Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Don't bag it, Sachin

Dear Sachin,

Years ago, Sports Illustrated begged another sporting legend to not quit the sport.  Today, it's my turn to follow their lead.

So, don't bag it, Sachin!  Some time ago, Times of India asked: Endulkar?  My reply today is an emphatic - No!


Several folks are telling you it is time for you to retire from cricket.  I have three things to say about it.

1)  It is NONE of their business to tell you when to retire.  That's a personal choice that is entirely yours to make.  Don't compound their mistake.  Their cries for you to retire are, in reality, cries for you to be dropped from the Indian team.  Those are two different things.  You've been playing cricket for your entire life and competitive cricket for 4/5ths of it.  Who are they to tell you when to stop?

2)  I don't want you to make the same mistake, too.  Retiring from international cricket is different from retiring from playing cricket.  It is very obvious that you love the game very much.  Keep at it.  Play Ranji Trophy, play county cricket.  Play the game for the love of it and not for the trappings that come with it.  If Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash could be productive into their mid-40's, so can you.  Heck, it would it really benefit Indian cricket if the Ranji players got to bowl to the likes of you and VVS Laxman.  It would give the selectors a clearer idea of how good they really are.

3)  To hell with how your legacy is being impacted the longer you play.  Don't fret it.  In the end, these last few flickers of the flame will be forgotten when your whole body of work is looked at.

When it comes time to discuss legacies, no one really cares any more that...
  • Sourav Ganguly's last Test inning was a golden duck, out to a spinner, of all things.  At least his fate was the same as Don Bradman's, in that regard.
  • Muhammad Ali was pounded into submission by someone named Trevor Berbick in his last bout.
  • Pele spent the last three years of his career playing for the New York Cosmos.
  • Michael Schumacher spent his last three years racing for Mercedes without winning a single race.
  • Jerry Rice did not catch a single pass in his final game, in a playoff no less....for the Seattle Seahawks.
  • Wayne Gretzky's last season with the New York Rangers fetched him only 9 goals (in 81 games).
  • Sunil Gavaskar was bowled for 4 in his final international inning by a journeyman fast bowler.
  • Michael Jordan spent his last two seasons with the Washington Wizards and did not even make the playoffs in those two years
Do you want me to cite more?  You get the point, don't you?  Legacy is over-rated.  You will not tarnish your legacy by playing on as long as you wish to.  If the selectors are bold enough to drop you, so be it.  They are simply dropping you from the Indian team, not stopping you from playing cricket.  That's what you value more, isn't it?

You are still among the best batsmen India currently has.  You are among the best outfielders in cricket.  Until someone else comes by whose contributions are vastly superior to the ones you can provide, I feel you should play.  After all, when you did play a Ranji Trophy match recently you made a century almost for fun, toying with the bowling.

Go back to being the kid who hated to get out, the kid who treasured the 13 one-rupee coins he won for not getting bowled, the kid who couldn't stop smiling when the World Cup was won, the kid who loved cricket for cricket's sake.

The Aussies will be here in a few months.  I look forward to seeing you take them on.  And if the selectors decide otherwise, I'll still look forward to you playing some first-class cricket and making centuries for fun.  Like how it used to be.  Like how it can be.  Like how it should be.

Because one day you, and only you, will know that it is time for one last fling.  For one last inning.  For one last battle.

For love of the game.



Sincerely
Jaunty

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I totally agree with you MS..I definately think Sachin should play the game souly becuase he LOVES it and as long the passion is there...and he continues to enjoy his game...he should play...no one should tell him to..ENDULKAR!....Period!....

Jaunty Quicksand said...

AB, thanks for the comment. Yes, it's time for people to shut up and just let the man decide whatever he wants to do. The selectors have a job and they should do what they feel is best for the team. The rest will fall into place behind that.

Unknown said...

MS...I agree..only if the "SELECTION PANEL" or so called "SELECTORS" have any say in selecting the team...look what happened today..Jimmys brave endower....sheads a light on the poor state of Indian selection process and behind the scenes picture...

http://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/12/12/amarnaths-revelation-incredibly-courageous-gavaskar/?ref=more-from-sport

Jaunty Quicksand said...

Further along the article, Gavaskar explains that the final approval comes from the Board and this is nothing new.

More pertinently, why did Amarnath wait until now to speak up. Seems very carefully stage-managed as far as I am concerned. It always bugs me that people express these things AFTER the ship has sunk. Where was all this when something could have been done about it?

If, in the next few weeks, there's an announcement that Amarnath is publishing a book, then we'll know why he waited so long.

And his choice of replacement for Dhoni - Gambhir - is so weak on so many fronts that it makes me pause.

Devashish said...

I find the commentary by Ganguly and Amarnath singularly self-serving.

And Gavaskar says nothing new on the whole thing - ne is almost Ravi Shastri-esque in this regard. While he is seemingly endorsing Amarnath's airing dirty linen in public and then saying that it is commonplace for the Board to have final approval.

Ganguly is a hypocrite. Yes, he can say that if he were Tendulkar, he would retire. Someone needs to tell Ganguly that at no point was he Tendulkar - or even the second best batstman in the side.

At different points in their career, Laxman, Dravid and even Sehwag has been considered the best bat on the Indian team though Sachin has in general been the consensus numero uno - but Ganguly never.

Ganguly's effort to ingratiate himself into the discussion is akin to Isaiah Thomas' similar pathetic attempt to do so in the NBA here. You might recall that in Jordan's heyday, the commentary was typically that he took over the mantle of the mascot of the NBA from Bird and Magic.

Yet Isaiah, as a commentator on TV, never failed to say that Jordan has risen to the top walking in the footsteps of "me, Larry and Magic"....

Jaunty Quicksand said...

GS, we can only hope that he plays cricket for the sake of playing it and not because some sponsor or well-wisher (read: Gavaskar) wants him to.

"Reaching" #1 was always more important. Once they reached #1,t eh BCCI even suddenly started scheduling Test series so they could promote it as the #1 team.

I firmly believe that the seeds of the current malaise were sown in Dominica when India refused to chase down a target. The reason was simple: If they (somehow) lost, they would no longer be #1 when the Lord's Test rolled around a few weeks later. But leaving the Windies with a 1-0 win would ensure their ranking before SRT came in and scored his 100th 100 in the 2000th Test match at the so-called mecca of cricket and millions of rupees could be made by everyone involved.

I spoke about it elsewhere on my blog (How SRT ruined my summer) and I still believe that....

However, one good thing that has come about from all this is that the value of RD and VVS has increased exponentially since their retirement even though BOTH of them were in the team that lost 8 Test matches to England and Australia. :-)

Jaunty Quicksand said...

BD,

Ganguly is busy protecting his legacy (what there is of it) by working hard to prevent Dhoni from staying captain long enough to catch up to his (SG's) tally of 22 wins. (MSD is at 21 in 7 fewer Tests).

Ganguly's away record is glorified more than it is. Outside the sub-continent, he captained India to 3 wins (the same as MSD, by the way). And people forget that RD was the captain when we won in Multan not SG. (Just as Adam Gilchrist was the captain when Australia conquered the final frontier in India, not Ponting, who had missed the Nagpur test because of injuries).

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