END-ULKAR: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is the name I am talking about(as if no one knows).At the age of 16 when his classmates were slogging hard to fair in the board exams , he was busy making inroads into international cricket.Year 1989 , Sachin was playing his first test match against Pakistan at Karachi.He scored a meagre 15 runs but his innings was noteworthy because of the fact that he took numerous blows on his body.He was hit with a bouncer at Sialkot on his nose but refused to take medical assistance as he had different plans to execute.In an exhibition match he went on to score 53 runs of just 18 balls, which was a test of his character where he hit 28 runs of an Abdul Qadir over.After that there was no turning back for Tendulkar.Sachin's rise continued and he deilvered year after year scoring centuries and making records.Wisden once quoted"He looked the embodiment of India's famous opener, Gavaskar, and indeed was wearing a pair of his pads. While he displayed a full repertoire of strokes in compiling his maiden Test hundred, most remarkable were his off-side shots from the back foot. Though only 5ft 5in tall, he was still able to control without difficulty short deliveries from the English paceman." after Sachin scored century in 1990 against England at Old Trafford when he became the second youngest player to score a Test century as he made 119* at Old Trafford.Harsha Bhogle in his speech at IIM was talking about excellence when he said that its hard to see such dedicated persons these days like Sachin.Sachin has a passion for his game and more importantly for his fans , to live up to the expectation of the Fans or Fanatics alike.Sachin once played for over 52 days continually.He stands tall like the steeple , most of the years at the peak ,year after year, series after series ,living upto the expectations of a billion cricket crazy folks.I went to see kanchendzonga recently and I can certainly compare Sachin with the peak.His towering performances are such, that even at peak almost the every performance seems like a mountain range and sometimes seems flat.
But I am not here to discuss his success .For that matter everyone can write a book on Sachin if he tries sincerely.Its always not so easy to deliver. I take a few stats from Santhanam and Subramaniam's book and tell you what exactly is the DARK SIDE OF THE MOON.Sachin has been described as the "Most wholesome batsman of his time" by CRICINFO columnist sambit Bal. As described by Santhanam : They are not superstitious .But they believe in the science of probabalities and being an engineer I also believe in probabilty.And the study of the careers of many of the best batsmen cricket has produced over the last forty years has led us to conclude that sometime between the age of thirty-two and thirty-four , a batsman ,however great ,loses his bearings.They call this phenomenon 'the 33 effect'.
This period usually witnesses a sharp decline in batting power.Only a few recover whereas others don't.Interestingly this phase is preceded by a marked dominance where the player is usually comapared with the best in industry.perhaps it is some physiological process,either kicking in or failing to.I am not trying to poke your mind with any wrong information.

Pls chk this :

THE 33 EFFECT

player-Gordon greenidge((born 1951) career average-44.72 the '33 effect' around - 1984


test averages by season
1982-83 :78.60
1984 :81.74
1984-85:36.76
1985-86 :36.16
1986-87 :47.60

Garfield Sobers(born 1936) career average-57.78 the '33 effect' around -1969

test averages by season
1966-67:114.00
1967-68 :90.83
1968-69 :37.80
1969 :30.00
1970-71 :74.62

Viv Richards(born1971) career average-50.23 the '33 effect' around -1985

test averages by season
1985-86 : 66.20
1986-87 :28.00
1987-88 :63.66

Sunil Gavaskar(born 1949) career average-51.12 the '33 effect' around -1982


test averages by season

1981-82 :62.50
1982 :24.66
1982-83 :46.27


Greg Chappell(born 1948) career average -53.86 the '33 effect' around -1981

test averages by season

1979-80 : 64.53
1980: 53.00
1981: 40.85
1982-83 :50.55


What happened to the above greats also happened to Tendulkar .

Sachin Tendulkar (born 1973) career average -55.31 the '33 effect' around -2006


test averages by season

2003-04:54.91
2004-05:55.33
2005-06:27.91
2006-07:33.16
2007:60.25
2007-08:63.20

sachin the "master" Tendulkar had all reasons to be cheerful and confident in 2003 scoring runs and topped the world cup run charts, but in 2004 there were warning signs.This is the time when manjrekar,ian chappell,imran khan all of them being hell bent to prove Sachin's innings less fruitful, less prolific and yup more or less for records. (If you remember 2007 world cup and the "MIRROR ,MIRROR" article of Ian Chapell.It was said that Sachin is playing for statistics and to accumulate records.Every player has his share of miseries and Sachin was no exception.But all the criticism was justified at that point of time.But Alas! he is sachin after all.He blazed again , came roaring .His records against the Proteas had always been weak but he smiled and accepted all the criticism.Next up was the ODI series against SA and did he roared or what? Yes indeed.India moved on to win the away series and Sachin proved his mettle yet again being the man of the series with two nineties.Then followed his scores and success with Australia in the boxing day test in 2007 and then the Sydney test ofcourse was relishing with sachin's unbeaten 154.He silenced his critics in the CB traingular series with his 63 while chasing against srilanka.This was the 33 effect which didn't even spare Sachin.But he knew he is still playing for the country and for his people and would continue to do so.With this it marked the end of the eclipse of his career as I guess.