How do you solve a problem like Sachin?

With Ricky Ponting finally calling time on his test career, not before time, so all eyes turned to India and the struggles of another of the true greats of his generation. It seems almost inconceivable that it will be twenty-three years this summer since I first saw Sachin Tendulkar play, a seventeen year old in Sunil Gavaskar style pads who made his maiden test hundred at Old Trafford that summer. It was obvious that he was going to be very good, but his record in the years since is mind boggling. Comparisons with Bradman are pointless, but it seems very likely that his record of one hundred international centuries will stand the test of time in the same way that 99.94 has.

Now, however, he is an increasing problem for the Indian team and for their selectors. Having laboured to his hundredth hundred he hasn’t scored a test century for over two years, a remarakable statistic given his propensity for three figure scores. A fighting seventy-six at Kolkata aside, he struggled against England’s attack, scoring just thirty-six runs in his other five innings and it was clear that the England bowlers saw him more as an opportunity to precipitate a collapse than as a legend of the game. Sourav Ganguly has spoken of Sachin’s desire to finish in a blaze of glory with a big score, but the risk is that he keeps going in fruitless pursuit of that objective at the expense both of his legacy and of the long term development of the team. The announcement of his retirement from ODIs suggests that he is in no hurry to fall on his test match sword just yet, so the selectors may well end up with the dilemma of either being the people who terminated the Little Master’s career or of seeing him clog up the Indian middle order for as long as he likes. Rather them than me.

Farewell Punter

Great players deserve to go out with a bang but Ricky Ponting’s departure, following a heavy defeat in a series in which he averaged just 6.40, was the saddest of whimpers. The trademark swivel pull, once a stroke of withering power, had long since become more of a reflex paddle, and his footwork, once so sure, had become a shuffling, jumping mess. Where once his arrival at the crease had bowlers full of trepidation he had become a minor inconvenience to swat aside. For all that his many admirers willed him to succeed he had failed to see the writing on the wall, which by now was in pretty big letters, and the spinelessness of the selectors in allowing him to pick his moment to retire meant that it was always likely to end in tears. 

This is a shame, because I can’t think of many batsmen of the last thirty-five years that I’ve enjoyed watching more. At his best, and his best spanned quite a period, he was dismissive of all but the very best bowling, pulling balls that were only fractionally short and driving straight with power that seemed entirely incommensurate with the effort put in. Add his scintillating fielding just about anywhere into the mix and you have a truly great cricketer, although his greatness, in truth, never really extended to captaincy. Much of his tenure as captain was a success but this was as much due to the staggering talent at his disposal as to any spectacular nous on his part. The 2005 Ashes showed that his great side lacked a plan B, although the following series in Australia showed that the plan A had a lot going for it. He was a good leader of a great side for they, mostly, respected him as a great player in his own right, but once the retirements started and the side entered transition he was, understandably, less able to bring the best out of his side, although it was a challenge that would have tested the greatest skippers.

In truth, though, the light burned out some time ago, albeit with a brief flicker against India last winter. Since the start of the last Ashes series he averaged 108.80 against India and 20.14 against everyone else. Between the start of 2006 and the end of 2008 his average never dropped below 57 but it ended as 51.85 – still highly impressive, but not a reflection of the player that he was at his best. It’s easy to understand why he wanted to carry on after the Ashes series of 2010/11, but he would surely have been better advised to call it a day in triumph after victory over India rather than subjecting himself to a final series. As an unashamed admirer of his cricket, if not always his demeanour, I find that sad and can only hope that history remembers him as it should.