Sachin got stuck with Bombay cricket: Kapil Dev

If the report is true, I feel Kapil felt Sachin was capable of much more, without undermining what he has achieved.

Mumbai: Legendary allrounder Kapil Dev dropped a bombshell at an event in Dubai by claiming that Sachin Tendulkar did not know how to make 200s, 300s or 400s.

He may not have meant exactly what he said about Sachin Tendulkar to Khaleej Times. He started as an aggressive batsmen and gradually moulded himself to become a run machine and then a run accumulator with changing times. “I would have appreciated this if this advice had come earlier when Sachin was playing”.

“The players for each team have not yet been selected, but will be picked, and will be announced in front of the media November 5”. They attack the board, selectors, captains and the team management for all the ills of Indian cricket.

Former Mumbai and India fast bowler Raju Kulkarni was also upset by Kapil’s remarks.

“Sachin’s Blasters” and “Warne’s Warriors” will feature a few of the best players to ever play cricket hailing from eight different countries including Ricky Ponting (Australia), Brian Lara (West Indies), Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka), Wasim Akram (Pakistan), Jonty Rhodes (South Africa) and Michael Vaughan (England), among others. But it’s Sachin’s ideal technique that helped him stay at the top of the game for more than two decades and amass a hundred global centuries. Two years on, he hit a century at Perth when not one of his more established teammates could score a 50 in two innings. “I think he should have spent more time with Vivian Richards than a few of the Bombay guys who played just neat and straight cricket”, he said. In the first half, until around 2002, he was breathtaking. Sehwag himself confirmed this in a recent interview. If Sehwag failed he had the likes of Sachin, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid behind him. He preferred to do justice to the role given by the team than to prefer to do justice to his talent.

You also said that unlike Richards, Sachin wasn’t ruthless, he was more of a ideal, or rather correct cricketer.

Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne, a rivalry in cricket that is unforgettable for any cricket fan of this era. Maybe he didn’t have the flamboyance of Viv Richards and audacity of Sehwag in test cricket but he certainly held the capacity to display all qualities when he turned up as an opener in the blue jersey for India.

He is not the only Indian batsman to have disappointed, but Sachin’s case is most frustrating. And in the decade between 1993 and 2002 he averaged over 60 in test cricket with his best performances reserved for the toughest opponents.