A Sparing Thought

Hi,
Here's a video of Mr. Michael Schumacher in the last race of his glorious career, he starts somewhere around 15th position, gets a puncture at the start of the race, then also doesnt get let down and finishes 6th in the process doing 12 overtakes. See his driving and tell me whether there's a 30+ year old guy inside that helmet or some exuberent young teenager doing those breath taking overtakes giving all that he can. He could have easily gone for 2-3 years more and each year would have come 2nd if not winning the driver's championship.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=f6ofdXDykqw

Same goes with Mr. Sampras, he could have easily gone on for couple more years and would have reached the finals of grandslams more times than not. But then these guys have a common goal. to be the best, they cant live as the second best so they retired as soon as they thought that they just couldn't live up to their own expectations, even though the whole world thought otherwise. They never let their own goals get lowered just because they were becoming old.

Now see Mr. Tendulkar. He has become the 2nd fiddle in the Indian cricket team. The player which once epitomised everything of team India has just become a common team member. One who is not known by his present but by his past. Opponents respect him but that fear is all gone. 3-4 shots in his inning reminds us of his past, but those are too few. I agree that still there is noone to replace him currently but shouldn't he ask himself whether he is justifying himself. Making excuse everytime, that he is not as quick as he used to be, his body has taken toll etc etc is not the correct anwer. Shouldn't he atleast try to dominate and leave for us to decide that. Instead he himself decided to play like a mere mortal.

Lets rewind a little bit. Why is sachin who he is? He is known for the way he took to Shane warne. The way Henry Olonga was running for his life in finals in Sharjah after he managed to make Tendulkar look like a fool in semi- finals. Do we remember his orthodox hundreds that he has made so many times or his 98 against pakistan in world cup,2003 or 134 in sand storm in Sharjah or 114 in Perth. What do you remember? His flawless defence or his coming down the track and hitting Warne over long or his upper cut for six against Sohaib or his fours against fast bowlers straight down the ground. It was always about how he made the runs and the consistency and not how many. If that would have been the case noone would have remembered Sir Vivian Richards but only Sunil Gavaskar.

If Tendulkar would have kept playing the way he used to, then also he had a chance to go down fighting and place his name among the immortals but what can be done when the soldier himself has given up. So tell me after 10 years from now will Sachin Tendulkar ever mean the same thing to cricket what Schumacher means to formula one and what "Pistol" Pete Sampras means to tennis. If not, then who is to be blamed?

Adios,
Abhishek