Published: Mar 29, 2011, 10:19 AM (IST)
Edited: Mar 18, 2014, 05:28 PM (IST)
By Murali Venkatesan
“Character is destiny” – Anonymous
As contemporaries, Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting have been within shouting distance of each other if one considers their statistics in both Tests and ODIs. Undoubtedly, both will go down as one of the all-time great cricketing talents. Their legacies will, however, be vastly different.
The 2011 World Cup will be one part of the epitaph for both the batsmen. Ponting has been scratchy throughout much of the World Cup – both as a player and as a captain. This is in keeping in line with his slump in form starting in mid-2008. His team has already exited the tournament, knocked out in the quarter-final, despite a gritty century in what is most likely to be his last match as captain of the Aussie team.
It was quintessential Ponting when he dived to his left to stop a Virat Kohli scorcher – he took the sting off the drive but stayed on the ground wincing with pain as he had used his injured left hand in the process. He will be remembered as the unbowed, if flawed, gladiator who fought till the very end. Due to his determination, courage, and skill he will be remembered as a worthy, even feared, opponent. Incidentally, Ricky is related to Russell Crowe who played the title role in the Hollywood blockbuster, “Gladiator.”
On the other hand, Tendulkar is poised on the verge of winning the World Cup for India, vanquishing India’s twin nemesis, Australia and Pakistan along the way. If he hits his 100th ton along the way, it would be the perfect icing on the cake and if it comes in the finale of the World Cup, even Bollywood could not have scripted a more melodramatic finish. For the record, India has won each of the six times that Tendulkar has scored a century in the finals of a tournament. More than his undeniable talent and tenacity, this simple man will be remembered for the joy he brought to the game of cricket and for being unswayed by adulation in his service to the game.
Here is my take on why these two gentlemen will be remembered very differently as they move into the pages of history:
Captaincy
To say that Ponting has an edge over Tendulkar as a captain would be a huge understatement. This is not because of the lack of ability on Tendulkar’s part to read the game or marshal his resources effectively. Each of the two times Tendulkar took over as captain, he did not stand-up to the shenanigans of the BCCI and chose not to actively advocate for the resources he needed.
Seniors in the team, some of whom were under the shadow of match-fixing, were not dealt with firmly. In both his tenures as captain, his record was abysmal. Today, he is an active part of the team think-tank and has been credited with many of the innovative ideas pursued by the team. However, it is fair to say that he does not have the extra bit of steel needed to be a good man manager.
Ponting, on the other hand, was groomed for the task and had the elusive killer instinct from the beginning. He appears to be a no-nonsense captain, someone that the entire team looks up to. He has the killer instinct and remorselessly goes for the jugular. However, his record as a captain, especially of late, is a mixed bag. In his early years as captain, he was supported by a team that could do no wrong. To twist a popular saying in Hindi, “Jab Warne/McGrath meherban, tho gadha pehelwan.”
Of late, as he marshals a team consisting of lesser lights, he has struggled with managing his bowling resources, especially the spinners. His chronic problems with over-rate management have also led to the extensive use of part-timers during crucial periods of play that have cost Australia victories. However, his record as the winningest captain will stand for a long time.
The Winning Habit
I am often vexed by the ridiculous question, “But how many games did Tendulkar win for India?” Cricket is a team game, teams win or lose, not individuals. Take for example, the epic Chepauk Test against Pakistan. Tendulkar battled debilitating back pain and scored 136 runs. The other ten players could not cobble together the rest of the runs, but Tendulkar is still blamed for not winning it for India!
Take the epic Test match at the Eden Gardens, when India came back to win after being asked to follow-on. Clearly, VVS Laxman’s 281 and Rahul Dravid’s 180 anchored the win. But if Tendulkar had not taken those three vital second innings Aussie wickets with a wonderful display of wrist spin in the last session of the final day, the Test would have ended in a draw and would not have been accorded its near mythical status. Cricket refuses to be defined by simplistic catch phrases.
Ponting has been on the winning side a record number of times. With the exception of his record in India, he has had a big hand in many an Australian victory, contributing both as a batsman and as a magnificent close in fielder. Ponting clearly has an edge over Tendulkar in terms of performance in the second innings. I believe that Tendulkar bats under far more pressure, much of it self-imposed, while Ponting plays his natural, attacking game, irrespective of the match situation. I believe this is the reason why he has an edge over Tendulkar in pressure situations.
Continuing to learn
Sachin went through a lean phase between 2002 and 2006, The Times of India even ran an article titled “Endulkar” after the 2006 Pakistan series. In 2003, although he scored 673 runs in the World Cup and had an average of 17.25 in Tests. He acknowledged his shortcomings, morphed into a grafter – his painful 241 not out in Sydney, where after a string of poor performances in the prior Tests, he completely cut out the cover drive is a testament to his desire to learn and thrive within his limitations.
He stayed in the mode of a run accumulator, even as he adjusted his bat weight, went through a couple of surgeries, and fixed a few technical faults that had crept into his game. All of this has paid off. And how!
Of late, he has become more dangerous to the opposition than he has ever been in his career – he plays risk-free cricket without cutting down on most of his repertoire of scoring options. It was fitting that he has achieved the milestone of 50 centuries in Test cricket and is approaching 100 centuries in international cricket. As a testament to his skill, fitness, and drive, he became the first man to score a double century in ODIs. It is a mind-boggling milestone, if you think about all the things that need to come together perfectly for someone to achieve this feat – and that too against a full status team, not minnows.
As Tendulkar appeared to struggle in the 2002-2006 phase, there was a point in time when it appeared that Ponting would surpass Tendulkar on the number of centuries and there was talk of Ponting being the better batsman. With Tendulkar gaining a second wind in his career, he has left Ponting far behind. The 50 centuries versus 39 centuries by Ponting is even more spectacular when viewed in light of the fact that Tendulkar has been out in his nineties seven times in this time period!
Ponting, on the other hand, has been in a decline as a batsman in 2008–2011 period. Right from the beginning of his career, he has had a tendency to fall over, especially early in his innings and play around his pad. It is my opinion, that if the UDRS had been implemented earlier, Ponting would not have survived several of the lbw appeals that he was subjected to earlier.
He has been one of the best pullers/hookers of the ball in the game. However, he has been out a number of times recently playing these shots. Unlike Tendulkar, he has refused to curtail these shots and has paid a price on many an occasion of late.
Lastly, even as the Indian team has morphed into the No1 Test team, the Aussies have begun their slide. Ponting has had to adjust to batting under pressure more often than not, a different ball game altogether. Ponting is still one of the fittest cricketers in world cricket. If he borrows a page from Tendulkar’s playbook, makes the required adjustments to his game, and make most of the absence of the burden of captaincy – he might yet have a couple of years of cricket left in him.
On/Off-the-Field Behavior
Ponting is one of the bad boys of cricket. Be it incidents involving hard drinking sorties in night clubs or acts of unsporting behavior, there is an assortment of high profile incidents strewn throughout his career. A recent bizarre incident was when he continued to argue with Aleem Dar, even though the review of the decision by the third umpire clearly showed that Dar’s decision was spot on. It was further compounded by the fact that several of his Aussie team-mates joined their captain in this farce.
For much of his career he was part of an amazing team. He came across as somewhat ungracious while winning. With the retirement of many of the Australian stalwarts, he has had to deal with several defeats and sometimes crosses the line separating a fierce competitor from a sore loser. The sobriquet delivered by Anil Kumble after the infamous Sydney Test, “Only one team is playing in the spirit of the game,” in my mind best describes the way Ponting has played at times.
Tendulkar, on the other hand, can only been accused of being too politically correct. It is amazing that in a nation that appears to thrive on sensational exposes by the media, he has gone through his 20 years in the limelight with his name entirely unblemished.
He has lived through innumerable deification exercises followed by the predictable calls for his retirement with equanimity by simply letting his performances do the talking. He has often, unjustly, been accused of pursuing individual goals at the expense of the team’s aspirations. He provided a rare glimpse into what drives him in a wonderful interview in 2003 in the aftermath of the World Cup. I could completely identify with the way he feels about cricket – something that satisfies his soul. More than anything else, I think that this simple enjoyment of the game has kept him free of all distractions.
At the end of the day, I believe character defines one’s destiny. Tendulkar has written his legacy with the ink of goodwill with incredible talent, dedication, and joy. Ponting has the opportunity to redefine his legacy depending on how he approaches the remaining years in international cricket.
For cricketers aspiring to make a name for themselves in cricket would do well to mix Tendulkar’s constant desire to learn and Ponting’s fierce bloody mindedness. That would be the ultimate winning combination!
(Murali is a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area. When he gets time off from his cricketing duties, whether it be playing or watching cricket, he attends to his duties as a husband, father, and engineering new solar technology solutions)
