Cricket: India vows to bring stars for NZ tour

Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar could be coming to New Zealand

Those fearing India might leave some of their stars at home when they come to New Zealand in March can breathe a little easier.

The high-profile, big-money Indian Premier League competition starts on April 10, three days after the second and final test against New Zealand concludes at the Basin Reserve in Wellington.

There had been worries forces might conspire to keep key players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan and Virendar Sehwag home resting up for the Twenty20 gig.

However, noises out of India in the last day from a couple of important figures, plus the cancelling of India's tour of Pakistan this month, suggest a powerful squad will be named for the two-test, five-ODI tour.

Had the Indian tour to Pakistan gone ahead - India pulled out recently, in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks last month - there might have been a stronger case for allowing some of the big names to put their feet up for a few weeks.

Now that tour won't happen, India's players are having some unexpected time off, increasing the likelihood that the hotshots will all be on the plane to New Zealand.

Then there's the pronouncement of India's chairman of selectors, Kris Srikkanth.

He has identified two targets for India - to be the world's No 1 ODI team by December, and to be the world's No 1 test team by 2010.

"This is the dream of the selection committee and the Indian board," he told the Hindu newspaper.

Srikkanth was optimistic about India's prospects in New Zealand, and pointed to their recent overseas record as support. In the last five years, India have won six away series - although three were against either Bangladesh or Zimbabwe - including Pakistan, the West Indies and England.

"We have been performing consistently well in all conditions. But for the umpiring errors in Sydney [last season] we could have won the series in Australia too.

"Our bowlers I believe have always done well outside India. Now our batting is complementing the bowling."

And Srikkanth singled out experienced No 3 batsman Rahul Dravid as having a key role in New Zealand. Dravid, who averages 52 in tests, had been out of sorts until his century against England at Mohali just before Christmas, but is one of the four batsmen, with the world's greatest test runmaker Tendulkar, the recently-retired Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman, to have formed perhaps cricket's greatest middle-order quartet.

"He's a batsman with over 10,000 runs in test cricket," Srikkanth said. "We have specific plans. During the forthcoming series in New Zealand, a player like Dravid will be very crucial for us.

"There will be bounce and movement for the pacemen there. If India are to progress to the No 1 ranking, it has to beat New Zealand in New Zealand. Dravid will be a key member of the line-up at the No 3 slot."

And throw in the thoughts of match-winning opener Sehwag.

"We have the urge and talent to be the best team for sure," he said. "But our immediate focus is to do well in New Zealand and take things from there."

Highest Run scorer in the Test Cricket - First Cricketer to pass 12000 run in the Test Cricket

Records Held by Sachin Tendulkar
1. Highest Run scorer in the ODI
2. Most number of hundreds in the ODI 41
3. Most number of nineties in the ODI
4. Most number of man of the matches(56) in the ODI's
5. Most number of man of the series(14) in ODI's
6. Best average for man of the matches in ODI's
7. First Cricketer to pass 10000 run in the ODI
8. First Cricketer to pass 15000 run in the ODI
9. He is the highest run scorer in the world cup (1,796 at an average of 59..87 as on 20 March 2007)
10. Most number of the man of the matches in the world cup
11. Most number of runs 1996 world cup 523 runs in the 1996 Cricket World Cup at an average of 87..16
12. Most number of runs in the 2003 world cup 673 runs in 2003 Cricket World Cup, highest by any player in a single Cricket World Cup
13. He was Player of the World Cup Tournament in the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
14. Most number of Fifties in ODI's 87
15. Appeared in Most Number of ODI's 407
16. He is the only player to be in top 10 ICC ranking for 10 years.
17. Most number of 100's in test's 38
18. He is one of the three batsmen to surpass 11,000 runs in Test cricket, and the first Indian to do so
19. He is thus far the only cricketer to receive the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honor
20. In 2003, Wisden rated Tendulkar as d No. 1 and Richards at No. 2 in all time Greatest ODI player
21. In 2002, Wisden rated him as the second greatest Test batsman after Sir Donald Bradman.
22. he was involved in unbroken 664-run partnership in a Harris Shield game in 1988 with friend and team mate Vinod Kambli,
23. Tendulkar is the only player to score a century in all three of his Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Irani Trophy debuts
24. In 1992, at the age of 19, Tendulkar became the first overseas born player to represent Yorkshire
25. Tendulkar has been granted the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award and Padma Shri by Indian government. He is the only Indian cricketer to get all of them.
26. Tendulkar has scored over 1000 runs in a calendar year in ODI's 7 times
27. Tendulkar has scored 1894 runs in calendar year in ODI's most by any batsman
28. He is the highest earning cricketer in the world
29. He has the least percentage of the man of the matches awards won when team looses a match.. Out of his 56 man of the match awards only 5 times India has lost.
30. Tendulkar most number man of match awards(10) against Australia
31. In August of 2003, Sachin Tendulkar was voted as the "Greatest Sportsman" of the country in the sport personalities category in the Best of India poll conducted by Zee News.
32. In November 2006, Time magazine named Tendulkar as one of the Asian Heroes.
33. In December 2006, he was named "Sports person of the Year
34. The current India Poised campaign run by The Times of India has nominated him as the Face of New India next to the likes of Amartya Sen and Mahatma Gandhi among others.
35. Tendulkar was the first batsman in history to score over 50 centuries in international cricket
36. Tendulkar was the first batsman in history to score over 75 centuries in international cricket:79 centuries
37. Has the most overall runs in cricket, (ODIs+Tests+ Twenty20s) , as of 30 June 2007 he had accumulated almost 26,000 runs overall.
38. Is second on the most number of runs in test cricket just after Brian Lara
39. Sachin Tendulkar with Sourav Ganguly hold the world record for the maximum number of runs scored by the opening partnership. They have put together 6,271 runs in 128 matches
40. The 20 century partnerships for opening pair with Sourav Ganguly is a world record
41. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid hold the world record for the highest partnership in ODI matches when they scored 331 runs against New Zealand in 1999
42. Sachin Tendulkar has been involved in six 200 run partnerships in ODI matches - a record that he shares with Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid
43. Most Centuries in a calendar year: 9 ODI centuries in 1998
44. Only player to have over 100 innings of 50+ runs (41 Centuries and 87 Fifties)(as of 18th Nov, 2007)
45. the only player ever to cross the 13,000-14,000 and 15,000 run marks IN ODI.
46. Highest individual score among Indian batsmen (186* against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1999).
47. The score of 186* is listed the fifth highest score recorded in ODI matches
48. Tendulkar has scored over 1000 ODI runs against all major Cricketing nations.
49. Sachin was the fastest to reach 10,000 runs taking 259 innings and has the highest batting average among batsmen with over 10,000 ODI runs
50. Most number of Stadium Appearances: 90 different Grounds
51. Consecutive ODI Appearances: 185
52. On his debut, Sachin Tendulkar was the second youngest debutant in the world
53. When Tendulkar scored his maiden century in 1990, he was the second youngest to score a century
54. Tendulkar's record of five test centuries before he turned 20 is a current world record
55. Tendulkar holds the current record (217 against NZ in 1999/00 Season) for the highest score in Test cricket by an Indian when captaining the side
56. Tendulkar has scored centuries against all test playing nations.[7] He was the third batman to achieve the distinction after Steve Waugh and Gary Kirsten
57. Tendulkar has 4 seasons in test cricket with 1000 or more runs - 2002 (1392 runs), 1999 (1088 runs), 2001 (1003 runs) and 1997 (1000 runs).[6] Gavaskar is the only other Indian with four seasons of 1000+ runs
58. He is second most number of seasons with over 1000 runs in world.
59. On 3 January 2007 Sachin Tendulkar (5751) edged past Brian Lara's (5736) world record of runs scored in Tests away from home
60. Tendulkar and Brian Lara are the fastest to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket history. Both of them achieved this in 195 innings
61. Second Indian after Sunil Gavaskar to make over 10,000 runs in Test matches
62. Became the first Indian to surpass the 11,000 Test run mark and the third International player behind Allan Border and Brian Lara.
63. Tendulkar is fourth on the list of players with most Test caps. Steve Waugh (168 Tests), Allan Border (158 Tests), Shane Warne (145 Tests) have appeared in more games than Tendulkar
64. Tendulkar has played the most number of Test Matches(144) for India (Kapil Dev is second with 131 Test appearances) .
65. First to 25,000 international runs
66. Tendulkar's 25,016 runs in international cricket include 14,537 runs in ODI's, 10,469 Tests runs and 10 runs in the lone Twenty20 that India has played.
67. On December 10, 2005, Tendulkar made his 35th century in Tests at Delhi against Sri Lanka. He surpassed Sunil Gavaskar's record of 34 centuries to become the man with the most number of hundreds in Test cricket.
68. Tendulkar is the only player who has 150 wkts and more than 15000 runs in ODI
69. Tendulkar is the only player who has 40 wkts and more than 11000 runs in Tests
70. Only batsman to have 100 hundreds in the first class cricket

Tendulkar in Mumbai team after 23 months

Mumbai: As expected Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan have been named in the 15 member Mumbai team for the Ranji Trophy semi-final against Saurashtra to be played at Chennai from January 4 to 7.

Tendulkar had made his last match for Mumbai memorable by scoring a century in the national championship final against Bengal at the Wankhede Stadium in February 2007.

The match against Saurashtra would be his 36th for Mumbai.

Zaheer Khan’s only match for Mumbai was in the same final and he took nine wickets. Previously he had played 20 Ranji matches for Baroda.

The team: Wasim Jaffer (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Vinayak Samant (wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Amol Muzumdar, Rohit Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Sahil Kukreja, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Ramesh Powar, Sairaj Bahutule, Ankit Chavan, Usman Malvi. — Special Correspondent

Tendulkar is egoless, gracious god : British media

Sachin Tendulkar is god to billion Indians but he is a "gracious god" who lifts his people out of the pit of despair in the wake of Mumbai terror attacks, a leading British newspaper said, paying tribute to the champion batsman who has "not a scrap of ego".

Tendulkar offered balm to a country which was devastated by terror attacks in its finacial capital yet he remained a modest god, according to a write-up in 'Daily Telegraph'

"He (Tendulkar) is an unlikely-looking god. He stands there in the middle dwarfed by the gigantic Andrew Flintoff and the strapping Yuvraj Singh, a boy-like figure with a cherubic face whose Michelin man-style pads come half way up his thigh," Simon Hughes wrote.

"The poor Indian lifts his hands to Sachin Tendulkar in supplication; Give us respite, a sense of liberation; lift us up from the dark pit of our lives to well-lit places of the imagination with your skill-wrought perfection. He has not a scrap of ego. He is a gracious god. We will never see his like again".

The writer said that Tendulkar never shirked his enormous responsibility and spent considerable time preparing for a game.

"Tendulkar never shirks this enormous responsibility. He spends almost every waking hour seeking that perfection, practising, planning, preparing. He rings his brother, the man who knows his game best, every day, talking bowlers and bat angles and shot selection. He looks at the pitch and contemplates how he will make runs on it. He is thankful of his talent and dutifully delivers it to his public, the majority of whom have nothing," Hughes wrote.

A self-effacing man who keeps his emotions private, Tendulkar's inner urge to express the hurt caused to him by the audacious terror attack at the city he was born and brought up led him to dedicate his century in Chennai to the people of Mumbai and India, but he admits it was not his nature to play the role of a statesman too often.

"Sometimes I do it, but it is not my way," Tendulkar was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

"Tendulkar lives in Bandra, in the north of Mumbai, Bollywoodville. But he often goes south to Colaba with family and friends, to eat in the Taj Mahal Palace hotel or the Oberoi.

"The Mumbai attacks were close to home and affected him deeply. The England players remarked on his extra patience and intensity at the crease. This time he was doubly determined to lift his people out of their pit," the article said.

Tendulkar wields a heavy bat unusual for his small frame, but he says he would not be the same batsman without his willow.

"I like a bow in it. I can't bat with anything else. I would not feel right at the crease," the master batsman said.

Four cricket heros in stage

Former Indian skipper Anil Kumble, along with Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman were felicitated by the BCCI in Nagpur