Need I say any more?

Let’s have a look at his vital statistics:

40 centuries and around 75 half centuries in 363 ODI matches. All this implies 2 half centuries and 1 century per 9 matches. It also means that every 3^rd half century is getting converted into a ton. His 40 centuries puts him way ahead of likes of Jayasuriyas and Gangulys, who are tied on 22 ODI centuries each. Out of the 40 matches in which he scored a century, India has won 28 times: That is a healthy percentage of 70. These matches span over a period of 16 years.

His statistics in 2006: 380 runs in 6 innings. As far as I know at least one time Not Out - yesterday’s assault. Not to mention that yesterday’s innings was a sort of comeback innings after a gap of 6 months due to injury. That’s class. That’s mark of a champion. That’s a legend walking. That’s a player saying, “I may have been here too long, but I’m not done yet”.

For 16 long years, since he was just in his teens, he has carried the burden of crazy expectations of billion crazy cricket fans. And yet he is loathed. For what? Millions argue that he has hardly played match winning innings. I guess that’s the side effects of fame and success. Oh darn those people who tend to forget all his glorious innings where he has pulled India out of precarious situations. These people tend to forget that he indeed has won some matches for the country. These people tend to forget that instead of mourning over losing his father, he chose to play for the country. These people tend to forget that he had to change his style of playing, to adapt with different situations, different roles.

All these people remember are his failures. Yes, how could he lose his wicket? It’s preposterous. So stupid of him! Isn’t he supposed to be God? Why o why did you have to get out on 116? That wasn’t enough to win the match. Yeh Dil Maange More! You should have made all the runs. Don’t you know India is a one man team? How could you do it? You have betrayed a nation! His critics have one more problem. He doesn’t score well against minnows. But don’t you get it people? If he has scored less against minnows, he must have scored heavily against the top class attacks in the world.

“No, we would conveniently like to overlook that fact pls, if you don’t mind. You see, we need someone to take a fall for India’s failures. We need someone to vent our anger on, for the hardships in our life, and who else can be the perfect person to do so than him. You see, he never retorts back!”

Any other person would have ended up in a mental asylum. But not he… He is a unique personality. He has carried out his duties, without fail, for 16 years. And he has silenced his opponents and his critics in a Gandhian way. He has let his batting do the talking. And he did it yesterday too.

Now I may not have witnessed the live innings, but from whatever I saw in the news, his selection of shots was like he was trying to summarize all his past innings - Wristy shots, cover drives, cuts, pulls, square cuts, straight drives – everything from and out of the cricketing book. Agreed that the boundaries were short, but his sixes were long – Pulled six, dancing down the wicket over the cover six… and three others. He had come with a replenished arsenal, including the so famous pull shot that he had stopped playing due to his back injury. After all he had to prove a point. But you see, 141 not out was not enough to satisfy his critics maybe and also to seal a victory for India. Maybe he should have opened the bowling too and tried to grab all 10 wickets. Maybe then his critics would have thought – “Ok. It seems this chap has got something in him”.

Huh?...... these thick skulled people!!! To hell with them!

Sachin, I’m with you dude! No matter what, just carry on doing whatever you have been doing since last 16 years. This time the World Cup is ours.