Forum subject -- Celebrating Sachin: The Prem Panicker column

Celebrating Sachin:
jeet: taurean8@hotmail.com: being a student of statistics i do not know whether to cry or to laugh at the statements made by mr. prem panicker's professor and his(prem's) adherence to it.i do not think prem is that old that he would not know where the world of statistics has gone today and how that is being used in all spheres of life. coming to the point i think prem belives in playing safe with his fans and has not ever exhibited the courage to take on 'myths' created around generally accepted stars and systems, as arvind did....the whole point of arvind's article was not to show the prowess of statistics but to try and bring out instances which we 'blind fans' have forgotten while putiing sachin on the pedestal...there is no doubting the fact that he is a great cricketer but nobody, i repeat nobody is greater than the game as we make him out to be...he has his humanly share of failures and at times been irresponsible and inconsistent...however hard it is for us to take we have to take that with a pinch of salt....that is the main point, i guess, that arvind ventured into and in doing so used statistics as a tool...he might have been wrong in a few instances but he has successfully put his message accross which was 'sachin maybe a great player but he is not god (just like all of us 'earthly creatures')....well we will get to see it very soon how this super batsman of ours faces genuine pace (the likes of donald, pollock, mcgrath, gough, shoaib etc etc.....or would we like many of our famous commentators say "well that was an unplayable delivery, and even the best of our batsmen would have got out on that"....waiting to read an article where prem questions the favoured... i have to admit that i am one of the biggest fans of sachin and prem in canada and i so badly wish that both of them 'perform' all the time!!!!!!!



Celebrating Sachin:
meyappan: meyy90@hotmail.com: well said prem. Statistics is a bull shit. Statistics is for information only. we shouldn't use them for comparisons.



Celebrating Sachin:
ronak: ronak@indiasite.com: prem i have always liked ur articles. u have a great sense of writing. but this article just tops it all. initially when you were comparing statistics i was kind of losing interest, but the last part of your article was just too good. it was totally moving. great stuff that!!!!! go sachin



Celebrating Sachin:
Subu Iyer: subu_iyer@yahoo.com: Way to go Prem!! Aravind who??!!



Celebrating Sachin:
Gopal Srinivasan: : Let's hear it for Prem Panicker Great job of tearing Arvind lavakare's piece to shreds



Celebrating Sachin:
Sumanth: sumakumar@rocketmail.com: Hi Prem, I love u man. I couldn't give a better answer to those who just goes by statistics. When cricketers of other countries like S.Waugh and Akram think its over if they get Tend out why are we Indians trying to talk about his inability to produce everytime he goes on the field. Thanks for giving him the answer.Perfect.



Celebrating Sachin:
S.Rajagopalan: raj_sridhar@hotmail.com: Prem has hit the nail on the head when he mentioned "pride". It is with great pride that I take the name of Sachin when confronted with the achievements of other greats of other countries. I get a similar feeling of pride when an American mentions to me that all the big inventions were made by Americans; and I tell him that an Indian invented 'zero'. I recall a scene from "Deewaar" where, with the same pride, SK tells AB "Mere paas maa hai".



Celebrating Sachin:
anujay: anujay.vootla@hok.com: wha!!! janaaab haqkeekath aankdo me nahee aankho me hothi hai



Celebrating Sachin:
Chinna: chinna@writeme.com: There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics. - Benjamin Disraeli



Celebrating Sachin:
Gopal Srinivasan: mailgops@iname.com: You said it Prem, I could kiss you for this. You have said everything I wanted to but could never find the appropriate words to do so. Yes Sachin has definitely given us much needed pride. Keep up the great job with your pen. Regards



Celebrating Sachin:
Balaji : bthirnrayan@hotmail.com: Good Article. Could have been better without the analogy of king and Miniskirts. -Balaji



Celebrating Sachin:
Amit Goel: amitgoel@hotmail.com: The article tells it like it is.



Celebrating Sachin:
Anil: apguy@yahoo.com: This is ne of the best article i have ever read by prem Panicker. I would totally accept Sachin is one of the best Cricket player India ever produced.Hats off to Prem.

Celebrating Sachin:
Thomas Mathew: mathew_t@hotmail.com: Hi Prem, Enjoyed reading this article. You have rightly pointed out that Sachin may or may not be greater than Don Bradman or Sunil Gavaskar or others, but he is certainly one reason why we are proud Indians today. If we can have one Tendulkar, I'm sure we have many more in our ranks somewhere waiting to be discovered. I do hope and pray that in our land of 900 million we will find and encourage more such Tendulkars to shine for our country in various fields of life. You have also pointed out very rightly that statistics by themselves do not tell the complete story. Do keep up this good work and continue to write such brilliant articles which all your readers enjoy!! Cheers. Thomas.



Celebrating Sachin:
palaniappan: palaniappanc@hotmail.com: Mr. Prem: I read the previous article as one, which can bring back sachin to the earth from the heaven, where the media and other people like you have taken. It more important for the worldcup point of view that sachin, is not much talked along with Don, SUnil or Dilip. Please, Please stop all your praising him and inturn you guys are spoiling the moral of the other 14 players in the squad. This can be avoided by writing about them also and increasing the confident of the player. Will you say your son that you will fail, next door fellow will only be the state topper. No you will try to motivate all your sons and daughters alike. Do the same for the Indian team also. They are our representative, all 15 are important for the game of cricket not only the sachin. Also i am no way against sachin. Still i say the best player i have seen in my view is Sachin, but still i like all 15. so write about them also. Thanks. Lets wish good luck to our worldcup team (all 15).



Celebrating Sachin:
shailg: mgudla@hotmail.com: The article in response to Arvind's was great and logical. But, i get a feeling that laundry's being washed in public. Thanks



Celebrating Sachin:
Rahul Rajaram: rajaramr@rocketmail.com: I couldnt agree more!!!!

Celebrating Sachin:
Manish Verma: vermam@hotmail.com: Lovely piece Mr.Panicker enjoyed reading it.

Celebrating Sachin:
Senthilkumar: kysr@hotmail.com: Prem, This is one of those excellent replies I've ever seen. Arvind's article is a very good example of how numbers can be manipulated to detrimental effect. Tell him this is not going to work. This won't do any good to him either. Arvind, instead wasting his time in such useless articles, should start believe in the reality rather than the statistics (Cold numbers, uh). Prem, this is a very constructive article and a befitting reply. Arvind is best suited to write politics of India where number games have taken a centre stage rather than administration. Keep up Prem! we're with u and one man demolition squad Sachin (Messrs. Khairnar and Arun Bhatia would be proud of). SenthilKumar ,USA



Celebrating Sachin:
rajba: rajba@rocketmail.com: Prem..

You did a wonderful job. A befitting reply to Arivind thoughtless article. Lets see what arvind has to say about this. You missed one important point. He is the only batsman in the world to be compared with greats like Sir Don and W.G. Grace, by the media. This in itself speaks about the calibre of the little champion, a compliement that Viv Richards, Gavaskar, and the likes didnt get.



Celebrating Sachin:
pochimcherla: pochimcherl@yahoo.com: Good Job! Arvind never made sense.



Celebrating Sachin:
Gangadhar Konduri: gangs@mit.edu: I am an expatriate Indian in Boston, USA. I often get into an argument with my sister back in India, over the the advantages of staying in the USA. She says "Tumhare paas gaadi hai, banglaa hai, dollars hai, acche raste hai, acchi havaa hai".

I just answer her: "Pur tumhare paas Sachin Tendulkar hai"

The only person who can 1 billion people laugh (and cry).



Celebrating Sachin:
Raghavendra Rao (JP): jp.raghavendra@sun.com:

Dear Prem,

Very well argued case is your against a pile of statistics to make or break a point. But everybody gets into analyzing the statistics to infer something, wittingly or unwittingly. This is something you do often to criticize a player is true of yourself, which you may have forgotten if your memory is short, or if you don't like unpleasant reminders of your own doings. Remember how much you used to carp Kumble's bowling and used to make fun of his deliveries ?

That sachin is a great player is something you don't have to prove by taking an example innings - It is there for everybody to see, if somebody is missing something, he is not fully knowledgeable in cricket or completely biased in opinion.

Quntifying the greatness or weakness of a player always results in arguments, as opinions are bound to defer; Unfortunately, one tends to get ticked off and continues to argue his/her case endlessly (mindlessly ?)

Much regards -raghavendra

Celebrating Sachin:
Ajay: ajay@usl.edu: Prem Great job. One of the best article I have ever read. Really Sachin has given us pride and passion. As you said we cannot compare players of different era but still one thing is for sure in whichever era he would have played he would have been one of the greats if not the greatest. I can't imagine somebody to be so naive to underestimate talent of Sachin... Keep it up prem.



Celebrating Sachin:
parikh: rcp1019@yahoo.com: Excellent article.One more important feature overlooked is age.At 26 Sachin has 10 more years to produce great innings.Most cricketers have achieved glory between 25-35 years of age.Sachin is on a rising slope, may reach a peak in few years and stay there for several years.Good luck Sachin. Indians in U.S.A. wil be cheering you.

Celebrating Sachin:
Sendhil Raj: rensrs@aol.com: Bravo! Bravo!

Great article. Moved me to tears. I am a Sachin fan and now I am proud to admit that I am also a Prem Panicker fan.

A fitting reply to Arvind. Atleast now he should stop writing about cricket and continue writing brilliantly about the President and the Indian politics.

Prem has hit the nail on its head without a hammer. Let us hope and pray that this outstanding batsman will continue to bring more laurels for India. To hell with the world cup if I can see Sachin play like he did in Sharjah atleast once in England this year.

So we need 10 centuries from Sachin to win the world cup.

Well done Prem keep up the good work. By the by can you write one article a day at Rediff. It will start my day in a happy and positive note and will help me celebrate Sachin's birthday in the right way everyday. Just kidding.

Sachin is the greatest batsman in the world - ask Warne. Prem is the best sports writer - ask me.



Celebrating Sachin:
Ramesh Reddy: rameshred@hotmail.com: Prem, Sachin is great but is given much more credit than he deserves. Most of his centuries are against teams which have mediocre bowling. Needless to mention Most Indians do well against such teams(NZ,Zim,Ken,BD,SL,Aus) and Sachin is one of them.

I dont remenber him playing one match winning innings in either world cup he played. May be this worldcup will put more light on him.

I think Arvind got a bit carried away but there is definetely some validity to his point.

Celebrating Sachin:
: yeppi@goplay.com: This is seems to be a kinda war. Why the hell u guyz dont stop fighting and give some interesting articles. Who cares who is best or who is not, we jus wanna kinda fun and entertainment. Nobody cares about statistics.

Celebrating Sachin:
Srinath: jsrinath@hotmail.com: Prem, I have not even read your article fully, but "Failure does not detract from greatness, my friend -- it merely underlines it, enhances it. Because it reminds us that the achiever was human -- and that whatever he achieved was in defiance of that very human-ness." already goes into my (virtual) collection of greatest quotes ever ! :-) Back to the article now...

Celebrating Sachin:
Aditya Natu: natuap@centum.utulsa.edu: Hi Prem, Did I love this article or what...you really shoudl have at leat one piece up on the site everyday!! In ur next piece..you might even add a photograph of Arvind's face after reading ur article...that's something I would wanna see!!

Celebrating Sachin:
Asit: : Excellent bashing to some crap from Arvind Lawakare !

Sachin versus Bradman:
Sandeep: sandeepsm@yahoo.com: I have no other words but to say that this is the most crazy I've read.

Celebrating Sachin:
Pramod Ashanna: prathima_pramod@hotmail.com: Dear Mr. Panicker, Thanks for the excellent rejoinder. Here's an interesting statement my friend makes. He's one of the true symbols of success I have come across in my life and obviously he had to fight challenges to get where he is. The statement - 'Sanity is not statistical'. He supports it quoting Boris Becker's example: Apparently Boris has a weird forehand grip. There are tons of people with perfect forehand grips but nowhere near to the kind of success that Boris has. So if you had a choice who would you want to give you Tennis lessons - Boris or these other lesser known mortals with perfect techniques ? 'Sanity is not Statistical'

Celebrating Sachin:
Jai Angle: jangle@excel.com: Prem, your article is very good. No doubt, Tendulkar is great and all Indians should be proud of him. I hope in the future nobody will dare to harm the morale of such great batsman of India. I wish him and Indian team good luck for the World Cup '99. Thanks. ~Jai

Celebrating Sachin:
Venkat Sankaran: vsankaran@gozamba.com: I read all the replies to Arvind and to me is the best with statistics. Great Job Prem. Go Tendulkar

Celebrating Sachin:
coolcat: coolcat469@hotmail.com: Prem, Excellent. Simply Superb. I really did NOT think that you would be so critical (rightfully though) about one of your own writers. I really applaud your GUTS. I agree with you completely (as I mentioned similar opinions in my feedback to Mr Lavakare's article).

I wish, when someone assesses a person's capabilities and personality, they do it without jaundiced eyes. Tendulkar is the best now, with regards to talent, attitude, courage, maturity and fighting spirit. Steve Waugh has great team to fall back on, Anwar has great bowling attack to fall back on. Talking about delivering in crunch time, one other match comes to my mind. (Strange that none of you two mentioned about that match). The one last over he bowled against S.Africa in the Hero cup semi final match in Calcutta. That shows his courage and confidence and his eagerness to contribute for the team's success. For gods sake, Arvind, OPEN your EYES and MIND.

Celebrating Sachin:
Rajesh: vennam@cs.odu.edu: Prem, you really proved again that you are a bright young cricket correspondent. Your article is the best answer to Arvind's.

Celebrating Sachin:
Parag: bandre@cs.uwindsor.ca: The article 'Celebrating Sachin' echoes sentiments of most of 'Cricket fans' not only the 'Sachin fans'. The article 'bursting the Sachin buble ' was in a bad taste as I'd say it was personal and prejudiced. Personal bcos as Prem mentioned the conclusion was drawn first and then the author was looking for evidence to substantiate it. Thanks Prem for 'Bursting Lavakare Bubble!'

Celebrating Sachin:
sachinm@dunnsys.com: : Great article!!!!! This should teach Arvind some basic lessons of being a cricket analyst. He badly needs to set up an appointment with a psychiatrist.

Celebrating Sachin:
Anand Ganesan: gt3975a@prism.gatech.edu: Hello Prem, Wonderfully penned article giving statistics a proper perspective!! Please don't allow articles such as Arvind Lavakare's to (ever) appear on redif.I feel that writers (atleast to some extent) should observe a neutral stance when writing about the game, so that balance of judgement remains. Anand G

Celebrating Sachin:
Sriram Vedula: svedula@vt.edu: Cant help but wonder at the stark contrast between the two articles. One man choose to use statistics to push his point and the other used prose dripping with drama and emotion, enough to make Shakespeare proud of his effort. The truth lies somewhere in between. Nothing is ever black or white, but grey. Thus so is Sachin's "greatness".

Celebrating Sachin:
arup ghosh: arupgh@hotmail.com: attaboy prem.

Celebrating Sachin:
Mann Singh: manroy@hotmail.com: Thanks for this article. I was waiting for someone to put Arvind in the rut.

Celebrating Sachin:
Nikhil Lad: nabadu@hotmail.com: I totally agree with Prem. The paradigm is that statistics is not the way to judge the batsman (compare Don > or < Sachin).

And as far as Sachin's impact on India is concerned, Sachin has played the most contributing role especially on big occasions. Nikhil.

Celebrating Sachin:
phanishankar: phani_shankar@yahoo.com: statistics are like swimsuits.They reveal a lot but they cover the most vital points.So i agree with your lamp post story, regarding Sachin .

Celebrating Sachin:
naveen arjun: naveenarjun@hotmail.com: great!great!rebuttal.you read my mind.all I had to say was in there. simply great.

Celebrating Sachin:
Ravi: rviswana@netscape.net: The question is "Is Tendulkar the greatest of the contemporaries" I would like to hear from you how he compares with Lara.

Celebrating Sachin:
Venu: grr10@hotmail.com: Loved the article. I was pissed off with that article of arvind's , criticizing just for a show-off cause. no comparison-but sachin is incredible and no amount of stupid statistics can blow that ... great reading!

Celebrating Sachin:
surya: ssuravar@monet.csc.vill.edu: Real good one...

Celebrating Sachin:
Shashank Shetiya: washers@vsnl.com: Dear Prem, It looks like Mr. Arvind is more sort of a mathematical man. If a foolish guy says that, Sachin is not the greatest batsman of the world, then he must be nuts. No Tom, Dick & Harry can convince people with some foolish articles & statistics. I personally feel that Mr. Arvind should leave sports journalism & think of improving his statictics in some other field.

Celebrating Sachin:
jayaram: Jayaram.Penna@mci.com: Prem, Thanx for such a point to point decimation of Aravind's article which certainly caused a lot disappointment to cricket lovers.Of course you might hv seen immediate reaction from many of us but we could not put forward our argument as technically as you did. Hope this stops people (who feel themselves to be superior than others) from writng such illogical articles on inappropriate occasions. Let me remind Aravind that he might already had the 'feel' of the cricket lovers' judgement on Sachin's charisma & abilities.Dont repeat the same no matter whomever you may choose.

Celebrating Sachin:
Sandeep Sreedharan: ssreedha@yahoo.com: I am an ardent fan of Tendulkar and I am really very happy and satisfied that you came forward to defend him. I was quite sad to read how this one person defamed Tedulkar with one article. I couldnot bear it but I donot have the time to give a fitting reply, which you did and I want to thankyou for that. That was a good shot, Prem - straight for a six !!!!

Celebrating Sachin:
Selva: gselvakumar@hotmail.com: A wonderful article. Two Thumbs-UP!

Celebrating Sachin:
Pratap Simha: pratap.simha@blr.sc.philips.com: Prem: Good Stuff.I believe you have hit the nail on the head. Pride, being able to hold your head high, is what Sachin has given us all.

Celebrating Sachin:
Sathya: cssathya@hotmail.com: This is a nice rebuttal to the article that Arvind had written. Speaking of facts and statistics, I would like to quote a sentence from Sherlock Holmes, which seems to suit the attitude of Arvind very well.

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has all the facts. Inevitably, one begins to twists facts to suit theories rather than theories to suit facts". And that is exactly what Arvind has done. He has made a theory that Sachin is not comparable to Don and has then set about finding the "necessary" facts to suit his theory, rather than seeing plainly that the records of Sachin in reality ARE comparable to Don, keeping in mind the changes in Cricket thru these years.

Celebrating Sachin:
Anil Barri: akbarri@hotmail.com: Hi Prem, kudoos!!!this was one way of opening the eyes of an writer,who is/was carried away by the "STATS".Hope Mr. Aravind realises,what a big blunder/mistake he had done,by putting up an article,hich he thought would"peirce the buble of tendulkar",BUT INFACT HE HAD REALLY PEEVED THE HEARTS OF MILLIONS OF CRICKET LOVING INDIANS WHO HAD TO READ HIS ARTICLE.UH!!! anyway u'r artilce will help everyone of (few folks like aravind) realise what sachin is!!! keep going prem!!! regards, Anil Barri one of the millions of die-hard cricket fans,now in USA.

Celebrating Sachin:
Raj Vadiala: rjw@epaibm.rtpnc.epa.gov: Excellent article, well presented. What more can I say ? HAPPY BIRTHDAY SACHIN

Celebrating Sachin:
Rajeev Bishnoi: bishnoi@hotmail.com: ABSOLUTE GEM OF AN ARTICLE. TERRAFIC!!!

Celebrating Sachin:
Aashish Jain: ustaad@vt.edu: He asked for it! Bravo!!!

Celebrating Sachin:
Mehul Shah: mshah@eng.usf.edu: A very befitting reply from a man who knows what he is saying. Excellent.

Celebrating Sachin:
Anand: anand.chandrasekar@gecapital.com: Ho Ho Prem, Nobody comes here to know from where you learnt your statistics and nobody wants to know what your professer( I doubt if he is one) said about Miniskirts or Lamp-posts. I am not entirely sure about Arvind's defamation of Sachin but I agree with his points of Sachin letting us down when we think he is going to win the match for us. In the Madras test, don't we remeber a foreigner who had complete dehydration but made it a point to bat for his team just to set a big score, why can't Sachin who has lived in India all his life overcome his pains to win a match for us. Its not whether a batsman gets out or not but it is the matter he gets out. If he had got out to a beauty of a ball, like the one Dravid got, then it would only be fair to say that his was a Great innings. Gavaskar got out to a cracker of a deleivery , not by trying to hit Iqbal qasim over his head. These are instances which stay on people's mind and are hard to be erased. I am an even greater Sachin fan, but this should not stop us from anlayzing right from wrong. Now if you want to reply to this reply , but please don't talk about your school teachers and childhood maids. We have enough fun thinking about ours !!!!!

Celebrating Sachin:
Gobi-1 Knobee: as@s: Prem: Tuche, Tuche.....

Celebrating Sachin:
Sandeep: sbeotra@hotmail.com: I have goose-bumps all over my body. Just can't wait for Sachin himself to answer all his detractors...the way he does best...ON THE FIELD!!

PS - My life would be consummated if he devastates Shoaib Akhtar!!! India ka tempo high hai!!!!!

Celebrating Sachin:
sudharshan vembutty: svembu1@tiger.lsu.edu: Prem,

What an article! You've proved once again that you are the best. Arvind can eat crap now.

Celebrating Sachin:
shekar: dshekar@yahoo.com: Great article, Prem. You have done it again!

Celebrating Sachin:
Kiran Guttikonda: gpid4@hotmail.com: Well,to me the whole thing seems a battle of egos than anything else.Arvind argues against Tendulkar and Prem Panicker,as always,goes for him.But does it make any sense???I don't think so.Prem-well yes,Sachin did put pride back into the Indian fan on April 22,1998.But so did Jadeja in the world cup quarters and recently in Sharjah.He was the most successfull batsmen against Australia and 2 other smaller teams in that series in India before the Sharjah triangular.So did Dravid and Azhar in Toronto after that disastrous series in England.So did Ganguly at the same venue a year later and next at the Coca cola cup in Dhaka.So did Kumble and Srinath when they brought the Aussies to their knees with their wonderful last wicket partnership.So did Robin with that amazing innings against Zimbabwe which took India into the finals in the Standard Chartered triseries.So did Agarkar when he got the wily Ranatunga mis judging his pace,and turning the match to India after everyone had lost their hopes!!Stop arguing about an 'Indi'vidual.Start thinking about 'India'.India has won 17 mathches when Sachin scored a century.He is definitely a great player and a match winner.No arguments about that.But India has also won other matches(I do not know the figure!!),because cricket is a team game.Sometimes one individual can change a game but most often it's the team which changes it!!Is that true or not-well,you experts decide. I have written to Rediff before but nothing showed up.If you put this up,that would be great 'coz,I'll then know if what I am thinking is right!!!;-) Thanks, Kiran Guttikonda

Celebrating Sachin:
Siva: siva@mink.mt.att.com: Great! Simply superb!

Celebrating Sachin:
Rujul: rujul@hotmail.com: This is one of the best articles from you. While reading your article I was able to visualize the way Sachin played in the Sharjah tournament. I watched both the matches. I wasn't sad when India lost the final league match against Australia. The way that "man" batted made me proud with all the 900 million people. No one in the country felt bad that India lost the match. I think, that was the first time that people were celebrating India's defeat.

Celebrating Sachin:
billy: : oh looks like somebody's ego is hurt.

anyway stop bickering like kids.

At least the point is statistics prove nothing

On another note, what is India's win/loss ratio when any batsman scores a century in One days?

Celebrating Sachin:
prayaag: numb4_04@hotmail.com: more than words can describe i loved that article...mr.panicker u almost as much as tendulkar has given me reason to be proud as well as passionate.....

Celebrating Sachin:
Gyan Dutt: gdutt@utk.edu: Prem, You are getting emotional, and worse still, personal. I think there was no need to take on Arvind head on in public. Here in the US people's hopes and aspirations are attached more to Sachin's batting than to Indian team's performance. So its easy to exploit the popular sentiment for some publicity.........or is it for settling personal scores?

Celebrating Sachin:
Seshan: seshanvr@hotmail.com: A fitting reply to Arvind Lavakare. Kudos to u, Prem!

Celebrating Sachin:
sasamka: sambabu9@hotmail.com: that was a superb article you reasoned it very well

Celebrating Sachin:
Naveen: seenaveen@hotmail.com: Too Good an article... Ball's in ur court Arvind..BTW Arvind's article was one that was meant to hog attention and create a sensation, which sadly he managed to achieve. I personally chose to stay away from replying cos I did not want to give him any attention for that crap article of his.. a sadistical one at that. Well it was a great riposte from Prem.. who has always proven to be the 'Bright Young' Corresspondent... Well., I hope Arvind learns from this big blunder of his life and stops writing... atleast on cricket where his knowledge seems limited to numbers.. You could choose politics... where mudslinging and portraying falsehood so convincingly will do him a lot of good... stand him in great stead against the likes of Laloo and JJ.

All the best for ur political career .. Arvind.. ( for I am sure Arvind would have realised where his future lay)

Celebrating Sachin:
Rajesh Chandra: r_chand@ix.netcom.com: Nice punch. I also sometimes feel that Sachin let us down from the winning position, but I immediately remember his contributions during his first Australian test series, second England tour and the unforgettable last year Sharjah trip. As Sachin claimed, he cannot be compared with Don, some people still feel to "burst the bubble". As you said, he, Don, Gavaskar are all human beings and they do commit some errors. Hope Mr. Arvind knows this.

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