Sanjay Manjrekar, Arvind Lavakare and other subjects

Sachin versus Bradman:
Anand Nandkumar: anand@banet.net: To compare Tendulkar with gavaskar and Bradman is like comparing apples and oranges. Today you have to measure will power with the sheer volume of criket played by these people. Gauging Sachin in that light, I think he is pretty much ahead of both Sg and Don. Both Don and Gavaskar I am sure would not have been able to sustain the way sachin has done. Comapring Gavaskar and Sachin in One dayers is totally unkind. One must remember that Sachin used to bat at 6 for a long time. Compare his statistic when he started to open the innings. As for comparing him with Lara or Kirsten Sachin in definitely more complete as a batsman. Bowlers have been able to sort Lara our but noone till now has been able to sort Sachin out. As for Kirsten, Well he is consistent but he is no patch to Lara or Sachin in terms of stroke production. Moreover, I think Sachin should be compared only with Viv because their styles are similar.



Sachin versus Bradman:
Boston Vasu: vvln@yahoo.com: Gavaskar, the great is an utter flop in one day cricket. No one can ever forget his 36 notout in 60 overs. Also the bottom line is he is not a 'team man'. Everyone knows how he sidelined the greats like Dilip Doshi, Kapil Dev etc., No doubt he has an established record in Test cricket. But tendulkar has not started his carrieer as a opening bat. Also, arvind lavakare did not consider the bowling aspects. Tendulkar is an all rounder. Gavaskar is a mere batsman and He is not known for his team spirit and like qualities. As far as comparint sachin with bradman, i don't know much about bradman except on paper. For god's sake don't compare a team man sachin with an ugly, selfish gavaskar.



Sachin versus Bradman:
Rahul Rajaram: rajaramr@rocketmail.com: Well statictics apart, i still feel Tendulkar is still the best there is, u told us that india managed to win w/o his contribution, well in 1998 of the six tournaments we won, tendulkar was Man of Match in 5. Now that is a point to be noted. Please do either give full facts or no facts but no contorted facts people. Readers here are not puppets. Thanks.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column:
Lakshminarayana : lnkompella@hotmail.com: Immedialtely after reading your article I was tempted to reason out our bad performance against England in England or for that matter any teams like WestIndies, Australia and etc. Unfortunately the argument completely fails, I feel the reason is more got to do with our constitution, we are subtle & mild and this doesnot bring out the killer instinct in us when it is required, unfortunately this happens quite too often. Thanks lakshminarayana K



Sachin versus Bradman:
Sundar Rajagopalan: srajagop@nashfinch.com: Interesting article,but it is way off target. Gower hardly scored 50% of first class centuries of Hick or Gooch but his had the complete audience including his very team, evertime he went off to bat.Reason - I guess u know. So most of us watch the game for pleasure more than anything & believe me sachin is god-send in this regard. I always appreciate Sunny's technique , but then, so do I on Dravid , Jimmy etal. Sachin is probably the first of his kind in India - the Richards mould which You don't get to see very often. Whatever the statistics poin too, I will prefer a sachin's Hundred at Perth to 300 by sunny or whoever whereever. And to top it all he is an absolute team man. I don't see him scoring a 36 N.O for any reason whatsoever!!!



Sachin versus Bradman:
siddharth: siddharp@wharton.upenn.edu: agreed that gavaskar had more staying power but that worked better for test matches rather than one-days gavaskar was a great batsman however he lacked the s/r he was slower st getting the runs....and ofcourse only scored one 1-day international century in his last match.... so though gavaskar may look better on the records the significance of sachin to a crucial one day match is more i cant remember when gavaskar could ever explode the other side's bowling like sachin did it against australia in sharjah



Sachin versus Bradman:
Prafulla Aherrao: paherrao@ptc.com: Well, everyone has right to have his/her opinion. You could be right with your figures, but you will have to accept one thing, THIS LITTLE MAN PSYCHES THE OPPOSITION. Thats why we like him. We need people who are motivators. I hope you know Mike Brearely - the English Captain, who never contributed much - but could get the best out of the team.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column:
Paresh Thatte: pat4520@mhz.njit.edu: Right on! Sanjay, you the man. Maybe we need to hire some gully ke potte!!!



Sachin versus Bradman:
AK: srini_ak@hotmail.com: I really appreciate you for clearly portraying the the statistics. I think every media persons should read this and know that Sachin is not the one man army of India and unduly put more pressure on him. Sachin should look back at the greats like Don and Gavasker and learn to take the responsibiliy of taking the team to the shore. The media should stop hyping over sachin and look at the reality. You are definetly right in saying that sachin was not available for india when it needed the most. There is no point in making the team win without losing a wicket when you chase a low score. There is definetly a point of responsibility and greatness if he does rescue feat in winning a game of chasing a difficult score.



Sachin versus Bradman:
Siva Somayajula: syaji@hotmail.com: Hi, I watch cricket for pleasure. Dump your statistics in some dustbin. Tendulkar is simply the greatest along with Vivian Richards and Brian Lara for their sheer audacity, the contempt with which they play the bowlers irrespective of their reputations and score so many runs. It is a visual splendor to watch Tendu hitting the bowlers around the ground and that what makes him the greatest. Siva.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column:
Sunil Sane: a271089@worldnet.att.net: I thought I was only one who was thinking the way you have described it. I am also a colony boy from Girgaum and won many encounters but I can understand we need the spirit of Street fighter when we play against Pakistan. Here in USA we get up in the middle of the night to watch the India's games and feel deserted seeing India loosing badly with no much fight to offer. We want TAPORY in our team.



Sachin versus Bradman:
Kamesh: kamesh@ansoft.com: I started reading this column eagerly becos it was a different opinion, not the same one, but the author lost me the minute he compared averages of Sachin an opener in ODIs with Lara a two down batsman. IMHO a column should discuss a problem and also indicate a possible solution. In recent times I see only this. Kamesh



Sachin versus Bradman:
NK Sharma: alblue@msn.com: This article brings to mind the axiom that there are three types of untruth in the world; lies, damn lies, and statistics. While comparisons to the Don and Gavaskar will be unfavorable to anybody, you could still argue for Sachin, ask the Don himself. More troublesome is Mr. Lavakare's poor comparisons to Sachin's batting with Lara and Kirsten. Sachin's batting average is fractionally lower than Kisten's (and is in fact higher than Kirsten's on 4/23) and about 3 plus runs less than Lara, the fact that is ommitted is that as of April 23rd, Sachin had played nearly as many ODIs as Lara and Kirsten combined. Let us see what these two men's averages are when they crossed the 200 ODI mark each. Until then it is an irrelevant comparison. If we make irrelevant comparisons let us prop up Mr. Bevan from Australia, whose ODI average in 91 innings is 60 plus. It is also highly unfair to compare Gavaskar's first 100 ODIs, when he was well over age 30 and vastly inexperienced, with Sachin's first 100 ODIs, which covered his teenage years mostly. Mr. Lavakare, make relevant comparisons, most of your arguments are ridiculous and smack of an irrational attempt to unfairly belittle a great, great player.



The Dean Jones column:
Balaji: balajivk@yahoo.com: Ooooh, Another foreigner. What happend to the "MERA MAHA BHARATH". It seems that being an INDIAN is a disqualification within Inidia, let it be politics or sports. Well let me not talk about politics now because there are enough cooks who are already spoiling the broth. Though with all due respect I agree, Mr. Simpson can make a difference in the Indian Team, dos'nt it prove the weakness in our jean, "We will Obey to Foreigners". It was 500 years ago, we started obeying the Sultans, at midst the British and now again a foreigner. Did some bodey say India is the second most populous country in the World?. What's our population, some 950 million? and we need a Boby simpson and ..... to say what we are to do to achieve something?. It all starts with the bunch of idiots who are responsible for managing and selecting the Indian team. Recall Mohinder Amarnath, "Bunch Of Idiots" it does deem fit. We do have the likes of Kapil Dev and Gavasker, who had actually played more number of matches in the English soil, than Simpson. Dont they have any thing to do?. Think about this, what will Simpson do when Australia and India were to meet in the finals of the World Cup. Will Simpson be in a position to exploit the individual weeknesses of the Australian players?, and do we have to believe that, his national pride will shut its doors while doing so?. I dont think so because he happens not to be an "INIDIAN". Well I have this questions dont you?. Any ways if it takes an outsider to restore national pride, lets say An Australian Manager Won the World cup and the Indian Slaves played for it......



Sachin versus Bradman:
NK Sharma: alblue@msn.com: This article brings to mind the axiom that there are three types of untruth in the world; lies, damn lies, and statistics. While comparisons to the Don and Gavaskar will be unfavorable to anybody, you could still argue for Sachin, ask the Don himself. More troublesome is Mr. Lavakare's poor comparisons to Sachin's batting with Lara and Kirsten. Sachin's batting average is fractionally lower than Kisten's (and is in fact higher than Kirsten's on 4/23) and about 3 plus runs less than Lara, the fact that is ommitted is that as of April 23rd, Sachin had played nearly as many ODIs as Lara and Kirsten combined. Let us see what these two men's averages are when they crossed the 200 ODI mark each. Until then it is an irrelevant comparison. If we make irrelevant comparisons let us prop up Mr. Bevan from Australia, whose ODI average in 91 innings is 60 plus. It is also highly unfair to compare Gavaskar's first 100 ODIs, when he was well over age 30 and vastly experienced, with Sachin's first 100 ODIs, which covered his teenage years mostly. Mr. Lavakare, make relevant comparisons, most of your arguments are ridiculous and smack of an irrational attempt to unfairly belittle a great, great player.



Sachin versus Bradman:
Ven Hari: Vhari@sun.science.wayne.edu: Yes, I do agree that the media and much of the general public think that Sachin is the greatest batsman that India has produced. The records show that is not the case yet. However, even though Mr. Lavakare has gone out of the way to point out instances where Sachin failed, to be fair he should also have pointed out the cases where he carried the team. I dont think that anyone in their right minds can say that he is not the best Indian batsman. He is only 25 and has a long way to go and I am sure that he will hit double centuries soon and his records will shatter those of others. But, what I cannot understand is the need for Mr. Lavakare to run down Sachins achievements at this time. Perhaps, this coulumn is the result of the usual Indian habit of running down successful countrymen.I dont think that Sachin ever claimed that he is another Bradman or Gavaskar, he cannot help it if the media make these comparisons.Leave him alone. By the way, I dont belong to the MTV generation, I am one of those who was fortunate as a youngster to watch Vinoo Mankad bat and bowl. In fact, in my opinion, Mankad rranks as the greatest Indian All rounder - greater than Kapil. Mankad played without a helmet and faced the ferocity of Lindwall, Miller, Trueman, Tyson,Hall, Gilchrist and others and also bowled many 50+ overs ( taking wickets). Sincerely Ven Hari



The Dean Jones column:
Balaji: balajivk@yahoo.com: Ooooh, Another foreigner. What happend to the "MERA MAHA BHARATH". It seems that being an INDIAN is a disqualification within Inidia, let it be politics or sports. Well let me not talk about politics now because there are enough cooks who are already spoiling the broth. Though with all due respect I agree, Mr. Simpson can make a difference in the Indian Team, dos'nt it prove the weakness in our jean, "We will Obey to Foreigners". It was 500 years ago, we started obeying the Sultans, at midst the British and now again a foreigner. Did some bodey say India is the second most populous country in the World?. What's our population, some 950 million? and we need a Boby simpson and ..... to say what we are to do to achieve something?. It all starts with the bunch of idiots who are responsible for managing and selecting the Indian team. Recall Mohinder Amarnath, "Bunch Of Idiots" it does deem fit. We do have the likes of Kapil Dev and Gavasker, who had actually played more number of matches in the English soil, than Simpson. Dont they have any thing to do?. Think about this, what will Simpson do when Australia and India were to meet in the finals of the World Cup. Will Simpson be in a position to exploit the individual weeknesses of the Australian players?, and do we have to believe that, his national pride will shut its doors while doing so?. I dont think so because he happens not to be an "INIDIAN". Well I have this questions dont you?. Any ways if it takes an outsider to restore national pride, lets say An Australian Manager Won the World cup and the Indian Slaves played for it......



Sachin versus Bradman:
Vittal: anant@tidalwave.net: Gavaskar never had a total dominance over the bowling attack. Subjugation is the not the word. He will plod and graft. Tendulkar seems to have atleast a couple of options to every ball that is bowled to him. He is a bowler's nightmare. Vishvanath brought more victries to India during Gavaskar's time. There is not point in comparing two cricketers from two generations as all the conditions are different. Please donot compare Gary Kristen with Tendulkar.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column:
KD: saint@yours.com: Why don't you just accept that India is a lousy team...and Pakistnis are a better team with world's fastest bowling attack. I can't believe that a person like you who once was my hero can go so low to call other unethical. Just look at what you said..."I am not so sure whether they even knew the meaning of ethics" I just can't belive you said. It's cricket man ... better team wins and lets face it Pakistan is a better team. And stop using abusive language it's unethical



Keeping a watch on Azhar:
Venkat: venkat456@hotmail.com: Azhar -"Jo ho gaya so ho gaya usko kyon dahurate ho? " You would not be making ALLLLL that money if people were not interested in what you are doing!!!!



Sachin versus Bradman:
Sukumar Bhasker: sukumar_bhasker@sabre.com: I may agree that it is too early to compare Sachin with Bradman. In the same vein to compare Sachin to Kirsten and Lara is bull-shit. Gavaskar is definitely a great player. But how many times have we won with his contribution? Gavaskar is great because I think he made us believe that we can face any kind of bowling and we were also world-class. But I think the greatest players of all time, based on consistency and plyaing well at important times, are Gary Sobers and Don Bradman. I would wait for Sachin to reach upto their level. I am sure he would.



Sachin versus Bradman:
Ketan Randeria: Ketan.Randeria@CarltonCards.CA: Your stats may be right; your analysis and conclusion are WRONG. You haven't looked at the games where Sachin converted a losing game to a winning one by batting, bowling and fielding. Have you considered that Bradman and Gavaskar did not start at age 16 to represent their country,and certainly did not have to bowl in a match like Sachin is expected to. Show me any other Indian player that other team is so afraid of!



The Sanjay Manjrekar column:
Sunny Chakraborty: sunnyc_us@yahoo.com: That's 100% true.... Indians are too much ethics minded…too much decent…it's bad for everything…. They discourage aggressive behaviors….are always polite...everywhere..from schools..to colleges..to even games & sports, not realizing the simple fact that, what sports require is: more KILLERS' INSTINCT than talent. Look at CHINA..RUSSIA...KOREA..Or even the backward African countries etc... They excel because they are very aggressive….even in their normal lives…... We have people like these….among the 980 million people…. Go Deep into Punjab…North-East…MP…..etc. People of extreme climates-they have extreme behaviours…they are the toughest-mostly. Moderate climate produce moderate people- not fighters. India NEEDs THESE Bunch TO BE PICKED UP FROM LOCAL TEAMS, THROUGH OUT THE COUNTRY..NOT THE TALENTED DECENY BEAUTIES.….. Remember LEADERS everywhere are the tough fighters...including the CEOs of General Motors Corp of US, TOYOTA Motor Corp of Japan, BMW Corp of GERMANY or RAYMOND INDIA Ltd. Just to name a few. Politeness Don't PAY in a RING where you Gotta fight to win.-by Hook or by Crook. Leaders DON'T LIKE to LOOSE ANY GAME…. We need guys like Mike Tyson…when he realized that he is going to loose the fight against Evendar Hollyfield, he attacked Hollyfield physically…………….that's A COMMON TRAIT of a Tough Leader. It Looks bad……..but at the end People respects them….maybe out of fear..maybe out of praise..maybe Out of hatred… You have to be above the level of Normal people to be different….. Also let me POINT out: Those who disagree with me…will belong to these categories…software..Academics..Medical… or some polite brain work groups. None from aggressive teamwork groups like MANAGEMENT… Entrepreneurs…Sports or Tough Winners.. will DISAGREE with me. I challenge… !



Sachin versus Bradman:
Sibu: sibubk@earthlink.net: whatever u say, whatever power u measure him against, Sachin is simply the best circketer today. Happy b'day Sachin !!



Sachin versus Bradman:
Mahesh: mahpat@hotmail.com: Hey Sachin, Wish you a very very happy birthday!!! Mahesh



The Sanjay Manjrekar column:
Lionel Rasquinha: khwaish@hotmail.com: Sanjay Do you have any 'gully guys ' in mind . Its never to late , the WC is still 3 weeks away.



Sachin versus Bradman:
ramesh sinha: rsinha1@pdq.net: I never knew criticizing could be an art too. You did an excellent job bringing out all -ve points of evidences while hiding all the +ve aspects of tendulkar to hit at the core of the man many have accepted as their cricketing God. I mean if Tendulkar were to read this article and I wish he would he would most certainly be damned and I am sure in the end it would only end up improving him. Superb work!



The Sanjay Manjrekar column:
: srik@india.hp.com:



Sachin versus Bradman:
Sendhil Raj: rensrs@aol.com: Many Happy Returns of the day Sachin



Sachin versus Bradman:
Mok: : On the dot



Sachin versus Bradman:
Suresh Patel: venusgroup@aol.com: Wishing you a very happy birthday & hopefully a luckiest birthday for 1999 World Cup Champion India. Pl. stay healthy.



The Sanjay Manjrekar column:
ravi Kumar: rkumar5315@aol.com: I fully agree with Sanjay. In order to bring this about there should very clear signals from the selectors to the aspiring cricketers that performance and Only performance will count . No matter what your name or past record may be. We need not only talent but talent mixed with a burning desire to win each and every game. the people of tIndia are very emotional about cricket and any body messes with cricket including the selectors and the cricket board , heads must roll and the sword must be wielded. It is not just a game any more. It is india's poor millions only source of some cheer in their drab lives. Wake up all of you who play for India and those who manage the affairs. If you dont you are worse than the traitors and should be hanged by your neck in public square.

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