things I do well… I come from a long line of quitters. My father was a quitter, my grandfather was a quitter… I was raised to give up
• It's not a lie, if you believe it
• Pity's very underrated. I like pity. It's good
• If you look annoyed all the time, people think you're busy
• But, but I’m disturbed…I’m depressed…I’m inadequate; I got it all
• I know less about women than anyone in the world
• I always get the feeling that when lesbians are looking at me they’re thinking, that’s why I’m not a heterosexual
• I think I can sum up the show for you with one word; Nothing
• When women smile at me I don't know what it means. Sometimes I interpret it like they're psychotic or something. And I don't know if I'm supposed to smile back. I don't know what to do.
• For me to ask a woman out, I've got to get into a mental state like the karate guys before they break the bricks
• Instead of doing a wash, I just keep buying underwear. My goal is to have over 360 pair. That way I only have to do wash once a year
• She thinks I'm a nice guy. Women always think I'm nice. But women don't want nice. Why is nice bad? What kind of a sick society are we living in when nice is bad?
• Why did it all turn out like this for me? I had so much promise. I was personable. I was bright. Oh, maybe not academically speaking, but I was perceptive. I always know when someone's uncomfortable at a party. It all became very clear to me sitting out there today, that every decision I've ever made in my entire life has been wrong. My life is the complete opposite of everything I want it to be. Every instinct I have in every aspect of life, be it something to wear, something to eat... It's often wrong
• Hey, believe me, baldness will catch on. When the aliens come, who do you think they're gonna relate to? Who do you think's gonna be the first ones getting a tour of the ship?
• I'm much more comfortable criticizing people behind their backs
• You know, the funny thing is, somehow I find her more appealing now... It's like if I knew she was a lesbian when we went out, I never would've broken up with her
• Borrowing money from a friend is like having sex. It just completely changes the relationship
• No, I can't. I can't die with dignity. I have no dignity. I want to be the one person who doesn't die with dignity. I live my whole life in shame. Why should I die with dignity?
• I just threw away a lifetime of guilt-free sex, and floor seats for every sporting event in Madison Square Garden. So please, a little respect. For I am Costanza: Lord of the Idiots!
• I wish there were pigmen. You get a few of these pigmen walking around I'm looking a whole lot better. Then if somebody wants to fix me up at least they could say, "Hey he's no pig-man!"
• Bald men with no jobs and no money who live with their parents don't approach strange women
• You know I always wanted to pretend I was an architect
• I don't think I could do it. You know, they always remember the first time. I don't want to be remembered. I wanna be forgotten
• I don't want hope. Hope is killing me. My dream is to become hopeless. When you're hopeless you don't care. And when you don't care, that indifference makes you attractive.
• The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A death. What’s that, a bonus?!?! I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you go live in an old age home. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, then, when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You drink alcohol, you party, and you get ready for high school. You go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities. You become a little baby, you go back, spend your last 9 months floating with luxuries like central heating, spa, room service on tap, then you finish off as an orgasm! Amen

be thankful ...

I don't really want to believe in these kind of mails but then I realize that things don't come easy in life. I feel that sometimes despite of our best efforts things don't turn out the way we want them to. So, instead of becoming morose and complain about it, some people try to console themselves by taking things positively and penning down such stuff. Here it is:

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire.
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don't know something,
for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations,
because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge,
because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes.
They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you're tired and weary,
because it means you've made a difference.

It's easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who
are also thankful for the setbacks.
Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,
and they can become your blessings.

I don't know who wrote this, if you do then let me know too.