Articles on Tendulkar in the Australian media

[CoverDrive]

with our injury list we might have raghu as our spearhead

[SachDan]

Warne wishes Tendulkar to reach 100th ton in first Test PTI | Dec 22, 2011, 04.32PM IST MELBOURNE: Australian spin legend Shane Warne has little doubt that Sachin Tendulkar would get his 100th international century on the present tour Down Under, but he wished the iconic Indian batsman to reach the feat in the first cricket Test starting December 26. "I feel Sachin would get his 100th century (in Australia) but I wish he does so in Melbourne," Warne said on the sidelines of a function at the Melbourne Cricket Ground where his 300kg bronze statue was unveiled this morning. Warne, who in his entire career could claim Tendulkar's wicket only thrice in Test matches, has enormous respect for the champion Indian batsman whom he rates as the best willow-yielder of his time. The first match against Australia would be Tendulkar's 185th Test. He has so far made 15,183 runs from 303 innings with 51 centuries at an average of 56.03 in five-day games. Tendulkar also has 18,111 runs from 453 ODIs with 48 centuries under his belt at an average of 45.16. Tendulkar, though, has struggled to add to his tally of 99 international centuries this year - his last ton being 111 against South Africa at Nagpur in March during the World Cup. His last Test century was also against South Africa - 146 at the Newlands, Cape Town in January and has been without a ton in the longest format of the game in his last 14 innings. On the present tour, India revisits Melbourne again in February, though it would be for a 50-over match against Australia on February 3. Meanwhile, Warne also expects the famed Indian batting line up to do well in the upcoming series. "I think their batters, especially Rahul Dravid, will make big runs. He's a quality person, a quality act, a quality player. "India has a quality team. In Test cricket we've seen them, against the West Indies. Their batsmen will do pretty well," said Warne, who ended his career with 708 wickets from 145 Tests at a staggering average of 25.42. The former leg-spinner, however, did not boast of an impressive record against India. In his 14 Tests against India, Warne captured only 43 wickets at an average of 47.19. If Warne is confident about India's good showing in the batting department in Australia, he has serious doubts over the visitors' bowling abilities. "Their bowlers will have to stay fit. If Zaheer Khan or Ishant Sharma get injured, then I think their bowling attack could be quite weak. The Australian batsmen could perform pretty well. I think it's going to come down to how India are going to take 20 wickets with their bowling," he said.

[SachDan]

The Aussies on Tendulkar ESKOqqa5joA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Deleted_User_1]

But the midget chokes, no?? Seriously, we fans should probably make this tour about him. If he plays well get some satisfaction out of it, cuz the team is gone!

[Cricket Tragic]

:nice:

[SachDan]

Smiling Sachin arrives for the party IF Sachin Tendulkar is starting to feel edgy about getting his 100th international 100 out of the way, he wasn't showing it when he arrived in Sydney yesterday. The Little Master strolled through Sydney Airport after landing from Melbourne sporting a peaceful smile despite the usual hoard of media thrusting microphones and cameras towards him. Camera flashes reflected brightly off his pearly teeth, as bystanders motioned to their partners and friends, ''It's Sachin! It's Sachin!'' One fan put his head near Tendulkar's, switched his mobile phone to video and held it at arm's length before asking the batsman to say ''happy new year'' to the device. Such is the life of a sporting deity. The sobering thought is that yesterday's circus was nothing compared with when the Indian national hero travels around his home country. Despite questions being thrown his way by TV and print reporters anxious for a bite, the batting great gave nothing away, other than to say he would be watching the New Year's Eve fireworks, doubtless from an enviable vantage point. By comparison, Tendulkar's teammates strode past the baggage claim and onto the team bus with minimal distraction. The tall and lanky frame of Ishant Sharma bounced through, with giant headphones covering his ears. Coach Duncan Fletcher boarded the bus without acknowledging the pesky journalists. You just sense that he, more than anyone, hates that Australia is leading the series. Mahendra Singh Dhoni shared a word. Asked if this would be the week for Tendulkar to finally achieve the remarkable milestone of 100 international centuries, the motorcycle-loving wicketkeeper said in his soft voice, ''I do hope so.'' But, asked further questions, he told The Sun-Herald he would like to chat further but ''that would make about 70 Indian journalists very angry''. Point taken. Many regard Tendulkar, despite his 38 years, to be in some of the best form of his extraordinary career. However, it's been nine months since he scored a ton, leaving him on 51 Test centuries and 48 in one-day cricket. There could be no better time to put that baby to bed than this week, as India seeks to even the series following the Australians' brilliant victory in the Boxing Day Test. The SCG, Tendulkar says, is his favourite ground away from India. ''It's a special place,'' he said the last time India played a Test in Sydney, in 2008. ''I love the atmosphere inside. There are certain grounds where you go out and you feel you are going to do well and the SCG is one of those grounds where I feel comfortable.'' In that match, Tendulkar scored 154 not out in the first innings before Australia won what turned out to be a Test remembered more for its controversy than for its outstanding performances. In India's previous Test at the SCG, in 2004 - Steve Waugh's final Test - Tendulkar scored 241 not out. In his four Tests at the ground, he has scored 664 runs, including three centuries, at an average of 221.3. Over his 185 Test matches, Tendulkar has seen it all and, more often than not, come out on top. But his 100th 100 has proved elusive. As Tendulkar sat in the front seat of the team bus yesterday, maintaining his zen-like grin, he looked anything but troubled by expectation.

[SachDan]

Ten things you didn't know about Tendulkar Malcolm Conn A NEW book by senior Indian cricketer writer Gautam Bhattacharya, Sach, offers unprecedented insights into the reclusive Sachin Tendulkar, who remains on the verge of his 100th international century heading into the second Test at the SCG this week. 1 Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly were sent to Dennis LilleeÃÔ MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai as schoolboys and instantly rejected. źouÃÅ better try batting, Lillee told them. 2 - Tendulkar was introduced to the Indian team as a school boy by the man he supplanted as IndiaÃÔ greatest batsman, Sunil Gavaskar, after acting as a ball boy during GavaskarÃÔ last international innings. 3 The first taste of international cricket for Tendulkar came as a substitute fieldsman for Pakistan of all teams during a festival match in Mumbai. He was annoyed that Pakistan captain Imran Khan kept him too deep, preventing Tendulkar from taking a catch. ůo words were exchanged with him but yes, I might have got that catch if I was kept slightly ahead, he laughed. 4 During his first Test series, against Pakistan as a 16-year-old in 1989, Tendulkar was struck a nasty blow on the nose by a vicious Waqar Younis bouncer. Ū had tremendous pain at night but never for a minute was I thinking negative. 5 Two years later in Australia Tendulkar was the stand-out batsmanat just 18. ŵhe track in Perth was hard and quick. I really watched the ball very, very closely as, otherwise, you wouldnÃÕ have scored on that that kind of surface. Again the track at Sydney was as unusual, a surface which assisted spinners. I managed to get hundreds on two completely different surfaces. After that I felt ready to play anywhere. 6 Tendulkar claims he has sledged only once, Glenn McGrath during an ICC knockout tournament in Kenya in 2000, to put the quality quick off his game in helpful conditions. ŵhe first thing I said was õoday I will hit you out of the ground? He got really angry and sprayed the ball around. This was exactly what we wanted. India won. 7 The first time Tendulkar recalls being sledged in a match was by Allan Border during the 1991-92 tour. Ū remember having blocked a delivery and the ball landed near my foot. I tried to pick it up when Allan Border shouted from gully 'DonÃÕ touch the ball? so I stopped immediately. 8 For much of his career Tendulkar has grown stubble ahead of important matches. ŪtÃÔ just normal, nothing to do with performance, he laughs. 9 Tendulkar is a fan of using computer analysis. ŵhe computer does play an important role in todayÃÔ cricket. You forget so many things. With the computer you can store them. For me the biggest advantage is you can study the opposition. The computer provides you with that vital two or three percent difference. 10 Of all the great praise Tendulkar has received during his remarkable 22-year career, one he holds close to his heart. Å´ir Donald BradmanÃÔ statement that this fellow bats very much like me, that was really special.

[Nova]

Sydney welcome ... The Little Master arrives, all smiles and full of confidence.

[SachDan]

Humble champ on edge of history Malcolm Conn IT is not Sachin Tendulkar's greatness as a batsman but humility and work ethic which are regarded as his greatest qualities by those who know him best. As the most prolific batsman in history prepares to score his 100th international century at the SCG - his favourite ground outside India - significant insights have been revealed about this very private person. He is probably best summed up by his captain MS Dhoni in the foreword to a new book, Sach, written by senior Indian cricket writer Gautam Bhattacharya. "There are plenty of things to learn from Sachin. To start with his humility, how he carries himself, the effort he puts in on the field even after playing for 22 years," Dhoni writes. It is a theme reinforced recently by World Cup-winning Indian coach Gary Kirsten. "People only talk about his genius," Kirsten said. "They don't get to see the backroom. I do. And I only see intense preparations, hours and hours of practice, sweat, hard work, leaving nothing, absolutely nothing to chance." Zaheer Khan is taken by Tendulkar's even-tempered approach to the game. "He never, ever loses his temper inside the dressing room," Zaheer said. "I am yet to see Sachin throw the bat around even when given out wrongly. "Maybe he will have an extra bowl of ice cream, and that is when you realise he is pretty upset." The man who Tendulkar supplanted as India's greatest batsman, Sunil Gavaskar, marvels at the longevity of someone who began his Test career as a 16-year-old. "Sachin's appetite does amaze me," Gavaskar said. "I was mentally finished with cricket the day I retired. Not for a moment did I want to come back. "They are playing so much cricket now, still to retain that boy-like enthusiasm for cricket after having played for 22 long years is mind-blowing." Two of the great entertainers in the game, Brian Lara and Ian Botham, rate Tendulkar as the game's most watchable cricketer. "I love to see Tendulkar bat," Lara said. "I love to see so many of them bat, but if it comes to a question of pay and watch, I would say I shall only pay to see Tendulkar bat." Botham concurred. Shane Warne may not agree given that India is the only country he never mastered and Tendulkar had so much success against him. "Tendulkar's footwork is the best in the business," Warne said. "He never gets caught in two minds."

[SachDan]

If anyone's getting upset over the "hero worshipping" in this thread, please don't bother to open it again :icflove:

[bulbul]

Ten things you didn't know about Tendulkar 10 Of all the great praise Tendulkar has received during his remarkable 22-year career, one he holds close to his heart. ????ir Donald Bradman???? statement that this fellow bats very much like me, that was really special.

see how much Sach keeps Bradmans praise close to his heart...while sach Fans/fanatics doesnt even give little bit of value to Bradman.. thank god Sachin is not a member here..

[Lord]

IPL contracts coming:agree:

[Deleted_User_1]

If anyone's getting upset over the "hero worshipping" in this thread' date=' please don't bother to open it again :icflove:[/quote'] Hero-worshipping is the only thing we can look forward to this tour. I really hope he score lots of runs and gets his 100th ton.

[Jersey #10]

The Aussies on Sachin Tendulkar after MCG '11 ESKOqqa5joA

[Tiger80]

By playing cricket they just secure their present, by singing praises of tendulkar ,they are securing rest of their lives

[FreakazoiD]

A lesson in batting training from the little master http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/special-deliveries-for-the-little-master-sachin-tendulkar/story-e6frg7rx-1226234418792

IT was the Peter Siddle and James Pattinson impersonators who had Sachin Tendulkar working hardest at the SCG yesterday, but "Ben Hilfenhaus" gained the prized scalp. The ball that got him was nothing special, moving across the right hander who nicked it straight to me at first slip. Well, it would have if the net hadn't impeded its direct progress. You don't drop a sitter like that, would've shelled that pea for sure and been celebrating with the boys seconds later. That moment aside, watching Tendulkar in the nets was a study in how hard excellence is earned. How nothing is taken for granted, nothing gained without effort, nothing left to chance. Every action accountable. There is always something to be learned, always an extra effort to be made. As a player, Australian Football legend Ron Barassi had an almost obsessive-compulsive training disorder. When he became coach he would tell his charges that the practice makes perfect adage was "bullshit". "Perfect practice makes perfect," Barassi would say carefully, clearly and repetitively. At 38, Sachin Tendulkar has made more runs, more Test centuries and more impression than any batsman of any era, but there is no question of him making a nest of his many laurels. Yesterday he was a study in forensic training. A man working fastidiously to attend to something that undid his careful calibrations in the first Test. In Melbourne his batting in the first innings was almost a class above anything else seen in the game. The audacious flicks over slips, the straight driving, the cover driving. It was, however, not enough. He was bowled by Siddle in the last over of the day when three figures were begging and the match turned on that calamity. The turnstiles stopped and the Indians suffered a match-defining loss of momentum. It was a beautiful delivery that undid him and the match. It pitched outside off and picked the angle to come back in through the gate with perfect precision. Would have undone a mortal. In the second Siddle had him bowled off an inside edge from what was no more than a warm-up ball. The delivery so pedestrian and the shot so loose that perhaps it should be listed in the aberration column. Tendulkar obviously saw something in Siddle and his mate Pattinson that unnerved him at the MCG so he spent an hour yesterday getting his net specialists to work on the problem. He batted for a whole hour, rarely did he take a ball - apart from those bowled by his son - from 22 yards. The two throw-down specialists and a staff bowler hurled balls at him from about 15 metres. It wasn't so much how close the trio were that concerned Tendulkar, but the lines they were attacking him from. D. Raghavendra works for the Indian academy and is a favoured throw-down specialist of the Little Master. He runs in like a bowler only to "chuck" it at considerable pace. Tendulkar instructed Raghavendra yesterday to deliver the ball from the edge of the practice wicket which is narrower than a Test strip. "Here lines it up," he said. Then indicated another line he wished the net "bowler" to work on. The line is the property of the Victorian seamers. Pattinson delivers the ball from a little wider of the stumps than Siddle, but the latter will jump even wider for variation. An Indian staffer called DJ or Dhanajoy bowled overarm to Tendulkar from 15 metres away and at a fair clip. He appeared under instruction to keep in closer to the stumps and tested the master with a few that rose and darted away. One undid him. What was most extraordinary about the net session was not the shots he played but how many shots Tendulkar did not play. At a guess he offered strokes to 15 per cent of the balls outside off. You could count proper drives, cover or straight, on one hand. Tendulkar wasn't so much interested in finding the middle of the bat as he was with calibrating the line of the ball. Time and again he would inquire of the bowlers where exactly the ball had passed. Was it stump high, or higher? Was it this wide, or wider? Like Siddhartha on the river's banks, he was looking for wisdom in the passing of the stream. When not asking where the ball had been he was demanding, gently, where it should go. The session begs the question; is he considering a penitent innings like the double century in 2004 that included no cover drives? Hopefully it will be nothing so extreme and hopefully it is only a recalibration. Usually batsmen will rotate nets, moving from throw downs to net bowlers and seeking variation. It's an imprecise science, some of the ring-ins are pretty good, all are eager to please, but the constant variation in lines, speed and quality in no way replicates the centre wicket experience. Tendulkar was a man who knew what he wanted to work on and worked on only that. A little later in the session it became obvious the left-armed net " bowler" was working a Hilfenhaus line and he too was receiving careful instructions on where to be putting the ball. The aforementioned nick came from an apparent lapse in concentration and drew only a laugh from the batsman. Tendulkar is, however, human and not every ball was 100 per cent match concentration. His 12-year-old son Arjun was the other who was allowed in the nets to bowl to his dad. The left armer has a nicely controlled inswing which gained him 8-22 in an Under 16s Harris Shield match for his school in November. His performance received newspaper attention for in 1988 Tendulkar snr contributed 326 to a 664-run partnership with Vinok Kambli in the same tournament. And now, 23 years later, the old man is still fine-tuning his game, still seeking to improve himself, still plotting to keep the bowlers from overrunning his castle. It is worth repeating that Tendulkar has an average of 221 at the SCG and a highest score of 241no. He has reached three figures twice and never been dismissed after passing 45. When he gets in in Sydney he stays in.

[Cricketics]

Go back to Warner's comments and watch how he was saying "he's one of the gretttttt" and he stutters and says again "the greatest"

[Sachinism]

A restless nation sweats on Sachin Tendulkar THE Indian novelist RK Narayanan once said that his country lived permanently in the 11th hour. Perhaps Sachin Tendulkar's great achievement has been to defy that endless cycle of crisis and salvation characteristic of India's history, and to tackle his cricket with such a sense of soothing certainty. But he finds himself at the Sydney Cricket Ground on a personal brink growing ever more vertiginous, 290 days having elapsed since his 99th international hundred. For a mighty continent of cricket fans, Tendulkar's century of centuries has become a grand consuming passion, a painfully delayed gratification. Never, perhaps, has a cricketer experienced such an incessant bombardment of goodwill and gratuitous advice - heard, unheard, thought and felt. Indian news outlets have prepared so long and so lavishly for the feat that when it finally occurs, it will almost seem like old news. Electronic files full of stories with only places and names remaining to be filled have already been written and await only the order to print. Numberless other specials will already have been cancelled. A favourite personal recollection will be receiving an email from an Indian magazine during the recent Mumbai Test requesting 1000 words of appreciation immediately, Tendulkar being 85 not out at the time. The piece had progressed no further than an opening paragraph when a supplementary email arrived cancelling the commission, Tendulkar having been dismissed for 94. For those who savour a little synchronicity with their statistics, the prospect of a Tendulkar hundred in Sydney's hundredth Test could hardly be more exquisite. It was at the SCG against the first Indian team to tour Australia that Don Bradman, whom Indians generously rank alongside Tendulkar among cricket's divinities, scored his hundredth first-class hundred in November 1947. The visitors were then so excited by the prospect of being part of such a wondrous record that their captain Lala Amarnath entrusted the ball for the ultimate over to Googamul Kishenchand, a bowler so part-time he did not trouble to remove his cap, and whose amiable full toss Bradman pushed gratefully to mid-on for a single. No similar charity, it need hardly be said, will be extended Tendulkar's way in this match. Yet very few cricketers are unmoved by the event of a great landmark, and cricket is a rare game in that individual statistical achievement has a transcendent popularity among its public. Like other sports, cricket is sewn with salutes for spectacles and ovations for champions, but it also takes a peculiar and ecumenical joy in the milestone, both the visible, from the old-fashioned applause for the batsman's 50 and 100 and the new vogue for celebrating the bowler's five-for, and the invisible, captured in the perpetual scoreboard of the record book of each player, team and ground. Thanks to the redoubtable Ross Dundas, the SCG scoreboard has an enviable reputation for statistical vigilance, seemingly always ready with the annals of the fastest 50s made on Mondays and best bowling figures by bowlers with surnames containing more vowels than consonants. There is particular satisfaction to be found in the feat requiring time, effort, perseverance, scope and, not least of all, luck. And what feat could express that better than the one on whose brink Tendulkar stands, 23 years and five continents in the making? The extremes of attention lavished on Tendulkar's quest have already been paid the compliment of huffy disdain. Test hundreds and one-day hundreds put together? Preposterous, say a self-appointed cognoscenti. On Cricinfo recently, the essayist Mukul Kesevan scoffed that the record was a "half-wit's holy grail". "The real cricketing illiterates are the people who believe that adding ODI centuries to Test centuries and arriving at a hundred gives you a heroic landmark," he insisted. "It doesn't. This isn't just a meaningless statistic, it's a pernicious one, because it equalises two different orders of achievement." Well, d'uh. Statistics are always equalising different orders of achievement and imposing arbitrary distinctions. Where is the logic in the equal ranking among Bradman's hundred hundreds accorded to a triple century in a Test against England and to a hundred for an Australian XI against pre-Sheffield Shield Tasmania? And what could be more arbitrary than the designation "first-class" cricket? The designation "international cricket" might obscure the variation in standards between facing Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne one day and Stuart Matsikinyieri and Chris Mpofu the next, but it has the semblance of coherence constituted by a global structure and hierarchy. Sure enough, day-in, day-out, Test runs are harder to come by than ODI runs, but it is difficult to believe that Tendulkar's astonishing double hundred in a 50-over match against Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis, Wayne Parnell and Charl Langeveldt at Gwalior was an innings inferior in quality to a hundred in a drawn Test off Mahsrafe Mortaza and Shahadat Hossain at Chittagong. So, far from being a corrective of discernment and discrimination, Kesevan's argument was simply snobbish special pleading. On the contrary: about this feat there is everything to honour. Tendulkar's quest for his century of centuries might have started as what the American historian Daniel Boorstin once called a "pseudo-event", but it has achieved a kind of narrative arc by proving so elusive. Imagine what a squib it would have been had Tendulkar hit his 100th hundred in Chennai a week after the 99th. By seeming so regularly within his reach then just eluding his grasp, Tendulkar's 100th hundred has reminded us again and again that the game will not be hurried or defied, that it resists being packaged and commodified, that the players play, spectators attend and viewers watch in the knowledge that hopes are dashed at least as often as they are fulfilled. Good sport is not one thrill or spectacle after another. It needs its disappointments, deferrals and delays. Nowadays, cricket administrators hold their publics in such subtle contempt that they worry about them reaching for an electronic game if forced to wait too long for their next six. Yet sport's specialness derives partly from the sense that the astonishing and the monumental are rare, and that we are blessed when we witness them. Tendulkar is bound to achieve his landmark at some stage, amid scenes of rejoicing and relief, but it will be the more cherishable for the waiting involved. At the 11th hour, everything seems greater, richer and more memorable. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/a-restless-nation-sweats-on-sachin-tendulkar/story-fnb58rpk-1226235102608

[bulbul]

no more sweat...100 is on on 100th SCG test :two_thumbs_up:

[nballa]

sometimes i wonder if tendulkar would have been loved as much as he is if statistics were not such an integral part of sport.