Hail Tendulkar !

                                              The Caribbean Is One Nation.

Sachin Tendulkar

Caribbean people worship God and others. However, we also worship cricket. We have this amazing ability to go to a cricket match and support the other team if it is performing well.  When it comes to recognizing cricketing greats there is no other group from the cricketing world, that is so generous with its assessments and compliments. That is why the current group of West Indies players is probably more responsible for hypertension, in the region than any poor diet. They spectacular and consistent failure to recapture our glory is only matched and possibly surpassed by the inept political leadership that cannot seem to rid itself of backward thinking.

We recently learned that Sachin Tendulkar, India’s most outstanding batsman, has decided to retire from the game and it is fair to say he goes out as perhaps the greatest batsman of his generation.

We are not going to rehash his several centuries and the many other firsts that the “Little master” has achieved. They are as astounding and astonishing as any achieved in sports world wide. We are not even going to argue whether he can bat better than our own genius Brian Lara; such high minded matters should be left to the Tony Coziers and the real experts.(see lnk at end of this article)

To us at Mahogany Coconut, Tendukular embodies all that is lacking in our present day West Indies cricketers. They are essentially ill disciplined and have not often demonstrated a respect or regard for the finer elements of the game. They have absolutely no sense of legacy and a basic selfishness and clearly lethargic approach have guaranteed that we remain almost at the bottom of Test cricket. It is not that we enjoy hauling them over the coals but outside of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, we have not seen the discipline that Tendulkar brings to the game.

We are therefore justifiably in awe of this exceptional batsman who realized that talent without discipline is absolutely worthless. His desire and determination to build an innings and not throw away his hand to rush and badly selected strokes are the hallmarks of his brilliant career. He more than any modern day batsman respected the bowlers and watching his mastery was more like being lectured on  the finer aspects of good sportsmanship: respect for your opponent, discipline, hard work and an example for others who will follow.

There is no Caribbean school boy or girls today, who will consider any of our current players to be worth emulating. The school boys of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s had them all; from Sir Frank Worrell right through to Sir Vivian Richards. We would be fit for the gallows, if we did not mention, the greatest of them all, Sir Garfield Sobers, who would have been in there somewhere!

These great men left a legacy, that only two modern day West Indies cricketers understood-Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Brian Lara. Most of the others could not have made any prior West Indies team. We therefore recognize that the great Tendulkar understood the legacy he needed to protect. To put it in straight forward terms, he played for India not for Tendulkar and thousand of Indian School boys and girls really have someone to emulate.

Well played Mr. Tendulkar. May your retirement be as bountiful as all the runs you scored and all the glory you brought to the wonderful game of cricket.

Kindly click the link below for Tony Cozier on Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar:
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/Lara-or-Tendulkar-228491451.html