Tendulkar dropped - selectors frustrated by 'unfulfilled potential'

This article first appeared on www.thealternativecricketalmanack.com on the 26th of January, 2012.

India’s cricket selectors today finally decided that enough was enough and have dropped Sachin Tendulkar from all forms of the game, with immediate effect. “We have given him countless opportunities to justify our faith in him, but he just doesn’t seem to be able to translate his obvious talent into meaningful contributions with the bat,” said the chairman of selectors Kris Srikkanth. “ He needs to get a bit more cricket under his belt at First Class level. Maybe work on his technique a little.”

Tendulkar isn’t the first cricketer to disappoint at international level – other high-profile failures include Brian Lara, Muttiah Murilitharan and Sir Donald Bradman. Bradman, despite early promise, was dropped after being totally bereft of form from 1939-1945 where he failed to score a single international run.

Srikkanth confirmed that the decision was not one that the BCCI took lightly, and that the selectors had employed statisticians from the highly prestigious Institute of Sehwagology in Vienna. A spokesperson for the Institute said: “The final nail in Tendulkar’s coffin is that when you exclude every innings where he has scored runs, he has now managed 34 ducks in a row. That is a pretty significant drought right there.”

To put matters into perspective, New Zealand’s Chris Martin has also scored 34 international ducks. However, such a comparison has been met with criticism, as Tendulkar is generally considered a batsman, whilst Martin is considered by most New Zealanders to count as more of an all-rounder.

Additionally, when Tendulkar started his One Day International career, he averaged just 0.0 under then captain Srikkanth. Srikkanth has now admitted that this poor form back in 1989 did get the alarm bells ringing, and prompt action has ensured that the underperforming Tendulkar was only given a further 452 one day games until being axed.

Other statistical facts used in the final decision include…

• Tendulkar has scored a total of 10 international Twenty20 runs. This is less than half the number scored by Canada’s Mohammed Iqbal and Scotland’s Simon Smith.

• In 2010, Tendulkar scored just 204 ODI runs. He played 2 innings and in one of these innings he failed miserably and got just 4. Details of the other innings are unknown at this stage.

• Tendulkar averages just 40.0 in Tests played in Zimbabwe. This is considerably lower than South Africa’s Jacques Kallis who averages a useful 503.0 in Zimbabwe.

• Tendulkar has failed to make a meaningful contribution in any Ashes test matches. This is a characteristic Tendulkar shares with many other cricketers such as Ravi Bopara and Phil Hughes.

As a 24-year old upstart, Tendulkar is said to be “disappointed” with the decision and looks forward to impressing at domestic level and trying to force his way back into the top team. However, it is expected that he is going to struggle to be anything more than a footnote in the annals of international cricket.