Future of indian cricket after Tendulkar retires

[Vijay.Sharma]

That is just a lame ***** cliche . Tell me why should anybody watch the dross that is on display by most players.

Totally agree! No one is above the game is one of the biggest myths around. The game is made by individuals. Without individual brilliance no game can survive. Of course we can turn around and argue that without the game there would be no individual to ply his trade. So it is more like the game and the individual need each other, neither being greater than the other. Why is badminton picking up in India, especially among girls? Saina Nehwal. Why did badminton go the dodo's way throughout the late 80s and 90s? Padukone was done, Gopichand was yet to make a mark. No role models, no idols to follow.

[Manny_Pacquiao]

Sachin is a phenomenon that has never happened to India. I don't know if there is any other sportsman in the country ever to have captured the imagination of the nation and brought the nation together as much as Sachin has. People have grown up along side his career and relate very strongly with him. So obviously some people will stop watching cricket once he retires. It dunn mean they are any less of a cricket fan than you or me.

nicely put. thats the most special thing about tendulkar. his connection with the crowd is something no other cricketer has had. he literally has the crowd eating out of his hand with those shots he plays. thats the reason why I think he is the best. stats dont really capture the intangibles he brings to the game. its almost like the crowd goes into convulsions at the sight of a tendulkar cover drive. its all very surreal. thinking about what happened today, humour aside, i can't believe how much drama we had. you could play a match like this in any other part of the world, between other countries, and if some guy got out for 94, it wouldnt matter. nobody would care. but tendulkar basically turned an inconsequential match, meandering towards a draw (still is) into a nail biter. he drew a massive crowd, had them in the palm of his hand and then when he got out, the west indians celebrated his dismissal like they won the world cup or something. thats the closest they will ever come to experiencing a feeling like that. it was such a pumped up celebration. the crowd was stunned. i know, i am making it sound melodramatic, but thats because it was. and only tendulkar could have drawn such reactions.

[Manny_Pacquiao]

No ... Iam not saying that but for a lot of people cricket = Tendulkar. And there is plenty of good reason for that. It will be damn hard to find a substitute. Plus there is this thing called tontee-tontee that is fast changing the meaning of cricket

i can see your point. he is impossible to replace. not just in the cricketing sense- obviously india will never have a batsman that plays shots like that and puts up insane, landmark numbers - but more importantly, it will be impossible to feel the same way about any other cricketer. i am not old enuff to remember sunny G retiring. maybe people got a similar feeling when they realised that they will never see the short guy with the floppy hat opening the innings for india in the future??

[yoda]

I would go pay for a test match to watch any number of players including SRT. same for ODI. As great as he is we have other greats too, past and present. For some of you he may be the only great of consequence, for many of us he is one amongst the greats, may be the first amongst equals. For FFS, the greatest test innings ever played wasn't by him, the greatest come back was not because of thim, the WC wasn't won because of him and the list goes on and on.

[Stuge]

what abt when viru retires? who will u watch then?

Reason is simple .Ever since Viru has started playing in India our winning ratio in test matches have gone up .So even if he retires if we keep winning .I will keep watching .

[saneindian]

We now have the Vidarbha Express and the Steel City Express to pull the crowd into the ground . We will soon start hearing the chants of "Oomesh, Oomesh" or " Aaron, Aaaron" from our folks at the ground. :yay:

[Manny_Pacquiao]

For FFS, the greatest test innings ever played wasn't by him, the greatest come back was not because of thim, the WC wasn't won because of him and the list goes on and on.

now you are talking crap. the guy scored 481 runs, india's top scorer by a mile. he was the only guy who could handle the pressure of the biggest cricket match ever played in the history of the sport - the india-pakistan semi final - and won man of the match there with the highest score. think about the reaction had india lost that match and pakistan had gone to mumbai. i wont even get into his world cup record. even in the kolkata test, he took those wickets after tea when the match looked like it would be a draw. i dont want this thread to be derailed, but you need to get some perspective (and some knowledge).

[yoda]

now you are talking crap. the guy scored 481 runs, india's top scorer by a mile. he was the only guy who could handle the pressure of the biggest cricket match ever played in the history of the sport - the india-pakistan semi final - and won man of the match there. even in the kolkata test, he took those wickets after tea when the match looked like it would be a draw. i dont want this thread to be derailed, but you need to get some perspective (and some knowledge).

Dude, those were listed to show that we have had other greats too, not that Tendulkar didn't contribute to them. It hasn't been a one man show.

[Vijay.Sharma]

i can see your point. he is impossible to replace. not just in the cricketing sense- obviously india will never have a batsman that plays shots like that and puts up insane, landmark numbers - but more importantly, it will be impossible to feel the same way about any other cricketer. i am not old enuff to remember sunny G retiring. maybe people got a similar feeling when they realised that they will never see the short guy with the floppy hat opening the innings for india in the future??

Oh I can tell I was craving for Sunny in the very first series after he retired coz we had no one to stand up to Patrick Patterson. And I was hardly 10 then. But in due time an even bigger phenomenon arrived. I almost shed a tear when Dada and Anil retired in the series against Aus. I dunno how I will react when Rahul leaves. But I sure know I will be the biggest philosopher in the world the moment the Buddha decides to hang his pads. Life will go on for sure and I will definitely keep following cricket and cheer for every Indian win...maybe in time I will find another individual to follow like I do our legends (already Virat and Bravo are knocking on my fan-hood door). But will I go buy a ticket to watch a Test when I know there is no Buddha to look forward to? It will take a year for sure...or who knows it may not!

[pensionplan]

I would go pay for a test match to watch any number of players including SRT. same for ODI. As great as he is we have other greats too, past and present. For some of you he may be the only great of consequence, for many of us he is one amongst the greats, may be the first amongst equals. For FFS, the greatest test innings ever played wasn't by him, the greatest come back was not because of thim, the WC wasn't won because of him and the list goes on and on.

As great as SRT is I do not think there will be any dwindled interest in cricket in India. The game is a religion there and people will throng the stadiums or glued to the TV sets many years after SRT retires.

[Guest BossBhai]

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[yoda]

sunny's sign off was a bit unique and anti-climatic ... nobody realised that we might lose to Eng and that we might have seen the last of him when he walked off. Another thing is that Kapil was a equal legend to SMG. how do you think we got past the QF and SF ? Who do you think scored the most runs in the WC ?

How much do you think he scored in 2003? And did we come back with anything then? RD top scored in 1999 which didn't mean much either. It is not a question of contributing, need to seal the deal. Anyways my post wasn't meant to belittle him, just to point out that we have had some major major performances from others as well during Tendulkar's tenure, some which even the master couldn't match.

[Manny_Pacquiao]

As great as SRT is I do not think there will be any dwindled interest in cricket in India. The game is a religion there and people will throng the stadiums or glued to the TV sets many years after SRT retires.

i am not so sure india, believe it or not, is getting better at other sports. you will see more medals in london 2012. people change. formerhockey players claim that they used to be mobbed in india during the 70s, now nobody would even be able to name a hockey player that won the 1975 world cup. t20 attracts a completely different generation of fans, the ipl generation isnt a generation that gives a damn about test cricket. they like gimmicks. so yes, you may see them filling up the stadiums every so often to see yusuf pathan hit sixes but it wont do much for india's status as a test and ODI power. tendulkar, dravid, laxman, kumble, etc. might be the last of india's generation of true test cricketers. the new guys have the drive to play test cricket but they will prioritise other formats. like i said, this might be a crossroads

[Guest BossBhai]

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[Guest BossBhai]

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[Manny_Pacquiao]

sunny's sign off was a bit unique and anti-climatic ... nobody realised that we might lose to Eng and that we might have seen the last of him when he walked off. Another thing is that Kapil was a equal legend to SMG.

i guess cricketers werent really superstars back then. media coverage has changed things completely, cricketers are in the public eye a lot more often now

[Raghav_12]

nicely put. thats the most special thing about tendulkar. his connection with the crowd is something no other cricketer has had. he literally has the crowd eating out of his hand with those shots he plays. thats the reason why I think he is the best. stats dont really capture the intangibles he brings to the game. its almost like the crowd goes into convulsions at the sight of a tendulkar cover drive. its all very surreal. thinking about what happened today, humour aside, i can't believe how much drama we had. you could play a match like this in any other part of the world, between other countries, and if some guy got out for 94, it wouldnt matter. nobody would care. but tendulkar basically turned an inconsequential match, meandering towards a draw (still is) into a nail biter. he drew a massive crowd, had them in the palm of his hand and then when he got out, the west indians celebrated his dismissal like they won the world cup or something. thats the closest they will ever come to experiencing a feeling like that. it was such a pumped up celebration. the crowd was stunned. i know, i am making it sound melodramatic, but thats because it was. and only tendulkar could have drawn such reactions.

very well written man.. One man single handedly filled whole stadium on a most inconsequential day (people know it is going to be a draw) of a most inconsequential test natch (series already decided) of a kind of inconsequential series ( vs. WI, that too at home) and people are saying that it won't be any difference if he leaves the game..!!

[yoda]

673 runs . Had our idiotic bowlers not leaked a ton of runs we might have. But to say "we didnt win the 2011 WC because SRT did'nt make many runs in the final just simply illustrates your understanding of the game.

He failed in the two finals he was there. And thankfully someone else stood up and took us home in one of them. That is the truth. So for me, even during SRT's career others have done some commendable stuff which will keep me interested in the game even after he retires, cause Indian cricket wasn't just him even while he played.

[Cricket Tragic]

Many of my friends stopped watching cricket after Sunny retired. :dontknow: And they were all massive cricket fans - ones who would go to watch VV Kumar's leg spin in the Ranji Trophy. Still they lost interest after Sunny.

[Guest BossBhai]

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