Did Sachin Tendulkar’s personal landmark come at a great cost to the team?

By Madan Mohan

 

To repeat for the nth time, Sachin Tendulkar got his 100th international century against Bangladesh on Friday while India managed to lose the match in spite of scoring 289. My reactions thereafter have swung this way and that - quite like a pendulum.

 

By Madan Mohan

 

To repeat for the nth time, Sachin Tendulkar got his 100^th international century against Bangladesh on Friday while India managed to lose the match in spite of scoring 289. My reactions thereafter have swung this way and that – quite like a pendulum.

 

I had received the 100^th century with some ambivalence. It had not been one of Tendulkar’s better knocks; he slammed the brakes on his strike rate once he was into the 80s. The hundred was playing on his mind, no doubt, and under pressure, he chose the safer route of tapping singles and turning the strike over. And when India’s weak bowling attack failed to defend a target of 290 against Bangladesh, I couldn’t help thinking if the batting unit had lost an opportunity there. 

 

After all, India had been very comfortably placed for a big one at 169 for one in the 35^th over.  Evidently, they had settled for less, and I felt disgusted with the team’s complacency. They had underestimated Bangladesh and paid a heavy price. Their fixture against Pakistan on Sunday has gained even more significance now. Oh, how the broadcasters must thank the Indian team for keeping the excitement alive, albeit dubiously! 

 

I felt one man’s personal landmark, however notable, had come at too great a cost to the team. And it seemed as if the team had collectively worked to help Tendulkar in any way they could to the landmark. They had wanted to win the World Cup for him and so they did.  They didn’t let him down this time either, save for contriving to lose the match!

 

And then I woke up to Saturday morning’s newspapers and they extracted a different reaction from me. Budget 2012 barely managed to be the big news of the day with Tendulkar’s 100^th ton vying closely for attention. But for the Budget, Tendulkar’s feat would indeed have been the biggest news of the day – without doubt. Some people already think it was. 

 

I would have expected a little more restraint in the matter. After all, India had managed to lose to Bangladesh and landed in serious trouble as far as the Asia Cup is concerned. They are once again left to depend on the fortunes of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh for their qualification for the final.  I have heard suggestions that the Asia Cup is not a significant event in any case, so why bother. Well, World Cup champions they might be, but a team that is searching for some silverware worth crowing about for a few months now ought to care a bit more about what tournaments it gets to play in. 

 

And yet, as if nothing whatsoever had changed, the tributes flowed, pages and pages of them.  And they served to put our perspective, or lack thereof, in the spotlight. What some of us have long suspected couldn’t have been made any more obvious.  

 

How much Team India truly cares about winning a match, we cannot tell and we can only hope that they do care a lot. But the fans, the observers, the media clearly do not care very much at all about the Indian team’s results. In the case of the media, there may well be slightly more cynical reasons for the nature of their coverage, but I would rather not get into speculation here.   

 

But in spite of two resounding overseas drubbings as well as the Commonwealth Bank series debacle, even the fact that India lost to Bangladesh in the subcontinent – which, if you believe Indian selectors and board members, is ruled by Team India – is willingly glossed over to celebrate the landmark brought up by one batsman, albeit one of the greats of the game.

 

Much has been written, including by yours truly, about whether Team India really plays as a unit or is a bundle of individuals who sometimes gel only with difficulty. Unfavourable comparisons have been drawn to the Australian team and their team spirit.  

 

But how can we speak ill of the team’s perceived lack of hunger when all it takes is yet another Tendulkar ton to make us oblivious even to defeat to Bangladesh.  News of yet another defeat that brought India’s weak bowling attack into focus has slipped under the radar while, stopping short of dancing on the streets, the nation rejoices Tendulkar’s perfect hundred.  

 

When he brought up his hundredth run in Friday’s match, Tendulkar gestured to his helmet as if to acknowledge that his record was for the nation to celebrate. And that is perhaps only fitting because there is not much else we as a nation particularly want to celebrate, not Olympic Gold Medals, not Career Grand Slams and most definitely not a (possible) Asia Cup Trophy.       

 

(Madan Mohan is a 26-year old chartered accountant from Mumbai. The writing bug bit him when he was eight and to date, he has not been cured of it. He loves music, cricket, tennis and cinema and writing on cricket is like the icing on the cake. He also writes a blog if he is not feeling too lazy at http://rothrocks.wordpress.com/)

 

“Complete coverage of Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th hundred”

 

List of Sachin Tendulkar’s 100 international centuries 

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