Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis - victims of skipping tournaments?
Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis
In recent times we have seen great players getting the novelty of picking up the tournaments they want to. Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis are prime time examples. But if somebody keenly observes the career graph, it will clearly reflect that the form deteriorates once a player starts choosing the series he wants to be part of.
Tendulkar became the first man to score a double hundred against South Africa in Gwalior and after that he started picking up the tournaments. He missed many ODI tournaments that followed right after that South African tour. He scored that double hundred in the year 2010 and after that played only 21 one day international matches spanning the next two years.
India played much more than that and after the World Cup he played only 9 games averaging around 34 which doesn’t measure up to his performances over the last two decades. Statistics show that Tendulkar had hit a rough patch. May be he lost focus. May be he was desperate for his century of centuries.
However, if he was contemplating to play for another couple of years, he should have gone on and played more ODIs. But he didn’t. Consequence was, his form went down drastically. Questions were raised and that made him contemplate retirement. He scored just one century after the World Cup and that too against Bangladesh.
Even Tendulkar’s Test match records show that he was not not the same player that he used to be. Just a few fifties to his name after 2012 clearly show that had he played a bit more consistently, he might have fared better.
The same happened with the greatest all rounder after Sir Gary Sobers – Jacques Kallis. He still nurtures the ambition to play in 2015 World Cup and to achieve the same, he has been picking the tournaments he wants to be part of. Results has been the same – the old warhorse seems to have faded away.
And today, he announced retirement from first class and Test cricket to prolong his limited over’s career. Kallis has played only 11 one day international’s since the World Cup and has averaged around 31 scoring 4 half centuries in two years. The year 2013 has been one of the worst for Kallis.
Just like Tendulkar, his drop in form can be attributed to him not playing on a consistent basis. There’s nothing like match practice and when a player does not play consistently, it becomes pretty difficult for him to keep match fit.
Does someone really have to take short breaks after each tournament?
Of course, the body does not hold up. Playing around for two decades in the toughest conditions worldwide and then going under the knife so many times to recuperate the injuries is a very tough job. But instead of prolonging one’s career a player should go on and give his ‘best’ for as many years he can and this should be done without skipping matches.
If someone is in prime touch and good form, it doesn’t make much sense to take a break and sit out for couple of months. It’s really hard for any player, however talented, to get the focus and the form back. So why not relish on the current form and go on as much as one can.
The country surely does need the services of a great player but not in terms of the time stamp. Yes, a wider time stamp will be a novelty but great form clubbed together with that time stamp will usher greater successes for the player as well as for the team.
Rahul Dravid is a great example of somebody who never tried anything fancy to prolong his career. He still had a year of cricket left in him but he called it quits as he knew it was the right time to do so. Playing another year in bits and pieces would have done no good to him mentally and physically.
Toiling hard in the nets regularly has been the key to success for the greatest player who have played this great game and when you back off for a couple of months citing reasons that body isn’t holding up, it only means that you want to skip the smaller tournaments just to extend your career.
As they say, when you stretch something there is always an impact on the form and sadly, two of the greatest players of this generation fell victim of that disease.