Tendulkar once again missed his much-awaited 100th international ton, but Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said the impending record of the batting maestro did not affect the team
Tendulkar once again missed his much-awaited 100th international ton, but Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said the impending record of the batting maestro did not affect the team. Tendulkar looked likely to reach the milestone on the fourth day of the first Test against the West Indies, but fell short by 24 runs. Dhoni said the team was not perturbed. When the team is not perturbed and Mahendra Singh Dhoni seems similarly unaffected, why are people getting so impatient to see the master blaster reach the milestone?
Sachin Tendulkar has nothing to prove and a 100th international ton will look great in the statistics book. But will it add to his stature in any way? Even without that, the larger picture will be of a Mumbai batsman who evokes admiration like perhaps no other cricketer does, especially for Indians. What if Sachin were to retire without getting this elusive 100? We don't think his stature would diminish at all.
Take all the great sportsmen for instance. While they were happy to set personal benchmarks so that the next generation could aspire to be better, sportsmen create records simply so that they could be broken. Somebody has said, records are meant to be broken, treating them as lightly as they deserve to be treated.
While Dhoni blamed the media for putting pressure on Tendulkar about his 100th international ton, reports state that the spectators too were heart-broken when Tendulkar missed his 100 and walked back to the pavilion after getting an LBW decision.
More importantly, cricket is a team game, not an individual sport, so to put so much emphasis on an individual achievement is perhaps not looking at the whole picture.u00a0 There would be great joy if Tendulkar gets his 100 for everybody, but to obsess about it is counter productive, and frankly, a big yawn.
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