Dear Sachin Tendulkar

I'll probably get killed for this...but here goes.

this is an open letter to statistically the best batsman in the modern game.

HI Sachin

i guess i can call you that, the whole world seems to. after the world cup everybody thought finally the average age of the indian cricket team would drop coz the grandfather in the dressing room would retire. but you being your selfish self did not. it did not really take me by surprise really coz you being you wanted to score that 100th 100. statistically important for you, but insignificant for the team. so lets see what you've done since the world cup.

india went to england as favorites after a successful tour of west indies (for which you were too tired after the IPL). and then disaster struck, everyone waited for that god damn century of yours to happen. a lot of people like me did not want to you get the century coz that would mean we would loose the match. but then again majority wins so people waited, you team waited and still nothing, i don't know if you just weren't in the mood or if you were just really out of form. what ever the case we lost 4-0 in the tests. the lone indian who saved face Rahul Dravid, long time team mate and in my opinion a much better player than you. Lets not look at one day cricket right now. lets do tests. i came across this very interesting article on the bleecher report and i'm just copy pasting it.

1. In 286 Test innings, Dravid played 31,258 balls. More than anyone else, ever. 
2. He scored runs in tough batting conditions and in overseas Tests that led to wins abroad, a phenomenon that till then had been pretty rare in Indian cricket. 
3. India won 15 Tests abroad during Dravid's career (excluding matches in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe). In those games he scored 1,577 runs at 65.70—both aggregate and average is higher than Tendulkar's.
4. In all, eight of his 11 Man-of-the-Match awards came in overseas Tests, and five in overseas wins, including unforgettable performances at Headingley (2002), Adelaide (2003), Rawalpindi (2004) and Kingston (2006). Tendulkar won only five of his 14 Man-of-the-Match awards overseas, and only one in a win (excluding Bangladesh). In fact, no Indian has won as many match awards overseas as Dravid has.
5.  Dravid also scored mountains of runs in drawn tests overseas, averaging more than 75 in those matches, with 10 centuries in 32 Tests.
6. Two times he scored a century in each inning of a Test. In fact, he is one of only three Indians to achieve this feat—Sunil Gavaskar and Vijay Hazare are the others.
7. He is the only batsman at the moment to have scored more than 10,000 runs at No. 3
8. On an average, he played 123 balls per dismissal, with only Kallis higher at 125 balls for players who have played min 10,000 balls
9. When Dravid was at the crease, the team scored 32,039 runs. Given that the entire Indian team scored 89,668 runs, it means 35.6 percent of the total runs that India made in Tests involving Dravid were scored with him at the crease. The corresponding percentage for Tendulkar is 29.9, and 32.6 for Kallis. It is also the highest partnership runs scored by any batsman ever.
10. Dravid is also the only batsman to be involved in more than 700 partnerships. No other batsman has even touched 650 so far.
11. Dravid has also been involved in more century stands than any other batsman—88.
12. Dravid is also the only batsman to have 10 or more century stands with four others; no one else has even managed three. 
13. He has the most Test Match catches—210—a world record, and was a great fielder at first short leg, and then slip.
14. Saurav Ganguly’s is regarded as India’s best captain with 21 Test wins. In these 21 matches, Dravid has piled up an astonishing 2,571 runs at a record average of 102.84. These 21 matches had nine hundreds (including three double-hundreds).
15. Dravid was at the other end when Laxman became the highest Indian scorer in 2001 when he scored 280 (a 376 run-partnership) in Kolkata, was at the other end when Sehwag and Dravid were involved in a 410 run-partnership in Lahore in 2006, was at the other end when Sehwag bettered his own record and scored 319 runs against South Africa (268 run-partnership), and he was also at the other end when Sehwag scored 293 runs against SL in 2009 (a 237 run-partnership). It is not a mere coincidence that the top four of five scores by Indian batsmen have come when Rahul Dravid was at the other end.

P.S. He also scored 10,000-plus runs in ODIs. But let's not go there. so why are you still playing the game?? get out

from not a fan

rohit