India will face familiar foes Sri Lanka in their tournament opener at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Tuesday and Tendulkar will, as always, be the centre of attention.
Sachin Tendulkar values his match-eve rituals as much as his kit bag. It is common knowledge that the maestro faces a few hundred ‘throwdowns’ a day before any game.
But he was deprived of that luxury on Monday. A day-long rally, organised by opposition leader Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, crippled public life and forced players from the four teams participating in the Asia Cup to stay within the confines of the elegant Hotel Pan Pacific Sonargaon. What the rare off day could have done, though, was prompt Tendulkar to sit back and wonder what he was doing in Dhaka.
India will face familiar foes Sri Lanka in their tournament opener at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Tuesday and Tendulkar will, as always, be the centre of attention. The Asia Cup need not have been about Tendulkar, but it is. Why? Because he’s chasing a record we didn’t know existed till he chose to chase it.
Monday was also the first anniversary of India’s collective obsession.
It was on March 12, 2011, that Tendulkar last scored a century (111) in international cricket. The goings-on of the last 366 days have affected our psyche as much as they have rattled his.
That brings us to the question: Does he really need to play ODIs anymore? He’s achieved virtually everything in this format, hasn’t he? April 2, 2011 was a godsend (the Almighty, that is) day, but Tendulkar chose to miss the point.
Over the last few years, Tendulkar has clearly picked and chosen his ODIs. After the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, he played 12 matches in 2008, 21 the next year, a mere two in 2010, and 11 in 2011, nine of which were in the World Cup. This recently-concluded Commonwealth Bank Series was his first ODI outing in 10 months.
And now he’s chosen to play the Asia Cup for nothing but personal gain. Frankly, India has nothing to lose in Dhaka. They’ve already lost all their pride in England and Australia. The four-nation continental championship could have been used to groom youngsters, but Tendulkar’s availability put the selectors in a spot.
Chief selector Kris Srikkanth is the biggest villain in the entire episode. He has the guts to ask a journalist to shut up, but maybe he should display the fortitude of John Inverarity who had no qualms in showing Ricky Ponting the door.
Ponting’s record is as illustrious as Tendulkar’s. In fact, it’s even more glorious. He’s been part of three straight World Cup-winning teams, twice as captain. Need we say more? Emotions have their pride of place in sport, but ultimately sound cricketing logic has to be applied.
Tendulkar may still be a handful in ODIs, but that’s not the point. The question is: Will he play the 2015 World Cup? If no, then he’s got to allow the selectors to build a team keeping that tournament in mind. Picking and choosing tournaments will help neither Tendulkar nor the team.
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