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Sachin Tendulkar and the burden of Greatness

by zbrain on March 18, 2011

in cricket

In one of my previous posts I talked about how I’m reconnecting with the sport that I grew up with. As I do just that, I realize that the more things have changed, the more they seem to have remained the same. Sachin Tendulkar at the ripe old age of 37 carries the expectation of an entire nation, much like he did when he arrived on the international scene 22 years ago.

Since his international debut in 1989, with a maturity that far belied his 16 years, he has stood in the middle, delivering time and again for his team. A quick look at the record books will show that he has single-handedly managed to raise the stock of Indian cricket to heights unparalleled.

There have been countless occasions when he has found himself holding up the proverbial fort, while everything around him has collapsed in a heap, with nary a fight. It is a true testament to his genius and his longevity that he finds himself in exactly the same situation 22 years hence.

Sachin Tendulkar

A Gift and a Curse!

So, why is it, despite everything that he has done and still continues to do, that we still expect him to do more? “With great power comes great responsibility” says Uncle Ben to Peter Parker, a.k.a Spider-Man, who eventually realizes that his incredible gift is also his curse.

Much like Spider-Man or any other super hero for that matter, Sachin Tendulkar carries that burden of responsibility, knowing very well that his gift of genius and greatness is as much a curse as it is a gift. What defines Tendulkar’s greatness is the fact that he has come to terms with that burden of great expectations that have felled lesser men in history past.

In a culture where mythological gods are not immune to being questioned for supposed infractions, why must Sachin Tendulkar be exempt from the wrath of people when he performs below his own monumental standards? Heck, we even go to the extent of blaming him when things go wrong for the team, despite him being the lone ranger holding off the outlaws!

This past weekend, Tendulkar hit  a breathtaking 111 runs, his 48th one-day hundred and the 99th of his storied international career, ripping into South Africa’s bowlers. Not only did he score the bulk of the 296 that the team scored, you had to see it to believe it… the “old man” was throwing his body around when his turn to field came about.

India Loses, It Must Be Tendulkar’s Fault

In the end, all of that didn’t matter as South Africa scraped through to a win in the last of its 50 overs. As much as the loss hurt for true fans, it was even more hurtful that some people believed that this was somehow the great man’s fault.

Call it superstition, or call it a big pile of crap like I do, that more than a few people bring up a nonsensical stat… “India seems to lose every time Sachin scores a hundred!” Ummm, really? So, in your own convoluted way, you’ve convinced yourself that India is better off when Sachin doesn’t score a hundred? Really?

For all those people who even consider believing this garbage, I will point you to some excellent analysis on the topic here. I however, wanted to delve just a little deeper into not just the numbers, but also the human psychology that drives one to believe something to be true when it is really not.

Mind Tricks

Let’s start with the possible reason why people are inclined to believe that India loses when Sachin scores a hundred. When India wins, you are happy, and it’s conveniently lost on your mind that the great man scored a century. It’s almost like you knew that would happen and take it for granted. After all, he has scored close to a hundred hundreds (!!) for you to remember which one ended in a win, right?

On the flip side, when India loses, the one things that stands out is that Sachin scored a hundred. So you wonder why India didn’t win despite him making a hundred. Your mind starts associating bad results with hundreds from Sachin. That’s when you start believing conjecture to be the truth!

Typically, when someone makes a score of 100 or more, the likelihood of his team winning goes way higher. Just go look at the stats if you don’t believe me. You’d have to wonder how badly the rest of the team screws up to throw away that kind of advantage.

It’s a Team Sport, Isn’t it?

The match against South Africa being the perfect example! When Tendulkar left, India were sitting pretty at 267 for 2 with about 10 overs to go. Where the team should have had a total score of no less than 325, the remaining 8 wickets, representing very good batsmen no less, much to the chagrin of every Indian fan, simply collapsed for an addition of 29 (you cannot be serious!) runs, leaving South Africa with a very manageable target.

To rub salt into the wounds, the bowling (and to some extent the captaincy) came apart at the seams in the last over, when South Africa needed 17 to make off 6 balls and needed only five to get them. How could this disaster have been averted, you ask? Yeah, Tendulkar “should” have stayed at the crease longer so we could get more runs right? One of my Facebook friends had this on his wall, that just about sums it up… “It’s called a ‘team’ sport”.

The Evidence In The Numbers

Now let’s look at some tangible evidence that exposes the myth for the bull shit that it is, shall we? Here’s some research that I did to see Sachin’s impact on Indian cricket as a whole as well as their wins in one day internationals…

Wins Losses Win %
Without Tendulkar In Team 150 160 48.39
With Tendulkar In Team 226 195 53.68
When He Hits A Century 33 13 71.74
When He Scores ~ 99 11 7 61.11
When He Scores 50+ 89 48 64.96
When He Scores Between 50 & 99 56 55 50.45
When He Scores Less Than 25 87 110 44.16
When He Doesn’t Score 11 11 50.00

 

This must come as a complete shock to some of those detractors, but it is no surprise to me, or the true fans of Tendulkar that India has a better chance of winning by him simply being in the team. That chance of winning goes up by 11% points when he scores in the 50s through to the 90s. So, what is the best chance of India winning a ODI you ask? Not when he scores just a fifty, not when he scores in the nineties, but, that’s right… repeat after me… when Tendulkar scores a century!

So, if you are hoping for India to win the ICC world cup this time around, you’d want to throw all that superstitious garbage out the window, hope that Tendulkar scores a hundred or more, on every single occasion that he steps to the crease, and… pray that the rest of the team throws its weight behind the little master!

Tagged as: burden, cricket, cwc2011, greatness, india, life, sachin, tendulkar, world cup

  • http://www.facebook.com/kartiq Kartiq Subramanian

    Excellent analysis Ramesh ! Heres some more stats about the great man:

    New Records…………….
    1. Highest Run scorer in the Test Cricket
    2. First Cricketer to pass 12000 run in the Test Cricket
    3. Highest nos of 50+ innings in test (40+51)
    ………..

    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

  • http://rameshprabhu.com Ramesh Prabhu

    Hey Karthik, Thanks for that info. It is simply mind boggling that the batting records don’t quite fit on a page. Yet, all those monumental accomplishments are quickly forgotten when he slips up.

    I was shocked to read that he was booed at some point in his career. Obviously he is held to a much higher standard than anyone else, much like Roger Federer is at tennis. When Roger slipped up, not making the semi-final at a grand slam for the first time in 24 tries, it turned into an shot that reverberated across the tennis world.

    I haven’t quite kept up with cricket as much as you and/or the others have, but the great man has my attention now. My only wish is that India returns all his favors, by helping him get that prized world cup!

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