Blame BCCI, not ICC for Tendulkar's ratings

There has been quite an uproar in India regarding the Test & ODI all-time rankings. What people fail to understand is that the list represents the highest rating ever achieved by a player according to their methodology and as per the list, Sachin's best test & ODI moment have been upstaged by quite a crowd. I have no qualms in the ranking and amused seeing Television commentators looking puffed up and all serious when criticizing anything related to the master. Relax, folks - it is just a ranking. There are better things to channel your anger. Gotcha? (Thanks Palin, this stupid term is the "official" OK in our residence!)

Is the ranking a good reflection of Tendulkar's career. I think so. I feel the following reasons have pulled Tendulkar's rating downwards:

1. The ranking lays importance to wins and Tendulkar hardly saw any of them during the first 10 years of his career outside India. When i checked with Cricinfo Statguru (quite a good tool, i should say), i noticed that India won 1 TEST MATCH AWAY FROM HOME between 1989 and 1998 in Sri Lanka and Tendulkar scored a century in the second innings of the match. In this period, Tendulkar played 39 matches and scored 11 centuries (including 4 in losing cause)
2. BCCI - The eternal problem creator, has a hand in Tendulkar's low rating. BCCI doesn't like Test Cricket as it eats into the time available to them for hosting ODI matches. Else, show me one other nation where tours don't have proper practice matches. BCCI would rather have the Indian team lose the first test match rather than lose revenues on 2 meaningless ODI games. The reason why i hold is multiple:
   

• BCCI guilty is lack of arranging 4/5-game series. Tendulkar has played 10 four-match series and 3 five-match series (8 of these four match series and all three five match series have been abroad) in his career. Thanks to BCCI's indifferent attitude, Sachin has played just 2 four-match series in his career. He made 4 centuries in those 13 matches and averages 65+ in these matches. Reasonable to expect that as 4/5 match series provides platform for improvement on adjustment to conditions. In contrast, records of Steve Waugh (16 four-match series, 12 five-match series and 3 six-match series - 12.5% of his matches are in 4 matches+ test series) and Brian Lara (19 four-match series, 11-five match series and 2 six-match series - 24.4% are in 4 matches+ test series) show they played in longer series than Tendulkar (8.3% of career in 4 matches+ test series). BCCI HAS FAILED TENDULKAR BY NOT HOSTING 4 MATCHES+ SERIES IN INDIA MORE OFTEN.

• In the common period between 1 Jan 1991 and 2 Jan 2004, when all three players played test cricket, the following is the number of test matches played by each country - Australia (148), England (147), West Indies (124), South Africa (112 from 1992), Sri Lanka (106), Pakistan (105), India (103) and NZ (102). Of the 103, India played just 46 matches at home (44/6%) while England (53.75%). Sri Lanka (52.83%), Australia (51.35%), NZ (50.9%) hosted more home games than away games. Should i say anything more? BCCI HAS FAILED TENDULKAR IN NOT PLAYING TEST MATCHES OFTEN ENOUGH.
  

Not that i find Tendulkar to be entirely faultless - he made centuries but not huge centuries. 170 - 190 run band was always a problem for him (every other player would have loved to have that problem!). Tendulkar crossed 150 on 17 occasions but made only 4 double-centuries. He never encashed his opportunity against weak teams (something that everyone should learn from the way Sri Lankan players pummel Zimbabwe & Bangladesh regularly these days!) except for one double-century against Bangladesh in 2004. 

ODI comparison soon (if at all!)

Greg's foot in the mouth syndrome

"The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle have fallen into place in the last few weeks. There is a good balance, good experience and youth in the squad, and a good variety in bowling and batting. That will give us a wide range of options no matter what the condition and no matter what the opposition."

"Even in the last selection meeting, I fought for youth. The senior players fought against it and the chairman went with them out of fear of media, if youth did not perform,"

If these statements were made by the same person before and after the defeat. What does that mean? Greg Chappell is a very respected cricketer and captain and i have all the respect for him as India's coach.

However his now geurilla warfare by using parts of the media to quote him and the rest to speculate, throwing the team and BCCI into a dizzy is becoming a 'signature statement'. I am not going to call for his dismissal, thats for the wise men to decide. But i think Gregg Chappell should be censured and a fine should be levied for these irresponsible statements.

On a deeper note, why can't the BCCI give the Coach, Captain and the Chairman of Selectors complete freedom to air their views. Lack of transparency within BCCI is akin to dark ages in this era of information ...

dunno when BCCI is going to change.

I drafted a long blog on the performance, but after i visited my batchmate's blog - i recommend you read the article (Click here).

Cricketing Idiosynchrocies ....

News out now shows the ugly underbelly of the business side of Cricket.

• Doordarshan which was out-bid by a long way will get a 'clean feed' after it protested against receiving 'dirty feed'.
• Nimbus will give the 'clean feed' with a time-lag of SEVEN minutes. Yes! you read it right., SEVEN minutes. What a joke! That's equivalent of 2 full overs lag.
• BCCI is the worst of the culprits as it created the crisis in the first place by encashing on cricket's popularity and punishing the viewing public. What a 'classless' organization. In the last year, we have had cricket shown on DD Sports, Sahara ONE, Set Max and NEO Sports. Why is that BCCI has displayed very little acumen in balancing short term and long term interests of the game. In professional sports across the globe (Football, Basketball, Baseball, American Football), contracts are stable and drawn to established players and not to the rookie-who-outbid-everyone. Case in point is Australia, where the feed has always from Nine Sports and they have signed with ESPN-Star through 2011.
• Prasar Barathi - Doordarshan's master are calling Cricket matches as events of "National Interest". How shameful that the country with rich culture has to claim national interest on a sports event. While not willing to shell the going price for cricket matches, they have always taken the negative approach of arm twisting the production companies and forcing them into sharing the feed.
• Indian Government is looking to bring an ordinance / bill that makes it mandatory for all cricket matches involving India to be telecast on Doordarshan. There is nothing more ridiculous that the government trying to get involved in deciding which sports events should be showed on national television or not. This is the same government that has procastinated from passing the Whistleblowers Protection Bill and Women's Reservation Bill but has time to come up with ordinances and bills for cricket events. Rest assured, our future generations will laugh at our misplaced priorities.

The overall losers are the viewing public who are gonna be delayed to the extent of seven minutes on television. What's comical is that the Radio feed is going to be live and so is the data on the internet. If you plan to mute the television and hear commentary from the radio, you might re-think the strategy for these 4 matches!