Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid have played international cricket with each other for over 14 years.
They probably know what each other likes for breakfast, what they clothing they sleep in and what kind of dirty films they like to watch.
They’ve shared the highs of beating Australia in Australia and the low of playing with Agit Agarkar.
So when Rahul edges a ball to slip and Sachin claims the catch you expect nothing more than Rahul trudging off.
That didn’t happen.
Instead Rahul stood his ground.
It was a glorious moment.
As he stood his ground I felt bonded to Rahul, I believe walking is for people who don’t own cars to take through the drive-thru at Maccas.
And here was Rahul, doubting the word that many people count as the word of God in India.
That takes balls, but it also takes a certain amount of miss-trust.
If Rahul was Ricky Ponting and Sachin was Steve Waugh, you’d expect this type of miss-trust. Australians don’t walk when their mother tells them she has claimed the catch, especially our mothers.
This was India, and thusly, funny as hell.
Had Rahul been wrong, it might have not been as funny, but he was not wrong to stay at the crease.
It was one of “those” catches. The sort that Andrew Strauss and Ab DeVilliers have claimed only to look like dirty assed cheats later on. One that on the close in replay looked like there was more than a touch of grass on it.
Ofcourse all of these catches close to the ground are hard to take a firm stance on, the ball looked like it hit the ground, but it looked like from straight on, and they often do. From straight on the ground has no arch, and Sky tests have shown that balls that are caught clean can look like they hit the ground.
Who knows whether Sachin’s was a case of cheating or 2D trickery? I prefer to think of him as cheating, as that makes him more like me, and I like him more for that.
It was by far the most interesting part of the IPL semi final since no one turned up to cuff Modi.
It was also a lovely bit of unsporting Australian style cricket by two Indian legends.
I’ve never been prouder.
Huge Dravid fan that I am, I was outraged by the comments of Sunny Gavaskar who seemed to suggest Dravid was Evil by refusing to walk. Am I glad it turned out in favor of Dravid, else I can imagine Dravid’s posters burning all over the country. And what a lovely sight to see Gavaskar eat his own shit.
Welcome back JK, I almost panic. Hhaha
@Yawn Seriously, please watch the replay again, and figure out what Gavaskar was trying to say. Thats what Gavaskar and JK said that Dravid knows him(Sachin) well enough that he should walk or not.
And as JK said Sachin and Dravid might be Aussie like players on field, thats what he is trying to suggest.
I haven’t watched Gavaskar played, so I am not mad fan of him. But I am not sure he said anything so he has to eat his own shytt. I might be ignorant.
I doubt their relationship will be marred in any way after this incident.
Sachin will know that it was a must-win game and the team was in trouble, so Dravid was never going to walk in a situation like that.
Dravid will know, as anyone who plays cricket a lot would, that it can be hard for even the fielder to know that he has grassed it, especially when it was so quick.
.-= Rishabh´s last blog ..IPL Semifinal 1 Preview – Mumbai Indians v Royal Challengers Bangalore =-.
Funny that Virat Kohli tried the same later.. I wish umpires could ask him to Fuck off!
.-= Mock Wah´s last blog ..Carribean T20 – Attention Indian Fans! Vijay replaces injured Sehwag =-.
//the low of playing with Agit Agarkar.//
lol.
No way this particular incident will do any harm to the lovely respectful relationship between these 2 legends.
Personally i feel that Dravid is much better batsman and a match winner.
However, he is almost in the shadows of Sachin throughout his career. Pity.
It will be only the media that may bring a fresh story (for want of content) to make things happen.
.-= King Viswa´s last blog ..News 19: Tom & Jerry’s 70th Anniversary Special – Kungumam Tamil Weekly, Thirukural & Dr Prakash in Limelight =-.
Apparently Dravid has had his Indian citizenship revoked and is now on a boat to Australia for doubting the word of God
.-= The Reverse Sweep´s last blog ..The A-Z of IPL3 – Part 1 of 3 =-.
I’m with you; it was a fantastic moment.
I guess unless you watch Ranji Trophy, you wouldn’t know how competitive these ‘nice guys’ are particularly when they come up against each other — the Kumbles, Tendulkars, the Dravids. There is no quarter given or asked for. Sehwag is a Delhiite, it’s expected of him. (Ishant Sharma, when he was still the Great Indian Hope, told me how unhelmeted 45-year-olds would play the sweep against him in the Delhi leagues — they had no respect for pace or reputation.)
Sachin probably knew that was a fifty-fifty catch. He bluffed. Dravid called him on it. I’m so proud .
Sachin thought it was a clean catch and claimed it accordingly. Rahul stood
his ground as he thought catch was not clean. Both were right. Without watching slow motion replay nobody can say that it was not a clean catch.
Sachin and Rahul are the two most important and highly respected players
of Indian team. Please do not try to create rift between them.
Does that mean Strauss is Australian, South African and English? Or is that just too insulting?
.-= GoodCricketWicket´s last blog ..Will Lalit Modi resign today? =-.
Agreed with the Ranji Trophy comments above. Jrod may love to go on about his Sheffield Shield, but the Ranji Trophy Super League, especially at it’s knockout stages can be as, if not more, intense than that.
If I’m not mistaken, this years Ranji Trophy final overlapped with the Bangladesh Tri-series, including the final, but I doubt anybody in Mumbai or Bangalore was paying any attention to the Indian National team at that time. Read the cricinfo match reports and you will get a feel for just how big a game between two of Metro’s can be (especially if one is Mumbai), and you will begin to understand the intense rivalry between two players like Tendulkar and Dravid when representing their state.
Alternatively just consider Anil “I don’t give a shit if you’re in the World T20″ Kumble’s short pitched tactics against the Indian youngsters this IPL.
Sachin doesn’t watch dirty films. How dare you!
Besides, one of those times when we demonstrated unquestioned cricketing superiority over you folks (Adelaide?), wasn’t it Agarkar who blew your batsmen over like cycles in a bicycle stand – or whatever that particular Sidhuism is? (I’d probably quote him better if I didn’t mute the TV whenever he starts talking.)
.-= Rohan´s last blog ..Sitemeter, and the Anatomy of a Blogger =-.
Being a Dravid admirer for years, I wasn’t surprises at all when he stood his ground. This is the man who declared when Sachin was batting on 194 in the famous Multan test of 2004. He defied the God and his stats crazy disciples, causing Sachin to openly express his disappointment at being “stolen” off a double. Dravid showed no remorse in a press conference after India’s win, “Retrospect is a beautiful thing. If I had known that the Test would finish in four days I would not have declared then”. – http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=30730.
Uncle JRod, that was my proudest moment. A Sehwag triple hundred at run a ball, A makeshift captain (Dravid was a stand in for injured Ganguly then) defiant enough to teach a lesson to the stat crazy God, and India beating Pakistan in Pakistan.
I was dead sure a few Aussies would latch on to this! :)
But I was pleasantly surprised to see that Aussiest of Aussie cricketers – Dean Jones – come to Sachin’s defence on a post-game analysis show!
The replay showed that part of the ball seemed to touch the ground…so good call by Dravid & Harper (benefit of doubt). However it also clearly showed that Tendulkar had turned his head away at the last micro-sec, and so didn’t see part of the ball touch the grass. Deano and Sanjay Manjrekar (on another TV channel) both said that they too have had similar attempted catches where they felt they had taken the catch, but the batsmen and umpire disagreed. So they saw no problem with either the appeal or the decision.
But I was certain some of them Aussies would claim that Tendulkar was no better than their Punter! (Though in their heart of hearts, they know he is!)
Now for Tendulkar to be truly Aussie, he would have to either:
a) March up to Dravid, with ball in hand, and a scowl for company, and say, “Fuck you, man! I caught that cleaner than your baby’s ass!” (vintage – Michael Slater, Chennai, 1998)
or
b) Raise his index finger at Billy Doctrove, and ask him to obediently follow suit – bypassing the ump at square leg or the one manning the TV. (vintage – Ricky Ponting, Sydney, 2008)
Anything less would be simply too un-Australian! :)
It was one of those 50/50 catches … or should we call it 20/20 for this format
has IPL coined a new description for it?
if not, here is another opportunity for IPL Modi to cash in some more money –
call it a specsavers 20-20 catch or a visionexpress 20/20 appeal
is that video thr on youtube????
It was an important match and both those guys wouldnt walk no matter who took the catch. It was nothing against each other or that oh we played for so long together. These guys are professionals and play for the team.
I agree with GD above. To be Australian, they needed to act like Slater and Ponting – refer to GD’s comment for details.
Yes it was a small disappointing incident. But ask any one who has played some amount of serious cricket and will tell you that fielder always knows if the catch was clean or no.
I am a huge fan of sachin and dravid and for different reasons. Both have a different context in the same. I can only say that the momentum of the game and IPL buzz lead both of them behave in a manner that is very uncharacteristic of them.
That is one apt way to look at it. Kohli wants the Australian citizenship too, it seems… Does he not know what is happening to Indians Down Under….
Well written article mate… kudos…
Finally, India is showing signs of Australian style cricket… I say that it’s about high time… that is what made Australia, the world champs 3 times in a row… lets see how far India go…
the low of playing with Ajit Agarkar… funny as hell…
Cheers,
Vijay
GD, :lol:, you called the bluff.
Guys, I think you just have to accept that in the professional game nobody walks!
Atleast we know “God” chokes even when playing for Mumbai
Dear Proud Aussie Sir,
Admire your Aussie hallucination. Heard a lot about the Australian beer. You must have been punch drunk on that fourth evening of Adelaide test in 2003 when Ajit Agarkar [Not Agit] had blown away Australia to set up a famous Indian of which Dravid was a major contributor.
If beating Australia is supposed to be a HIGH, then it was Ajit who set it up for India. And remember, he has always had some Aussies like Langer for breakfast. He had 2 six wicket hauls in that series down under, and would have had many more if not for the famed Umpiring. He also has over 280 ODI wickets from 190 ODIs. So that definitely is not a LOW for an International Cricketer!
Get your facts right !!!
Govind Raj, Average of 47 in 26 tests, my facts are right, I’m glad he had that one good series against Australia, and that hundred at Lord’s, because the rest of his career was horrible for him. He was like Nathan Hauritz, without the luck.
My dear @Pontings_baldspot…
Choking is when you tense up and play differently in a pressure situation… the way Gilly (incidentally, my favourite Aussie batsman) and Gibbs did today in the 2nd semifinal. Both are naturally aggressive batsmen, but they played so tentatively / warily today… I was quite taken aback! (Though I guess what mitigates it for Gilly is that he’s been falling cheaply too often and today was really trying to make a decent contribution)
On the other hand, Tendulkar was playing in his normal style. Just that he couldn’t find the gap on that drive (after having played 2 lovely strokes off Steyn).
The Little Master is no “God”… but he’s whooped enough ass in finals to be a pretty special mortal.
(Check Cricinfo – he averages 56 in tourney finals, with 6 100s and numerous 50s…and in finals that India has won, he averages over 100!)
Just for comparison, both Lara and Ponting average below 40 in tournament finals (again Cricinfo).
Yes, Ponting does have a WC final 100 (in 2003)…which neither Lara nor Sachin do. But Ponting has been fortunate enough (in that his teammates were also worldclass) to feature in 4 World Cup finals (1996, 1999, 2003 and 2007).
Actually, wonder if Ponting is still resting on that laurel…coz he’s been ordinary in all tournament finals since 2003 (be it the numerous VB series finals, or the multiple Champions Trophy ones)
Oh…I forgot…
Good to have you back from the volcation, jrod!
How about a piece dedicated to His Modiness??? Theskiver gave us a pretty good one, but we probably need an obit now from the look of things.
(PS: Watch out for the IPL closing ceremony too…LM might just give us some feisty last words! :)
GD – I would pay money to see Lalit just get up, read a list of names entitled “The Following People are Crooked” and then walk straight off again.
.-= GoodCricketWicket´s last blog ..Modi’s IPL ambition achieved =-.
Oh wow, touched some nerves there XD
“Does that mean Strauss is Australian, South African and English? Or is that just too insulting?”
That’s impossible, the universe would unravel Back To The Future style.
you did this just for the hits, didn’t you jrod?
but i agree, it was lovely. and what makes it even better is that rahul managed to injure sachin to ensure he won’t play in the finals, and therefore that mumbai will lose and chennai i.e. dhoni, his captain, will win. brilliant. we really do underestimate dravid’s evil genius sometimes.
[...] [...]
You have an interesting take on this incident. I feel too much has been made out of this. When two players play from opposite teams there is bound to be competitive spirit and that means not walking off. Doesnt matter if it’s Sachin vs Rahul or Raman v. Sundar.
Are there some people here actually defending Ajit Agarkar on the basis of ONE international Test performance? Ooh, he blew away Australia once, JRod is Australian, it’ll reeaaallly hurt, sockittoim.
For me the defining news of Agarkar’s international Test career was when he missed a match because he got heatstroke, yes heatstroke, from going to sleep in the window seat of an aircraft with the windowshade up.
Hagarkar first got into the Indian team because he was from Mumbai, but after a while even the Mumbai weightage dint work, so he cleverly chose to become Ganguly’s toy boy to lengthen his career. He continues to service Ganguly at kkr, as even mumbai won’t have him anymore.
He surely holds the records for most 4s conceded on the 6th ball of an over, and for holing out to mid-on no matter where the ball pitched.
So Sachin cheated – big fucks. Bet hes one of the shadow investors in the Mumbai team too.
@Shaitaan
Ajit Agarkar is the Indian response to Chris Lewis.
.-= GoodCricketWicket´s last blog ..Modi’s IPL ambition achieved =-.
Where is Alex? What happened to you man? Where is ur Sachin Bashing when it actually can be sort of justified this time? Jrod, did u ban Alex from ur Blog?
@GD tournement final averages doesnt mean for jack if he cant win a World cup final for india.Clive lloyd,viv richards,de silva,ponting,gilchrist they all have one in comman n thats they have won a wc for their country.Tendulkar despite all the persanol milestones will never be there
They have an old rivalry. Remember Rahul’s declaration when Sachin was nearing his double century ?! But, is Rahul’s eyesight better than Sachin’s ?
glad dravid survived because the comical runout was even better.
i thought you were not watching the IPL?! ;)
Sunny, never said I wasn’t watching, just that I hadn’t watched much.
Ajit Agarkar never had a great test record. But you can’t just brush off his ODI records. 288 wickets from 191 matches at just over 27 average and 5.07 RPO economy rate and a strike rate of 32 balls per wicket is not a joke. Even after removing his phenomenal first 50 wickets, he still has 238 wickets from 170 matches, that is still better than many players who have got more credit.
Ajit’s never really got the support he deserved. Ganguly always sidelined him at the slightest opportunity. He played most of his tests in India and naturally struggled. But even when he did well, he got raw deal. After bowling his heart out in the Caribbean through an ODI series where he was the best bowler from both sides, he was dropped from test team !
Bowlers like Ashish Nehra and Sreesanth have extremely inferior ODI records compared to Ajit. But they still get considered, but Ajit gets cold shouldered just because he doesn’t make any noise. I am no fan of Agarkar, but I believe he is the most sinned against player of all times.
@ChuckME
I get the feeling you don’t understand how team sports and individual sports differ.
If Tendulkar (Lara too) were a golfer without a single green jacket, he’d be less than great.
If he were a tennis player without all 4 slams, you’d have a point.
But in TEAM sports, a TEAM wins a championship. It was never Ponting winning a World Cup…it was TEAM AUSTRALIA – Gilly, Hayden, the 2 Waughs, Warne, McGrath, Lee, Tait, et al – that triumphed those 3 times. Similarly, Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Aravinda and Gilly were all superb, but they had fellow batters, bowlers and fielders who ensured their wins.
Yes, a WC final 100 is something every batsman dreams of, and bloody special! But the lack of one is not the same as not having a Masters, or a Wimbledon on your resume.
PS: Tendulkar’s resume ain’t complete just yet…not by a long shot! He still has 1 more WC firmly in his sights. Your criticism will be valid only if he makes it to another WC final, and fails. Coz remember… King Viv got his 100 in his 2nd WC final, and Ponting in his 3rd.
@knowledge_eater
Sorry, just saw your reply. I haven’t come online much for couple of days. Yes, I watched the match live and tht SOB Gavaskar was being insanely biased agsnt RCB since the toss. Wished I could just blow his ass apart (that’s where he thinks from right?)!!
GD dont be mad no one can win a whole WC alone but its the finals im talking about.Winning a world cup final is the greatest prize in cricket and thats where the real pressure is.In 2003 tendulkar was the only batsman who cud hav taken india close to the mighty aus target but what did he do?Blah gone in the 1st over…What bout that reason must win wc game against sl again he failed.Sorry i dont care much abot these try series,etc cos no body remember them after 2 years
I was too busy watching the physical perfection of HIS MODINESS
Matthew Hayden would have walked
@ChuckME, I wasn’t getting mad, mate! :) (rather enjoyed the joust!)
And I too was talking about finals in a WC…it is the TEAM (i.e batting, bowling, fielding units) that needs to do the job….bowlers & fielders can’t allow the opposition to be 110/0 in 15 overs, and eventually 350 in a WC final…and then expect your batsmen to save the day. And Tendulkar got out attacking (as required)…not playing sedately for a score.
Yes, it was disappointing to see Tendulkar fall early in the 2003 final and 2007 vs SL. But I guess the difference is you only focus on those 2 innings, while I recall the HIGH pressure WC matches vs Pakistan (Tendulkar was deservedly MoM in 1992 and 2003), the Hero Cup (virtual mini-WC) of 1993 when he bowled a magic final over vs SA giving only 3 runs (India won by 2), and the final when he clean bowled Brian Lara (precipitating a collapse), or the first 2 ICC knockout mini-WCs when he hammered Aus out of the tourneys (Dhaka and Kenya), or the Sharjah final vs Aus, or the CB series finals vs Aus, etc.
To end, the man is still raring for 1 more shot at the WC. And as we say in India…”kahani abhi baaki hai, mere dost!” (the story ain’t over yet, mate!)
Cheers!
@ChuckME: Yes mate, you’re right. Only if you ‘won’ your team a World Cup Final are you a great cricketer. If you performed on the way to the World Cup Final and didn’t perform in the World Cup Final, you’re useless. And if your team never ever got into a World Cup Final then you’re mediocre filth and didn’t deserve to be playing the game — in fact, anyone who was 15th man in a World Cup Final (and therefore picked up the winner’s medal in that World Cup Final) achieved more in his career than you did in yours.
Why do they play World Cups at all, and not just World Cup Finals? And why do cricketers even bother to spend any time whatsoever on the field in between World Cup Finals? And why did they even bother playing cricket before World Cups came along, with their attendant Finals? And why do they play Test cricket, which has no World Cups and no Finals? What a useless waste of time it all is, the four years between one World Cup Final and the next!
Greg Chappel choked in the only World Cup Final he played. (Lillee took 1 for 55, that overrated bastard). Gavaskar did fuck-all in his World Cup Final. Lara should be consigned to the dustbin of history; he didn’t even get close to a World Cup Final. In fact Steve Waugh scored a total of 18 runs in 3 World Cup Finals, so he deserves the same, that choker. (Bastard didn’t even come out to bat in the last World Cup Final he played.) So you and I, we’ll bury Tendulkar together after he doesn’t win the next World Cup Final… promise.
Okay? Now stick your thumb back in your ass and wait for the next World Cup final… oops… Final . Don’t worry, it’s less than a year away.
I love Rahul, he is the dude. Great article jrod.
Is there a Tendulkar/Punter debate free zone online? Somewhere? Anywhere? I have yet to find it, and it is possibly the single most boring subject for non-partakers to have to wade through as yet another thread is hijacked.. There must be an annual convention somewhere for them all to get together and roar without listening at each other.
@Yawn
haha this is Indian mentality for you my friend. (don’t tell me you are not Indian, please don’t tell me you are from south india)
I am from south I love Dravid, Kumble I am from Mumbai I love all -kars Tendulkars Gavaskars Agarkars haha I am from Gujarat I love Yousuf/Irfan .. I am from Kolkata I lick Dada … I am from Panjab I will clean Harbhajan’s ass … I am from Dehli I will wear Sehwag’s used underwear …
I am from my ass I love my shyytt haha
What a Tool system ….
People make billion out of that shytt mentality, and we all love it. welcome to planet of hypocrisy, where we make fun of our shyyytt when its coming out of same ass.
P.S. Please watch the replay again about the scenario. Start from over number 3. I watched it 2 times. Just to be sure.