Was Sachin .sacked for the T20 world cup?

By Murli

Anything is possible in cricket. Like sacking an inform Sachin Tendulkar from an Indian XI. It's the T2 bomb - showing the pink slip to the original Master Blaster for the Twenty20 world cup to be held later in September. Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly too have been shown the door, but that's par for the course. In Sachin's case, the selectors have been needlessly harsh, banking their decision on the basis of Father Time, rather than going by actual performance. So what if he is 34, his legs are still good enough for a fast sprint between the 22 yards, and in the field, he is still getting runs by the bucketfuls, and he still has the ability to get those at a run a ball or even more. Oh yes, we are told that the Big 3 opted out on their own, but few will believe this, with the majority believing rather they were sacked. Predictably, it is all due to the world cup hangover, but do we have the young turks who can pit their wits against the best in the T20 world cup? Come September, another debacle lies ahead. And then will we go back to the Blaster from the Past?

* * *

The "selectors" dished out another shock to Indian cricket lovers - dropping Rahul Dravid from another Indian XI! As Prasanna, one of the "selectors" of the all-time best Indian XI was to say, it was a difficult choice to make and Dravid lost his place eventually to Azharaddin, the other legend from south. For those who missed it, here's the complete eleven: Sunil Gavaskar, Vijay Hazare (w/k), Mohammad Azharuddin, GR Vishwanath, Sachin Tendulkar, Vijay Manjrekar, Vinoo Mankad, Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath, Prasanna, Subhash Gupte. The other debatable omission from the eleven is that of the legendary BS Chandrasekhar. Is this team capable of taking on the all-time best teams of Australia or the West Indies? While the batting looks as solid as it can be, the bowling could come off as the weak link. The best of the all-time teams could well be the West Indies team. Imagine Sir Garfield Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Dujon, with the bat and Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding and Joel Garner with the ball. A mouth-watering prospect for diehard fans!

***

OK, it's too late for a review of Sivaji, but India's coolest, costliest superstar is still a hot, hot topic in the media. Every paper in the world carried a review of the film, and every review had only good things to say about the film. Rajni's style and acting, the direction, music, graphics, everything that came under the critic's scanner came out, smelling of roses, or so we were told.

Time for a reality re-check. Sivaji is …nothing of the sort. It's like a C-grade flick, embarrassingly average. As tasty as popcorn soaked in ice cool water, which looks and tastes like paper shreds, but comes in a rather attractive multi-colored wrapper. For the most part of the movie, Rajni is a major embarrassment - trying gamely and gallantly to hide his wrinkles, dancing with one that is his daughter's age, bashing up 100 baddies that looks like a silly scene from a seventies flick, and walking the ramp model like, in all kinds of dinky makeup. You see him in so many kinds of bizarre looking headgear, that it is only natural he is seen in the climax with his head completely shaven!