The Great Sachin

Sir Sachin Tendulkar became the first player to score 50 Test centuries but South Africa were on the brink of victory at the end of the fourth day in Centurion

Best quotes on Sachin Tendulkar

In series of features on Sachin completing 20 years in International cricket, MSN presented some of the best quotes that current and former cricketers have made on the master-blaster. Find what Don Bradman, Sunil Gavaskar, Dennis Lillee, Greg Chappell, have to say about Sachin Tendulkar. I just collected here.

Matt Hayden:
"I have seen God, he bats at no. 4 for India"

Peter Roebuck
"On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!!"

Dennis Lillee
If I've to bowl to Sachin, I'll bowl with my helmet on. He hits the ball so hard.

Glenn McGrath
I still think Tendulkar is the best batsmen in the world ahead of Steve Waugh and Lara.

Brain Lara
Sachin is a genius. I'm a mere mortal.

Sir Don Bradman
I saw him playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this player is playing much the same as I used to play, and she looked at him on Television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two...hi compactness, technique, stroke production... it all seemed to gel! in reference to Sachin Tendulkar.

Andy Flower:
"There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others."

Allan Donald:
"Sachin Tendulkar has often reminded me of a veteran army colonel who has
many medals on his chest to show how he has conquered bowlers all over the
world"

Sunil Gavaskar
India's fortune will depend on how many runs the little champion scores. There is no doubt Tendulkar is the real thing.

Richie Benaud
He has defined cricket in his fabulous, impeccable manner. He is to batting what Shane Warne is to bowling.

Geoffrey Boycott
Technically, you can't fault Sachin. Seam or spin, fast or slow nothing is a problem.

Greg Chappell
He is a perfectly balanced batsman and knows perfectly well when to attack and when to play defensive cricket. He has developed the ability to treat bowlers all over the world with contempt and can destroy any attack with utmost ease.

Shane Warne
I'll be going to bed having nightmares of Sachin just running down the wicket and belting me back over the head for six. He was unstoppable. I don't think anyone, apart from Don Bradman, is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar. He is just an amazing player.

Viv Richards on Sachin Tendulkar
I think he is marvellous. I think he will fit in whatever category of Cricket that has been played or will be played, from the first ball that has ever been bowled to the last ball that's going to be. He can play in any era and at any level. I would say he's 99.5% perfect.

BBC Sports, on Sachin Tendulkar
Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives.

Navjot Singh Sidhu:
"India me aap Prime Minister ko ek Baar Katghare me khada kar sakte hain..Par Sachin
Tendulkar par Ungli nahi utha Sakte.."

Barry Richards
Sachin is cricket's God!

Ian Chappell
Harder he works, the luckier he gets.

Anil Kumble
"I am fortunate that I've to bowl at him only in the nets!"

Andrew Symonds
"To Sachin, the man we all want to be"
What Symonds wrote on an aussie t-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin.

Mark Taylor:
"We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin" -Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)

What is CRICKET ? oops!!

"You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out,and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!"

We told you it was a simple game :)

Scenes at F.C. Ground

Since sometime now I have been playing cricket at F.C. ground with my friends. We convoke at the ground at around 7 on Saturday mornings. The ground is teeming with activities - people of all ages exercising, cricket teams of varying team sizes with varying paraphernalia playing, F.C. ground staff rolling the patch of ground that has semblance of a pitch etc. However, these activities themselves were not the ones which drew my attention. Unfailingly at around 7:15 AM a distant loudspeaker somewhere in the college campus heralds the beginning of day by first playing few second-long shenai-based classical music piece which is immediately followed by our national anthem. As soon as the national anthem begins the whole F.C. ground freezes as far as you can see. The joggers, the young boys cricket brigades - *everyone*. They literally stop whatever they were doing and pay reverence to the national anthem. After the national anthem concludes it is as if someone pressed the play button to resume the hustle bustle where it left from. It was such a heartwarming scene!

The cricket matches themselves are pretty amusing. At any given time there could be six to seven matches going on on the same ground. It is enough to make any ICC official's jaw drop. The boundaries of each "groundlet" overlap. The pitches themselves are haphazardly placed. It goes without saying that it isn't uncommon to find fielder of match A at mid-on just a few pace away from a third-man fielder of match B. In fact during one match while fielding at mid-wicket position I almost ran into the batsman of match B at striker end who was just about to swoosh the ball wildly towards *his* mid-on. I was saved from a jaw-dropping incident - literally. Seeing the IT folk riding of the outsourcing wave, these cricketing teams have mastered outsourcing too. The fielding beyond certain circumference is duly outsourced to the adjacent team. So when you find a pinch hitter hitting the ball off the park (park = groundlet) you will invariably find the fielders from that match A screaming "Eh ball! ball!" signalling the fielders of match B to collect the outsourced fielding assignment. Fielders from match B do that diligently often juggling with their ongoing fielding chore. And we have mergers and acquisitions too. When a few slackers from some match don't make it to the ground they find the most appealing team and make them an offer for alliance.

We usually play till 9 AM or so and then the event culminates with a customary trip to "Vaish" or some other F.C. road eatery for piping hot idli sambhar and filter coffee.

- shamelessly copied from Kartik's column