A beautiful life awaits Tendulkar
I've been there. Quitting cricket won't be the end of all that's good for Sachin, something he and the people around him need to understand.
This team has logged the same results for the last one-and-half years as the 1983 team did after winning the World Cup. This happens. When you win something as big as the World Cup, it becomes easy to lose focus and priorities get mixed up.
Yet, this fall from grace is surprising.
With so much professionalism, a bevy of support staff to keep things on track, and the Board backing them to the hilt, this team could have handled it better.
Somehow, I feel the players have become very big over the years, and it seems, from outside, that the Board has become slightly relaxed towards them. Today, the players can do whatever they feel like, and can get away with it. In our time, it wasn't possible, no matter how big a player was.
In the past, the Board and selectors were strong vis-à-vis the players. We had lost just one series, to the West Indies, after winning the World Cup in 1983, and I was sacked as captain. That was necessarily not the right thing to do because chopping and changing at the first sight of trouble isn't the right way to go about it. But at least the selectors then could take a decision.
Yet, this fall from grace is surprising.
With so much professionalism, a bevy of support staff to keep things on track, and the Board backing them to the hilt, this team could have handled it better.
Somehow, I feel the players have become very big over the years, and it seems, from outside, that the Board has become slightly relaxed towards them. Today, the players can do whatever they feel like, and can get away with it. In our time, it wasn't possible, no matter how big a player was.
In the past, the Board and selectors were strong vis-à-vis the players. We had lost just one series, to the West Indies, after winning the World Cup in 1983, and I was sacked as captain. That was necessarily not the right thing to do because chopping and changing at the first sight of trouble isn't the right way to go about it. But at least the selectors then could take a decision.
Money is good for the game, players
As a former player, it feels great to see players becoming powerful and earning good money. More money should bring in more dedication, commitment and discipline, not arrogance. Some players have seen and got too much a little too early, and that has sent discipline flying out of the window - from their lives as well as from their game. They just need to look at Rahul Dravid to understand what they could achieve with discipline.
That's not much of a problem in individual sports, but it's extremely bad for team sport. A couple of players with wrong attitude and bad discipline issues could affect the entire team in an adverse manner.
I am not comparing this team to that of 1983 but I must tell them something. When we came into the team, there was a trend of social drinking after the day's play. From the squad of 15, 8-10 would have a drink in the evening. Pretty soon, after we came in, we changed the trend; eight-10 of us would now look for butter milk or something else instead of drinks after the day's play. We made it a sort of rule and worked relentlessly towards achieving better fitness and becoming better players, even though we didn't have enough facilities. This team, too, needs to set some goals and put in the hard yards to achieve them.
As a former player, it feels great to see players becoming powerful and earning good money. More money should bring in more dedication, commitment and discipline, not arrogance. Some players have seen and got too much a little too early, and that has sent discipline flying out of the window - from their lives as well as from their game. They just need to look at Rahul Dravid to understand what they could achieve with discipline.
That's not much of a problem in individual sports, but it's extremely bad for team sport. A couple of players with wrong attitude and bad discipline issues could affect the entire team in an adverse manner.
I am not comparing this team to that of 1983 but I must tell them something. When we came into the team, there was a trend of social drinking after the day's play. From the squad of 15, 8-10 would have a drink in the evening. Pretty soon, after we came in, we changed the trend; eight-10 of us would now look for butter milk or something else instead of drinks after the day's play. We made it a sort of rule and worked relentlessly towards achieving better fitness and becoming better players, even though we didn't have enough facilities. This team, too, needs to set some goals and put in the hard yards to achieve them.
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